Topic: Scrotium 500, The Corolla Extra, Feliz Terminada Racing

This was our first Lemons race and first shakedown for the car. The day before practice the tech guys came and looked the car over. Everything was great until they noticed the cage wasn't welded to the floor. No problem. Broke out the welder and started in on that. Problem I found was there wasn't any metal under the D/S front bar. It was all fiberglass. Had to run to home depot and remake the floor plan. We finished around midnight.

Test day went well. The car was running great and handled good too. We didn't get to push it hard enough though do to the track conditions.

I drove first Saturday, got first in line and realized the car wasn't charging all the sudden. back to the paddock and the team heard a funny noise. The starter was still engaged because the key was stuck do to the cold weather. Starter was overheated so we push started the car and it charged. Got back in line before all the cars hit the track. Did a driver change at 1hr to see what our fuel burn was like and magically the starter came back to life.

On our 3rd driver change we put our arrive and drive guy in by the name of Greg Biffle who is buddies with my longtime friend at Simpson. He did a lap and was complaining how the car was loose and the brakes sucked. Brought it back to the paddock and found both front wheel bearings were toast. The right one welded the race to the spindle and it had to be torched to come off. About an hour later the car was back on the track.

The car ran really well the rest of the day until about 4pm, one of our drivers never checked the gauges, and blew a head gasket because the alternator belt rubbed a hole in the lower hose. I had another gasket in stock, only I left it at home! After a 3 hr round trip to south atlanta we had a gasket and put her back together, as well as some new front bearngs which were again toasted. The rear end also blew an axle seal but we were to spent to change it. I just topped it off. That night we slept without heat because the RV heater decided to take a shit. It was miserable.

On Sunday the car ran really well again aside from blowing out it's second collector gasket and backfiring every downshift. I was driving the car at about 2:45pm  when the engine finally gave up. Turns out it cracked the cylinder wall and shock cooled the exhaust valve making the head break off. We had another motor to put in it, but not enough time. We celebrated and we were happy the car made it as far as it did with an old pushrod 3TC.

To make matters worse and the end of the night we had to wire on another trailer plug because we had no lights and ended up driving the trailer home with no brakes.

All in all it was a learning experience and I will be racing Lemons for life now. I blew a ton of money on the car but it was totally worth every penny. Next race we will have bigger brakes and a more reliable powertrain. Planning on Carolina Motor Speedway in April for our next race.

Four Stripes, Corolla Extra Motorsports
'83 Toyota Corolla #5
Winner, Class C, Yokohama Good Try, Road Atlanta 2018

Re: Scrotium 500, The Corolla Extra, Feliz Terminada Racing

kerosenecowboy wrote:

This was our first Lemons race and first shakedown for the car. The day before practice the tech guys came and looked the car over. Everything was great until they noticed the cage wasn't welded to the floor. No problem. Broke out the welder and started in on that. Problem I found was there wasn't any metal under the D/S front bar. It was all fiberglass. Had to run to home depot and remake the floor plan. We finished around midnight.

Test day went well. The car was running great and handled good too. We didn't get to push it hard enough though do to the track conditions.

I drove first Saturday, got first in line and realized the car wasn't charging all the sudden. back to the paddock and the team heard a funny noise. The starter was still engaged because the key was stuck do to the cold weather. Starter was overheated so we push started the car and it charged. Got back in line before all the cars hit the track. Did a driver change at 1hr to see what our fuel burn was like and magically the starter came back to life.

On our 3rd driver change we put our arrive and drive guy in by the name of Greg Biffle who is buddies with my longtime friend at Simpson. He did a lap and was complaining how the car was loose and the brakes sucked. Brought it back to the paddock and found both front wheel bearings were toast. The right one welded the race to the spindle and it had to be torched to come off. About an hour later the car was back on the track.

The car ran really well the rest of the day until about 4pm, one of our drivers never checked the gauges, and blew a head gasket because the alternator belt rubbed a hole in the lower hose. I had another gasket in stock, only I left it at home! After a 3 hr round trip to south atlanta we had a gasket and put her back together, as well as some new front bearngs which were again toasted. The rear end also blew an axle seal but we were to spent to change it. I just topped it off. That night we slept without heat because the RV heater decided to take a shit. It was miserable.

On Sunday the car ran really well again aside from blowing out it's second collector gasket and backfiring every downshift. I was driving the car at about 2:45pm  when the engine finally gave up. Turns out it cracked the cylinder wall and shock cooled the exhaust valve making the head break off. We had another motor to put in it, but not enough time. We celebrated and we were happy the car made it as far as it did with an old pushrod 3TC.

To make matters worse and the end of the night we had to wire on another trailer plug because we had no lights and ended up driving the trailer home with no brakes.

All in all it was a learning experience and I will be racing Lemons for life now. I blew a ton of money on the car but it was totally worth every penny. Next race we will have bigger brakes and a more reliable powertrain. Planning on Carolina Motor Speedway in April for our next race.

"...On our 3rd driver change we put our arrive and drive guy in by the name of Greg Biffle..."

That would explain why the car suddenly looked a lot faster that it really was in the middle of Saturday.

Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com

Re: Scrotium 500, The Corolla Extra, Feliz Terminada Racing

Yep, however my co owner in the car who's only race experience was shifter cars 20 years ago was running only 2 sec a lap slower. He might have had a little something to prove. Greg was taking it easy on the car so it would last.

Four Stripes, Corolla Extra Motorsports
'83 Toyota Corolla #5
Winner, Class C, Yokohama Good Try, Road Atlanta 2018