6.29.2004


6/24 Storm - This picture doesn't do justice to the activity in the sky. Posted by Hello

6/24 Storm - Ominous stuff to the south. Posted by Hello

6/24 - A break? Posted by Hello

6/24 Storm - This makes a decent wallpaper. Posted by Hello

6/24 - DirecTV commercial? Posted by Hello

6/24 Storm - 7 Tornado touchdowns in the county Posted by Hello

6.28.2004

6/25 Results Columbus 151 Speedway

Not a bad night overall. Sue and Steve from work came out to watch the races. There was a little bit of bumper nudging in the heat. Car came home in one piece and I got some good experience in traffic.

Jim
Qualified: 3rd
Heat: 5th (of 9)
Feature: 9th (of 16)

Tina
Qualified: 5th
Heat: 2nd (of 9)
Feature: 4th (of 14)

6.20.2004

July 4th Tournament of Destruction Preperation

It's fathers day. We spent most of today at my Dad's house preparing Tournament of Destruction cars for my sister and two of her friends.

Cars acquired for this tournament include:

* 1992 Chevy Cavalier
* 1987 Volkswagen Jetta GL

Rumor has it we might be getting another Cavalier... We'll have to see what Roxie digs up from the underbelly of Madison ;)

As for today, we prepped two cars and got my Dad a digital camera. Point. Click. Shoot. Upload. It's a Kodak EasyShare. Just what they needed to be able to take pics, I liked the ease of use although I still haven't found the 3x Digital Zoom.

6/19 Results Jefferson Speedway

After a decent night at Columbus 151 Speedway on Friday I decided to test my luck at Jefferson on Saturday. Went out for qualifying without any practice and the car felt like crap it was sliding all over. I pull into the pits and my Father-in-law tells me I turned a 15.2 second lap. That's pretty quick. Fast enough to qualify 5th out of 30 some-odd bandits.

That put me in the fast heat, the fourth Bandit heat of the night. I tried to keep my nose clean and came home in fourth place, respectable if you ask me.

For the feature event I started inside row four. We got to lap 10 pretty much without incident when I again got punted. That got me loose coming out of two. I wound up going through the infield (again, with the infield!) and fell back to 9th place. I was holding a solid 9th until I mistook the flagman's actions to mean the leaders were behind me so I pulled up out of the way and gave up the 10th spot.

With a little more pushing I might've had my heat race. I've got to get a mirror in the car so I can see who is sending me through the damn infield ;)

Qualified: 5th
Heat: 4th
Feature: 10th

Overall, I was very happy with the results of this racing weekend.

6/18 Results Columbus 151 Speedway

Round two of the Summer Rumble: I qualified seventh out of about thirty cars. I was put in the first heat event of the night which paired me against eight or so slower cars. Going into turn one the whole pack moved up a groove on the race track and I drove right underneath them. By turn three of the first lap I had pretty much won the race. The rest of the race consisted of avoiding cars and accidents.

That's the first victory this year. Yay.

I talked to the officials and found out there was an error in the time recorded for me. I started at the back of the feature event for reasons I don't care to explain (long stupid story) and was racing up until I got punted (hit hard in the rear bumper) and sent through the infield. I placed 17th out of 18-20 cars. Pretty disappointing but, after I got up to speed I was faster than the cars at the front of the field.

Qualified: 7th
Heat: 1st
Feature: 17th

And the car came home in one piece which, so far this year, is a victory.

Update:
Pics from Chris Krueger ...



6.14.2004

The Acura is being dropped off this evening. We couldn't dolly it home so we brought home Tina's and Bob trailered the Integra. It'll be fun unloading with a broken tierod. I've got a parts car sitting in the garage. It was supposed to go back to the previous owner (Dave @ Got Honda?). Will have to negotiate for the parts needed or maybe the whole car.

On the bright side, we qualified 10th out of 39 cars in our division. We had zero hot laps and under-inflated tires for qualifying clockwise rather than the normal counter(or anti)-clockwise.

In the heat race we started in tenth, or fifth row outside. By lap two, the time of the accident, I was in approximately fourth position. One of those rare disappointing yet encouraging nights.

6.13.2004


Better shot of the left front... Broken strut, broken tie-rod, plug wire embedded into the battery (not pictured).  Posted by Hello

Hit the six foot sand pile in the infield. That tried to put the strut through the hood. Tow truck picked the car up by the bumper and efficiently ripped it off.  Posted by Hello

Bumpers in the rear windows, got t-boned in the left front. Posted by Hello

6.02.2004

0 Morrissonville Rd Pic 1 Posted by Hello