Race Car Stuff

Autocrossing is more publicly well known now than it has ever been, but as far as motorsports go, it is a realtive secret to the general public. For that reason whenever I hear about a famous person that autocrosses, I like to point it out. This is from Tankslapper Autosport, but apparently a USA Olympic Silver Medalists from the winter games is an autocrosser. This is a cut an paste from the article:

It isn’t likely that the International Olympic Committee will be adding autocrossing to any of the upcoming Olympic games, but that doesn’t mean that a Honda autocrosser isn’t fighting for a gold medal for the US. That’s right, US Olympic Ice Dancer Tanith Belbin actually lives a triple life as skater, model, and autocrosser!

Update: Belbin and Agosto take the Silver at Torino! Congrats to Tanith and Ben — go USA!

In a recent interview, this is what Belbin had to say about her autocrossing:

Tanith, you’re into a kind of car racing — auto-crossing — when you’re not skating. What is it?
TB: Auto-crossing is just kind of a different kind of racing. The courses are set up with pylons, usually. It’s not on a road course. It’s just on an open lot. They set it up with pylons, and it’s not so much about straightforward speed, but about being able to handle your car on the course. So they must make slaloms and U-turns and roundabouts, and then you just need to get through that course with as much speed and precision as possible. And so that was something that my boyfriend is still and was always into, and he’s definitely a car enthusiast, so kind of getting involved in that was almost natural. It’s something that I definitely needed to try, to see if I — being a competitor — could handle it. And I did that for one summer, last year, and it was a lot of fun. I loved it, but at the same time, when I started doing it more often, I realized I was placing the same pressures on myself as I would at any skating competition, and it was maybe a little too much for me. All of that pressure. So I?m not really sure if I’m going to be able to pick it back up again until maybe our skating career dies down a little bit, because I can’t be a competitor all the time (laughs).

Were you getting nervous before races?
TB: Yeah, I was nervous. And I’m a perfectionist, so I was putting so much pressure on myself to win these events as often as I could, and I just realized it’s way too much to ask of myself to be able to win in everything I enter. So I’d rather just leave it alone for now and only focus on competing in one sport at a time.

Is it your boyfriend’s car that you race?
TB: No, I raced my own car. But Fedor had already modified my car to make it more of a performance vehicle, so that was just something I allowed him to do to my car just so that he could have two cars to be able to race if he wanted to, and then when I picked it up I could just use my own car.

All of you know I have been following this project build closely. They too he car out for a little test drive the other day. There are still many details left to complete, but the car is awesome:

http://sn65.com/

They have said they are going to have this wonderful 2003/1965 Mustang complete and updates on the web site by March 6th, 2006, so be sure to check back then. I am sure I will have links to the finished product here. The car went from:

to this:

Are you a real Racer?
You might be a Racer if…….?

Count the number of “Yes” answers to the following questions and see how you stack up!:

1) You sometimes hear little noises from your passengers when you get on the throttle right after turning a corner.

2) You thoroughly enjoy showing the tailgater behind you how to drive a Racecar around an exit ramp.

3) Your e-mail address refers to your Racecar rather than to you.

4) You buy new parts because you forgot where you put the spares.

5) You bought a Racecar before buying a house.

6) You’re looking for a tow vehicle and still haven’t bought new furniture

7) You know you need a new house because you’ve outgrown your garage and the neighbors are threatening violence if you park one more vehicle on the street or in the front yard.

8)The requirements you gave your Real Estate agent are:
—1. Four car garage with workshop.
—2. Outside parking for six cars.
—3. Three phase outlets in the workshop for your welder.
—4. Next to a service station.
—5. Deaf neighbors.
—6. Across the street from a paint and body shop.
—7. Some sort of house with a working toilet and shower on the property.

9) You measure all family acquisitions in terms of the number of Racecar parts/tools that could have been purchased instead.

10) You know well that dental work is the equivalent of three sets of tires, or a new transmission, or a new carburator for your Racecar.

11) You sit in your Racecar in a dark garage and make car noises and shift while waiting for your motor to get back from the machine shop.

12) You look at the purchase of tools as a long-term investment.

13) Your wife says, ” If you’re buying another Racecar, I’m buying a ————.”

14) Your garage holds more Racecars than your house has bedrooms.

15) You have enough spare parts to build another Racecar.

16) You have car parts on your desk at work.

17) More than one Racecar supplier recognizes your voice and greets you by name when you call.

18) You can’t remember when you last worked on weekdays and rested on weekends.

19) You plan your wedding around the racing schedule.

20) Your Christmas/birthday wish list begins and ends with Racecar parts/tools or a car.

21) After your answer to: “What did you do this weekend ?” the next question is always “You do this for fun, right?”

22) You have a separate drawer for your garage clothes.

23) Your reading material in the bathroom consists of Racecar part supply catalogs and back issues of Racecar Magazines.

24) Your criteria for selecting a partner include auto repair skills - air tools optional.

25) You’ve paid $6 per gallon of gasoline without complaining.

26) You remember the intimate details of every Racecar you’ve owned, but can’t remember your phone number.

