1 (edited by SpaceFrank 2017-11-13 10:25 PM)

Topic: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

I guess we never had an official thread for this race, so I guess I'll start one now.

It was a delicious shitshow.

There was a pretty high proportion of new teams; I'm not sure I've ever seen a Steve McDaniel Friday Night Newbie Lecture as big as that one. This is also the first race I've been to in a long time that actually required a Sunday morning driver's meeting, and it had very little to do with the number of new teams. As Steve reminded everyone in the Come-to-Jesus meeting on Sunday, the vast majority of the numerous black flags on Saturday went to teams that should've known better. Most of them were for PUY. EDIT: we also ended up with a total of three red flags, two roll-overs, and one full-course black to fix a tire wall. (Thanks for the correction, Phil)

Aside from the dodgy driving, it was a great weekend. The weather was fantastic, there was a great mix of cars, the Friday night potluck was a success, and the documentary team from Austin was surprisingly nice and unobtrusive, at least as far as I saw. I guess it helps when the camera crew isn't trying to make "reality television."

My team took a couple black flags, because a couple of our drivers (including me) still haven't figured out how much they suck. We also got flagged for a persistent fuel leak, which we were able to fix with a rubber gasket on the filler cap so thick that it took vice grips to put the cap on. Other than that, the Dart ran great until about halfway through Sunday when the transmission tailshaft housing cracked in half. Luckily we were able to swap in a good spare from the glorious brown judgemobile we brought for the glorious brown judge, and we got Bob back out for the checkered flag.

Here are the awards, as best I recall:
Overall/Class A: #36 Miata. I forget the team name, but this is the same team that won last time. According to Steve, they were the only team in the top 10 with no black flags on Sunday morning.
Class B: Too Soon Junior
Class C: Ratsun Racing
Race-Specific Trophy: Something like "Driving a bad car good," The Resistance (Honda Civic Poo Wagon)
I Got Screwed: Tetanus Racing (Stef Schrader's VW 411, reportedly because TARP left with their Caddy-engined Jaguar before the awards ceremony)
Heroic Fix: Escape Velocity Racing (for finishing a new team's cage on Friday, plus the last-minute transmission repair)
Judges' Choice: Brown #360 AMC Hornet wagon (I forget the team name, but it's the same guys with the blue Gremlin)
Organizer's Choice: Chrysler LeBaron, driven all the way from California by Spank, possibly abandoned at MSR unless someone bought it
IoE: Blue #401 AMC Gremlin

I'd like to note that all 3 teams who brought brown station wagons went home with a trophy (one with 2 trophies). If you want to know the formula for domination in Texas Lemons, there it is.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Thanks for the write up Frank. It's been a bit quiet here as of late.

Fourteen time loser. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

For a first timer to Lemons racing, Saturday was fantastic. Great, real racing. Me and the other 2 guys (so far...need 5-7 more) have no real clue what we are doing, but we are really excited to be doing it. Cant wait to race here in 2018.

Team Safety 3rd Racing.
1985 Dodge Daytona Turbo-currently being lemonized.
https://www.facebook.com/TeamSafety3rdRacing/

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LMSR17/711-IMG_4043.jpg

Trophy sheet.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

It was two rollovers and a hard wall hit that caused the three red flags. I think the last time we had two rollovers in a single race was 2010.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Newb teams or should know betters this time?

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

I am just glad yall were there to help get the rest of our cage in.  Being one of those rookie teams we learned so much.

1.  Weld the cage in as soon as possible, months before the race
2.  We need to figure out something to keep the fuel pump from starving in the corners when we are about half full.
3.  Power tools and hot metal are not my friends.

Skip "Mongo" L.
Team DadBod

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Guildenstern wrote:

Newb teams or should know betters this time?

One of the rollovers was a set of new guys. Very low speed into turn 1, but dug into the kitty litter and tumped over. The other rollover was The Resistance Civic Wagon.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Ahhh, glad (sorta? not too glad, but you know) one of those reds was just a wall hit. One of those rolls was a mechanical failure, and THAT GUY deserved I Got Screwed. (#FreeDan) Not sure the circumstances of the other.

We had our own menagerie of badness. The engine barely got back together in time and our planned time to work out some remaining kinks with the car was spent searching for a trailer after Austin traffic kept me from leaving on time (and just picking up a dang UHaul) and then subsequently stranded on the side of the road when a tire on my friend's trailer went pop in the middle of nowhere. I spent more money on a stupid trailer tire than I did on the new pistons and cylinders for the car. First there was the useless roadside assistance guy who drove in from farther away than I had to tell my my spare didn't fit for $64 and some change, leaving me with a "good luck with that" since nothing is open and I'd tried the handful of roadside tire guys already. And tfinally there was the one dude who was awake at 4 a.m. in the entire central-southeast Texas area who could actually bring a car-sized trailer tire to my car...for $230. Truck tires are definitely available at that hour. Regular car trailer tires are not.

