Team SuckerPunch

Boss Frog Roll Bar

2011-04-11T23:08:00.003-05:00

Last weekend was a busy one! I drove two hours to get to Monroe, WI by 8 am on Saturday morning. That's the home of Boss Frog, one of the two top Miata roll bar manufacturers in the country. It was time for me to get a roll bar, and, since they're local, I decided that they would be the ones!

Once I arrived, I met Todd, who was an awesome guy - we got along well, and he really knew what he was doing when it came to the install. He spent time where time was needed to make sure that the final install looks fantastic.

We were working on the car, making sure it was as nice as possible from 8 am to almost 3:30 in the afternoon. I splurged and went for a harness bar as well.

I'm really happy with the roll bar so far - it really firmed up the entire rear of the car, and it looks great. Take a look:

Needless to say, I highly recommend Boss Frog!

Volunteering for ChumpCar

2011-04-05T13:39:00.006-05:00

Last weekend I volunteered for the ChumpCar race up at Road America. I wanted to post an update on how ChumpCar is run, and my general experiences.

The event was split up over three days. Friday was a test and tune day, then Saturday and Sunday were each 7 hour races. Each day was a separate, unique race. The only "special" thing about the race on Sunday was the winner of the race on Saturday was started with negative laps - the difference between their lap total and second place's lap total, plus one. This attempts to "level" the field and cause different winners between the two races.

Friday morning I drove up to Road America and got there around 9:30 am. A bit early, but gave me a chance to look around a little bit. Weather was cold, but fairly clear and it was a beautiful drive up in my Miata. Some attendees had already arrived, including several LeMons teams that I recognized - the most recognizable being the #22 "Mutt Cuts" - the carpeted car. After a while the ChumpCar crew showed up and I got to work helping to organize the event. All of the crew were fairly low-key and wanted to make sure that the event was a success.

I ended up working Grid on Friday - I checked for safety equipment. The tech inspectors were doing a "quick tech" of all of the cars before the test and tune, with a full tech for later. I was a bit surprised that some people tried to get out on the track with their suits unzipped or no neck protection! Everyone was nice and followed instructions when given. Overall, it went really well. I think we had 1 or 2 cars go off and need to be towed, but past that nothing too special. One car blew it's engine on the front straight, dropping quite a bit of fluid, so, since it was a test and tune day race control pulled everyone in while it was cleaned off. This was only one of two "stop the race" events on the track the entire race weekend.

Toward 3:30 or so they opened the full tech - they did it in the Skip Barber building near turn 5. I really didn't get much of a chance to see the process (I was still working grid/pit-in), but what I did see looked very similar to LeMons, with no separate "BS" inspection. Not sure how the values were evaluated, but I do know that some teams did get some penalty laps... I showed the inspectors a picture of our roll cage and they said "I'd pass that" and "No problems there" - so I don't think we have a problem with our roll cage for ChumpCar.

Friday night I drove back home - I tried to do the weekend on the cheap, so I decided to stay at home in the evenings.

Saturday morning I got up way too early in order to get to the track before the 8:15 driver's meeting. I ended up getting there at 7:45, so I set up some cones on the pit lane to help direct pit-in traffic to either the hot pits - where they could fuel and do driver's changes (and some maintenance?) or to the paddock. Pit in turned out to be my "home" for the weekend... But that's getting a bit ahead of the story.

The driver's meeting was very similar to what I expect from LeMons - don't do stupid stuff, track is set up this way, flags, if it rains we keep racing, etc. Oh, and one difference - they enforce a "Fuel Stops are a minimum of 5 minutes" rule. They have someone(me) stationed at pit-in that gives a time slip to everyone that pits, then as you exit the pits they examine it and verify the time.

On to the race - no pace car, they just sent out the cars in whatever order, let them circulate the track for maybe one or two laps, selected a car at random and gave that car the green flag. The race was on, and continued without any full course yellows or other extended delays for the entire 7 hour time period. We had numerous cars go 2 or 4 wheels off, quite a few spin, and 2 or 3 end up hitting walls. A couple also needed to be towed in.

