Skip's Racing Season
3rd Quarter - 2003
7/01/03 - Now that the first storm of the
season ("Bill") is gone, the inside of the old car is completely
stripped. All that's left is the switch panel and the parachute
release. Next, the transmission will go back to Everett Armand in
New Orleans for another freshening.
While the trans is being reworked, I will
finish wiring all the electronics and put the engine in, between the two
motorplates, headers, radiator and all the stuff under the hood. I
am still having trouble deciding where to put the delay box. I may
put it directly in front of the driver on the dashboard. There is a
big blank spot there.
7/25/03 - We
have been on vacation! I have not done anything for the past few
weeks while waiting on the transmission. They found a worn bushing
behind the small clutch pack hub that had caused damage to the hub that
holds the clutches (don't hold me to that bushing location, I am not a
Trans. person). We think the new drive shaft may be too long,
causing the bushing to wear. The drive shaft has only been in there
for a few months, and we never saw this kind of damage before with the old
drive shaft. Not a problem with the new car.
I plan to get back to work and have the motor
in the new car by Aug. 15th, ready to test the new
installation. (Not a chance).
7/31/03 - We left
for Virginia Beach, VA to visit with my daughters, Cynthia and Sarah.
August 8, 2003 - We traveled to Tallahassee,
FL to attend a retirement ceremony. Anything but racing and working
on the car! It is actually too hot to race in Louisiana!
Working on the car is not enjoyable at all in this heat. Is that old age
talking? It will be cool in October for our race. That's
what I am looking forward to.
8/23/03 - A series of delays, both personal
and work related, have set me back considerably on the car. I did
get the transmission back.
At this point, I am compiling the Media Book
for the 4th Annual "Louisiana Drag Classic". The
56 page book will be available at the track during the race. See any
member of Bracket Masters Racing Team. They will sell for $2.00
each. Lots of new information about the children, the track, the programs
we are involved with. We just finished the design for the event
T-shirt. You have got to have one of these. This will be worn
for years (like the O'Reilly design from 2001).
There was a meeting with the new Principal of
GOHS, where our Auto Tech partnership resides, yesterday. School has
commenced and we will be visiting the classroom frequently to lend a hand
and act as mentors for the children in the Auto Tech program.
9/3/03 - We approved the final cover design
for the Media Book today. That design will also be used on the front of the event
t-shirt. It was nice when I put it on paper, but the graphic artist
did wonders to improve on our ideas. The Media Book has all of the
pages completed, except one. Tomorrow that page will be complete
and the book will go to the printer. This one will be a real
collectors item. The back cover alone is worth the price ($2.00
ea). There are 59 color photos on the back cover. Louisiana
Drag Classic flyers will be available at the track this
weekend.
I have spent several hours at Glen Oaks High
School Auto Tech classes this school year. Mr. Lyons has some very
good students this year. We are trying to work on the attrition rate
in his classes, which is always greater than 50% from year to year. This year we are
going to try to make it more appealing to go to the next level. This year he has several
woman students. Last year he made an effort to recruit women
students, by having Mrs. Marva Hawkins come and talk to prospective
students, and their parents, about taking the Auto Tech course. Today,
in this age of alternative careers for men and women, we must reach out to
everyone.
Mr. Lyons has moved along on construction of
the race car. He has constructed a device that has the body mounted
as though it is on a rotisserie. This way he can
rotate it, weld and cut, without much restriction. He has the pipe
for the cage and he has ordered the box tubing for the frame
rails. He has decided to build a car that will be able to run down
to 7.50 sec in the 1/4 mile. It will be a mild steel car. Mr. Van Johnson, who has just finished construction of his
car, will come to the school during the coming week and give some tips for
the project.
All of the BMRT members are excited! For the first time,
Bracket Masters Racing Team members will be allowed to compete in our own
race! We are all excited about it. We put it to a vote and it
was almost unanimous that we race. I, for one, am all for it. All
members that race must pay a regular entry fee and follow all rules as any
other racer. Many of our cars are footbrake cars and they will be
racing for the big money payout in the Footbrake
Fantasy. There will be over $30,000 in purse in the footbrake
bracket alone over two days. The Louisiana Drag Classic (LADC),
which is only one day, Sat. Oct. 4, 2003, is a separate purse. Close to
$18,000 will be up for grabs on Sat. for the combined LADC and Footbrake
Fantasy.
I believe there is nothing else that will stop
me from getting the car ready for October 4th and the Louisiana Drag
Classic. I have everything in hand to complete the switch of the
drivetrain from "Masterpiece" to the new car. I am
thinking about calling the new car, "Mr. Skip" (the letters are
cheaper!). I have a new crank trigger system to install. The
new headers that came with this chassis will help the engine breath
better. The bends are less severe and occur much further out from
the exhaust ports. The pro-stock type hood scoop "may"
help the intake of fresh air. If I can get a few more horsepower
from these improvements, maybe I can get into the 9.0's (in the
heat). I would love to touch 8.99 sec. in the cool weather (70
degrees or less). The best time to date in the old car is,
9.21 sec. @ 145 MPH.
