A Racing Dog

In April 2009  the Olds made it out to the Bullring. The LVMS Bullring is the storied 3/8 mile short track in the shadow of the the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  On paying my “NASCAR  tax”, entry and seasonal fee we were set.  Next stop, to grab a space in the pit area.

Then the obiligatory pass through the tech line.  I was starting to have starting issues but nothing serious.  Yet.

After a couple of months of preparation I make it to the pre grid.  I’m now having some electrical issues that are hampering starting the engine.  I finally get it fired up and hit the track.  I do a couple of shake down laps but something is wrong.  Very wrong.  I can keep my foot in it all the way around and I’m about 5 secs off the pace.  It feels like the engine is tightening up.  It finally just quits on the track after a few laps and a tow truck pushes me back to the pits.  We work on it some but eventually wear the battery down.

I hit the local Autozone for a battery the next afternoon before returning to the track.  Further efforts on track proved futile.  A hard knock had developed and what turned out to be a blown head gasket ended the debut.

Now that I had the car, and the shop in good enough shape to start, toward mid March 2009 I started.  First though, I needed some parts.

A quick order with “Speedy Bill”, or Speedway Motors had a new Kirkey seat, window net and release;  Wink mirror; Impact Racing Products 5 point restraint;  steering wheel, quick release and center pad with some roll cage padding.  That and some work would give me enough to at least start turning some laps.  The cage was pretty minimal and the previous guy had a death trap seat mount setup where the seat was bolted to the floor pan via unistrut.  It looked like it bent the shit out of it when B pillar took a pretty nasty hit.  I’ve got a great metals distributor in Curtis Steel and a stick of 1 1/2″ sq tubing later I had enough to start a proper seat mount.  The seat needs to mount to the cage so when Ricky Bobby rails the shit out of your rear quarter panel and starts “the big one”, you aren’t flopping around like a pinball inside the car.

With a few wire wheels, grinder discs, and flap wheels I had most of what the desert had done the car in the last couple years out of the cockpit and an air chisel helped removing the deadening putty  or “dum dum” .  It was pretty labor intensive and crawling in and out of the cage made for a bit of a workout for those couple of days.

Now that most of the crap was out it was ready for some basic paint, both inside and out.  I bagged up the garage and using my trusty $15 Harbor Freight HVLP gun I went to town.  For material I really like the Sherwin Williams automotive line of paint, but for a hobby stock car where I’m likely to leave as much paint on the wall or the other cars the cost for a premium coating just didn’t make sense.  Nor did taking it to a low end paint and body place.  For under a hundred bucks I got my base color, ermine white from TCP Global.   It’s a single stage acrylic enamel that is easy to work with and very affordable.  Initially I was going to do the interior, trunk and engine compartment in the white and the exterior in reflex blue.  I just ran out of time during that phase and plan on using it once I get the body straightened out a bit.  And ramming the wall on the exit of four at the last race didn’t help much.  I didn’t think much of it at the time but it was a decent lick.  Particularly for a new guy.

That’s more like it.  It took a bit to get the hang of using the gun.  I hadn’t painted with a gun in years and never using HVLP.  It’s a bit messy but I was at least able to get the death wagon look off of it.  I removed the stock steering wheel,  welded the quick release nub to the column.  I was able to bolt everything into the interior though the rest of the car needed some work.  I finished with about three days prior to my first planned outing.

It starts, it stops, I can take it around the block.  It’s hard to start but it’s cleaned up and ready for testing and even a first race.  I was planning on starting at round 3 of the 2009 season and running the rest of the year.  Next stop, the track.

In order to race, first and foremost you need a car.  Rewind to about a year ago after having a disastrous SuperNats and starting to search for something more appropriate.  With as accessible as circle track racing is  and as inexpensive as it is relatively speaking, it seemed like a no brainer.  Which was good because after 30 years in the roadie biz I don’t know if I still have a brain.  Now that what kind of car has been decided,  I needed to decide on the class.  I’d never raced a car that heavy or on a circle track so I started looking at entry level, low cost alternatives.