Now - the unique part - there were only perhaps 8-12 black flags for the entire day. Re-read the list above, then look at the number there again - 8-12. ChumpCar does not black flag for wheels off or any other accidental driving like that. They do track it, and if it goes from occasional to often, then they'll black flag and talk to the driver, but only then. They want the team to be out there racing, not in the pits "doing stupid stuff"(to quote them). They would black flag for technical issues - loose exhaust, fenders/hoods/trunks loose, etc, but not for "things that are normal in a race". Additionally, even when a driver/car is black flagged, they're typically just talked to (5 minutes or less), then sent back out on the track, unless it requires repair.

ChumpCar also runs an "exception" class - they aren't eligible for awards, but they can participate in the race. There were 3(?) cars in that class - two spec Miatas, and one other. One of the spec Miatas took first (by lap count) both days, but just barely (by less than 10 laps both days).

Saturday night they do a "Beer and Pizza" party - tickets were $10/person and it sounded like it was all you could eat/drink. No idea, I didn't go to it. Evidently after that the ChumpCar guys went to Seibkin's and closed it. They were regretting it a bit in the morning :)

Sunday ran very similar to Saturday, although it was a bit more miserable. We had rain, sleet, hail, thunder, and lightning. When the lightning got close they paused the race, getting all of the corner workers into protection and everyone out of the cars, but that only lasted around 15 minutes or so. Beyond that, the race continued in the rain and general ugly conditions. Once again, a fairly clean race given the conditions of vehicles and the track. Oh, and I'm now a convert for those "tear open and they heat up" hand warmers. I had a good 6 of them in various places - one in each boot, one in each glove, and two on my back.

They did one awards ceremony for both of the races on Sunday. Two firsts, two seconds, two thirds(each with some money), and some other various awards for "the spirit of ChumpCar", etc. The awards are AWESOME - really cool welded up figures that are just really cool.

After the awards ceremony I helped clean and pack up. They also gave me some t-shirts, stickers (you'll see them when I autocross), and other stuff.

Well... That was a lot more writing than I expected. If you got through it, awesome!

A new heart... & Miata Maintenance

2011-03-22T20:50:00.002-05:00

We found a new heart for Frankie yesterday. A nice SBC... Well used, but in reasonable shape. The awesome part is that we got it for the cost of a nice engine stand!

Past that, parts are starting to show up for my Miata. I'm excited to get out there and get autocrossing. Sadly, this week looks like it will be in the 30s for temps... Definitely not Miata weather!

Miata maintenance that I did today:

- Spark Plugs

- Spark Plug Wires

- Air Filter

- PCV Valve

- Fuel Filter (that was a little messy!)

Other things:

Loosened the spark plugs on the SBC for Frankie... Sprayed the engine down to loosen it up for future work.

It was a nice productive evening.

A bit premature?

2011-03-15T08:02:00.003-05:00

Last night I decided to get my Miata out of "deep storage" and move it to my garage for some general maintenance. Well, sort of general maintenance - here's my plan:

Oil Change
Timing Belt Change, including Water Pump, many hoses, belts, gaskets - essentially the full 90,000 mile maintenance plus some extra to be sure for autocrossing.
I'm debating about radiator and associated hoses
Roll bar

I'd also like to get some new shocks, but my current budget doesn't allow both the roll bar and shocks. Roll bar won out due to the extra safety in an accident - and because I want my wife to know I'm as safe as possible.

Of course... This morning I went out to my SUV (now sadly parked outside) and there was frost on the windows. Perhaps I was a bit premature in pulling the Miata out?

First Sponsor of 2011!

2011-03-08T23:38:00.005-06:00

All Right! We have our first sponsor of 2011!

Sprecher Brewery, one of my favorite local makers of fine Root Beer (among other things), has agreed to sponsor us with some cases of gourmet sodas for our races!

2011-03-07T10:45:00.002-06:00

Saw this quote, thought it was interesting...

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you move the wall.

Hope my wife doesn't read it!

-Niles

2011-03-06T22:17:00.007-06:00

Wow... Another year! So, it's 2011 now, and we've been silent for a while. This isn't because we haven't been doing things... No, we've been so busy that we haven't updated!

