BeerTech Racing

2009-07-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Time for the NASA All Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway...or something like that.

Our normal events are Saturday and Sunday, racing both days. This race at Lowe’s was a little different. Since this was July 4^th weekend, we ran a one day event, Friday July 3^rd only. This meant we would cram a weekends worth of track time into on day. Sounds like fun right? I enjoyed it, except for one small mechanical problem.

Much like Rockingham, we run the Roval. 3/4 of the oval and the infield road course. See track map here:

This was my first time at Lowe's and I was really looking forward to it. You could tell from the time sheets in practice that it was also the first time for many others as well. I was surprised to see the times drop so dramatically and consistently all the way thru the grid. Not that the track is overly technical or anything but there are a few tricky spots. I am always amazed at the skill level in Spec E30, we really don’t have any "bad" drivers amongst us. Fortunately we were also very clean this "weekend" too, which is nice.

I was feeling lost on track in practice but qualifying was much better. I qualified 7th for the first race with tires that I knew were on their last leg. I had almost zero tread pattern showing on my 888's before the first race. As I headed toward pre-grid I heard an awful, unmistakable sound of a completely toasted wheel bearing on my left front. It sounded like ball bearings in a blender...hmmm, probably shouldn’t rip around the banking at 130MPH like this. I turned the car around and watched the first race from turn one with Al Taylor who had toasted his motor on the first hot lap in practice.

Robert Patton had a wheel bearing (Robert, by the way, please send me your address and Ill pay you back immediately, thank you very much) that he graciously gave me and told me to "get to work" fixing it. As always, Jim Levie was nearby and with his help, I had the wheel bearing changed in no time flat, ready for the afternoon race. Big thanks to Jim for the help and Fred for a couple of tools.

As I have said before, its the people in NASA SE and Spec E30 in particular that make this hobby of ours so much more than just driving on track for a few hours a day. I feel lucky to have met such a great group of people, even if the ones ahead of me are all dirty, dirty cheaters.

The grid for both races was a combined group start, not done by separate classes. The grid was set for the second race by times from the first. This meant I was starting dead last, in 33rd spot since I did not turn a wheel on track in race #1. As you can see from the video below, I got a great start and had lots of close racing in the first 1/2 of the race. I made my way up to 7th in Spec E30 where I would eventually finish. I ended the video before lots of open laps where I eventually caught the blue and white Miata on the last lap to finish 18th overall. Not bad for having two corded tires on the right side and one on the left. They weren’t too bad but certainly explained the lack of grip in the infield. You can see in the video that people were certainly eating my lunch there but man, was it fun!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>RACE VIDEO<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I really liked the format of squeezing almost a whole weekend's worth of track time into one day but you really do miss out on a lot of the off track fun that is the SE. It was great seeing everyone once again. I hope you enjoy the video. Have fun at RA in August; I will miss that race due to work.

Looks like my next event will be The 24 Hours of LeMons South Fall event on September 12^th and 13^th. BeerTech Racing was accepted again! This time the car will run more than an hour or so. Stay tuned for updates!

-BeerTech racing #380, Brian Jones

2009-06-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Being slow was never so much fun.

This weekend found your favorite race series visiting Barber Motorsports Park in lovely Birmingham Alabama. Mr. Barber spent $55 million dollars building one of North America’s most beautiful facilities complete with a motorsport museum containing over 1200 motorcycles and many, many race cars alike. He is very proud of this facility as well, $15 per person to tour the museum and more paddock “police” than you can shake a broken half shaft at. Fortunately it was much more laid back than I was led to believe.

The Track:

Barber is a 2.38 mile purpose built road course with 17 turns. It is a very technical track with lots of elevation changes. The video below does the elevation changes no justice.
I took vacation Friday May 29th to make the 5 ½ hour tow to Barber a little more relaxed. I headed down Thursday night with Warren Turnipseed. Turnip happens to have some family that lives Alabama that was nice enough to let us crash with them. They also live 15v minutes from the track, which is nice. Partying with the Turnipseeds is where it’s at. I had one of the best times I’ve ever had on and off track. We managed to convince Scott McMennamy and Johan Schwartz to hang out as well. Fun was had by all and many beers were had.

Friday:

We rolled into Barber Friday at around 4 PM, waited in line for about an hour it seemed and then went in to set up camp. We were parked on the skid pad and it was sealed black top. Hot. Luckily we had two EZ up tents to save us from the heat all weekend. After talking some smack and getting set up we headed back to the Turnipseed Compound for dinner and some downtown Birmingham night life.

Saturday:

6AM came early after going to bed at 3:30. Driver’s meeting at 7:00AM. Ouch. This was my first time to Barber and as practice came, I was getting around okay. I watched a little bit of video before coming to the event. Qualifying came and I managed to qualify 12th out of 18 Spec E30’s. We had a great turnout for this event. I was using some old RA1’s for Practice and Qualifying and felt that I didn’t have enough grip so I switched to R888’s for the race to see how they would do. They felt awful. These tires are just about spent as well but I had a great battle with Jonathan Stroup and Steven Lako. The three of us battled for most of the race with some good close racing from the drop of the green on our standing start till the checkered flag. I ended up finishing 13th.We didn’t have a single double yellow all weekend during our races.

Saturday also offered the 60 minute “enduro.” I agreed to fuel for Turnip, Worrell (E36M3 guy) and “Bitter” Jim Robinson. The endure was only 60 minutes but the rules mandate one stop and adding at least 5 gallons of fuel. It was nice and hot out there on the hot pits in a full fire suit! The only source of entertainment for us was listening to Brendan Diegel talk to Jim over the radio. Jim, don’t drive angry buddy! Jim showed up only for the enduro and then quickly left afterward. Shouls have stuck around for the sprints, they were a blast.

>>>> BRIAN'S SATURDAY RACE VIDEO<<<<

Here is video from Scott McMennamy's Car in Sunday's race. Its pretty good coverage of my car until his battery dies and then he gets by me on the white flag lap.

Sunday:

I qualified 11th for Sunday’s race and decided to keep the R888’s I had on the car from Saturday’s race. I rotated them and changed the air pressures a bit. During qualifying the tires felt good for about 3 laps and then got really greasy. They fell off very fast and became almost un-drive-able. I had to back off considerably but wanted to stay out to get a little more practice on the track. After another air pressure adjustment I went out for the race and had the most fun racing I have had yet. I had an absolute blast with Jim Pantas and Scott McMennamy. We were swapping positions and running nose to tail for the entire 45 minute race. I was holding them off for most of the race but toward the end Pantas got by me for the final time after one of my many mistakes. Scott Mc waited me out and got by me on the white flag lap as I botched the hairpin turn in the middle of the track. He went to the outside of me into the turn as I defended the inside. My plan was to over slow and pull second gear and keep him behind me coming out of the turn. Unfortunately, the tires were done and I ham fisted the downshift getting the car sideways and allowing Scott to cut underneath me and drive away to a twelfth place finish, putting me in 13th for the second race in a row. Nice racing Scott and Jim!

I was completely exhausted when I got out of the car and felt a little sick…I wonder if the CO has anything to do with it racing behind Jim for so long? Hmmm, maybe Ranger can look into it further for us?

