September 2021

 September 4th weekend – 

Saturday had us up early to drink our coffee and get into the garage.  Our list of things to do to prepare for our race awaited!

I spent much of the time fabricating new headlight mounts so I could incorporate corner-facing lights as well.  The mounts I made last summer worked but didn’t have any extra space.  I made a trip to Lowes for metal and soon had one mount finished.  

Susan had agreed to take care of Kari’s menagerie while her and Alvin were visiting family in Idaho.  Susan left to head up to their abode around noon while I continued working on the light mounts.  

The tool I use to install rivet nuts broke as I was almost finished so I had to make another trip to the store but soon I was back on track.  Susan was quick in her duties and was home before I finished up.  

We continued working in the garage until around 5:00 when Susan went back up to Kari’s and I plopped down onto the couch.  Susan was to spend the night at the Johnson estate to save another trip on Sunday morning.  

Despite having three fuzzy dogs vying for my attention I was lonely.  I watched streaming movies before going to bed.  

I was up early on Sunday to work on Scrappy but was unmotivated and ended up sitting on the couch with the dogs until Susan got home.  We had coffee together before we made our way to the garage again.  

We made some progress before we left for lunch via Safeway’s deli before heading to Walmart for various stuffs.  We drove the NC and had its tiny trunk pretty full when we left the Walmart parking lot.  

In the late afternoon we received the final (we thought so at the time anyway) part for the fuel cell – a large vent.  The venting that came with our fuel cell, which I was assured would be sufficient, was not enough to fill as quickly as I wanted.  Half the point of the fuel cell was to shorten our pit stops so I was very disappointed.  Hence, we upgraded the vent.  

To install the larger vent we had to drill out the top plate our new and very expensive fuel cell.  Susan and I were as careful as we were able and soon the vent was installed and the cell back together.  

Success!  Kind of.  

The other evening something went wrong with the cell and fuel stopped getting from the pump to the engine.  We suspected the line had popped off the pump but the only way to check would be to access the inside of the cell.  It was pretty hot out at this point so we elected to move on the next morning.  

Susan and I spend the remainder of the day on the couch with the dogs.  

We were both up early on Monday to dive into the fuel cell again.  After literal digging (the cell was full of special foam which acts as baffling) I managed to access the fuel pump and immediately diagnosed the problem.  A large hole had been blown in the line right next to the pump.  I detached the fuel line and we headed out the door to buy more. 

Our first stop was the NAPA off of Arapaho road.  I had called ahead to verify they were open on Labor Day but we found the doors locked when we arrived.  I called again and found out that my calls were being forwarded on to a different store.  Hilariously we had gone to literally the only NAPA in Denver that was closed for the holiday.  Whoops!

We drove to a different NAPA and were able to purchase fuel line before going home.  

I installed the new fuel line and soon we had the cell back together.  Susan tried starting the car and, after a few seconds, the motor roared to life.  

Success!  Kind of.  

I was excited enough that, after getting lunch at Noodles, I stopped and filled up a fuel jug.  

Susan then filmed as I triumphantly dumped the contents of the can into the fuel cell.  The expectation was that this would go quickly.  The gas did, in fact, go into the cell quickly but we heard liquid hitting the garage floor when I was almost done.  I stopped immediately and Susan spread oil-wicking material on the gasoline which had spilled under the car.    

After reopening the fuel cell (I was getting pretty quick at the process at this point) I discovered I didn’t push the foam down under the inlet pipe.  Once the foam was saturated the fuel looked to have run across the top and directly into the vent.  The fix seemed to simply push the foam down.  

At some point the fuel cell will be completely installed and functioning like we want.  

Hopefully.  

We kept working down the Lemons to-do list and got a lot done.  Eventually we headed inside to escape the heat of the afternoon.  Susan napped on the couch while I played games until dinner time.  We then both got up and I BBQ’d while we sat in our patio furniture.  

We finished the weekend on the couch with the dogs.  It was a very nice Labor Day weekend for sure.  