So... What excitement has occurred?

We participated in two LeMons races last year - Gingerman and Joliet. They were both a blast, being competitive, although not finishing in the top 10.

We were incredibly competitive at Gingerman - we were in the top 10 after the first day - but then ran into transmission problems, losing 3rd gear. Then the fun kicked in - we found a transmission 2 hours away, drove and picked it up, swapped it that night (thanks to the guy who let us use his hoist!), and were back up and running the next morning.

What an awesome potential for a comeback. (See Video Here)

And then, 3 1/2 hours into the race the second day, we lost 3rd again.

There goes the comeback.

Needless to say, we were a bit bummed - but it was still an awesome experience, and with the improvements since that race we expect to be extremely competitive at Gingerman this year.

The second race - at Autobahn Country Club, we did fairly well - in the top half. Quite a bit of interest on the first day, due to all sorts of rain. We're not good in the water... But once it dried up we were doing pretty well! Unfortunately, we weren't able to catch up from where we were after the rain.

On a personal note - I picked up a new "fun" car for myself. A nice 1995 Mazda Miata M Edition. It's a bit more "sophisticated" looking than lots of Miatas... Means that I can't go all "racer" on it, but it looks beautiful and my wife loves it.

Oh... And I got married last year.

See - busy!

More, rapid, updates to come!

-Niles

2010-05-07T23:53:00.003-05:00

We participated in the first WAI Autocross of the season, and had a blast! I put an inital video up on YouTube. All of the in/on car video was shot with the awesome Hoyt Technologies MSR-200.

Sponsors!

2010-04-01T16:43:00.007-05:00

So... Over the winter we've been fairly quiet on here... But that doesn't mean we haven't been doing things!

The biggest thing I've been doing is seeing about getting sponsorships. Amazingly, I have one I can announce, and a second on the way...

We have been lucky enough to be sponsored by Ho yt Technologies! They make some great car/motorcycle related gear, specifically camera systems. They have been nice enough to let us use an MSR-200 High Definition MotorSports Camera. The even cooler part is that they've set us up so that we can re-sell their units at the races. If anyone is interested in one, see me at our events!

I'm uploading videos to YouTube right now...

2010-01-26T23:10:00.001-06:00

Well its still cold outside, but the first race of the new year is going to be upon me sooner then I think, so me and one of my drivers decided to (litterally) dust off the Camaro and start getting it ready for the next race. We started with the brakes, it was amazing how bad they were. I expected them to be pretty trash after 24 hours of constant abuse but the front brakes looked as if they had done a lunar landing! The rotors were heat stained blue, and the front suspension was coated with little chunks of brake pad. The hydralics all seemed to have survived just fine though. So a few hours later the car has brand new brakes on it. We also installed a new set of (suspension) springs and new (softer) tires. That's all we can do for now till the JEGS box hits my door. I gotta say I'm really starting to look foreward to getting back on the track.

2009-12-05T20:07:00.002-06:00

Well the snow is flying...so no work is getting to be done on the Camaro. But we have some updates. Niles scored a set of used eibach springs for the Camaro and I have a new job...things are looking up for team sucker punch I thinks.

More pics!

2009-10-21T16:39:00.003-05:00

OK its my turn, finally got my camera back and uploaded my pictures.
Picasa Web Albums - RACERKEY - Nelson Ledges 2009
Its mostly of the cars that were at the race, but it still gives you a great look into how Lemons works. The other teams brought some great cars, I was amazed at how fast some of them were...and how slow others were. Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. We were given a residual value of $350 on the car. Thats higher then we had hoped, but considering how well the car ran, I can't blame them. I think most of the money will be spend on suspension parts in an effort to make the car corner better, I'm also sold on the idea of doing more to help the trans (deep sump pan, shift kit, etc...). Beyond that the car will get fresh brakes, tires, and new gauges..none of which count towards the value of the car. I'll check the health of the engine but since the thing was running so good I'm thinking that we are going to just use it again next year. Don't knock the 305, the car was very fast on the long straight at Nelson, I busted 110 MPH in the car a few times!

