THSCC Forums

a quick summary on max...started strong, ran as high as third during the first stint. first pit stop it came in with a loose wheel, the lug nuts had loosened and it was flopping around (and they were definitely torqued prior to the start). hogged out the lug nut seats so the wheel is trash. then it started to rain and they stayed out longer than they should have on the rivals, eventually they came in and switched to the z2 but that cost some time. then the transponder died, direct wire not battery. totally dead, feed it 12v and get no light, never seen that happen before. fortunately i had a spare so i replaced it and got the car back out, T&S credited some of the laps back but i'm sure not all of them. at some point it was discovered the fuel tank vent tube pulled loose and was leaking fuel which explained why the early stints were shorter than expected, fortunately an easy fix. ran great all thru the night, then i checked the front brakes during the final pit stop sun morning and decided they were too thin to safely finish the race so we jacked it up and pulled the wheels only to find one of the lugs got stuck halfway off, could neither be tightened nor removed. that effectively ended the race, when i got home i sheared the stud off trying to remove the lug nut. car was in 16th or 17th when this happened and despite missing the final stint still finished 28th. the lug nuts were brand new from tire rack and upon closer inspection the threads on them look like crap, would be an understatement to say that i am not happy. however, the drivers and crew (including zach and aaron) did an amazing job and acted like a team that had been together for years, i couldn't be prouder of their results.

just four more chump races to go this year, that'll put me in double digits which i'm hoping is a record

Noob question alert: How does one get involved with Lemons/Chump without starting a new team? My main interest would be building/fixing/working on the car with a secondary goal of eventually driving it.

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

Volunteer as crew on a team. (and/or buy a seat) There are several THSCC member teams.

Yup, especially at the 24 hour races, teams need folks to keep things running smoothly, man the radio, suit up and hold a fire bottle.

The pay sucks, the beer is usually cold and its quite the motorsports experience.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

yeah, come on down to CMP next month James and we'll put you to work on our team for the upcoming Lemons race. The fall event has a Lemons parade in downtown Camden of Friday night which is fun too.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

since max is a single owner car, i can always use a helping hand. had to yank the RF upright yesterday and take it to happy japs for new bearing and studs so that has to be reinstalled, it needs new shocks (maybe front, maybe all), fabricate a switch/gauge panel and redo all of the interior electrics, see if i can still mount a passenger seat, move the battery even farther back, install a fire system, relocate the cool shirt cooler, new front pads/rotors, change all fluids, do a valve adjustment, ...

Be careful if you get Short to work on your car, you'll probably get penalty laps for everything being just too perfect.

nah, you should see how mike whitney has mellowed after a few years of crapcan racing

I had a ball. The Duff car is a Class B LeMons car, and not really competitive at a Chump event, but I think that we were only about 6 laps down almost halfway through the race when the hood flew up and took us out for a couple of hours.

On the subject of team building, we've been through a few team members and it's really just a matter of finding people that you get along with. I think that I was the crankiest member at the Chump race. Kraig Klippel drove his first race with our team and he's welcome back any time. He drove fast, took care of the car, and we all liked having him around.

Anyone who wants to tag along with the Duff team is welcome. We may not let you drive (or we may), but you can get in on the rest of the real racing experience at absolutely no charge; burning and cutting yourself while frantically wrenching on a hot race car trying to get it to work again, staying up all night doing more wrenching on said race car, filling fuel jugs, checking oil/tires/brakes, drinking beer, sweating your ass off, working on the race car, getting sunburned, working on the race car, getting eaten by a bear, etc.

We charge drivers an equal share of the event fees and a fee for materials costs. It's 300-400 for a race and 200-300 for an HPDE (not sure of the exact amounts, my brother handles the finances). We've gotten the car pretty reliable at this point, so everyone usually gets a lot of good seat time. We only let people that we know drive at races; we met our newest driver Kraig at an autocross in February and he did a few HPDE's with us so we could make sure that he wasn't an asshat before he did a race with us. As it turned out, he's a better driver than all of us and good to have around.

Jason, if you ever want to do wheel bearings again, then I have press at the shop and can do them quickly if you bring the knuckle. I replace them on the Duff car every year after we had one disintegrate at Charlotte. They are pretty simple to do on an Integra knuckle.

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"Every ship is a minesweeper, once."

i just take them to rex at happy japs, it's close and cheap but i appreciate the offer. dustin does simon's front bearings using his press.