Topic: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

This was our first Lemons so I did a little/big write up of our experiences:

Thursday

Susan and I arrived at the track a bit around 4:00 to find a few other teams already on site.  We found our covered parking spot and, after a few attempts, managed to place our trailer where we wanted it.  Unloading was more of a chore than we expected as we didn’t realize the area wasn’t exactly level.  One of the big harness bolts installed in the floor pan snagged on the wood of the trailer door and left a notch despite using 2x4s under Scrappy’s front wheels.  We live and learn. 

After unhooking and roughly leveling the trailer we spent time unloading and setting up our big ole table and temporary shelving.  The covered parking spot was clean and had plenty of space for our tires, bins, and whatnot.  The power box was unlocked so we plugged in the trailer to power the fridge, lights, and the radio chargers. 

The sole non-family member of our team, Brad, arrived at 5:30 to take to the track and get used to piloting Scrappy.  This was Brad’s first foray with Scrappy and the two seemed to hit things off in a good way.  It was during Brad’s second stint that I realized I’d left two cases of adult beverages in Scrappy’s trunk.  After calmly asking Brad to stop in the hot pit lane I met him with our rolly cart to thankfully find no broken glass when the trunk was popped.  We shared a laugh and Brad finished his stint. 

In the evening we met several teams walking up and down the covering parking area.  Two out of state teams dropped by: CEL Racing/Meowgical from Tulsa and property devaluation racing from Texas.  Nice folks all around.  Many conversations were had and it wasn’t until after midnight that we finally closed up our trailer for the night. 

Friday

This and that happened before we drank our morning coffee and officially started the day.  After many hours of testing I was confident that a quick swap of the brakes and wheels would have Scrappy ready for tech.  Unfortunately I found the rear brake pads were completely gone and had left some neat grooves in the rotors.  Also one of the rear caliper pins was rusted solid and with its hex head mostly rounded off.  Awesome!  Luckily we had packed many spare parts including all the brake components that attach to the wheel hubs.  It took some time but eventually the brakes and wheels were in order. 

With tech sheet in hand and bribes in Scrappy’s trunk we queued up for tech and BS inspections.  Even being 20 minutes early the line of un-tech’d cars was already long.  While we waited we talked with the owner of Team Lemo’ktoberfest’s Saturn about his cage and previous Lemon’s woes.  He took his own car out of a 2018 race when the engine started knocking on heaven’s gate.  Now he was back with new bits and pieces to hopefully see the green and checkered flags (spoiler – he did!). 

We failed tech due to issues with our cage foam but were luckily classed in A with zero penalty laps.  We scurried back to remedy the foamy-situation and soon we were compliant.  Finally we checked in for realzies and picked up our transmitter.  Holy smokes we made it!
Alvin (our brother in-law and fourth member of the team) broke in the race pads while we hung out with our pups.  Oh yeah, we brought our three little dogs to the event. 

A fawn Pug named Mel, a tiny black Pug named Bella, and an itty-bitty Chihuahua named Pebbles accompanied us.  All were relatively content throughout the whole ordeal with the exception of being a bit freaked out by the excessive engine reving a few of the teams apparently needed to do.  Seriously, it sounded the same the twentieth time you rev’d to redline with your horribly loud catless exhaust as it did the first time you rev’d to redline with your horribly loud catless exhaust, enough already. 

It was in the late afternoon that the rain and wind rolled in.  We battened down Scrappy with a tarp and waited out the storm which lasted around an hour. 

Susan noticed a gaggle of cyclists on the hot pit lane so we leapt on our own bikes to head out onto the track.  We’d purchased Goodwill bikes in the previous weeks just for this occasion.  Riding around HPR was a really chill experience.  Several folks rode bikes and a mess of others walked around.  Susan and I rode around most of the track but skipped the second hilly section to preserve our legs in order to be able to walk for the remainder of the weekend.  The sun was setting around the time we got back to the paddock. 

For some reason several of the teams were furiously working on their cars.  Weird. 

Saturday

We awoke early to find the pit area relatively quiet.  After our coffee rituals we attended the drivers meeting.  We sat on the floor right up front to soak up the info which was delivered in a relatively succinct manner.  Then it was “drivers to their cars” and whatnot. 
The driving portion of the day went well for the four of us on team Flat Face Racing.  Scrappy is easy to drive and can corner with the best cars out there.  We received a sole black flag for passing under yellow.  Considering the number of cars breaking down and the seemingly random nature of some of the flag-waving I think we were lucky to only get one such violation. 

Susan was out finishing up the day’s driving when the sky got dark and the lightning came down.  A big strike right before 6:00 ended the racing portion of the day’s proceedings with our team somehow situated in sixth place overall. 

We had just enough time to cover Scrappy with a tarp and take shelter in the trailer when the rain and wind arrived.  Undeterred, teams around us worked through the gale, pulling busted engines and tinkering this way and that. 

