It’s hard to explain racing to people who have never done it. There’s this mysterious energy, and when it’s on, a team feels unstoppable. Everything just falls in to place.
The downside to this voodoo magic is that when things go wrong, it can feel like the whole world is against you.
We’ve had a rough week this year. Little things keeps popping up and, in the case of yesterday’s run, causing some pretty big problems.
We’re getting very fast at changing motors. Stay tuned for a run this afternoon.
Everyone at the Good Guys shows works pretty hard to make sure the races run smoothly, the show is organized and the participants all have a good time. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t occasionally get silly. Brandy gives us the full report on why you should never buy a fleet car if Bangshift’s Chad Reynolds is on the rental history.
BATTLE OF THE CHEVY AVEO – by Brandy Morrow
Sunday came and the weekend was finally coming to an end at the Goodguys Show at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. The vendors participating in the autocross were pretty tired after two full days of racing, and that often leads to “creative” racing.
Chad Reynolds from Bangshift.com who is also the MC for most Goodguys Autocross Events had rented a Chevy Aveo for the weekend. This car was a bright yellow bare-bones rental car. Now I am not quite sure who had the brilliant idea to take it around the autocross, but next thing I know, that poor car is packed with 5 people and is sitting at the starting line of the autocross waiting for the green light. Sure enough the battle of the Chevy Aveo had begun.
It ended with 5 different drivers battling on who could drive the Chevy Aveo around the autocross course with the quickest time. Chad hopped in around midday on Sunday to prove to everyone that he was the best Chevy Aveo driver of them all. Surprisingly the Aveo held up; though it looked like it wanted to tip over half the time. The other Aveo drivers finally gave up and let Chad have his victory. Besides being badly outgunned by Chad’s amazing Aveo driving skills, I think most of the passengers (especially those in the back seat) were getting pretty car sick.
On one of the final runs, Jason Childress from Gateway Classic Mustangs decided to run the Aveo backwards. After successfully going all the way through to the finish line backwards, the Chevy Aveo was the most popular car in the pits for the rest of the day. This is serious racing, folks.
So we did finally make a full pass but it wasn’t under full power.
The car launched and was a wee bit squirrely (you can see it in the video below) but it looked like everything was going well to start.
Running behind in the chase car we heard the speeds climbing, 230, 279 and then, 258 through the 5-mile.
Photo by Ken Rappaport
258? What now?
When we finally caught up to Kenny, he was all the way past the 7-mile mark. It’s amazing how far these cars travel, even at the “slow” speed of 258mph.
Photo by Ken Rappaport
Kenny seems unconcerned, but then, we’ve never seen him ruffled. We’re not quite as optimistic about that little leak coming from the car on the trailer…
Bonneville is known for wild weather, and we got quite a storm last night. As this isn’t our first trip out here, we storm-proofed our pits, but some of the other competitors (and campers) showed up this morning to a wreckage of ez-ups and torn tarps, not to mention the “great salt lake” at the entry gate!
We think we may have worked out the shifting issues on the car and the team is buttoning it up now for a third run. Here’s hoping for a full pass!
Racers are drawn to the Bonneville salt flats the way sailors are called to the sea, but this place draws people interested in more than driving.
Photography on the salt has a quality all its own, and photographers have been making images out here since the first time a car ever ran.
We’ve been lucky to have some absolutely incredible photographers visiting us in the pits this year, and this morning, we received the following image in our email inbox:
From left to right:
Ken Rappaport, Greg Hoffman, lionel Pitts, Steve Schmalz, Amir Rosenbaum, Kenny Hoover, Scott Spencer, Courtney Hines, Taylor Kimbrough, Mladen Miladinovic, Wayne Jackson, Kurt Holteen
Racing can be frustrating business. The car seemed totally ready to run for a record while we were testing in the pits, and when we warmed it up again in the staging lanes, everything seemed in top working order.
The staging lanes were packed with cars and while we waited for our turn, Kenny posed for photos and Amir chatted with fellow team owners and drivers like George Poteet and the Blowfish team.
We were even able to help those guys out by dumping one of our ice chests in to their intercooler. It must have been our lucky ice, because they ran a stunning number and we met with another round of early shut off.
We ran the engine back in the pits, and we’re hoping it’s just an air leak issue with the shifter. We’ll try again in the morning.
Brandy has been a killer on the autocross track this summer, taking win after win in the Spectre “Carbon Camaro”.
Spectre may have a “take no prisoners” attitude on the track, but we’re still going to shows to make friends, and Joliet, IL was no exception. Despite a dire weather forecast, we met up with some old friends and made some new ones at the Chicagoland Nationals.
Our show weekend started out with the now traditional Good Guys vendor karting challenge Thursday night before the show. We’d like to congratulate Keith Mac Donald from Detroit Speed for winning the Vendor Karting race Thursday night. This time, Keith took first with Ed Capen from Goodguys taking a close second. Nice Job Keith!!!
