Sometimes Racing Sucks
 

had yet anopther bad night at teh dirt track. can't seem to catch a break the last few weeks.
the car was bent up pretty bad last week. had to go to the shop that made it and get straightened up, at least as much as they could. got it back together in time to hit the track this week.
things are still bent in the chassis, so the set up was more of a guestimate than an accurate set up. so we knew the car wasn't going to be perfect.
randy went out for the heat race and it was more than not perfect, teh car was a complete turd. randy managed to keep it together and finished in a spot to qualify for the feature.
we made a bunch fo changes to the car for the feature and it was definately better. other than getting shuffled out when he got caught in a 4-wide situation, he wasn't losing ground to anyone.
then it all went to ****!!!! fuel pressure dropped again and the engine kept sputtering. randy pulled it off on the 15th lap while running in 8th place. in the end he got credited with 16th place.
dunno what the deal is. the nights the car doesn't handle worth **** the engine wouldn't stop runnign for anything, now we get teh chassis to where he can race with people again and the damn engine cuts out. this is getting ridiculous.

tim... isn't there spell check or something you could use?? you suck at teh interweb...


anyhow, after talking to some dirt track racers a few weeks ago i was pretty surprised at how much **** they have to do during the week, and they couldn't believe that i do NOTHING from week to week on my car other than change the oil every other week or so, check a few bolts here and there and pack it in the trailer. This whole rebuilding the car week to week is rediculous.. but, there's also apparently a whole ****load of money involved in winning a dirt race...

my sucky weekend didnt suck quite as bad as having to pull apart the engine or unbend a few tubes... but my worst light all day saturday was a .008 (i was .007, .001, .008 and .003) and i couldnt make it past 3rd round. i ended up getting staged in a puddle of trans fluid 3rd round and my 60' went to hell so i didnt run the number... but, at least all i have to do is pack it on the trailer and come back next week :)

the weekly maintenance on a dirt car is pretty nuts. oil and spark plug changes are every 2-3 weeks. valves have to be gone over at the same interval.
every suspension point has to be checked to make sure we didn't bend any heims or bolts as well as checking to make sure all the bolts are staying tight. we actually check the bolts at least twice during the racing night too.
tires get chewed up in just a few weeks, rims can get bent from even the most casual contact and breaking a shock is a pretty common thing from all the abuse.
dirt racing is not cheap, there is money to be made at the top of it. unfortunately randy isn't there yet. he races out of pocket, mostly from paycheck to paycheck. he would have more prize money to spend if we could have avoided the engien problems all season. can't tell you the number of times that car has been in the top 10 when **** started acting up.
right now he is 8th or 9th in points. that shoudl result in a check at the season ending banquet and hopefully help him put together some better equipment for next year.
randy's budget is prolly the #1 thing keeping him from winning. he has no trick lightweight stuff on the car and most drivers wouldn't put his "race" engine in their pick up truck. hopefully he can put together some sponsorship over teh winter and fix some of that.

That sucks man, I hope he can get a win in this season, one win could mean alot to points and money and even potential sponserships!!!

I actually want to do some racing in the future so reading this is pretty exciting.
and next year when I turn 16 I will gladly help out if you want!!

if you wanna help out on a weekly race car you really need to start putting in some time reading and turning wrenches. when bad things go down at the track there isn't time for much to be explained. you have to be able to look at it and be able to figure it out.
the pits are no place for people who can't work under pressure or serious time constraints.

my buddy is gonna start dirt trackin, but hes start out in the stock class with a 85 monte. but he also is pretty much gettin handed the car, trailer, shop, tools, and sponsorship cuz his boss is like a cuzin to the person hes gettin the car for and the guy wants to get another team together. got any pointers for him? hes already lookin for a crew, id help him but i got no time. told him i would lend a hand if i get a spare minute just cuz the ppl hes asking, well they dont got alot of mechanical know-how

Has he pulled the fuel system apart yet to find out the cause?

- Justin

just wondering ... could it be ignition related causing the car to cut out?

No, there is a fuel pressure guage in the car, and it was previously dropping from the normal 6.5 psi down to 2 in the corners, and that's when it was cutting out.

- Justin

all that i know he checked before he left for a few days at teh shore was the pick up. jsut seing if it got shaken around in the impact two weeks ago. haven't heard anything else from him.
he will be home wednesday. we will get after it and find an answer then.