My phone was useless because of the iOS bug, I found a hole developing in one of my race shoes and we measred the under-seat brackets wrong, so my extra height was, um, dubious.

We had to drive to a temperature gauge and let way, way off to avoid overheating. On Saturday, I was doing on lap and then pulling off to roam the paddock and let it cool. Do one lap, then roam the paddock to let it cool. It would hit 500 degrees near the end of one lap, which is nuts. The carb got sort of "fixed" with a wood screw that night, but we still didn't have use of full throttle. It was butt slow.

Free carb to good home. Still has wood screw. Otherwise I'm gonna smash it with a baseball bat Office Space-style.

Also, please, for the love of all things holy: send money. Over $300 on a trailer tire. Ugh.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Maverick74 wrote:

Thanks for the write up Frank. It's been a bit quiet here as of late.

We gotta fix that. Facebook sucks and is a garbage fire of a drama hole no matter what you do.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Judge Phil wrote:

It was two rollovers and a hard wall hit that caused the three red flags. I think the last time we had two rollovers in a single race was 2010.

Two in one race!??! I think the last time I saw one was at NHMS and it was because a car hit the giant hump on the track on the steep downhill.

1992 Saturn SL2 (retired) - Elmo's Revenge -  Class B winner, Heroic Fix winner x2
1969 Rover P6B 3500S(sold) - Super G-Rover - I.O.E Winner, Class C Winner
1996 Saturn SW2 - Elmo's Revenge (reborn!), Saturn SL1  Dazzleshipm Class C x2 and IOE winner
1974 AMC Javelin - Oscar's Trash heap - IOE,”Organizer's Choice" and "I got Screwed" award winner

12 (edited by CPB 2017-11-14 07:41 AM)

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Little recap from the perspective of a bunch of try hards with a stock Jetta.

We've done well each race, but tend to retire from breaking rear spindles. To fix that we did a conversion to a MK4 rear spindle/bearing/hub/brakes with adapter plates. We had to do some fender "mods" to get the wheels to fit due to the spindle adapters spacing everything. A bit of cutting on the front of fender towards the car, then the roller broke, so I finished the roll with channel locks.

Race Day 1
I started the MSR Houston race on Saturday and after about a few laps some screaming fast Audi B-class cars had passed us. We were P2 and they were P1. After 5 laps they blew up and we were in 1st place.

Approximately 1.5 hours later we are still in 1st, however we are under full course caution due to so many break downs and wrecks. The team decides to do an undercut to lose less laps in pits. We swap in Tyler and re-fuel, only losing about 1-2 laps out of our lead. The IS250/300 flips their car coming into turn 1 from digging into the dirt, so we red flag for about 20 mins. After restart Tyler spins the car into T1 resulting in a black flag. The Resistance Civic takes the B Class lead. After penalty area visit I pull Tyler out of the car, refuel, and send Chris out. We couldn't tell if it was a driver error or debris on track.

Chris's stint goes well and turns some fast laps. There were no incidents, but the Civic in P1 B class had some sort of wheel hop problem in the rear, they pull into the paddock to fix. We run Chris until he is on the fuel light and there is less than 2 hours of the race. We put my wife Cassey in the car to finish out the day.

End of day we are P1 in B class and P5(IIRC) overall in the race.

Race Day 2
Chris starts the race, but we are not in position 5 on the race start, as the organizers were understandably upset about the high number of black flags. I wasn't proud of ours for sure. The P1 overall car, The Comickazes, had 0 of them, so they got to keep position, but everyone else was given the order of arrival to the pit lane. We start that race around 8th slot.

His stint goes well for the first hour, but he ends up passing under yellow resulting in another black flag. We don't serve time in penalty box due to a $100 donation to charity, but we still lose 2.5 laps. Our 7 lap lead keeps dwindling and the P2 car, a Porsche 944 has us on pace. Last part of Chris's stint before driver swap he drops two off track, we are worried he will black flag and be parked for at least an hour. Fortunately for us he doesn't get flagged. Driver swap occurs without a hitch.

Fortunately we put Cassey in the car next. She is calm and doesn't have a man's ego. She turns laps, stays out of trouble and goes 2 hours with fuel to spare.