>>>>BRIAN'S SUNDAY RACE VIDEO<<<<

Barber is a great track and I hope we get back to race there next year. I also had a blast with the Turnip’s family. All in all, a great weekend at the track and very little damage done to the cars. We had some minor contact in our class. Unfortunately Turnip was involved in an incident in Saturdays race which ended in two totaled Porsche’s and a banged up right front fender for Warren. Hope you enjoy the pics and video, sorry for the poor quality on video, Ill be getting a better camera soon. I also apologize for the boring read. I am feeling a little sick and want to hammer this out but you can deal with it right?

OBSERVATIONS:

1. I think Indy Jim needs a hug. Craig?
2. Barber is awesome, you guys are crazy.
3. Warren has some great family and I really appreciate their Alabama hospitality.
4. Warren is “One spin away from death” according to 944 drivers.

Our next event is Road Atlanta in two weeks but I will miss that race, hope everyone has fun there. My next event will be Lowe’s Motor Speedway on July 3rd. If you are near come and check it out, until then remember, if you spill anything in the paddock tell the Barber cops.

BeerTech Racing #380, Brian Jones

2009-05-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Cheaters never win…but sometimes winners cheat!

Round 3 of the Spec E30 season brings us back to Carolina Motorsports Park in lovely, scenic, historic Kershaw SC once again. I think they filmed Deliverance there…oh well, whatever. I was certainly hoping this weekend was better than the last one, which was a demolition derby if you recall, and thankfully it was better. With the exception of damage to Steve “Lucky” Divinney’s car the weekend was relatively incident free. My car was also hit by the same car that hit Steve but c’mon…have you seen my car? Yet another reminder that body work is overrated.

Friday:

I pulled in early to CMP just before the start of the enduro. I was there to crew for whomever needed help but mostly I was there to instill fear in my competition and intimidate Jim Robinson. Check and check! I was promptly put to work as the re-fueler meaning I was fortunate enough to wear my fire-suit all day and not get to drive. Sweet. Dave White and “Jack Handle” Jim Robinson brought Craig Geiger’s #82 Cheater Wagon home for the enduro win in E2. That car is making so much power; Dave completely ripped apart the left rear tire. It was either that or the extra ballast the driver carries at all times. ;)

Saturday:

Practice went well. I was using some old RA-1’s and just taking it easy to get back in the groove. For qualifying I switched over to my R-888’s and tried to give it a run after being laughed at by everyone in the paddock once they learned the last alignment on my car was performed in 2007. I haven’t had time to mess with that, besides an alignment doesn’t contribute to the cars handling and performance right? I had enough time to nut and bolt the car and replace some wear items for safety before this event. That would be good enough. Oh and Dyno? Never been on one but the car feels fast. After this weekend, Ill be getting an alignment. Thanks 944, I needed one anyway.
Unfortunately I have no in car video from the weekend. I brought my camera, pulled to pre-grid and remembered the camera. Damn! I jumped out of the car ran back to the truck, grabbed the camera, ran back to the car. “Where the F is my camera mount??? Oh yeah….its safely mounted to my roll cage. In my LeMons car. Awesome. So I gave it to Turnip and he recorded the race from trackside. Nice work by the way and thanks again Turnip. Ill get it put together and add it later.

I managed to qualify 4th, was asleep at the wheel at the start and DiVinney got by me immediately putting me back to 5th. I thought about wrecking him but couldn’t quite get close enough….maybe next time. I settled in line. It was Dave White, Johan, R Patton, DiVinney and then me. Patton, Divinney and I were nose to tail for the first 3 or four laps. That was an absolute blast! Nice racing guys. As they say, the fun always comes to an end. On the next lap the three of us entered the carousel nose to tail again but a 944 was right in front of Patton mucking up our race.

Patton broke for the entry to the carousel as is the normal method if you want to stay on track. The 944 decided he didn’t need to do that. He promptly over cooked the entry and went off to the outside of the carousel. This let Patton drive right by him. Next in line was Steve D and I was right on his tail. Steve and I both watched in disbelief as the 944 yanked the car back toward the track. We both slowed and Steve took evasive maneuvers to avoid the now out of control Porch. Steve hit the brakes and swerved to the infield. Just before he got off the track, the 944 slammed into his left rear taking him out of the race.

I was on Steve’s bumper and hit the brakes as well. As the 944 came veering across track to the inside I went to the outside to avoid the mess. To my surprise the 944 was not done! He kept his foot in it, bounced off of Steve and was coming toward me at what seemed to be a bad angle. Oh sh*t is this guy going to hit me too!? At this point I was already off track on the outside of the carousel and the 944 slams into my right rear wheel and bumper. I was 10 –15 ft off of the track at the point of contact. Nice driving ace. He knocked me sideways in the dirt but I gathered it up and drove back on track to finish the race in 4th place.

Here is video from Steve D's car of the incident. I am right behind him, you can see me in the rear view mirror. Right after this video footage ends, the 944 comes to get me!

STEVE D'S VIDEO<<<<<<<<<<

My steering wheel was now a bit off center. Hopefully he just knocked the rear wheel out of what was already poor alignment, otherwise, Ill be shopping for a new trailing arm. See, how pissed would I have been if I just had the car aligned? The rest of the race the car didn’t handle quite the same and was unpredictable in the carousel. Could have been a combination of the worn tires as well though. I was later DQ’d for being 13 lbs under weight. We raced withought a single Double yellow flag. I’m convinced that would have saved the two gallons of gas I needed to make weight. Poor planning and poor cheating? A few others were underweight as well. Pantas was 90 lbs. underweight! Ooops

Sunday:

Saturday evening after the race I rotated the tires and flipped the brake pads. I thought about changing the right rear alignment but then I remembered I don’t know what I am doing, so I didn’t. Ill just drive it like it is. I made sure nothing would fall off the car and then drank beer. Nicccccce.

I managed to qualfy 5th after having a slow qualy and going off track at the carousel. I was driving the normal line thru, had decent grip and then the rear end just gave up. I was ¾ of the way thru the turn so with Johan right behind me and some decent momentum going, I had to open the wheel, drive straight off and gather it up. The other option would have been to spin in front of Johan, that didn’t seem like a good idea at the time.

I got a much better start this time and was able to stay right on Steve D’s bumper again for a few laps. We were running well but Johan was checking out on us all. A few laps in, into the carousel I go and again, the rear gives up. I drive off again. Back to 8th place. I spent the rest of the race working my way back up to eventually finish in 3rd, well behind Steve D. Billy Gropp and I had some fantastic racing with a few passes made by each of us for the rest of the race. He was right on my tail at the end of the race. We battled hard and looked like professionals as we executed the perfect over under in T11. He came screaming to the inside of me in the brake zone, a nice move, but couldn’t make it stick. I waited, pulled third a little early and turned in to miss his bumper by a few inches diving to the apex to re-pass him. Hey, maybe it wasn’t so pretty, but that’s how I remember it! Don’t you ruin this for me!

We didn’t weigh after Sundays race but I added a spare wheel and tire and a full tank of gas to make sure I would make weight. The race was also made interesting as Johan decided he didn’t like the sound of his exhaust and dropped it on the track in T11 like this was Mario Kart or something. I’m pretty sure he did it on purpose.

Recap:

Overall this was a great weekend. Once again the people are what make the racing and bitch and moan as we all do, we all get along and have a good time at the end of the day. I still wouldn’t want to race with any other group.

Observations:

1. Alignments are overrated?
2. If the scales are open before Qualy or Race, stop being lazy and go weigh the car.
3. Body work is for suckers.
4. Steve D. should stay away from Vegas with his luck as of late.
5. 944’s aren’t as soft as they look.
6. Safety-wire your Spec Exhaust, or leave it on the track.
7. Al Taylor is going off the grid and is terrified of FaceBook.

