Wednesday, May 16, 2007

NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge

Beertech Sponsor Tom and I attended the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge tonight. Thanks to a top secret connection with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, we had front row seats. While Beertech is more into the kind of racing with both left and right turns, there's no denying the entertainment value of the stock car boys. The PCC was pretty cool, and it did a great job of combining individual skills (jack man, tire changer, gas man, etc) with team efforts to really show which pit crews had the guts to pull through. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, and Steve Smith of the Panthers all made token appearances. I was really impressed by the skill of the tire change guys, as well as the brute strength of the teams as pushed the cars 40 yards (the final challenge); I've always sort of dug NASCAR as a spectacle, but this reinforces the more competitive aspects.....that is, unless its rigged....


Corporate Rob

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

BeerTech Spring Cook-Out


So by now you've got a pretty good idea that BeerTech is about some guys who are car nuts. And being nuts doesn't make us great drivers. But it's something we are passionate about.

But there's more to BeerTech than cars. There's also Go Karts... and food... and Beer.

Hooray BEER!

A few weeks ago we had our 1st Annual Spring BeerTech Cook-Out.

We wanted to do something to celebrate my 40th and the fact that Rob and Brook had just run off and gotten married.

Hooray Rob!

It was a full day of fun. We started the day with the Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez double feature... GRIND HOUSE. Sure it won't win any academy awards but it was an all out perfect guys flick. Fast cars, girls with guns, pocket bikes and lots of explosions. Quentin's move could have been 15 minutes shorter... But I digress.

If you want a review of the movie? Google "Grind House, review"... but I wouldn't trust anything you read on the internet.



Promptly following the movie, we headed to Greensboro's finest new attraction... the indoor Go Cart track (Greensboro Grand Prix). We didn't set any track records... but we had fun and gave the guys in the supposedly faster super carts a run for their money.

By know your asking... where's the cook-out? Well that's what we did after the go carting.

We headed to my house, where we met up with our better halves.

While we were doing our thing... the girls had been off getting manicures and stuff.



While the food cooked on the grill, the guys spent the evening out the garage talking cars and stuff. We all had just the right amount of food and adult beverage. At some point however, we decided to pay a quick visit to our favorite bar, Fishbones.

Rob and Brook left the group at this point to go and enjoy there BeerTech Honeymoon at the O'Henry. While the rest of us head back to my place to catch the late night viewing of the F1 race live from somewhere halfway around the world. I think some red car won?

So there's more to BeerTech than Cars, Go Karts, Food, and Beer... there's good times and good friends.

-Scott

Car 467 Returns to Action


Just a quick Update:

It was down to the wire to make it to the race this weekend at CMP. But through the amazing work done by Steve Bassan (the man is a magician), the good folks at Greensboro Maaco, the generosity of Steven Canterbury and JP... car 467 is back and better than before.

It was great to be back on track however I'm going to leave the race report to JP (see Below). I was a bit timid to say the least. The only thing I wanted to do was have a clean weekend. Get my 2 sigs and bring my car back in one piece. Not a very lofty goal but with all the damaged e30 metal incurred by BeerTech this year, I figured I'd do my part to help keep the price of parts from going through the roof.

Not sure why... but I ran a faster lap on Saturday than I did on Sunday. Oh well...

All in all I liked the track at CMP. It's both fast and technical. I think I'll fair much better the next time I go.

Scott... Out

Monday, May 7, 2007

Carolina Motorsports Park Recap

This weekend was MUCH different from the others. . . . none of the BeerTech cars found a wall!!! We were racing in lovely Kershaw SC. The track is really strange. The first 11 turns are great flowing turns, awesome. The last three are the worst set of turns I've ever done. No flow at all, it totally ruins the track. Oh well, at least there's only three of them.

Saturday started with cloudy skies that gave way to rain right before practice. It only rained lightly all days so dry tires would work. That's great seeing as we are too poor for rain tires, ha! Practice was our first time on the track, so it was throw away just to learn the track. I qualified 12th out of 18, and I believe Scott qualified 17th out of 18. I love the rain. We did a standing start which is REALLY fun. I spun all the way through 1st and 2nd gear and had to defend against a fast moving Steven Canterbury on the outside of Turn 1. The pack stayed close and I tucked in and tried to stay with them. I had a nice long spin coming out of turn 14 doing a nice 360 into the grass. I lost a handful of spots but got going again in front of Steven. I spent the entire rest of the race reeling in Herrington and Al Taylor who were in an epic battle. I made up about 10 car lengths to challenge them on the last two laps before we all got screwed by a turdbo 944 that ruined our race. He wasn't even racing for position. I finished 12th I think. Scott had a clean spin free race and brought the car home in one piece, really nice given the condition and considering he spun 3 or 4 times through practice/quali.

Saturday Start


Sunday the skies cleared and the track dried out. I pulled off before we went out for practice because I left my jack in the trunk. Whoops. When I went back out, the car started to overheat on the first lap. I pulled it in and found a cut coolant hose. The motor/chassis flexing was letting the fan hit the hose. Fortunately for me, the Rev. Al Taylor came prepared with spares and donated a hose to BeerTech in return for our further support of his inebriation. With the car fixed, quali began. I ran a 2 min flat, 3 seconds off pole, not bad for my 4th session on the track. It put me right back in 12th again. Scott qualified 17th with no spins. The start of the race was a blast and I got a great launch, but not enough to get by anyone. After that it was pretty boring as I was about .5 seconds off of Travis and Al's pace, so I was losing about a car length a lap. I spent the rest of the race lapping by myself. . . . BORING. Scott and I finished where we started and had no wrecks or spins.

Not the best racing I've had, but the track was fun and the Spec E30 guys always make the weekend a blast. Johnny Allen, Team Salazar, Gasman, and the Al and Travis show had us laughing (and Al burping and farting) all weekend. I hope Earl takes a little longer to get an "I" car because he's going to be quick when he does. It was great the see the Canterbury race family again - James is a hangman pro and a hot dog terrorist. The BeerWreck curse continued when Vic had contact early and went off late in the race promptly after getting a sticker, DAMN YOU SALAZARRRR!!! Johnny didn't put his off though when he got a sticker. . . . he must be more talented than Vic. . .

Thanks for tuning in.

JP
















Friday, May 4, 2007

CMP this weekend


Scott and I(JP) will be tackling CMP, Carolina Motorsports Park, this weekend. It will be my 3rd weekend and Scott's first time racing since his wreck. I wouldn't expect to see any podium finishes as neither of us has ever driven this track. Wish us well.


Brian - get you ass in gear. Do work Son!

-JP

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Rob in a cave

I spent this weekend installing a Beertech sticker on the Acura washer/dryer combo. Got it straight with no bubbles, sweet.