2021 High Plains Drifter – Flat Face Racing (September 8-12th)

TLDR: Got to host a fun California team for a couple of nights, worked through some mechanical issues to have a largely fantastic race, Scrappy is amazing, our team was amazing, the event was amazing, the weekend was amazing, great to see old faces and make new acquaintances, finished in second place overall with 548 laps

Wednesday:

A plucky (plucky? Sure, why not) band of Californians arrived at our home in the wee hours on Wednesday morning to camp before the track opened up on Thursday.  They were piloting a 1989 Miata they had bought for a song from a Champcar team who had given up on the motor.  Turned out the motor had 11 quarts of oil in it and, after draining and adding the correct amount of oil, the cylinder compression has been steadily rising over three races.  All of the members of Full Ass Racing (best team name ever) were great people and we threw an impromptu BBQ on Wednesday night.  Nice people all around and we were happy to get to know them.

Thursday:

Susan and I arrived at HPR at 3:33PM to join the long line of other Lemoners looking to get the choicest paddock spots.  Fortunately we had lucked into reserving a carport so were in no particular rush to get past the gate.  

After settling in our RV and arranging our carport just so I took Scrappy out for a few test laps.  We had recently finished plumbing in a fancy new fuel cell and needed to make sure all the connections held up.  Also, the previous evening Alvin had managed to get Scrappy finally running (mostly) smoothly so I was hopeful to realize the car’s full potential.  

There were a few takeaways from the testing: there were zero leaks from the fuel cell and its connections, Scrappy was noticeably more powerful, and something was very wrong with the rear suspension.  

With more good than bad discovered in testing, we elected to then hang out and drink with some new and old Lemons friends until far too late into Friday’s early morning hours.  

Friday:

We were up a handful of hours later to find a serene paddock with a few folks milling about and fewer fiddling with their cars.  Later we received great news when we teched Scrappy – we passed tech and received zero penalty laps!  

We then set to figuring out the rear suspension issues.  During the previous night’s testing I had found the rear of the car had a strong desire to become the front of the car.   Alvin went to work cardboarding-off several large holes we had cut to accommodate the fuel cell and I raised the rear suspension an inch or so (it appeared to have drooped a bit after installing the large fuel cell).  The driver-rear tire was also rubbing so Alvin hammer-rolled the offending fender.  We still experienced some tire rubbing from time to time but the added cardboard and raised suspension seemed to do the trick to correct the excess oversteer.  The overall handling was simply superb for the remainder of testing and the event.  

I did some afternoon testing in the sweltering heat and Alvin tweaked the tune here and there.  Scrappy was finally running close to its potential after a year of backfiring and studdering around the track.  Our testing and tuning continued up to the end of the night session.  

We followed through on our 6:00PM potluck threat and proudly set out our Cheaty Chicken Chili.  The feedback from chili-partakers was that the chili was yummy and I was happy to see barely a smidgen left when we took in our crock pot later that evening.  

Saturday to Sunday (the Race!):

With the 24-hour race starting at noon we had plenty of time to do last minute prepping of this and that – at least in theory.  It was after Alvin was strapped into Scrappy and about to go to the start grid when we discovered our trusty cool shirt cooler had decided to not pump water.  Whoops.  There was simply no time so Alvin left to drive his stint in the sweltering heat with a full but non-pumping cooler sitting next to him.  

Alvin wanted to make sure his latest tune-massaging wouldn’t blow up the motor so came in after one lap of pre-green tooling around the track to check the log.  Fortunately, the log looked fine and he pulled back on the track moments before the green flag dropped.  

Most of the race went smoothly as Scrappy was quick and generally predictable.  We did have some throttle-not-detecting issues (fixed by implementing a cooldown lap before pitting) and early Sunday morning pad knockback problems (fixed by furiously pumping the brakes well-before any turns following hard rights).  During one of our early stops in our carport we pulled out the cool shirt cooler and, after priming the pump, managed to get water flowing.  We had the cooler reinstalled by our third driver stint (thanks to Alvin and Ian for persevering through their hot stints!).  

We were actually on our way to possibly winning the whole dang thing when I managed to have my first, second, and third black flags during my morning stint.  I had never before received a black flag in any race and have no excuses.  While this cluster of dumbness cost us any hope of an overall victory it also took pressure off the team which was nice in its way (yes, I’m rationalizing here).  

