Team Member RANT thread (Page 1 of 2)

Everyone wants to race, very few want to pay.

The owner of the car is bat crazy and would rather put stickers and a wing on the car than fix it.

My only team member problem is driver 4 keeps moving out of state, losing job, exploding, getting amnesia and not knowing how to drive, or thinking we were joking and made up this whole Lemons thing.

We had the same thing: One driver would show up at the track late leave early and disappear after his turn at the wheel. Drove me nuts when he would show back up and ask me if I needed him! We don't need him anymore. He never showed up to work on the car, (wait once for an hour) which is pretty funny cause he got out of the car at Sears and asked where the oil pressure gauge was. (Ummm.. where we left it.... on the dash!)

I'm an asshole too - I ask $500.00 per driver to drive and pay the rest out of my own pocket because I really want to race. Try getting that out of anybody when it comes time to pay up.

I have to admit it is really nice when a driver pulls out money and asks what can I do to help.

My rant for last year's team is that out of 5 drivers, only 3 of us were around to build the car.  The other 2 lived 2500 miles away and flew in for the race.  That didn't leave us much manpower to build a 35 year old shitpile barn find that needed every component to be repaired.  Luckily, we picked up a crew member who helped us out a lot.  He lives in Canada, so crossing the boarder for a few hours after work wasn't worth the trouble, so he only came on weekends.  He had never worked on a car before, but the extra set of hands was a big boost.  The other problem is that all of us have similar skills.  The perfect team would have an electrical whiz, a fabricator/welder, a team manager, and a few good wrenchers.  We had three wrenchers and a green helper with no tow rig and no trailer.   No trailer really sucks!

The two guys who flew in for the race never got their hands dirty and left right after the race without as much as helping us tear down the awnings or loading the tools.  Needless to say, they are not on the 2010 team.

Our noob has rejoined us a driver this year and we will go with a 4 man team unless we find a fabricator with a truck and trailer who has lots of spare time and money. 

One of the two was a really good guy and tried hard to "get it".  The other whined all weekend and left in a huff.  We slept at Nelson Ledges in a skanky 80's camper with no heat.  They stayed at a bed & breakfast 30 minutes from the track.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our team has no such problem - we are truly blessed

I shall model my captaincy after this great man!!!

My brother (team member #2) just went on tour w/ a couple of bands.  I won't see him much for the next 12 months.

Team members 3+4-  I sent an email last week asking for 500 +250 total/peoples curse damage deposit and have heard crickets chirping ever since.  I'm waiting patiently for another week or so as #3 runs a race shop and also is running the Subaru continental cup team, so he may be insanely busy.  I never met #4, but he runs w/ #3.

Hey Rob L, can I have a couple of your guys off waivers???

We have one we'll send over to you. 

Wow I am really lucky. The only issue I had was with the car build 2 years ago. There were different ideas on how the car would be used when not running Lemons races. But it was solved when I put more $$ into the car than the others.

As far as drivers, all the drivers I have had have been great. Cautious making sure that every one gets their turn driving. Helping out at the track and at the garage. We do have a few drivers that are more mechanically inclined than the others, but still every one helped.
Since we are running more races this year due to the other crap can race I actually have 2 drivers on rotation. ( finances are the main concern, I have always been paid for the events. If they cant afford 1 race they sit it out) I am really lucky that I actually have drivers waiting to join our team.  But then I also make sure they are going to get what they signed up for. We do our best to make sure the car is prepped. Bring out tons or spare parts so that we can fix anything but a blown engine. I feel we are a well prepared team, and because of this the drivers want to be on the team.  Not that I am implying that any one else is not prepared.
I dont have my brother on my team but I do have my wife. She has driven in all 4 of the past events. Yea things can get stressful but having her buy in is great. I dont need to justify work on the car, she gets it.

Like some of the other teams I am getting a 2nd car ready. However I dont plan to run 2 cars at one event. I want to have a spare in case we toast on car we dont have to rush to get it fixed for the next race. We just take the other car out and use it. Plus the 2nd car is a chopped 69 Bug.. so we are going more for the IOE than the win.. Its for fun. a top 10 finish would be nice. But the time behind the wheel is why we are there.

my 2 cents.

Thanks Judy! And we'd be there in a heartbeat but for interceding difficulties like newborn babies and such