27) Your family brings the couch into the garage so they can spend some time with you.

28) You hate long-distance driving, but will gladly drive 1000 miles to a race track.

29) You save broken car parts as mementoes.

30) After you tell your wife where you’d like to go on your vacation, she answers : “Why….is there a race there ?” (of course the answer is yes…..)

31) You name your child ( or pet ) after something Racecar related.

32) You can remember significant dates in the history of Racing, but not wedding anniversaries or the birthdays of your children or family members.

33) Dress clothes consist of blue jeans and a clean T shirt with any sort of Racecar logo / photo emblazoned across the front of it.

34) Family portraits include one of the cars.

35) While driving down the highway at 70mph, you can spot a portion of an old Racecar peeking from a garage, tucked behind a building, etc.

36) You can recognize a particular car part at a swap meet and know exactly what it is and came off, but to see a person you know but haven’t seen for a couple of years, you can’t recall their name.

37) Regarding someone you’ve met just a matter of a couple of weeks before at a race, you won’t remember their name, but as soon as they tell you what Racecar they drove, you instantly remember the car and everything about it, but still draw a blank on the owners name.

38) When someone reintroduces themselves to you, you say ” Oh, the owner of the ——– ”

39) You know how to rebuild an entire car, but don’t know how to cook, do laundry, etc.

40) You remember exactly where a part is stashed in the garage, but after living in the same house for years, still don’t know where certain things are in the kitchen.

Ten years after Tony George split the IRL off from CART, with years of declining attendance, ratings and overall popularity, all indicators suggest there is essential agreement to merge the IRL and Champ Car World Series for the 2007 season.

Indeed, George and Champ Car co-owner (and front man) Kevin Kalkhoven may be ready to sign a letter of intent.

Kalkhoven downplays any pending deal, but concedes that he and George have met several times in the last month.

For more
visit Autoweek.com.

NASCAR came down with their rulings on the cheating incident during Daytona qualifying runs. Knaus will sit out the next three races and pay a $25,000 fine. In addition he will be on probation for the rest of the season.

For more:

Chad Knaus Suspended

Many people have been saying that Jimmy Johnson’s win should have an asterick next to it because of “probable cheating”. The team’s crewchief, Chad Knaus was removed from the race track after qualifying for an illegal modification that raised the rear window resulting in better aerodynamics. For the record, it was the eighth time the Knaus was caught cheating. It was not a gray area of the rulebook where something might have been misinterpreted, it was blatant cheating and trying to hide it. In fairness, I think that Johnsons car was completely inspected in post race impound and was probably legal.

To me, again the biggest story was the success of Kirk Shelmerdine. He went to Daytona on less than a shoestring. Richard Childress gave him an engine in exchange for putting Childress Vineyards on the side of the race car. The morning of the race, Shelmerdine could not pay for tires to run in the race. A group of Dle Earnhardt Sr. fans picked up the tire bill. In the end Kirk finished 20th on the lead lap, a very impressive run.

Kurt Busch made a great showing, save being taken out in a crash late in the race. It looks like he could be in a place to have a great year as does his Penske Ryan Newman.

I was very surprised that there were not any caution or red flags for the weather. There were camera lenses that were set for the entire race, but it never seemed to materialize into a wet track.

Racecarstuff.com is ready to get away from full time fan mode and get back into participant mode. Watch for a switch in the subject of most of the content in the near future from fan based to more involved. We hope we haven’t lost anyone.

Jimmy Johnson proved the old phrase “Cheaters never win” to be wrong. There were a few incidents through the day caused by driver emotions. There were of course some penalties handed out with NASCAR’s typical inconsistency. The worst penalty was given to Matt Kenseth, which I just didn’t understand.

In spite of all of that, it was a day of some great racing with the usual lead changes and drafting. The important thing was that “The Big One” didn’t happen. The large acccident that takes out a large part of the field didn’t materialize.

But to me the most important thing about the race is that Kirk Shelmerdine finished 20th (according to the unofficial results). At the beginning of the race he did not have enough money to pay his tire bill for he race. A group of Dale Earnhardt Sr. fans (Kirk was Dale’s crew chief for 4 of his 7 championships) got to gether and came up with the funding to get the tire bill paid. This was Kirk’s first race finish since 1994, and it might just be enough of a boost to get him through the season. I do hope so…. It just drives me crazy that the shows on Speed Channel don’t even mention him.

Anyway, it was a good day, they got through the race with nobody hurt (always a concern on days of restrictor plate races).

I am surprised the Fords are in the hunt at the front. The Dodges from Penske are the only ones that have been near the front at all. They only seem to be able to get near the front, not all the way there. The Chevy’s from Hendrick and DEI are still the fastest cars.

Tony Stewart seems to be driving very emotionally so far being partially the cause of an incident that put him and Jeff Gordon into the wall at the exit of turn two (both were able to continue). Later Tony Stewart seemed to wreck Matt Kenseth in a move that looked very intentional.

My wife enjoyed the pre-game show by Bon Jovi.