9/19/03 - Worked on the car all day!
This is the first day that I have been able to work on the car due to
ongoing efforts with the Louisiana Drag Classic. Today we installed
the brake petal which had to have about 3 inches removed and I also
installed the fuel pressure and oil gauges on the cowl panel in front of
the driver. I purchased some #8 wire to install the ground
connection to my Shogun Alternator. This lead must go all the way
back to the battery. I have a list of 26 items that I want to
complete. Some of them can wait, but eventually all of them should
be done. Some of them are just ergonomic, to allow me to have things
located as close to the position as in the old car. Some are
improvements, and some are critical. The critical items have been
placed in priority order and will be completed before the car hits the
track. The others will be done later.
I would like to go to Test &
Tune at Eunice
(Louisiana Raceway) next Sat., Sept. 27th. I think I can make
it. The advantage of testing in Eunice is, they run in the daytime, you
can see more of what may be wrong, and normally there are not many
cars. This allows us to run at random and make adjustments.
The track owners are very good about allowing you to test just about any
way you want to.
Louisiana Raceway is very important to the
racers in this area. Bracket Masters Racing Team is very happy to
welcome Louisiana
Raceway back to operational status. The owners were almost put
out of business by the back to back hurricanes that hit South Louisiana
last year (2002) in September and October. It has been a long road
back, but they stuck with it and started operating a few weeks
ago.
9/29/03 - I have been busy with last minuet
details of the race and other things that prevented me from working on the
car full time, and I will not be ready for the Louisiana Drag Classic.
I did work on it all day today and a few times during the past week.
I installed the ground lead for the alternator, and moved the racing
batteries from the old car over to the new car. The batteries were
charged after moving them. I decided to use my old delay box and
throttle stop controller. That unit is now installed. The
shifter is mounted and the cable is connected, I also connected the
neutral safety switch and tested the starting ckt. The roll bar
padding is installed and the parachute release is installed and
tested. The new seat belts are installed. The floor under the
driver was covered to prevent water and smoke entry. I have mounted the
RPM switch for the shifter but it is not connected to anything yet.
The throttle stop mechanism under the hood will not be installed at this
time.
All of these things sound like little jobs, but they can become very time
consuming, especially when a picky person like me is doing
everything.
I only have a few things remaining before working with the motor.
The wiring from the tach to the RPM switch and shift solenoid must be
completed and the MSD must be installed and wired. I hope to get
that done tomorrow. After that, the engine must have the motor
plates, front and rear, installed. I have new transmission cooler
lines, with quick disconnects, to install with the trans. cooler.
The engine will be put in place and the fuel system connected along with
the ignition system. The headers and radiator should round out the
installation. I anticipate a big problem with the throttle connection,
which is why I am not going to bother with the throttle stop at this
time. The car has a very bad throttle mechanism and the whole thing
may have to be replaced. We will see, after the motor is installed
and we try to connect to the carburetor.
9/30/03 - Completed wiring the delay box,
including a isolated ckt. to power the box, with power down to the
transbrake and the shift solenoid is wired. The delay box has three
pushbuttons; delay, no delay (also for backing up with the Pro-brake
transmission) and a bump-down button. The RPM switch, the tach and
the MSD Digital 7 Plus were all completed. All of it that can be tested
was OK. Everything is labeled and can be traced to the component or
back to the power. The tach is wired IAW the new NHRA rules (only
one splice that goes to the RPM switch). The Autometer Playback Tach
is wired to start recording from the transbrake (delay box)
switch.
I found some of the previous wiring incorrect
and had to rework the starter ckt. before I could power the
MSD. The MSD still must be mounted to allow access to the
dials for all of the built-in functions.
Tomorrow I will get the motor plates ready to
install and remove the motor from the old car and put it on the motor
stand. Everything will be ready to install the motor by the end of
the day tomorrow. Photos of Wiring Work
Looks like the weather will be EXCELLENT for
the Louisiana Drag Classic. Low humidity, temps. in the low
80's. Welcome to October in Louisiana! We should see some very
good racing. All of the teammates are excited. This is the
first time we will compete in our own race. We are getting calls
from racers from all over the state. We will see you there!
Don't forget to join us in the Classroom for Coffee &
Donuts on Sat. morning before time trials. We will have a
short Awards Ceremony at 8 am, just before time trials, in the
classroom. The classroom is located at the end of the track entrance
road in the Ferrari building.