Tyler gets in the car, but he seems shaken from the spin that lost us laps the day before, he also mentions not feeling 100%. His pace is down about 5-10 seconds per lap. The Porsche 944 is approximately 2 laps down with 3 hours of racing to go. Racing is stopped from a red flag, a 914 has hit the pit wall hard. Tire barrier damaged and the walls moved. This takes 20-30 minutes to get into order. We are at 3/4 of a tank and I am worried we won't have fuel for the restart. Officials tell me we cannot re-fuel at reformation from our garage. Tyler notes he is feeling very sick and cannot continue. We put me in to try and finish the race, but hypermiling will probably need to happen.

My stint starts about 2:30 IIRC and the aggression on track is madness. Everyone is trying to take advantage of the last 1.5 hours of racing to make moves. The Honda Civic that has dropped to P3 (IIRC) in B class hits the same wall as the 914 and flips over. I'm parked on track. The time is about 3:15PM, so 1 hour until checkered. I ask what position we are in, P1 in class, P5/P6 overall. I start to consider we may win the race from a stationary position under red flag. Kind of a bummer not to race across the checkered.

At about 3:40 yellow flags come out for reformation, then green again. After turn 2 I can see the 944 entering the finish straight. They are probably 20 seconds behind us, but still 1 lap down. After 10 minutes they are on my bumper and we trade positions a few times in traffic. My goal was to stay with them until 2 minutes left in the race, as if we crashed, black flagged, etc. They would have enough time to unlap themselves. With 6 minutes left in the race our fuel light comes on. We only need 3 more laps.

I get back ahead of the 944 after getting a run out of bus stop and maintain that for a few laps. Right before carousel I get the call on the radio "checkered flag". I back off letting the 944 fly by and coast through the last corner to cross the finish line.

13 (edited by ProsperPerformance 2017-11-14 05:10 PM)

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

I have to agree. GREAT Weekend of Racing!!!

I love seeing more and more new teams flocking to Lemons. I think I heard McDaniel say that we had 15 new teams & over 90 rookie drivers at the MSR event. As a now veteran team we always try to help the newbies any way we can.

5 years ago this past weekend, at MSR Houston, the Ratsun made it's debut. It only took me 5 years to win Class C (Ha!... 5 years!)

It was a cold, rainy & miserable that weekend 5 years ago. The Ratsun wasn't even finished (not running), but I was determined to make that race happen. As a then rookie driver, I was completely overwhelmed by the support that I received from many of the veteran Lemons teams. I had several people (whom I had never met before) descend on the Ratsun in order to help get the car finished and up & running. We failed tech a few times, but finally got everything worked out. Unfortunately, we did not get the Ratsun running until Sunday morning and we only managed to turn 6 laps that first race. It ran like crap,.. It handled like a refrigerator on ice,... but everyone loved it. I remember everyone cheering as the Ratsun rolled out on to the track for the first time. Having built a car that had not ran under it's own power in over 18 years, and then driving that car out on to a race track for it's first drive was one of the greatest moments of my life! (https://youtu.be/0Ykf8Po5GSg)

Fast forward to this past weekend,... 5 years later... I kinda knew we had a shot at Class C this time. We even had a side bet going with the Buck-a-Roo Bug guys. We had come SOooo close over the years. Ask my team about this past weekend,.. I refused to check leaders boards all weekend. I refused to check the # of laps that we had made all weekend.... I seriously had NO idea that we had won Class C until I came off the track after the checkered flag on Sunday,.. McDaniel approached me as I came off track into the paddock, and he simply said "It's about fucking time!!!"  (*insert very loud WOOooo-HOOooo here) 

I want to personally THANK everyone for their support of the Ratsun over the years!

Special Thanks to the Napa Truck guys. You guys ROCK! We made contact with them on Sunday & spun them out. The Ratsun has a few new battle scars from that collision, but managed to limp on to victory. We spoke to the Napa driver, and he was shaken, but okay. He called it a "brown moment" Our driver (Peter) felt absolutely terrible about the incident. Good news is that no one was injured and both cars finished the race! 

Thanks to the MR2 guys for showing us the video of the incident with Napa. (Lesson learned. DON'T try to thread the needle!) - https://youtu.be/-cLPJC9O0X4 (BTW, sound commentary is hilarious!)

To the AMC/Gremlin Guys... CONGRATS!!!  We've all been watching the Gremlin work it's way up over the years,.. and it's fantastic to see you guys win IOE!!!... and between you guys & the Buck-a-Roo Bug thanks for some of the best damn Class C competition ever. I've heard Class C - 1st, 2nd & 3rd place finishes were separated by only a few laps each.