Pictures!

2009-10-13T14:12:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Big thanks to everyone that posted pictures to the albums. If you look on the right side we now have two fairly full albums of pictures!

24 Hours of Lemons Lamest Day Album 1

and

24 Hours of Lemons Lamest Day Album 2

Thanks!

24 Hours of Lemons at Nelson Ledges... ALL OF THEM!

2009-10-06T21:44:00.000-05:00

Nelson Ledges is a fun road course - it has some similar features to Road America - a carousel leading into a kink, as well as some good straights to get some speed going. Exciting the carousel and going to/through the kink we were getting up to around 100 MPH - quite the "exciting" experience in a $500 car! Nelson Ledges has some interesting differences though - is significantly flatter than Road America - there are no significant hills to speak of, and several of the corners are fairly steeply banked, allowing for some high speeds around corners. On the 2.1 mile course our record lap was 1:32.5 - so an average of almost 80 MPH. They've got an excellent track map here: http://www.nelsonledges.com/TFMap.aspx

Our car was painted to look like Van Halen's guitar - and it looked GREAT. We don't have any pictures up yet, but if you'd like to take a look I've found a few on-line:

http://www.bradgoldring.com/temp_host/lemons2009/content/IMG_5897_large.html
http://www.bradgoldring.com/temp_host/lemons2009/content/_MG_5325_large.html
http://www.bradgoldring.com/temp_host/lemons2009/content/IMG_5254_large.html

If you look carefully, you can see some "VAN HALEN" words stenciled onto it - that was from one of the black flag experiences. We had a total of 4 - three for driving, 1 for mechanical. I'm happy to say that I wasn't driving for any of the driving infractions, and the mechanical one was thrown as I exited the pits because we were dripping some fuel. Cleaned that up and we were on our way.

Our first black flag happened around 1 hour into the race - there was a local yellow and our driver missed it and passed someone. We got pulled into the penalty shed and elected to "spin the wheel"...

http://www.bradgoldring.com/temp_host/lemons2009/content/IMG_5643_large.html

We got "Faces of Math" - a wonderfully backwards/convoluted math problem that we were required to solve on the hood of our car. Showing all of our work. While we were working on it I asked if they would like a new stencil or two... Of course they said yes, so one of our pit crew freehanded the Van Halen stencil.

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/10/VanHalenStencil-800px.jpg

20 minutes later, problem still unsolved, they said we could get back on the track with a required driver change. This got us to my first hour on the track. It was a BLAST. Lots of wonderful opportunities to learn good (and bad) passing technique, as well as situational awareness. Some of the vehicles out there were nicknamed "Moving Chicanes" - a Russian Lada and a full size van were the two most obvious, although there were others.

After the hour, we changed drivers to Tony, who ran for a full 2 hours without incident. Then to Kate, who, after 15 minutes out got into a minor accident that was the other driver's fault - but a black flag nonetheless. Her "punishment" was to have a leg duct-taped to the leg of one of our other team members and then have the two of them do a three-legged race to get food for all of the penalty judges. While they were getting food we got significantly "Van Halened". This caused another mandatory driver change, getting us back to our first driver.

He was out for around 30 minutes when the appeal of the wilderness called to him and he ended up 4 wheels off on turn 1. Another black flag for us (and a wrecker to pull us away from the tire wall). This got the judges talking about how we were driving "Just like Camaro drivers" and they gave us a 20 minute penalty. I think they let us off a little easy due to how good-naturedly we were dealing with the penalties, as well as how we gave them the Van Halen stencil.

So, 2 hours and 45 minutes later, I'm back in the car - this time for a 2 hour stint. It was a beautiful time to drive - starting before sundown and driving into night. The changes were subtle, but noticeable. If given the chance, I highly recommend the experience of racing during the day/night transition. Night driving is very interesting, as distances are more difficult to determine, and it was hard to tell where cars were. Thankfully, we managed to make it through the night with no significant incidents. One of the drivers ended up driving almost their entire 2 hour stint under yellows due to the foolishness of other drivers, but we made it through. She mentioned that driving during the night to day transition was also incredible.