Susan took Scrappy to the checkered flag and a solid second place overall finish.  Our goal with each race is for the car to see the green and checkered flags with each driver having as many fun laps as possible.  With that in mind we did better than ever before with 548 laps driven in 24 hours (last year we went 531 laps).  Scrappy also was a joy to drive with great handling, acceleration, and (for the most part) braking.  Alvin managed to set the quickest lap of the race with a 2:12.1 while still in traffic which was pretty neat too (our previous fast time was 2:13.0).  

After all of the racecars were off the track the remaining competitors made their way to the pavilion to cheer on the deserving victors; less so for the class winners and more so for the other various awards (as is proper).  After the ceremony our team packed up and left for home.  Such a fantastic event!  

Thanks and stuff:

All of the thanks goes to each member of Flat Face Racing for their great driving and help with the issues that came up.  Susan, Alvin, Ian, Dave A, and Dave B (yes, there were two Daves and, yes, their last names begin with an “A” and a “B”) were all fantastic!  A massive shoutout to Deandra who joined us again this year and helped in a myriad of ways to keep the team organized and moving along.  Special thanks to Alvin for helping ensure the motor ran well and fixing our aero-issues.  Also to Ian and Dave B who fetched fuel late on Saturday night.  Great group of folks and we were lucky to have such an awesome team for this race!

It probably goes without saying but many thanks to the Lemons and HPR track staff for putting on such a great event.  Organized, fun, safe, fair… we had a blast!

Notes on some of the other teams (from my weak memory and the top of the final standings):

ColeFab/27club/TheBird (#27 – the quick and only E46) – I know you’ve been coming out for years and you have my congratulations on your well-earned win

Sew So Fast (#41 – our E36 friends from our pre-Lemons testing days) – great to see the 318 back on the track, fantastic driving and pit stops as always, glad your dog didn’t get away at the track (he didn’t, right?)

TGA (#55 – the blue and white Subaru Legacy, old enough that most people couldn’t tell what it was) – I think your class C days are over with a fifth-place overall finish, great job

Team Other Options (#420 – the surviving fully-red Audi) – you ate a lot of tires on your way to a class B victory, glad to see the old Audi made it, always fun to share a radio channel with your team

Full Ass Racing (#455 – the colorfulest and quickest Miata-engined Miata) – Susan and I really enjoyed hosting your team before the race, awesome driving too in a perfectly Lemony Miata, great pit vehicles to boot

Out-of-Tune Racing (#117 – the formerly turboed Miata) – turbos are overrated, glad you got your tuning figured out enough to run, great job with the top ten finish

MoFoCo (#76 – the bright yellow Focus) – maybe it’s because my favorite color is yellow, maybe because I always find it hilarious how we can barely pull on this car in a straight line, I dunno but I always find this car memorable and awesome (watching the car spin right in front of me coming out of turn 10 around 7:00AM on Sunday probably helped it be more memorable this time)

Dirty Racers (#888 – the red racetruck) – so happy to see the truck out on track for most all of the race, that thing is quick (a sub-2:20 lap is impressive), great job Brian!

Balaam’s donkey racing (#72 – the sole RX8 with a heart of a Honda) – very cool car and build, smart engine swap, I could see this as being inspiring to other RX8 owners with blown rotaries (so most RX8 owners)

CU Boulder Team (#720 and 719 – the gold Miatas with the largest team ever) – I know a lot went into getting both cars running and to the track and you made it all happen, while issues came up both cars took the checkered flag and looked to be (probably) firing on all cylinders

Turbo-Encabulators (#314 – the gorgeous yellow Miata with the awesome lighting) – a somewhat first time team in a veteran car (formerly owned by us, and before us the CU Buffs), drove a great race, if some mechanical issues and a freak ball joint breakage didn’t occur I have no doubt it would have finished in the top ten, great job!

