New Captain here! with a few cents of how, what, when, and why we are doing our first race as a team in less than 2 weeks.
The start of the 2017 season I got invite from my cousin out on the west coast to be part of a team for this race called The 24 Hours of Lemons. no Idea as to what it pertained so I looked it up, called him the next day, I am in! needless to say when I got there the car wasn't done and we didn't make the race, but we did spend the weekend at the track(Sonoma). came back out in May for race #2 which is when and where I met Chris Overzet. Our Nash made 1.5 laps and was done for the rest of the weekend not with out a lot of hard work to try to get it back on the track. Overzet allowed me to hop into his car to get some track time! Dusty and Chris offered me a spot once again on the Aztec build and team at Arse-Freeze-Apalooza in December at the end of 2017(when I met Spank, Neal and a bunch of other guys). I wanted to build my own team back in Indiana at this point. Once I got home I was contacted by one of my friends about these races he seen me doing. we met up a weekend after I got home and decided we would start a build!
we have 6 drivers:
one of which is Overzet
Without his help throughout this process we would probably not be making this race, along with some other guys from the forums, which found to be close and cant wait to meet in person next week. one of the fairly local teams allowed me to reach out when I couldn't find parts and BAM! I'm leaving that day for a 3 hour drive for the unicorn of windshields!
What's Helped me so far:
1, Constant team communication! texting, calls, emails
2. Taking Overzets and Spanks(experienced captains) advice on what to do and not to do.
3. Using the forums!!!!!!!
4. Printing and reading over the rules and how not to fail tech constantly, just caught something yesterday we could have failed for.
5. When it comes to the funding side, as everyone has said...make it clear this will cost more than $500 and make sure the team is ready, willing and able to fork out the cash.
6. Finding a fun car to build (don't make the mistake I did and find one you cant get parts for in a hurry) but its a pretty neat car so far and the whole team loves it.
7. Know going into this there will be a lot of work, beers drank, cusswords and long ass nights
8. Be willing to carry your team when things get tough
9. Be willing to be the "bad guy" on split decisions
10. Do not be afraid to admit when you are wrong, failed and need help!
Last but not least, no matter the outcome stay friends/make new ones, have fun and prepare for the next Race/Build!
Team Captain at Rust Belt Racing,IOE Pontiac Aztek with The Pit Crew Revenge,Organizers Choice 1956 Nash Metro With Cheesy beards Racing,IOE 1977 Toyota Celica S/T RBR,.SERVICE BY MANNY, MOE, AND JACK PIT CREW REVENGED AEWOO LEGANZA,Judges Choice Chevy HHR RBR