The next race is in Birmingham Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park on May 30th and 31st. If you’re in the area come check it out!

-Brian Jones, BeerTech Racing #380-

LeMons (again)

2009-04-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

According to the genius who run this monkey show, our car in its current condition qualifies for $380 worth of crap, so we should easily be able to get it fixed and running strong again for the fall race.

I personally pity the fool(s) that think they can A. rat out the B team with no consequences B. dock us a ton of laps on simple heresy with no consequences and finally C. Get in front of the B Team car on track with no consequences.

Murdock is pissed off, fired up, a little bit drunk and a lot crazy. Can't wait till September. Punks.

A few more pictures:

F- the judges and their E30 hatred:

2009-04-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

BeerTech Racing Presents: “The B Team” at the 2009 24 Hours of LeMons at CMP Spring Event.

Well, here we go again. April 4^th and 5^th of 2009 brings us to the first of two 24 Hours of LeMons events this year. Since I’ve already written about the car, I’ll spare you the boredom of that part and get right to the team and the racing. I’ll let the pics do the talking.

THE TEAM:

“In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.”

Yeah! What he said….except, its not 1972 and we are a much cheaper knock off version of the A-Team with no discernable skills between the four of us. Hmm, I guess that makes us The B-Team! Let’s go with that.

This year we only had four teammates so this worked out nicely for our theme. JP was Face, Ian was Hannibal, Rob was Murdock and I was B.A. Barracus. We were also lucky enough to have Big Tom as our Crew Chief again. Thanks Tom.

THE CAR:

Already covered and as you can see, my attempt at turning a BMW E-30 into The B-Team van was highly successful. In fact, many people asked us if that was the van from the TV show. Ok, no one actually asked us that but they should have.

Because BMW’s are perfect cars for an event like this, the LeMons races seem to see a lot of them. The judges and promoters now hate all things E-30. So much so, they have a stencil they spray onto all E-30’s now and asses bogus penalty laps on top of that just for having an E-30. Well, this year an E-30 won the race! Not ours mind you, but an E-30 nonetheless.

THE TRACK:

This year’s configuration was much like last year’s except this time there was no single car wide chicane in the middle of the front straight. We had an all out sprint race from the last corner to the first turn. We reached a mind-boggling 80 miles per hour or so. Hey, you don’t want these heaps of junk going too fast, they all should be in a junk-yard as it is.

Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP) in Kershaw SC. TRACK MAP<<<<<<

THE JUDGING:

Ian and I got to the track early on Friday and unloaded everything hoping the rest of the team would show up in time for the tech inspection on the car as well as the infamous judging. Time was running out so Ian and I decided to tech the car and wait until the last possible minute to get judged. Besides, JP was bringing some liquor to bribe the judges with to keep our lap penalties down.

We went thru tech only to be told we needed to add two backing plates to our cage or we would not pass. Great. Let’s go find some steel and get to work. I was sick and tired of working on this car a month or so ago so I was a little unhappy with this news. We were lucky enough to find a truck garage a few miles down the road that had some free scrap steel and he even cut it up for us. Score! We got back to the track and Ian took the car back up to tech to get, well, tech-ed.

We got good and drunk waiting on the others all day but at 5:00 it was time for judging. Ian and I threw on our costumers and we headed to the judging with only one bottle of liquor to bribe the crooked judges. Our ride looked sweet, is an E-30 and has part of a motor swap. We knew we would be in for some laps for sure.

They looked over the car, gave us a bunch of crap and painted some stencils on the car. They demanded that we paid $500 for the head on the car and I got them down to $100. This put us over budget by $60 so we got 6 penalty laps. Sweet! we can make that up in no time! The Mr. T and Hannibal costumes definitely saved some serious laps. Until….

I’m pretty sure it was Evan, though he still denies it but someone told the judges we installed an M5 differential in the car. First of all, impossible, and B), what a D-bag! Ratting us out? Who ever it was deserves a good crushing. Anyway, the judges told us that was worth $800 and gave us another 80 laps. Oh yeah, this was Saturday morning by the way, an hour before the race started. We were the second most heavily penalized team behind Team Cockroach with 125 laps (another E-30).

Executive Summary of our Performance:

We finished 90^th of 94 cars. Our car was very fast when it ran but crapped out early on us on Saturday with fuel delivery issues. The rest of the weekend was spent drinking beer and heckling other teams while being bitter and calling everyone else a bunch of cheaters…….which, they are by the way. J

We didn’t race for very long but there was some contact during Ian’s stint with the talent-less wonders who won this: JUDGES' CHOICE AWARD FOR EXCESSIVE WHINING: #50, Team Thunderturd II (1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, Bradenton FL) This car slammed into the back of our car completely destroying out exhaust. They also managed to cave in our right side door and rocker panel. Nice driving A holes.

Full Race results:

RESULTS FOR LEMONS SOUTH SPRING, 4-5 APRIL 2009

OVERALL WINNER: #90, Dorifto Dogs (1986 BMW 325e, Bahama NC)
INDEX OF EFFLUENCY: #21, Heavy Metal (1972 Ford LTD, Charlotte NC)
DANGEROUS BANNED TECHNOLOGY: #66, Our Lady of Perpetual Downforce (1988 Honda Civic, Atlanta GA)
WINNER, CLASS PW: #95, Lightning McQueen (1990 Volkswagen Jetta 16V, Richardson TX)
WINNER, CLASS NPW: #02, Ponticrap: We Are Driving Excrement (1986 Pontiac Fiero, Cincinnati OH)
ORGANIZER'S CHOICE: #44, Team Turbo Schnitzel (1987 Merkur XR4Ti, Atlanta GA)
I GOT SCREWED: #86, Greyman Motor Club (1989 Mazda 626, Charleston SC)
MOST HEROIC FIX: #55, Tunachuckers (1966 Volvo 122, Travelers Rest SC)
MOST LIKELY TO LAND IN A POND FULL OF POISONOUS SNAKES: #29, Scuderia Gonzo Alonzo (1987 Alfa Romeo Milano, Milton NC)
WINNER, PORSCHE CUP: #81, More Cowbell (1984 Porsche 944, Richmond VA)
BEST MOONSHINE OR APPLEJACK: #55, Tunachuckers (Triple-Row Radiator Distilled Apple Pie with Vitamin Pb)
LEAST HORRIBLE YANK TANK: #47, LeMons Vuitton (1998 Plymouth Neon, Fort Meyers FL)
GRASSROOTS MOTORSPORTS MOST FROM THE LEAST AWARD: #191, rbankracing.com (1985 Saab 900 Turbo, Aliquippa PA)
JUDGES' CHOICE AWARD FOR EXCESSIVE WHINING: #50, Team Thunderturd II (1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, Bradenton FL)
PEOPLES CURSE: #32 Ford Mustang: http://jalopnik.com/5199325/the-mob-has-spoken-the-superkak-racing-mustang-gt-must-die

MY RACE RECAP:

Thanks to JP’s camera that likes to turn its self off every 28 seconds, I have no video of my stint but I can assure you, it was spectacular. With 94 cars on a one-mile track, there was racing everywhere. The car ran great for a little over an hour until the rusty fuel was stirred up enough to clog our entire fuel system and choke our car to death. I think I made up around 40 laps of our 86 lap penalty in that hour. I was passing 8-10 cars per lap every lap and I was racing like I stole it. I was making it happen at every corner and being as aggressive as I could. Just like real racing, and if you don’t like it, go back to DE’s. Period. It was a blast. It’s so much easier to pass when you have a lot more power than everyone else. I’ve got to get a cheater motor in my Spec E30. Now I know what it’s like to drive Jim Robinson or Geegar’s car.