To: Judge Phil, Steven McDaniel, Nick Pon, Jeff, and the rest of the Lemons crew, THANK YOU for an AWESOME weekend of racing!

Wooooo 5 YEARS!!! - https://www.facebook.com/danallenwilson … f=mentions

We'll see you all in 2018

Allen Wilson - Ratsun Racing - Gator-O-Rama 2012 = Flock of Seagulls - North Dallas Hooptie 2013 = We Got Screwed - North Dallas Hooptie 2014 = 450SLC Winner IOE - Gator-O-Rama 2015 =  I Got Screwed  - North Dallas Hooptie 2016 = Ratsun Winner IOE - MSR Houston 2017 = Winner Class C - NOLA 2018 = WTF40 - Winner IOE

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

We've done pretty well with the #98 purple Olds the last couple of trips to MSR Houston, and were looking forward to another fun weekend of racing. We had signed up for Friday's Test and Tune, and noticed that the typical stumble we've had getting on the gas the last few races seemed to be a bit worse than normal, so we dinked with it some, and everyone got a few laps in to remember how the track went. That Friday evening we decided to switch carbs, in case the one on the car was the reason for the stumbling, and pulled out the spare.

Saturday our first driver came back in after the first lap and said the car was behaving really poorly, almost dying when given gas on the back straight. The weekend before we had pulled all the old foam from the fuel cell and replaced it, as it had started to break down. We also cleaned the fuel cell of foam debris, blew out the fuel line, and swapped and cleaned the carb. We pulled a few blocks of foam from the fuel cell, worried that we had overfilled it, and changed the fuel filter, then sent it back out. Came right back in with the same problem.

We took a trip into town for new spark plugs, distributor cap, fuel pump, and clear fuel filters, which were all then installed, along with yet another carb swap back to the spare once again, and we sent the car back out. When the car came back half an hour later, it had done four or five "glorious" laps as the driver put it, but had started sputtering again. Our mechanic went out for some laps next, and a short while later came back looking *really* unhappy.

We checked the fuel filter, and there were a couple of tiny black dots in it - remnants of the old foam - but at this point we weren't convinced it was a fuel delivery issue - the new fuel pump definitely had pressure, and we were using fuel at an appropriate rate going on how much it took to fill the car back up. While we were contemplating switching the carbs *again*, we had a lucky break!

Our mechanic had a timing light on the car, as we were fiddling with the distributor timing, but at that particular moment it was flashing away at the firewall, and we noticed that when the engine stumbled during being revved up, the timing light quit flashing. We tried it on more spark leads and on each one it did the same thing - the light not blinking coincided with the engine stumbling. By this point it was late on Saturday, and with an hour left to go, we decided it wasn't worth running the car for the last hour, just in case something broke due to the misfires, and instead headed back into town. Really, the only things we hadn't replaced were the pickup coil and spark plug leads, so we picked up replacements and installed them. When the moment of truth came and we revved the engine - no misfires! If only we'd done this Friday night instead of Saturday night ...

Sunday the car ran really well, to the point where two of our drivers spun it - it really had picked up its performance to the degree of seeming like a whole different car! Coupled with a PUY we started being extremely cautious while out on track, which slowed our lap times a bit, but we all knew this car was way better than any of us could manage in it, so we erred on the side of caution. Doing the math after the fact, if the car had run all day Saturday how it ran Sunday we would have been in with a chance of a class B win! Oh well.

Next year's MSR race in November is scheduled to be a full 24 hour race, so it's going to be a tough weekend. In the meanwhile we're trying to determine where else we can get another race in next year with only one Texas slot on the calendar.

TTFN
Toni

#98 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight - Class A car in the hands of a Class D team - MSR Houston IOE!

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

Big congrats to Lowball, Ratsun, and Too Soon, Junior. You guys earned it.

I don't think the gold Civic of the Resistance hit the wall; I heard they went off at the end of the pit straight and flipped in roughly the same spot the Lexus did on Saturday. The difference was that the Civic lost its brakes, so it was probably a little less driver error. Luckily the drivers walked away from both rolls, as they were both pretty gentle.

I don't remember when the 914 hit the wall (so it might not be related), but that setting sun coming out of the carousel turn was rough.

Re: 2017 Houston, We Have a Problem

It was a great race for class C and a bit of a heartbreaker. 
The Porsche went into the wall on the front straight at around 2 on Sunday. The Civic rolled at turn 1 around 3ish on Sunday due to brake failure.
This was our 5th race and it really felt like some Class A cars were getting very “aggressive”.
Looking foreword to NOLA.
-the Gremlin