Meet the Road Blog – briantowey.com
Coalition of the Willing
Git Miata Here – 2 laps
Team RSI – 8 laps
Dagobah II – 9 laps
Surf School Clown Car – 11 laps
World Rally Chumps – 12 laps
Pole Position Racing – 13 laps
GERI-AT-TRICKS OR TREATS – 14 laps
La Familia (pasta burner) – 17 laps
team rusty fishhook – 17 laps
We are now down 38 laps (about what we lost to the coil problem), there is a full course yellow and Dave Sutherland has just replaced Ed Pavone to begin Laurie Partridges 4th date.
I’m sitting here (mostly confined to the motor coach) writing about the Chump Car race and waiting for some pizza and I notice something that had caught my attention a few weeks ago. An unusually large number of people seem to find this blog while searching for “Emma Peel” – Dianna Rigg, the actress that played the part, is famous mostly for the role of Peel in the Television show “The Avengers”. I had made a reference to her in an earlier post Supercars for the Proletariat – very un-Chump Car.
So two things – clearly I’m not the only guy that has had a thing for Diana Rigg (well, that was a safe bet and I grew out of it), and (as an experiment) I could do something to push my “Emma Peel” numbers up.
So, in the early 80’s there was a Seattle band called The Allies, and they had a song called Emma Peel. I used to see them quite a lot. I also think that the guy that wrote songs for that band has been popping up to play around Seattle again. Anyway – below is the” Emma Peel” video.
Just before the break our problem was diagnosed as the coil not receiving enough juice to do its coily thing. No spark, no go – we go now. 36 laps down in 26th place.
The top 5 are:
Coalition of the Willing
Git Miata Here
Team Produnk
Dagobash II
Team RSI
The clowns with the surf school car are 8th, the pasta cooker is 13th, and the previous leader (Chia Bull) is in 22nd, 29 laps down.
We believe that lap penalties and credits will be applied by the time racing resumes at 8:15. Everything could change.
Laurie Partridge’s 3rd date didn’t get out of the hot pits. When the full course yellow happened the car came in for a stop that would get us to the break – the timing couldn’t have been better. The car wouldn’t fire again.
The race was red flagged briefly and afterward the car was pushed behind the wall. The brain trust is still working on it.
The other cars are mostly still driving around – the girls haven’t been by with an update lately.
Team Produnk (thinly disguised Spec Miata)
Coalition of the Willing (1st gen RX-7) – on the same lap
Dagobah II (I think it’s a Sentra) – minus 1 Lap
Git Miata Here (another x-SM?)
Chia Bull (Taurus SHO with astroturf)
And, we’ve just gone full course yellow
Coalition of the Willing
Team Partridge Family (- 4 Laps)
Team Produnk
Chia Bull
Team RSI
Autosport Lab Rats
Dagobah II
Git Miata Here
Breast Men
GERI-AT-TRICKS OR TREATS (- 5Laps)
World Rally Chumps
La Familia
The Brian Towey Surfing School (WTF?-)
Pistons are Highly Over-Rated
team rusty fishhook
The first timing sheet showed Team Chia Bull in the lead followed by Coalitinon of the Winning, on the same lap. COTW is pitted nextg to us in the south ghetto, so we’ll handle them in due time. Chia Bull is a recycled LeMons car (1990-ish Taurus SHO) that was at the Thunderhill LeMons race two years ago. I don’t know what they’ve been doing with it since – except that I think I saw it at Oregon Raceway Park one day. I think it was penalized at LeMons, but it has a better diquise this time.
Team Partridge Family (6 Dates in 24 Hours with Laurie) is having challenges – 25th Place. First, our ace driver (the only one with any racing experience) was brought in for passing under yellow – he claims he was framed. Then, we were told our transponder wasn’t working, so the car was brought in to repair the problem. The real problem is that the transponder was working, but the signal was “weak”. I suppose that could have been fixed during the first pit stop (when we would have been in the pits anyway), but now it works to the satisfaction of those that wish to be satisfied…
It’s a long race.
RACE DAY!!!
Previous Chump Car Posts:
I guess I was wrong about that…
First, lots of people are going to have fun. The opportunity to race a car never comes to many people and there will be lots of first time drivers on the track today – that’s just cool.
But, this is going to be interesting for other reasons, too… I’ve read through the forums to get a feel for what teams expectations should have been regarding pre-race penalties (a la LeMons). It is pretty clear that cars exceeding the $500 prep limit will receive lap penalties. From an official on the forums – “The acid test is “Do you have a $500 car or not?””
My recollection is that LeMons “cheaters” have been docked one lap for every $10 over the $500 limit . $600 car = minus 10 laps…
The plot thickens – I watched a car role through the inspection process and observed the Chump Car official nodding approvingly at the documentation accompanying a car that massively exceeded the $500 limit (just in body parts). As this is the first Chump Car event, we have no idea what penalties are in store, or how they will be meted out.
So, as of now, I’m not sure how much like a 24 Hours of LeMons race this Chump Car thing is going to turn out to be, but I did get some photos of a few cars that meet what I’ve always thought was the spirit of this type event.