It was fun while it lasted! The motor starting choking and I brought it in hoping we were just getting low on fuel and we were beginning to starve. No dice. I came in, filled up and the same problem was still there. Coming out of the turns the car would fall flat on its face for a few seconds and then come back to life. The problem was getting worse so I brought it in.

We changed three fuel pumps, thanks for the help Jessie! This worked for a while. We got about 20 – 30 mins out of the car until it would happen again. We finally retired the car Saturday afternoon and called it a weekend. We will have to change the entire fuel system from the tank to the injectors. Good times ahead. This is what I got out of the fuel filter:

We did get a residual value for the car of $380 from Jay Lamm so we can spend another $120 getting it ready for the next event, which will be plenty. We will definitely be back in September to contend for the win. When this car runs, its fast.

I hope you enjoy the pics! Stay tuned for next time!

-Brian Jones, BeerTech Racing #380 / B.A. Barracus,The B-Team #25

2009-03-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

LeMons car preparation update!

Me replacing the radiator hose. Rob Changing the AFM

With the LeMons South Spring race fast approaching in two weeks, we were back at it. I've been putting in a lot of time during the past few weeks and weekends when I haven't been racing getting our whip buttoned up and ready to go.

A few weeks ago I fired the car up, warmed it up and bled the cooling system to get all of the air out to hopefully avoid overheating our car during the race. All went well then I shut the car down, worked on my real race car for a while and went back to the LeMons car to pull it back into the garage. No start. Just fires and immediately dies. Great, what now?

I assumed it was a simple electrical gremlin in our now 22 year old Frankenstein race car that we cobbled together. This should be easy to diagnose with my years of highly refined electrical knowledge. This was about two weeks ago and the next weekend was our Road Atlanta race (see post below) so I was running out of time and patience with this car.

I called around, got some ideas on the thousands of issues it could be an decided to put it on hold until I could get Rob down here to help me troubleshoot. Which was this weekend. Thanks again goes to Jim Levie who offered lots of help and ultimately led to the solution. Long store short: we have a bad AFM. I'm not sure where JP got this AFM and if it ever ran a car he owned or not but it was confirmed bad when I tried it in my Spec E30 race car. Another donor part from #380 and we are back in business. Side note: Jim also has a writeup on how to repair the bad AFM so hopefully we can fix this one.

Once we got it fired up I took it for a spin thru the neighborhood. Car feels great and will get sideways fairly easily. Should be a handful at speed with this ancient suspension. Oh, and we really need a new caliper out back, the brakes are just plain scary.

After a successful test drive I bring her back in the driveway, call Jim to thank him and let him know its running great. As I'm talking to him on the phone I see lots of steam and fluid on the driveway. This is not good. I pop the hood and quickly look at the front corner of the engine where the head meets the block. There is steam pouring out and I quickly deduce that we just lost a head gasket and cooked the motor. Jim laughs at me and says look at the hoses. Hoses? You mean the original 22 year old hoses we reused? Those are fine. Except they aren't are they? there was no a big crack in one where the hose clamp is and it is conveniently spraying on th engine right where the head meets the block. I told you I was no pro tech. We let it cool off and replace the hose, all is well again...until the next issue arises that is.

Weekend Summary:
This weekend we:
1. got it running...again. Installed the kill switch, finished the harness mounting and Rob helped me move all of my garage crap to the new house. Thanks again Bobert.
2. Churched up the inside of the car a bit with some rattle can primer to cover the surface rusted metal.
3. Went to Mac's on Main again, great little place with live music and a sketchy waitress. I'm pretty sure she eats everyone's leftovers.
4. Went to the club to check out our New Amsterdam promotions. Blame it on the New Am...not feeling great today.

The paint job is done!

Paint is still wet. Wet sanding the first two coats of gray.

The car sanded before painting. Safety first!

A lot of the time I've put into the car has been getting it looking nice. I've always wanted to paint a car with rollers and see how nice I can get the paint. Since this isn't a real car its the perfect candidate. This way, if I screw it up who cares right?

I used Rustoleum and went with the three color scheme reminiscent of a once popular 80's TV show featuring a sweet van. It goes along with our LeMons team theme which will be revealed in the race recap blog. If you can figure it out for yourself by these pics and my clever clues, consider yourself average at best and go ahead and eat that extra cookie. You've earned it.

Bobert wiring up the kill switch. Two E30's ready to race?

The proper method of painting with a roller is to thin the paint to almost water like consistency so it levels and apply several coats, wet sanding in between. I had intentions of doing this for the whole car but decided against it once time began to run thin. No pun intended. I did thin the gray and added a few cots but most of it is thinned slightly and applied heavily. I did wet sand, compound, polish and wax afterward so the paint looks great for a LeMons car. As with any paint job 90% of it is in the prep work. Getting a smooth surface to start with. I sanded the car and that's about it. Again, LeMons not concourse.

This car will be smashed to pieces in the race anyway so it doesn't matter. Enjoy the pics!

2009-03-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

I Hate being wet…Did I mention that?

80 degrees and sunny for four days. That was the weather we had right up until Friday, March 13th 2009. Then it turned to 30’s and 40’s with constant rain. Just in time for a race weekend at Road Atlanta. Yes, the same Road Atlanta that I wrote about in previous blogs with lots of concrete walls very close to the tracks edges. It sounds like a great combination: a wet slippery track, race cars and concrete walls. What could possibly go wrong!!??
I hate being wet all weekend. Wet clothes, wet gear, wet food and worst of all; wet feet all weekend. I do not like those things. In fact, it’s miserable. Last year at CMP when it monsooned, I was ill prepared and was wet and cold all weekend. Not this time. I bought a full rain suit and brought my waterproof boots. Quite possibly the best investment in clothing I have ever made. Not to mention, the sexy “I know what you did last summer” killer’s outfit really gets the attention of the ladies…as Boogie pointed out to me.
This weekend I wasn’t wet and cold except when I was in the race car since we have to race with the windows down. You don’t notice that when racing though, you’re kind of busy. You do however notice that you can’t see 10 feet in front of your car because of the spray from the other cars as well as your completely fogged up windshield, which is nice. Those things make it interesting. Oh yeah and my ABS went out in Saturday’s practice session. More on that later.
Turnip, Rankin and Boogie brought the RV to the track again thanks to Tom Johnson. This was great because I planned on camping in my tent for the weekend and they had an extra spot in the RV just for me! I’m glad they offered too because Friday night brought the wind and the rain. I would have been miserable in my tent on top of the hill under the shelter. I’m pretty sure I would have blown away. The rain was hard enough to wake me up in the RV that night. From then on it rained non-stop day and night, all weekend. It was miserable and lots of cars were wrecked. Mine thankfully came out unscathed. I did get stuck once…more on that a little later as well.