I lucked out and managed to get the last driving slot - from 10:30 am to noon (checkered flag). It got VERY interesting, as many of the cars that were "out" limped back onto the track in order to be driving around at the end if the race. I saw at least one car out there with a flat tire! By that time the field had decreased from 122 (8 never made it on) to around 50 cars or so. Drivers got MUCH more aggressive and some interesting events occurred. The most interesting for me was ending up going around the carousel 3-wide twice. I'd say the track was no wider than at Road America, and possibly a bit narrower. That was definitely the most harrowing experience of the whole event!

Happily, we managed to make it through to the end - I never touched any other vehicle, and never ended up off of the track. It was awesome and I highly recommend thinking about starting your own team!

After a long delay...

2009-06-09T22:55:00.006-05:00

And, after a long delay, I'm finally back at posting... Sorry about the looooong delay.

I've finally gotten some video editing software, so here goes, the first intro video:

Getting close!

2009-03-25T20:25:00.002-05:00

Well Frank is well on his way to becoming a real race car. We purchased a roll cage from autopower, the team had it installed in the car in less then an afternoon. We also bolted in our race seats and our harness. So now we can drive the car in and out of the shop without having to sit on the floor (painful bolt heads). The engine got a full tune up, and purrs like a kitten full of cream. The trans got an aftermarket trans cooler. The diff got fresh fluid. The brakes were not only made new, but made better. The car now has twin piston (SSBC) calipers, braided hoses, DOT 4 fluid and fresh drums, rotors, springs, etc, etc, etc... The pedal is as hard as I have ever felt in a road car. We are quiuckly running out of things to do. Next up is more saftey gear, and finally...paint!! Wait till you see what we have in store for our Camaro.

Next race!

2008-12-14T19:11:00.002-06:00

Well the people as Lemons have updated there website and added a new event at Nelson Ledges! Its a bigger corse, and its a natural road corse, not the roval we had last time. So, now the debate is which car do we use?? The Camaro might be better off on the new track, AND we are not sure if the car needs lighting or not. We will have to see as time rolls on. But ethier way we are totally stoaked about the new race.

"Mini"-Monster truck

2008-11-28T21:40:00.003-06:00

Here's a sort of cool video of a monster truck rally... I find it quite interesting for the visual effect.

Woah... Autocross++

2008-11-12T12:18:00.002-06:00

And I thought our autocrossing was fun... Check this out!

Oh, and the title of this post is a programmer joke. The "++" means "take this and add one to it" - thus this is one more than autocross.

Watch for the insane Segway bit. No helmet!

Heart transplant well underway...

2008-11-02T16:04:00.003-06:00

Today we resumed work on the Escorts - we wanted to get them to a state where we wouldn't need to work on them outside in bad weather... And we definitely did!

A new team member, Tony, contacted us last week and said he would be available this weekend, so we decided to take advantage of his willingness to help! We pulled the escorts out of the back and started on the process of transferring the engine from the donor to the racer...

The racer rolled really well, and the engine had obviously been out of the car at least one time in the past. With the learning curve it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get the engine out of the car... No significant snags or difficulties. And we didn't have to cut... much.

The donor car had a seized front disk brake, so we had to pull that apart outside, before we could roll it into the garage. Once in, that engine came out pretty well as well. The experience of taking out the racer just before was a real asset to taking out this one. There were extra bits that we had to extract as well, but it went well. So well that we kept going and were able to pull off additional potential parts - Windshield washer resivore (more on that in the future), and fuel tank, which was in better shape than the one on the racer.

Now the next step is to disassemble the donor engine and make sure it is in good shape... Then put it back in the racer...

Overall, a very productive day, and we have a lot of time left to do other things!

The New York Times!

2008-10-27T22:28:00.004-05:00

Apparently our outing at the 24 Hours of Lemons - Detroit-ish caught some attention...

When Life Hands You Lemons, Race Them

That's the New York Times - on page two they reference our sign!

From Team SuckerPunch 24 Hours of Lemons Detroit-Ish 2008

No longer an unstoppable force...