This time the rain came on heavier with some small hail mixed in.  Again it the weather blew threw in an hour or so leaving massive puddles here and there. 

We contented ourselves chatting about the day and watching the other teams scramble about.  Fortunately for us, Alvin was on our team and remembered to check the oil and tires.  In true Miata-fashion Scrappy was only down a bit less than a quart of oil and the 200TW tires only needed to be rotated crossways to be ready for the next day.  This after eight hours of track time.  Zeus bless stock Miatas. 

With the skies clear the pit potluck got into gear.  I’d started chicken slow cooking earlier in the day and soon finished whipping up my signature inoffensive chili.  I worried I was too late to the party but by the end of the evening the crock pot was scraped down to chili-dregs and most of our (store-bought) brownies were gone.

We’d heard good things about the Lemons HPR potlucks and this one certainly didn’t disappoint.  There was a wide variety of foods to choose from and we were stuffed before we had walked the whole thing.  We met a lot of great folks and shared many a laugh as we shared our food. 
After purchasing excess fuel from another team we closed up the trailer for another night of sleep. 

Sunday

We were up before our 6:30 alarm to again find a quiet paddock.  The racing was to resume at 9:00 and we were ready in plenty of time.  I have to admit I felt a bit special pulling into the top-ten line. 

Racing was quite enjoyable on day two.  Passing seemed easier and the cars seemed more spread about.  There was one self-reporting incident but otherwise the day went as smooth as silk.  We finished eighth overall and seventh in class A after completing 318 laps.  As our goal for this event was simply to see both the green and checkered flags with zero breakdowns in between we were ecstatic with the results. 
We all attended the awards ceremony to watch Alvin and his other team, Team Other Options, receive their trophy for first place in class B (Alvin drove for both this team and ours).  The other awards seemed to go to deserving teams. 

Susan and I were in no rush to pack up and thus took our sweet time.  When we finally made our exodus there were only a few teams still on site.  We genuinely can hardly wait until the next event at HPR!

Driving Thoughts

Miatas are fun in the twisties but I think we would have been happy with a little BMW-power in the straights.  The other drivers were certainly a mixed-bag in experience-level but we saw zero contact incidents during the weekend.  More point-bys would have been nice but the lack thereof led to us having to figure out how to make safe passes which was a good thing.  In the end I was turning laps only a few seconds off my personal best while passing traffic. 

Lemony-stuffs

Balkan Express – spray-painting their livery immediately upon unloading their car from their trailer.  We were shocked with how well it turned out. 

Dirty Racers – they dealt with bad gas, brakes not working, pedal box problems, and other assorted issues and still managed 157 laps.

Petrosexual Racing – one of their drivers went so far off of turn four (the right at the end of the long straight) that he re-entered the track down by turn six.  We have footage of him making his triumphant return to the course. 

Connections

Crazily we happened to reserve a covered parking spot between teams with peeps we know from our RallyCross lives – Will (The Gunbarrel Cobras) and Diego (Balken Express).  I don’t think we could have planned this if we tried.  Three of the Dirty Racers (Brian, Jonathon, and Ryan) are also Rallycrossers.  We’d also met the drivers from Savage Orchid Racing, Sew So Fast, and Rainbow Unicorns at open lapping days.  Pretty cool. 

Conclusion

That was super-duper fun and we can’t wait until next time!  Also, we brought way too much food.  Oh so much food.

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

Thanks for the writeup. My wife & I missed this HPR race due to a pre-planned trip to the East Coast, so I'm soaking up every account I can find.

ONSET/Tetanus Racing, est. 2008.
Guest drives: NSF, Rocket Surgery, Property Devaluation, Terminally Confused, Team Sputnik, The Syndicate, Pit Crew Revenge, Spank, Hella Shitty, Sir Jackie Stewart's Coin Purse, Nine Finger Drifters, Salty Thunder, Panting Polar Bear, Vistabeam, Hangar 13, and Escape Velocity.
74 races so far.

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

Hi Max -
Friso here from SewSoFast - you guys were great! We had some really fun exchanges, and got to meet you guys on the plethora of open lapping days you attended.  This was my 5th (Tracey's 4th) Lemons race, and we keep learning tons. Have fun. Meet cool new people. carry spares for you and others. if you wanna be quick, pit stops are key. If you go too quick it's less fun b/c it gets too serious. Not all BMW's have "BMW power" ;-). Panda Expresso has coffee in the mornings. Those guys are awesome.  Ask around for parts if you need them.  If you break a cam you can run some BMW 6cyl as a 4-banger (yet another team...)

What fun! Hope to see you guys out there.  We're in Longmont. how about y'all?

Cheers
Friso

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

Hey Max!