Friday:

I took Friday off of work so I could take my time making the three hour drive to the track and get there with plenty of time to help out for the three hour enduro that started at 2:00. I got to the track around 12:30 and we set up the pits to help out a few fellow racers. Fortunately the rain missed us all day Friday and it was a good day. Steve Foushee, fellow Spec E30 racer took first in E2 until his NASCAR style celebration efforts earned him a DQ and the Title “Donut king of Augusta.” He stopped on the front straight and did donuts on the track. This is generally frowned upon by NASA officials and this time was no different. I didn’t get to see them but I heard the donuts were pretty sweet. Sorry Steve!
Friday night a few of us went out for Mexican food and some beers. I smelled like Mexican food all night. Some of the others went to the baby shower that was being held in the timing and scoring tower. That’s right, I said baby shower. I suspect they went for the free pizza and cake but with those guys, you can never be sure.

Saturday:

As Skid Row used to sing “I woke up to the sound of pouring rain.” Well, I was actually woken up by Rankin who had to go meet his student first thing in the morning. I’m pretty sure it was about 4 AM. It seemed that early anyway. And it was cold and pouring rain…all day. Our practice was at 9:30, qualifying at 11:10 and the race at 2:00. Surely the rain would let up later in the day for the race right? Not a chance. I left my dry setup on the car but luckily I had a fresh set of full depth R888’s mounted by Sasco the day before. This made the wet track a little more tolerable but I was still loose all over the track. I felt pretty good in practice and in qualifying I was able to be quick enough for 5th out of our 17 Spec E30’s. Sweet!
Because of the conditions the race director decided to grid us in one big group for the race. This meant we were classified by our overall time, not just our class. This meant I was starting 10th out of about 60 cars. This was done to keep cars at similar pace near each other to hopefully avoid a lot of carnage on the start. It worked but it’s not as fun as grouping all of the Spec E30’s together and having split starts. Maybe it was for the better.

I ended up finishing 6th. Not bad and I got the sweet 6th place trophy that Geegar made, a T-Shirt, a set of free brake pads from Bimmerworld and I didn’t crash the car. All in all, a good day on track for me.

>>>>>>>>Saturday Race Video<<<<<<<<

Saturday night we had our awards banquet and again, it was raining and cold. But I was dry and warm thanks to my sweet rain suit. I hate being wet. The bad thing about the rain at the track is it sends people in early for the night and it kills a lot of the partying we usually do. We took it easy that night. After dinner we took showers and went back to the RV to watch Role Models. Pretty funny movie. I recommend it.

Al, Travis and Scott decided the weather was too much for them and they went and got a hotel room. Dave White was also there and he had a hotel room. At around 9:00 we get a phone call from Travis, hammered drunk, announcing that they are going to the Wal-Mart to raise some hell. This should be good. We tell them we will wait for the call from jail later that night and we went back to watching our movie in the money RV. Dry and warm.

Sunday:

Again I awoke to the sound of…Rankin, getting ready to meet “the talker” at 8:00. I quickly fell back asleep only to have Travis wake me up with a phone call. “Hey, are you gonna qualify?” I said “when is it?” “9:00AM.” he replied. I said “probably not, well, I guess I might. We’ll see.” Guess who was there for qualifying with me?

Some of the guys were trying different setups for the wet. Some seemed to work, some didn’t. I changed mine on Sunday by disconnecting the rear sway bar as my car was very loose all day Saturday. This has worked before while racing in the rain so I thought I would try it out and it worked great. I was able to get the power down a lot sooner getting out of the turns and I qualified 3rd.

We again had a full group start and this meant I was 9th overall starting the race. I had a decent start but was soon passed by three cars in my class. The track was very wet and with the ABS not working I was getting lock up in a few braking zones. I backed off a bit from the cars in these areas just in case but I was managing it well for the most part. I went too hot into turn 10A on the fourth lap and the front tires locked up and I was sliding toward the Spec E30 in front of me. This was not good. It’s usually not a big deal when this happens, you just get out of the brakes to regain traction and apply them again. Smoothly. If you are still running out of braking room at this point but your speed is okay you can “throw” the car into the turn and still make the corner.
This time I was quickly running out of room and if I tried to throw the car into the turn I would have run the risk of hitting the car in front of me. Instead of doing this I opted to go straight off into the gravel trap. I was stuck on the beach, my race was over but the car wasn’t damaged. I sat there for a few laps watching the race and then the tow truck came, pulled me out and I drove into the pits. Sucks to end the race like that but it was the right call.

Recap:

Overall it was a good weekend. I had a great time seeing everyone and like I said, I hate being wet but I like driving in the rain. A big thanks goes to Aaron, Warren, Lauren and the G-Man for letting me crash in the RV.

Observations:
1. A rain suit is an absolute necessity.
2. 6th place is better than 2nd thru 5th.
3. Wal-Mart in Braselton GA will tolerate a lot of jack-assery.
4. The 10A gravel trap is a great spot to watch a race.
5. Do not drive on any of the painted surfaces at Road Atlanta when wet.
6. ABS is a good thing to have in the rain. (gotta get that fixed)

I haven’t sent out an update in a while so the two posts below may also be new to you. Stay tuned for our next event: The 24 hours of LeMons returns! Will we get the car ready in time? What’s the theme? Did Ian get that rash cleared up? All of these questions and more will hopefully be answered in my next post. Until then, stay dry and keep the car off of the walls.

-Brian Jones, BeerTech Racing #380-

2009-03-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!!!!!

The 2009 racing season is here!

After a short winter break we headed to Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw SC to kick it off. This was a rough weekend for Spec E-30.

Let's get right to the action:

Friday: I get to the track on Friday at about 5:00 as the 3 hr enduro is underway with one hour left. Read Jim’s blog for the exciting recount of the enduro. Turnip brought a motor home for this event which was an awesome HQ for us. Unfortunately it meant splitting up the Spec E-30 paddock.

For some mysterious reason I noticed in my garage that my left rear shock was leaking. The car had been in the garage for a couple of months and I didn’t notice anything wrong with it until the week of the race. Great, now what? Chuck Taylor of Factory 3 Performance was nice enough to bring a shiny new one to the track for me. Thanks again Chuck!

The weather was great all weekend but it did get cold at night. Good thing I brought a heater for my tent! It worked great. Friday was a lot of fun catching up with all of my racing friends while eating Mexican food, drinking beers and telling lies….Sometimes when I’m away from the track for a while I think about selling the race car but then another event comes around and it makes all of the hassle and cost worth it. You’ll never meet a better bunch of people than you will at a NASA SE event. More on that later.

Saturday: 7:00 AM. It’s cold outside but warm in the tent with my awesome little heater! Time to change out that shock before hitting the track.

This will be my first event using the new Spec tire Toyo R888’s which replaced our Toyo RA-1’s. The new tires have a stiffer sidewall but are supposed to have the same compound. They require a little bit a different set up on the car to work correctly as testing from others have shown. I still have a set of RA’s to burn thru so I run those in practice. I will have to use my 888’s for qualifying and in the race.

Practice goes well as I shake the cobwebs out of the helmet and get myself back up to speed in the race car and on track.

For qualifying, I throw on the 888’s. I didn’t have time to change the setup on the car all weekend so the settings I use with my RA-1’s will have to do. I haven’t looked at the tire wear yet to see how the setup is affecting them but the car felt good all weekend. These tires do not like to be overdriven so smoothness becomes even more important. Once these tires get too hot they are get greasy and go away pretty quick. I qualified 6th out 18 Spec E30’s.