Road Warrior Foundation (#911 – the DSM that somehow never dies) – great to see the car was sold to a worthy team, great program, great team

Haiku Racing (#17 – the Accord that sat nose-to-nose with another Accord for much of the weekend) – blowing up a motor in testing is tough, buying another car to swap out the motor in time to still get some laps in is awesome, massive props for pulling it off

Petrosexual Racing (#10 – the BMW “M” Miata with a V-8) – very sad to see the car off the track so much with engine issues, very glad you managed to apply enough band-aids to get in laps and take the checkered flag, looking froward to competing with your team again

Prescription Racing (#47 – the buzzy RX7) – love your car, great to talk to you, bummer about the brake issues but glad you made it back out

Budget Bugeye (#458 – the Subaru Neon) – such a bummer blowing up the newly installed motor so quickly, smart that you brought a spare motor and awesome you got it installed later and participated in the majority of the race, probably the cleanest racecar interior at the event, way to hustle Jonathon! 

Our Lady of Perpetual Poor Decisions Formula (#0 – the Civic with ALL of the aero) – got to talk with your first-time team a bit before the race, great job putting together your car and getting onto the track, your aero was both hilarious and a bit inspiring to my team, hope to see you all again

Rust-Eze Racing (#112 – the K-swapped Miata with the best Cars theme ever) – we were looking forward to a battle and were sad to see the car have mechanical issues, we’ll duel next time 

Grumpy Cat Racing (#1 – the big blue truck) – so many sparks flying, so much welding, and the truck got in some laps, cheers to you for getting out there

Other stuff from the race weekend not included in the FB writeup.  

The dogs were generally well-behaved over the weekend.  We were so busy that we didn’t see them much.  Susan did take them all out to meet some people which was fun. When Alvin went to nap during the race Pebbles always cuddled with him.  Bella sometimes joined them on the couch as well.  

The water pump in the RV finally gave out completely on Thursday.  I hammered on it for a time to try to get it working (which has worked in the past) but to no effect.  We had bought a new pump last year and always brought it along just in case.  Swapping the pumps was very simple and the only real issue I ran into was remounting the new pump.  There were three screws going into carpet-covered plywood and I had a very difficult finding the holes.  Eventually I was finished and the new pump worked well throughout the weekend.  

I didn’t mention in the writeup but we discovered a broken bolt in the bracket that holds the accessories to the motor.  I was about to pull onto the track on Thursday night when the car completely died.  It seemed to be an electrical issue so after Susan and Dave pushed me back to the carport we popped the hood to check connections.  We found that the accessory bracket very loose with two of its bolts barely holding on and one broken in the engine block.  The source of the car dying was ultimately because of a wire disconnecting from the kill switch which took me seconds to fix.  Ultimately Alvin helped reconnect the two remaining bolts with lock-tight.  The broken bolt would have to wait until later to fix.  I was very glad to have discovered the issue under the hood as it very well could have been devastating if the remaining bolts had failed during the race.  

Susan and I are very lucky to have such a great group of drivers to choose from for our team.  All are enthusiastic, cheerful, helpful, and generally fun to be around.  

September 18th weekend – 

On Saturday morning I was up early to finally unpack from the prior weekend’s race.  I primarily worked on unpacking the trailer and managed to do some work in the garage as well.  I relocated a cabinet and mounted a couple of wire shelves in the back corner of the garage.  I also organized and moved more things to the fridge and, eventually, the tire shed.  

I wanted Susan’s input on mounting the used drill press we had acquired and found her surfing on her phone in bed.  Coffee came first and then we went out to the garage together.  We spent the next few hours doing this and that.  When we finally ceased our efforts the trailer was fully unpacked and the garage was more-or-less ready for the lift to be installed.  

During the day Oliver had hung out with us in the garage most of the day.  Also I saw our large wolf spider friend again.  We have named him “Mouse” as he’s big enough that when I see him scuttling about my mind first thinks he’s a mouse.  We think Mouse is keeping the garage largely bug-free.  

Sunday had me up early and on the couch playing games for a time.  I eventually got Susan up around 10:00 for coffee.  We soon harnessed-up Mel and left for Pugs in the Park.  

This was the first year we hadn’t volunteered which was a bit odd.  There was some guilt-tripping when we checked-in but we weren’t upset or anything.  I understand the sentiment.  We saw many a cute pug as we walked around looking at the silent auction items and vendor stands.  Mel was good but was shy/overwhelmed a bit by the other dogs and we only stayed for a few minutes before leaving.  On the way home we stopped at Qdoba to eat lunch on their patio.  