2008-10-26T22:01:00.003-05:00

Today frankie started on the path of adding/modifying bits... We drove to where it's stored and spent a good 6-7 hours working on it today. It got some basics - windshield wipers, tires properly pressurized - as well as some just-passed basics. We did our initial rebuilding of the rear brakes and can now fairly confidently stop.

With the possibility of stopping, we've now officially declared the car "safe enough to drive", so we took it out for a little spin. It's going to be quite the fun car to drive! I'm rather looking forward to getting it out and autocrossing it.

I'm continuing to learn quite a bit from Matt - and I'm improving on my skills. I've now re-built 4 drum brakes, I think I have a fairly good idea of how they work now. He's also starting to show me around the engine compartment - I'm sure removing the A/C as well as other bits will be a good experience for me!

We're definitely exited about Frankie - we just need to make sure we don't lose focus of what needs to be done to 'Scort... Our current plan is to get the engines out sometime this week...

Till next time space cowboys...

The new SuckerPunchMobile! "Frankie"!

2008-10-19T18:49:00.010-05:00

Today was a fun and exciting day - we went and checked out a car we found on craigslist... A 1989 Camaro RS with a 305 and Automatic. It looks... "experienced", but when Matt did a more technical inspection he discovered that it's in great shape! Well, all except for the brakes... Which were also quite... experienced.

Needless to say, we now officially have another car for Team SuckerPunch. We're looking at getting it prepped for Lemon's 2010 - 2009 will be the escort's ("Scort") second run.

Once we payed for the Camaro, we -carefully- drove it back to Matt's Pa's place - he was nice enough to let us fix it up there prior to getting it into the Milwaukee area. We plan on fixing up the brakes and whatever other basic repairs prior to taking it to Gordon's #1 Service - the home of Team SuckerPunch.

After arriving at Matt's Pa's place, we started taking it apart a bit more and seeing what was really there... And it was even better than what we initially thought it was! Matt has asked me not to give away all of the innards, but as he said to me "when the original owner ordered the car, he must have checked EVERY option".

It wasn't all easy though... Obviously the brakes are important, so we wanted to take a look at them. I poped off the covers on the nuts, and unfortunately there were wheel locks on the car. So a search ensued... And even included dissassembling some internal paneling looking for the key.

Officially determined the key was nowhere to be found, we attempted to use a few tools... And no, they didn't work... So we went to an auto parts store, where they looked at us and said "we don't sell anything like that". So we went next door to a tire shop - they said "We'll take them off if you drive it here". Only one issues with that of course - um, we want to fix the brakes before driving it more... Finally, thanks to Menards(!?) we had the proper tool and were able to remove the locking lug nuts...

So now it's just waiting for us to return with supplies - brakes, brake lines, and so on... We're hoping to be able to drive it back to Gordon's by Sunday...

Team SuckerPunch 1989 Camaro - Frankie!

Team SuckerPunch: Round 2 - Frankie! from Niles Stonne on Vimeo

Small Update

2008-10-14T08:06:00.003-05:00

As winter approaches we're starting to look into winter activities for the team. Right now the plan is to pull the engine out of the 2nd escort and rebuild it over the winter.

Additionally, we've located a potential new lemons car. No official news yet, but look for an update in the future... If we pick it up, we'll still probably be racing the escort in 2009, and then the new one will be brought out for 2010.

Testing

2008-10-09T20:29:00.002-05:00

testing

WAI Autocross

2008-10-06T08:36:00.004-05:00

Sunday was a fun day for a couple of members of Team SuckerPunch! It was the final WAI Autocross event of the year - titled "Return of the Jetta", based on a theme of "Cone Wars" (Star Wars).

We worked the first and third heats, driving the second and fourth... The first heat we walked out and took our corner. The first car on the track makes it through ok... Then the second makes it through the initial slalom but spins and takes out a couple of cones after the slalom. Watching a subsequent car take the course, they did a good run until the finish, where they spun out, damaging the cabling to the finish line sensor. By now we've established that the surface is a bit... slick...