Now for the race: This year we have a whole new crop of rookies to run with. It’s great to see these guys out here and to know that Spec E30 is alive and well. With more cars on track comes more chance for bad things to happen.

As the race starts there is contact between Steven Canterbury and Brandon Smith sending Brandon spinning. Luckily no one T-bones him and we all continue on. Turns two and three are clean but as we enter turn 4, I make an inside move on Robert Patton who is driving the Pink Panther for Saturdays race. I had a good run on him out of turn three and decided to make the move. As we approached the corner Robert goes for the apex and we make contact sending him around. Turn 4 is a very high speed corner and unfortunately we were all still bunched up at this point. Damion Moses was right behind us and as he came thru four he had nowhere to go. He grazed my driver’s side door and took my mirror off before hitting the panther in the drivers rear with his left front. I went on to finish the race but Damion’s car and the panther were damaged pretty heavily. I finished 6th but was later DQ’s for passing under double yellow several laps later.

We reviewed my in car video of the wreck, (START OF SAT'S RACE) and no one was found at fault for the wreck, it was just a racing incident but it still sucks.

During the same race another Spec E30 driver was taken out by a Miata. It really takes the fun out of it when cars get bent up.

Sunday: We had little more contact on Sunday that damaged two Spec E30’s. Steven Canterbury and Chuck Taylor got together coming out of turn three and wrecked both cars.

Video of STEVEN AND CHUCK Chuck's car:

Man, this is getting old. Racing is a dangerous sport and quick decisions have to be made and these things happen.

As the quote goes: ”The price for men in motion is the occasional collision.” And we had a few of them this weekend.

Sunday was a much better day for me on track though. I had to borrow a mirror from the Pink Panther for Sunday’s race and the guys from Florida thought it would be funny to make that mirror a little easier to see.

They attached an F 250 mirror to the side of my car. See the pic. It was pretty funny…well played.
I went out for qualifying and qualified 5th but a surprise weigh in after qualy put me dead last, 17th, in the field due to being underweight. Our minimum weight is 2750 and I weighed in at 2743.
7 lbs. under! SEVEN!!

That’s one gallon of gas. Dagger!

Oh well, to the back I go and I threw a spare wheel and tire in the trunk to make sure I would make weight for the post race weigh in…which didn’t happen.

Two other guys were found underweight and started in the back with me. I had a great drive and managed a fifth place finish earning me a cool 25 Toyo bucks.

SUNDAY RACE VIDEO:

It would have been interesting if all Spec E30 racers had weighed in after qualy but some didn’t. I wonder who ….Hey Craig, what did you weigh in at? It was a poorly run post qualy impound. And no post-race weigh in? C’mon where’s the consistency?! This is all for fun anyway so I don’t really care but it adds to the bench racing and lies later on!

Too much carnage this weekend on track but this weekend really showed the spirit of the Spec E30 racing community. And that’s why we are all here. Our fellow racer and truly great guy Scott Gress had been getting the run around from a shop that was supposed to do some work for him months ago. Long story short they did not do what they were supposed to and messed up the work that they did do. He barely got the car back in time for the CMP event after calling the cops but now needed an engine swap. This would have to be done at the track to get him back out there racing with us.

As I am more of a parts swapper than real actual mechanic, this work would be left to the professionals and guys who know what they are doing. Everyone was determined to get him on track and parts were brought in Friday night from all over to get this thing running. Several people pitched in and they swapped the engine and had him racing on Sunday. This truly is an amazing group of people.

Overall the weekend was fun but all of the on track contact really took the fun out of racing for me. Saturday night was fun, we had the awards banquet and guess what? No BBQ! We had spaghetti! What a great change! I had a great time hanging out with everybody and especially Boogie! I had to add a special shout out just for you! Turnip, Rankin Brooke and Boogie were nice enough to let me hang out in the motor home all weekend and we had a great time together as always. I’m looking forward to Road Atlanta!!

Sorry for the dull write up, I kind of want to get this weekend put away and forgotten. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next one!!

-Brian Jones, BeerTech Racing #380

2009-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Preparing for the 2009 24 Hours of LeMons.

Because of the success of last year’s first ever, south east event, the LeMons creators are bringing it back! This year there will be two LeMons events at CMP, one in the spring and one in the fall. Since we had such a good time last year we decided to enter again.

We managed to destroy last year’s car in Weird Al’s Second Annual Dirt Track Democross and Firearms Spectacular back in November so we would have to find a replacement. If all goes well, we may be able to enter this same car in the fall event as well.

Because we are BMW E-30 junkies and gluttons for punishment, why not find another one of those we thought? Besides, some of us have lots of parts for these things and we know plenty of people who can help if we need it.

As you will recall from last year’s LeMons write up (see below) , these cars cannot cost more than $500 total, including prep work once you get the car. Safety items are excluded from that cost.

It’s pretty easy to find a “running” example for less than $500 but this means you will be buying an “e” car. These E30’s have 2.7L inline 6 cylinder engines but are built for economy more than performance. They make good low end torque but do not make much power and have a low rev limit. Their cousins, the “i” cars, like our Spec E30 race cars, have a 2.5L inline 6 but they rev higher and make more power. The “i” cars are more valuable and sought after. So we bought an 1986 325e we found for $400. But it has some problems. It has lots of problems. But we can fix it! And we can make it better!

List of problems: It’s old and rusty and has all original parts! Read: original suspension, bushings and mounts. All old and in need of replacing….which we are not replacing. The rust holes in the floor boards are big enough to put your leg completely through. I’m pretty sure the car has its original tires too. You could stick a quarter through the dry rot cracks. Nice. And safe! We will be replacing the tires. This car also runs extremely rich because it has the wrong air flow meter. Oh, and it has the milkshake. The Milkshake, in car terms, means the car has coolant in the oil. This could be due to a blown head gasket, cracked block or cracked head. We have a plan for that.

The good thing about being into this crap is that you find out neat little things along the way. It is widely known in the BMW community that you can mix and match parts from different engines and come up with different configurations. Oh, and we are replacing the open 2.93 rear end with a limited slip 4.10 I have laying around. That should make things interesting.

We decided to take our “e” engine and put all of the high performance bits from an “i” motor on it to make a poor man’s stroker motor.

Think of it this way: your 82-87 325,e,es has the 2.7L 9.0:1 compression M20 and the 87-92 325i,is,ix have the high performance 2.5L 8.5:1 compression M20. Now if you have both an "e" and an "i" then take all of the high performance "i" parts off and bolt them on to the "e" and you will have a high performance, high torque 9.0:1 compression 2.7L M20. So that’s what we did. The one thing we also needed was another wiring harness.

So we have a 1986 e car bottom end, 198X i head and ancillaries and a 1989? wiring harness. All of the mechanical work was easy enough, pull the head from our e car, put on the i head with new gaskets of course, and then it was time for the electrical work…..

Now, we at BeerTech are parts replacers, not real mechanics. This means when it comes to electrical work, count us out. All four of us taught ourselves how to work on cars and have taken zero actual classes on the subject. We’re not even sure how to use a volt meter correctly. This should be fun.

So we splice in the “new” wiring harness and fire the car up. By “fire it up” I mean turn the key and get nothing! Success! Oh wait, that’s not the result we are looking for at all. Great.

I have had the LeMons car for weeks doing odds and end getting it ready. Stripping it down completely, etc. We scheduled a BeerTech weekend for Feb 20-22nd to do most of the work. Swap the rear end, install the cage, seats, harnesses, do the motor swap, brakes and general maintenance while drinking about 6 cases of beer. We worked day and night on this thing for three straight days, got everything done and then it wouldn’t fire. A great ending to a loooong weekend. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the beer.