First was INEX Legends, a 5/8 car from the 40s that’s basically a big ass circle track kart with a body and restraints.  It does have a live suspension and rear axle though is powered by a 1100 cc 4 cycle engine found or cafe style bikes.  It’s also not cheap. They start at about 12 grand new, though you can find them for under 10 grand pretty much any day of the week.  It’s a spec class and the costs of many of the parts are through the roof. Reminded me of when I ran the Rotax Max Challenge series.  I did test drive one a bit after I moved down and it was pretty restrictive.  I’m just too big and after years of 10k plus race vehicles I was looking for something a lot lower cost and something where I could take a few seasons and really get the hang of it.  Not only the driving but also the tuning and fabrication.

The nearest local track is the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  It’s a big ass complex with a world class speedway, drag strip, mediocre road course circuit (not a roval, though they do have a roval as well), aged, well worn karting track from the 10-15 hp days (though for TaG and shifters are straight out, though they run there) a 1/4 mile dirt track and the famed 3/8 mile “Bullring” asphalt track.  The INEX cars and the NASCAR Whelan All American series runs on the Bullring.

Over the years there have been a variety of classes though with the economy in the shitter it’s been pared down to three NWAAS classes plus usually a touring support class of modified or ASA trucks.  The NASCAR classes are Super Late Models, the feature or as we call it in show biz, the headliners; Chargers, or as others call them super stock and finally, at the bottom of the dung heap, Bullring Bombers, some places call them hobby stock, thunder car or factory stock.  Then the INEX contingent a couple of classes of Bandos (for the young’uns) 3 Legends classes (though not that many cars for 3 classes) and the old guys fav, Thunder Roadsters.

A Bullring Bomber is an american made, rear wheel drive  sedan, coupe or wagon with a minimum wheelbase of 114″.  In other words, a tank.  That limits the cars to mostly pre 1980 A and B bodies that unfortunately these days are well sought by muscle car guys and low riders.  You put minimal safety gear in a three point cage, marine fuel cell, five point harness and a small fire bottle.  Street tires, and pump gas.  That’s the minimum though most cars have 4-6 pt cages, racing seats, racing wheels and reinforced studs.  Gotta leave the engine, drive train and suspension bone stock though there are a few areas where you are allowed a little leeway.  The purpose of the class is low cost racing and learning to drive though most of the racers in the class are quite experienced racing various divisions for several years.  You can get into the class for about a grand or two but realistically it take about 3 grand to get a competitive car.  Still pretty cheap by today’s standards.

Guess I needed a car, then.  I joined the local forum, started meeting racers and soon found a well used Delta 88 that had already been converted and looked like it was on it’s last legs.  It did run, had and cage and had I desired, I could have easily bolted a seat the unistrut, did a few tweaks and made the track.  I chose to go a bit more into it than that.  Jim and Harod Sherard, the From Hell Racing brothers hooked me up with a car Harold had bought to replace his Caddy then ended up getting a great deal on a Monte Carlo.  The Montes are perhaps the most sought after car for the class though a Chevelle is also a good choice.  Here’s what I got.

It was raced at the Bullring and also at the dirt track in Pahrump.  It then sat in the desert for a couple of years until Harold picked it up and sold it to me.  It looks hammered but it was pretty sound and saved me from doing a lot right away.

Guess it’s time to get cracking…

These shots were taken earlier today when FedEx Ground dropped of the cage parts.  The story leading up to this point however, is about a year old.  In future posts I’ll complete what it took to get a retired hobby stock car that was in pretty rough shape into something that could at least circle the track.

Interior starting to be gutted.  The door on passenger side has a pretty big wack and will need to be cut out, straightened and gutted.  These skins aren’t available stock so I’m planning to patch and fix them myself.   Should be good for practice anyway.