Heat two... Matt and I finish getting the car prepped and wait to start our run. Matt's driving first, and I'll drive afterward. We get up to the line - and then we're off. Matt does a good run around the course, not hitting a single cone and getting a pretty solid time.

This event, I made a decision to try for "flow" first, then speed. Trying not to trounce brakes or gas, but just to flow from section to section of the track. Ease in, ease out, and just work with the car instead of against it. It worked. It worked very well! I had a personal first for my first run... I beat Matt's time. Riding along with him through the course really helped me identify where to do what, and going for flow first made the run feel great!

And to make things even more fun when I finished it put me in first for STS class.

Of course, subsequent runs on heat two Matt got better times than I did, but I really managed to tighten the gap between the two of us. It turned into a fun trade-off between us, each of us pushing the other to improve our driving (and thus our times). Discussing strategy on the course was a lot of fun.

Lunch break - tasty chilli for us.

Then heat three... And the rain started. Just gentle rain for us working heat three. Surprisingly, fewer people got into bad situations in the rain than out of it. One car did manage to take out an entire side of the finish line (4 cones), but beyond that, not too much exciting.

By heat four it was raining fairly well - an amazing amount of the people that were to be driving heat four left without driving, but Matt and I stayed through it. Performance driving in the rain definitely adds some interesting aspects! I managed to get the tail to do a controlled slide around a few corners, which is something I always enjoy the feel of.

Matt did three great runs in the rain, to the point of the announcer saying something to the effect of "He's pulling the closest heat two to heat four times I've seen today". Matt was able to get very similar times moring to afternoon, which was quite impressive. I didn't do quite as well, but still managed to be about 1.5 seconds off of Matt's times.

On a side note - Matt got a chance to talk to several people about Lemons, and it sounds like we may have at least 2 more members of the team for next year!

Helmet Graphics

2008-09-30T23:21:00.003-05:00

I've had a couple of people ask about the graphics on the front of my helmet... I hate to give away the secret, but they're actually rub-ons for scrapbooking. I picked them up at Michael's craft store.

If you'd like to take a closer look, I've added a photo album over on Picasa.

-Niles

Niles's Helmet

New URL!

2008-09-29T12:52:00.003-05:00

We're going all out on this... You can now point your browser to:

http://teamsuckerpunch.com

That URL will map to this blog for now... And in the future... We'll see.

Meet The Drivers...

2008-09-28T22:31:00.005-05:00

Ok here's the three drivers that I expect to post occasionally:

- Matt - He's the guy that started Team SuckerPunch. He's put a tremendous amount of time and effort into our team car and organizing the team in general.

- Me - I go by Niles Stonne on-line, although in person many people call me Lance. I've designated myself as official tech geek of the team - Video/Audio/Web, you name it.

- Scotty - He races Spec Miata and also lent us use of his trailer to get the car to the 24 Hours of Lemons. Great Guy!

Where we're at now...

2008-09-28T09:43:00.005-05:00

During the race we had a radiator problem and overheated our engine to failure, so now we need to figure out a plan for next year...

Since the team purchased two cars, we're planning on taking the engine out of the spare car, getting it rebuilt and then installing it in the Team SuckerPunch race car. I'm hoping to get this process done this winter, so that we can get the car out for some fun prior to Lemons next year. I've been suggesting autocross events, and we've also thought about the Midwest Enduro Series. Right now we're still in need of a good way to transport the car - one of the team members has a trailer, but he uses it quite often for Spec Miata racing.

I'm the largest geek of the group, so I set up the radios and video camera for the team. We had some issues with the video camera powering down mid-race, so we only have about an hour of video. My additinal goal for the winter is to look into the video camera and get it working for maximum-length movies. Additionally, since it records in high-def I'd like to find a better place to host the videos.

Blogging Begins

2008-09-28T01:41:00.001-05:00

From Team SuckerPunch 24 Hours of Lemons Detroit-Ish 2008

This is a blog for Team SuckerPunch - a 24 Hours of Lemon team based out of Milwaukee, WI.

We participated in the 24 Hours of Lemons Detroit-Ish 2008 race... Here's some Videos and Pictures.