The race is the first week in April so this means it’s basically up to me from here on out to get the thing running and ready. And I have a ton of other things going on. Rob was nice enough to come down the next weekend and help me out and JP and I were on the phone all week looking for solutions.

Thanks to Jim Levie, BMW guru, we were able to trace the problem to the coil’s ground wire. This wire is shielded to reduce radio interference to the coil. We cut the node off the end of this wire to install a kill switch, which also didn’t work, and when we put the ground back on to the coil the shielding was in contact with the negative post. This prevented the DME from being able to ground and un-ground that connection therefore not sending a start signal to the coil.

I pulled back the shielding and reconnected our ground and the car fired right up! Sweet! Our LeMons car is alive!!! A few more odds and ends and this car is ready to rip it up on track.

We were lucky enough to find $1.59 in change in the car to offset our cost. >>>>>>>

Stay tuned for the race report and the unveiling of this year’s theme!

-Brian Jones BeerTech Racing #380

2008-12-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

Ho! Ho! Ho!, Let’s go Racing!

BeerTech Racing and NASA South East present: Santa’s Toy Run at Road Atlanta December 5-7^th, 2008.

Who races in December? Its cold outside, that wouldn’t be any fun. Guess what, you’re wrong again! Okay, it was very cold but it was a lot of fun also. Atlanta in December isn’t supposed to be so cold. It was in the 20’s a lot of the time but when you have all of your race gear on, its not so bad and as they say, its good horsepower weather.

If you couldn’t tell by previous write ups, NASA likes to theme the weekends based on the venue and time of year, thus we have Santa’s Toy Run in Dec, at Road Atlanta. Each year during this time NASA holds a toy drive for underprivileged kids, which is awesome. Instead of paying an entry fee to the track, we all bring a toy to donate. Jim Robinson wanted to leave his car there for the kiddies but that would just be cruel. That thing is a Grade A turd, read about it here JIM’S BLOG.

Event:

This was a three-day event starting with an 8-hour endurance race on Friday and the regular two-race schedule Saturday and Sunday. NASA decided to run an endurance challenge this year with many 3 hour long races, this was the finale and they made it 8 hours. Saturday was a double points sprint race and Sunday was a combined group 1-hour fun race.

Track:

Road Atlanta is a world famous road-racing track, has been around for a long time and is an absolute blast to drive. Lots of elevation changes and blind corners make for an interesting experience. Not to mention all of the concrete walls in most cases only 20 to 30 feet off of the edge of the track. Road Atlanta demands respect and will bite you hard if you step over the line. You will not be a habitual line stepper at this track for long.

I know what you’re thinking. “Why do I read these things? They are so long and boring and I’m just trying to waste time at work.” Well, too bad, you’re in this far so keep reading, it will get better…. probably.

So lets get down to it!

Friday:

I was the Crew Chief for the BeerTech racing car #467 of Scott McMennamy. The Drivers were Ryan Osiecki, Scott McMennamy, Warren Turnipseed and Craig Geiger. Each driver would drive for 2 hours and then come into the pits and change drivers, re-fuel and change tires/brakes if needed.

Ryan started in the car as he had never been to Road Atlanta before and quickly learned the lay of the land and turned in some truly fast laps. The first 4 laps were run under caution so this gave him a good look at the track before it went green. First stint was uneventful and successful. The race started at 9:00AM and the track was icy in some spots so nice job to Ryan for keeping the shiny side up and all of the corners square.

Second to drive was car owner Scott McMennamy. Scott jumped in the car and became acclimated quickly, turning some good laps. About 45 mins. into his stint, coming thru T-12, a very fast, sweeping, downhill right turn which is flat out in 4^th gear in our cars he had a moment. The rear end decided it wanted to get to turn one first so it stepped out and started coming around. Scott tried to save the slide but it quickly developed into a spin sending him into the outside wall. There are no tires against the wall in this area because the wall is so close to the track, just lots of thick concrete.

The driver’s rear corner hit first snapping the driver’s front corner into the wall. This bent the whole front of the car over about 3-4 inches toward the passenger side and broke the radiator.

After the car was towed into the paddock, Scott decided we should try and fix the car and get it back out there and we did. Aaron Rankin, Craig Geiger and I worked fast to get the car back out there. A little bodywork, a new radiator, some cutting, banging and cursing and off we went, back into the race. At this time Warren Turnipseed took the wheel and headed out on track. We only lost about an hour and a half in the pits so we had plenty of time left to “test” our handy work and see if anything else was broken.

After Turnip’s successful stint, Craig Geiger took the car out to finish the race. The car took a pretty good hit and handled okay but not ideally. We did finish the race 12^th in our class, E2, and 24^th overall out of 30 entries. Not bad for having to fix the car half way thru!

The enduro saw lots of carnage for E30’s and we weren’t the only ones doing repairs during the race.

Chuck Taylor (right) and I racing hard.

Saturday:

Saturday was the regular schedule, Practice, Qualifying and Race. Yay!, now I finally get to drive Road Atlanta in my car. This was my second time ever at Road Atlanta and first time in my car. After taking last year completely off I drove in the March enduro with Scott. Practice was good, I just needed to learn my way around the place again and after watching lots of video thanks to Mike Skeen of Mikeskeen.com, I picked it up pretty quick. I ran a 1:48.8 in qualifying, good enough for 15^th. Not bad, Ill take it. Like I said before, Road Atlanta demands respect and I was definitely going to give it.

The race went well, a little boring late in the race as traffic stretched out but I was able to finish 10^th with a fast lap of 1:46.9. Much better! A few drivers dropped out due to mechanicals and one guy was DQ’d for having an illegal rear end. To his credit I don’t think he did it on purpose, it was the one in the car when he bought it and he had bad intel telling him that model had the correct rear end. Oh well, to the back you go!

Sorry, no video from Saturdays race, I forgot to turn the camera on….again.

(Steve DeVinney using all of the road...with his 4.10 rear end)

Sunday:

Since this was going to be the last event of the year, NASA decided Sunday would be a combined one-hour fun race. This put the Lightning and Thunder groups together. This would be interesting as we had LOTS of fast cars out this weekend. Corvette Z06’s, Porsches, IMSA lites and even two ALMS Ford GT’s. Those guys are crazy to put those million dollar machines out on track with the likes of us!

We drew numbers in the drivers meeting to form a random grid. I wanted to be as far to the back as possible with such fast cars out there. Some cars have several hundred more horsepower than our cars do and that makes for pretty fast closing rates on track. I was lucky and drew #70. Starting 70^th of 74 was a good thing. If there were any big wrecks up front, hopefully I wouldn’t be involved. Luckily everyone behaved themselves and there were no car to car incidents. Nice work everyone. See the video for some exciting footage:

>>>>>>>>>>BRIAN’S SUNDAY TOY RACE FOOTAGE PART 1<<<<<<<<<<<<<

>>>>>>>>>>BRIAN’S SUNDAY TOY RACE FOOTAGE PART 2<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Lodging:

Because of our antics at the last event, Rockingham we were all banned from camping for the rest of the year. Great. Who wants to camp in December anyway right? Thanks again to Jim Pantas. For this event we rented a Lake house in Dawsonville GA and had 10-12 people in it. Very nice place, pool table, foosball, ping-pong, hot tub and a lake for when you really get banged up and want to take a swim. Did I mention this is December?