We all hung out on the couch for a time before heading outside to BBQ chicken for dinner.  The weather was very pleasant and the chicken yummy.  

Later a guy came by to purchase a set of wheels we’d been holding onto for far too long.  We sold them for a song and were happy to see them leave.  

Over the weekend we managed to watch an entire Netflix series about a welding/fabrication competition.  The show was a bit contrived but fun and interesting as the creations were quite amazing.  It was a nice weekend for sure.  

On Tuesday morning I found frost on the car windshields for the first time of the season.  The temperatures are finally starting to drop which is welcome after our long hot summer.  

September 24th weekend – 

On Friday I went into the office with the intent to only stay for a couple of hours for meetings and to take care of a couple of things.  I ended up staying until noon before I went home to meet a guy to survey our garage.  We scrapped the original plan to install the car lift ourselves and instead are planning on hiring a company to do the installation.  The survey went well and our garage was ok’d for the lift.  

Saturday had me up early as per normal.  I vegged on the couch playing games until Susan got up to make coffee.  Soon after we were done and we left the house to run errands.  

Our first stop was a fish and chips truck Susan had been eyeing for many months.  On several previous occasions Susan had planned on dinning on their sole menu item (fish and chips) but each time something came up and her fishy dreams were thwarted.  

The blue food truck had a loud generator on the back and a very simple menu.  The only variations on the menu were more or less of the “fish” or the “chips”.  I elected to order just fish and Susan the regular.  We found the food to be yummy but “heavy”.  I managed to eat of my fish but Susan couldn’t get through all of her fish or chips.  

Our next stop was to pick up a quilt we had won at the Pugs in the Park silent auction.  We parked on the street in the quant south-cherry creekish neighborhood.  We were greeted inside by a quiet one-eyed pug named “Max” who stood stationary expecting pets.  We both obliged and I kept on petting him while Susan discussed pug rescue things with the CPR volunteer and retrieved our prize.  When we left Max plopped himself at the front door where the sun still shone and watched us go.  I love old pugs.  

On the way home we stopped to stock up on wine and food stuffs to get up through the next few days.  While at Walmart we both received our flu shots.  

Dinner was BBQ’d burgers that I cooked while we sat outside enjoying the fantastic weather.  We hung out on the couch for the remainder of the evening.  

On Sunday I managed to get back to sleep after taking care of the dogs.  I cannot remember the last time I was able to do this.  I wonder if it was because of the flu shot the day before.  I wasn’t feeling very well when I first got up.  By the time I was up and at’em I felt fine besides a sore arm from where I was poked.  

Sunday was truly a lazy-Sunday.  We hung out on the couch with the dogs while I played games and Susan streamed shows.  I BBQ’d chicken on the grill for dinner which was yummy.  We just cannot get enough of sitting outside in the nice fall weather.  Such a welcome change from the hot summer.  

September was an eventful month and marks the end of our more serious motorsports activities for this year.  Likely we’ll attend a few open lapping days in October and November but we have no races planned until 2022.  I’m ecstatic that Scrappy is still running.  It’ll be nice to not have to replace the engine again.  I do have a long list of things I need/want to do to Scrappy over the offseason though.  

September’s temperatures swung wildly from the beginning to the end of the month.  It is so nice to finally have the long and hot summer behind us.  We ended the month having to manually adjust thermostat between “heat” and “air conditioning”.  The leaves in the mountains have begun changing in earnest but our low-land leaves are still green.  I think I won’t have to mow the vegetation again this year which makes me happy.  

We’re hopeful we can get the car lift installed and running very soon.  I decided to pay someone to do the installation itself as I believe it won’t happen otherwise.  The electrical work will likely be done by Alvin as the estimates for certified electricians are insane.  

The dogs are still cute and generally good.  Bella is struggling some to get around and up on the furniture.  We find her seemingly forgetting what’s she’s doing on a regular basis.  It’s tough watching our sweet pug aging.  We try to make Bella as happy as possible and hope she stays with us for a long time yet.