No, not the Ferrari thing, but this:
“There is a difference between an “activity” and a “race”, and it is important to understand what those differences might be. If Lemons and Chump Car were really races, then the primary purpose would be to have a race – but, that’s not the primary purpose and everybody knows it.”
I wrote that passage a couple of days ago in my post Chump Car!!!, about this weekends event at Portland International Raceway. It turns out that not everybody “knows it”.
Here’s an example from a 24 Hours of Lemons race:
Recently, I made a number of inquires to friends and acquaintances asking for photos of their Chump Cars and descriptions of their driver line-ups. I didn’t get many takers. The reason, it seems, is that they don’t want anybody to know what they’re up to…
Why not – you may ask? I think they figure that if they hide until just before the race (that would be now), the officials won’t notice that they’ve grossly exceeded their budgets. The rules clearly state that cars will be assigned penalty laps if they run afoul of the $500 prep rule. Actually, maybe not so clearly, but they do say this:
“If you screw-up… you’ll either be docked laps or you’ll have to face “The Wrecking Crew.” We hope that you’re as good at fixin’ cars as they are at dismantling them.”
If we apply just a little bit of logic we can deduce that since this is specifically supposed to be affordable racing ($500 cars), that the powers that be will vigorously protect this idea (crap-can racing commandment) by imposing “penalties” on those that “screw-up”. After all (dare I say it), if we just want to do laps in $2000 cars we can do that at a Conference event.
Anyway, I did receive some photos of a mobile Italian restaurant, which is really cool and I wouldn’t think counts toward the $500. But, they have no pictures of the race car? – Suspicious indeed… I’m told it’s a Fiat X 1/9, well actually (counting the pasta cooker) it’s a Fiat X 1.5/9 which (if you take the time to do the math) is really a Fiat X 1/6.
In any case, I’m not so worried about this one because the vital bits of the motor in an old Italian car like that will be organized much like a bowl of seafood linguine by the time the second bottle of Chianti is gone… Ask me how I know sometime.
Then there are a couple of teams with reclaimed Spec Miatas that they think nobody knows the cost of parts for. Excuse me – hey look over here, there are some guys that have built a couple of these things.
For example: the hard top on your $500 car is worth $800 all day long on Craigslist – “but we only paid $200 for the car, from my co-driver…” These guys must think that the officials are Ferrari F1 fans.
And, if we put some fins on this one then maybe everybody will think its a fish and not a real race car..? Until they start falling off of the poor thing – but that’s okay because the corner workers (both of them) will be looking for something to do around midnight…
It’s no secret that this was (very recently) a real race car. Again, we know stuff and we’re not afraid to prove it. Lest you think that this is sour grapes or garden variety whining – reconsider. Mostly I’m just bored, but there’s nothing gardeny about it and I am not telling you what to think of any of this, anyway – that’s all up to you (and those who would judge you). I just shine the light of righteousness on those of sinister intentions – yes, I’m talking to you Schrader.
First, I think that Ferrari road cars are generally the most beautiful and well engineered pieces of machinery to grace the planet (period).
And, when I was young and until I learned to know better, I was a huge fan of Scuderia Ferrari (the racing team). Nike Lauda and Clay Regazzoni were the drivers then and would be two of my favorite racing drivers for the rest of their careers (specifically because they had been with Ferrari).
When I attended my first Grand Prix and saw my all time favorite racing driver, Gilles Villeneuve, take the lead of an F1 race for the first time, I was in the Ferrari grand stand at Long Beach.
Strangely, that would also be the location of the crash that would end Regazzoni’s career (two years later), and Villeneuve would also crash out of the lead of that 1978 race while lapping Regazzoni (I was always slightly irritated with Regazzoni about that…).
The real reasons that I am no longer a Ferrari “fan” are kind of beside the point here, however. Sitting in the grandstands near a sea of red and the ever present waving prancing horse flags (God help you if your seat is behind them), while the Ferrari cap wearing hordes clap politely (as if observing a putt for birdie at the British Open) does make me feel terribly embarrassed for them – okay, stupid. Hint – sit with the Dutch or Welsh F1 fans, they’re a bunch more fun… But, this is about a specific example:
Today I came across this and nearly lost it… – Ferrari Bike Technical Specs. They claim to sell out of these painfully overweight, $2,700 bicycles. They claim to sell over 2,000 of them!!! Who, but a lunatic Ferrari F1 fan would pay that for this kind of POS??? And then, what word would best describe the new owner..?
Here’s the deal – if you’re some kind of euro-poseur wanna-be and must have a cool Italian bike, go pick yourself up a DeRosa or Colnago (for example). Guido (who proudly pedals his ass around on a Colnago), doesn’t try to buy a Colnago car (even if Fiat did a spectacular job with the paint). So, stop being a bunch of dorks – do it for Gilles.
But, hey, you say, it’s got (from the advert) “Pure Leather PEDALS” – well that changes everything…
Proof, again, that Ferrari fans are stupid. Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.