Since Joliet is hometown to many vendors including Roadster Shop and Peak Performance, the autocross track was packed. Vendors including RideTech, DSE, Gateway Classic Mustangs, RPM, Roadster Shop, Heidt’s, and many more all showing and competing. Brandy certainly had her work cut out for her on the track!
Keeping the Carbon Camaro company on the autocross course this weekend was RPM’s “Runt,” which is a 1962 Chevy Nova custom build. RPM built the car for Gerry Kerna. Curt and his crew had done some testing with “The Runt” before coming to Chicagoland Speedway, but this would be the car’s first official full weekend on a Goodguys’ autocross track. Curt ran the car Friday and Saturday, working out all the kinks and seeing how it would handle around the tight corners of the autocross. Gerry ran the car Sunday for her first official Goodguys autocross. Gerry was an autocross newbie, but she had a great line on the course and did very well. Gerry will be some great competition in the very near future.
On Sunday, Goodguys opened the car show to all American cars. We had several Camaros, a couple of Mustangs and an 1993 Nissan 240sz with an LS swap and slicks. It was good to see all years allowed into the show.
In the Spectre booth we had one of our customers, Rich Bryant, with his ’65 Chevelle featuring a Spectre Make/ Model Specific Bolt on cold air intake. The car a great addition to our booth and it received a lot of attention. Big thanks to Rich for displaying in the Spectre Booth.
At the end of the weekend came awards. Throughout the weekend Curt Ukasik, owner of RPM Hot Rods, had his daughter out at the show. Ashley rode as passenger while Curt drove the Runt around the autocross track. She also made a great motivational coach, cheering her dad and Gerry on along with all the other autocross competitors. At the end of the weekend, Brandy asked Ashley if she would help present awards. Ashley did a fantastic job, helping carry awards to the participants and even presenting Brandy with the 1st place Vendor at the Autocross. Ashley is a fantastic kid who we all hope to see behind the wheel alongside the rest of us someday. She has 8 more years before she gets her driver’s license and then she has to convince her father to build her a car. The second one shouldn’t be too hard, right?
The Spectre team was wrenching before the sun came up and we are back in action and ready for a run.
Changing a motor takes us about half as long this year as it did last year, but what with wiring, checking the data and putting the car back together, it’s still a serious six-hour job.
We wish this video had surround sound and smell-o-vision, because this methanol powered 484 A-fuel motor is a wonder to behold.
When we left the salt last night, we knew we would be coming back to a big job in the morning.
As this post goes live, the crew already has the damaged B engine unbolted and strapped up and the hoist is in position. Here’s hoping our next update is the successful test-fire of the A/BFS methanol motor.
When we arrived at the salt flats with Speedliner last week after towing it over 800 miles, we were feeling like hard-core Bonneville fans. Then we met Jeff Madden.
Jeff and his son drove all the way from Charlston, South Carolina in a Cummins Diesel powered ‘31 Model A. Ok, Jeff, we tip our hats to you!
Jeff explains in the video that he chose the spectre filter for his hot rod because he knew it was a good match for the turbo charged engine, and you can hear Amir discussing the similar filters used on the Speedliner’s turbo charged engine.
Jeff gets 41 mpg. The Speedliner? It gets about a mile per gallon. Maybe we should switch to a Cummins…
Our first run of the day started off beautifully. The day was clear, the salt was fast and the launch was perfect.
As Kenny went to shift the Speedliner into 2nd gear, there was a puff of smoke and the liner shut itself off.
Kenny pulled off just before the two mile marker and we hauled the stricken streamliner back to the pits.
Back in the pits we discovered that what we initially thought was a transmission issue was actually a different set of gears; our rear end housing cracked, and the gears inside are now toothless. No good!
Luckily a spare rear end was in our luggage, and the team swapped it in. Unluckily, the engine did not appreciate the extra revs that it experienced when the rear end gave out, so it looks like the B/BGS record is out, at least for this week.
One of the interesting things about traveling the country going to car shows is that we get to meet a lot of other vendors and get involved with their projects.
When Gateway Classic Mustangs called us to tell us about their 5.0 powered 1969 Mustang project, we were happy to provide cold air intake components to help that pony breathe. At the Joliet show we were able to see the finished product, and it’s a beauty!
Keep an eye out for the full build story on Speed Channel’s Hot Rod TV on September 24th 2011.
What is it about sunrise on race day? It just seems a little better than any other early morning.
The Speedliner is being loaded on the trailer as we speak, and the team is heading down to the fuel trailer to get gasoline and an inspection sticker.
We mentioned in an earlier post that we’re trying for records in several different classes. Our first attempt will be BGS – B.
Blown Gas Streamliner means that we are restricted in our fuel choice to race gas provided by, and checked off by the SCTA inspection team. This is to prevent teams from sneaking any power adders in to the tank and cheating the record.
After the car is fueled and marked by the inspectors, we’ll be ready for our first run.
The schedule says we run at 10:30, but there will be a driver’s meeting and course check before any competition runs, so we don’t expect Kenny to make his first pass until mid-day.