Nick from Savage Orchid. Thanks for the write up, we had a lot of fun too as a bunch of rookies. We ended up breaking the front driver's side wheel hub on Sunday. So we didn't get to see the checkered flag, but we all had a blast and learned a ton. We met you back at one of the open lapping days, and Brad spent a good bit of time chatting me up about our zx2. He's got a bunch of parts he wants to unload on us, haha. Pretty sure I waved you by in at least a turn or two.

Anyway, are you racing again in September? We have some repairs to make (obviously), but hope to see you there!

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

fschlottau wrote:

Hi Max -
Friso here from SewSoFast - you guys were great! We had some really fun exchanges, and got to meet you guys on the plethora of open lapping days you attended.  This was my 5th (Tracey's 4th) Lemons race, and we keep learning tons. Have fun. Meet cool new people. carry spares for you and others. if you wanna be quick, pit stops are key. If you go too quick it's less fun b/c it gets too serious. Not all BMW's have "BMW power" ;-). Panda Expresso has coffee in the mornings. Those guys are awesome.  Ask around for parts if you need them.  If you break a cam you can run some BMW 6cyl as a 4-banger (yet another team...)

What fun! Hope to see you guys out there.  We're in Longmont. how about y'all?

Cheers
Friso

Hi Friso,

It was cool to see your team out there too!  The whole experience was a blast!  Good advice!

Susan and I are down on the Lone Tree side of Parker.  We're taking a brief break from the open lapping days but hope to be back out there in July. 

max

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

nmalozzi wrote:

Hey Max!

Nick from Savage Orchid. Thanks for the write up, we had a lot of fun too as a bunch of rookies. We ended up breaking the front driver's side wheel hub on Sunday. So we didn't get to see the checkered flag, but we all had a blast and learned a ton. We met you back at one of the open lapping days, and Brad spent a good bit of time chatting me up about our zx2. He's got a bunch of parts he wants to unload on us, haha. Pretty sure I waved you by in at least a turn or two.

Anyway, are you racing again in September? We have some repairs to make (obviously), but hope to see you there!

Hi Nick!

We were wondering what went on with your car.  It's stories like this that had me ordering spare hubs to bring going forward (fortunately they are relatively cheap for our car).  Bummer about missing the checkered.  Susan was driving there at the end and found it a really cool experience. 

Yup, we are signed up for the September race and will be down in the numero uno car port.  It's crazy how quick those car ports are snatched up.  We will definitely see you out there!

max

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

Max wrote:
nmalozzi wrote:

Hey Max!

Nick from Savage Orchid. Thanks for the write up, we had a lot of fun too as a bunch of rookies. We ended up breaking the front driver's side wheel hub on Sunday. So we didn't get to see the checkered flag, but we all had a blast and learned a ton. We met you back at one of the open lapping days, and Brad spent a good bit of time chatting me up about our zx2. He's got a bunch of parts he wants to unload on us, haha. Pretty sure I waved you by in at least a turn or two.

Anyway, are you racing again in September? We have some repairs to make (obviously), but hope to see you there!

Hi Nick!

We were wondering what went on with your car.  It's stories like this that had me ordering spare hubs to bring going forward (fortunately they are relatively cheap for our car).  Bummer about missing the checkered.  Susan was driving there at the end and found it a really cool experience. 

Yup, we are signed up for the September race and will be down in the numero uno car port.  It's crazy how quick those car ports are snatched up.  We will definitely see you out there!

max

Yea, it was a bummer for sure. We made a poor choice to change the tires we were running when we were prepping for Sunday. I was the first driver on Sunday morning and the car was behaving fine at the start. Likely because when the green flag dropped I was in a pack of cars. So it took about 4 laps to break out in front of the pack. Once I did I started pushing the car as hard as I was on Saturday. Unfortunately, the tires weren't up to the challenge and I lost control of the car in Turn 13 and went off roading. We are pretty certain we cracked the hub at that point. I came in and self reported, and we swapped wheels/drivers. It took another 3hrs or so for the crack to grow and fully break the hub off.

We learned some lessons.
1) Bring more spares.
2) Make smarter tire choices, or slow down if you have to use the "shitty ones".
3) Holy hell this is a fun hobby.

Anyway, we're working to get the zx2 back in action. We missed out on all the covered spots. So we'll be hiding under canopy tents for this race, haha. We were so focused on the first race that we forgot to book a spot before they all got scooped up.

So hopefully we will see you in September! Brad actually has photos of my "off roading" if you want to give yourself nightmares, lol.

Re: The B. F. E. GP from the perspective of Flat Face Racing

Max wrote:

T
... and property devaluation racing from Texas.  Nice folks all around.  Many conversations were had...

Wait, you met Brian Pollock your first night at a Lemons race and you didn't get scared off? Yeah, you guys are hooked for life at this point. smile (I kid.)

Good write-up! I need to get back to a race at HPR.