We stayed Thursday night thru Sunday and had a blast. See below:

Shenanigans:

Thursday and Friday nights were pretty low key as we all needed rest for racing but the smack talk and games were still intense. I beat the hell out of Al Taylor at Pool and Ping-Pong and Skeen beat his ass repeatedly at Foosball. It wasn’t a good weekend for Al in the game room. Sorry Al, hate to do it to you but it’s the truth baby!

Saturday night was crazy! We had some more people over to the house including the BDR crew and had an old fashioned throw down. We all got pretty banged up, played some games, talked some sh*t and had a great time. Oh yeah we also paid Turnipseed $179 and he drank a bottle of Ultra Concentrated Dawn dish soap, green apple flavor! Bleh!

Since he is “The Man”, he is henceforth known and referred to as Officer Bubbles. $179 can get you a sweet nickname too!

HIGHLIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS:

Having a 4.10 differential is an advantage when no one else does.
$179 is the going rate to see someone drink a bottle of soap. Thanks Officer Bubbles!
Al Taylor sucks at Ping Pong and is mediocre at best at shooting pool.
Road Atlanta is one of the most fun tracks I’ve ever driven.
I should get a hot tub.
If AMP ever becomes a reality, the lake house is where it’s at!
Jim Robinson listens to Christopher Cross. No, really, the CD is in his truck right now! So what do you do when caught between the moon and NY city? Jim?

That’s it for this installment! Hope you’re still awake! See you next time!

-BeerTech Racing, Car #380 Brian Jones-

2008-09-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

BeerTech Racing Goes to the Rock!

Well racing fans here it is, the latest and greatest racing news from your favorite racers. September 20th and 21st we visited one of our favorite tracks for some great racing for possibly the last time, more on that a little later.

The weather was perfect all weekend and we had a great time on and off the track. JP and I made the trip down to Rockingham NC to hand out some beat downs to MLT. Unfortunately, Scott was unable to attend due to the man keeping him down.

Lets get right to the racing! BeerTech took two first place in class finishes in both Roll the Rock races this weekend. JP won on Saturday and I won on Sunday. This was my first victory and it was all I hoped it could be. What’s that you say? You heard that not all of the Spec E30 racers started the race I won? Hey, shut it! They could have …but didn’t. ;) I had some tough competition out there but was able to hold them off for the victory! Ill take it.This was my second time at The Rock and first time racing there.

When we run Rockingham we get four races in the weekend, I know pretty sweet. Each day there is one points race and one fun race. The points races are split as usual between two classes, Thunder (high horsepower cars) and Lightning (momentum cars) Spec E30 runs in the Lightning races for points. The Fun races, called Roll the Rock are both classes mixed together for one big race. Speed differentials are substantial and make for interesting racing. It’s an absolute blast!

Here is a quick rundown of the races and how I did. Yeah, this is all about me in case you are wondering.

Points race #1 Qualified 8th, finished 9th RACE ONE VIDEO

Roll The Rock Race #1 Finished 11th in class. ROLL THE ROCK #1 VIDEO
Watch for the punt I get from MLT’s Travis Wilson at 5:53 in the video.

Points Race #2 Qualified 2nd, finished 7th
Q2 Due to a few people disqualified for passing under yellow in qualifying. I didn’t get video of this race due to my car not starting on grid and barely getting it running before going out. I forgot to hit the record button, dagger!

Roll The Rock Race #2, finished 1st in class! ROLL THE ROCK #2 VIDEO

On the track the racing was fast and clean. No incidents this weekend except for M3 Bill losing a motor in Qualifying on Saturday. The competition is getting better and better all the time in our series also. I am obviously a fantastic driver with superhuman driving ability and I'm not even running up front! I know what you're thinking, they are all cheaters! I agree.

The competition is so close in fact that in qualifying for race #1 Laura Patton, JP Coates, Me and Al Taylor all ran our fast lap of 1:11.1x. All four of us within the same 1oth of a second.

Rockingham is a great track to race on. It used to be on the NASCAR circuit years ago but is now used for testing, ARCA and other track days like ours. We use NASCAR turns one and two and the infield road course making this into what we call a roval. See track map.

I have a new found respect for circle track drivers for sure. The concentration and stamina needed for driving thru the banking is amazing. In our cars we go thru flat out at the top of fourth gear with the car on the limit at around 105- 115 MPH or so. I can’t imagine doing it at 200 MPH, 3 wide for 4+ hours. Amazing.

The nice thing about Rockingham is that we can use the NASCAR garages. These are a nice break from the sandy, grassy paddock spots we usually have and we are also allowed to camp in them, which is nice, so I got that going for me.

Now the off track "activity."

Normally we throw a pretty good party at the racetrack everywhere we go. This event got a little out of hand Saturday night and we (the entire NASA group) were almost asked to leave the track for breach of contract Sunday morning. Ooops, sorry again Jim.

I can’t go into too many details here but when track management came in Sunday morning, they found a car parked on the start finish line on track…NOT happy about it. The Shenanigans were pinned on Spec E30 as a group, namely BeerTech and Malt Liquor Tech. Can you believe that???

We were certainly making memories and it was a blast! Sometimes these things happen but we will try to take it easy in the future.
HIGHLIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS:
1. Travis is a dirty driving Ba*#@&d. ;)
2. Look out for the man in Red.
3. Riding Lawnmowers make great pit vehicles.
4. Vic Hall is rotten on the inside. (You need to have that looked at.)
5. Spec E30 throws kick @ss parties.
6. Track management is lame.

Ill post a few pics as I get them but until next time, try to keep the noise down all right?

Oh yeah, don’t forget to look for me soon in Columbia, SC. I got a promotion and will be moving there at the end of October…right in the middle of all the Southeast tracks! Perfect!

-BeerTech Racing Car #380, Brian Jones

2008-07-28T13:25:00.001-07:00

BeerTech Racing Presents: Team Mustache Ride at the 2008 24 Hours of LeMons at CMP.

I know what you’re thinking. This sounds stupid. And you would be correct. Here is some more information about the event that may reinforce what you already suspect. The rules? Find an automobile that can be raced for a 24 hour endurance race that can cost NO MORE than $500 total excluding safety gear. I.e. roll cage, seats, harnesses, tires and brakes. Okay, it’s not actually a 24 hour race but two days, 7 hours each day, with a break at night for beer and general debauchery. But c’mon, it’s a $500 car, you’re lucky if it completes the warm up laps without completely giving up and or trying to kill you.

If you want more info about the 24 hours of LeMons, see this short video;

THE 24 HOURS of Lemons

Let’s skip that crap and get right to our experience you say? Okay! Hopefully the other mustache wearing members of the team will give their perspectives as well.

THE TEAM:

Team Mustache Ride consists of 6 members, in no particular order, nicknames in parens; Brian Jones (Shady B), JP Coates (Lunch Box), Rob Maybach (Bobert), Ian Klass (Klauss), Steven Canterbury (Lurch) and our head mechanic and crew chief Big Tom Maybach. Special thanks go to Brook and her mother for excellent track support and money steaks on Saturday night.

JP, Steven and I are actual real live race car drivers. Rob and Ian are not but that’s the beauty of LeMons, you can buy a temporary race license for the event. This is pretty cool. Made me feel like I was really fast out there and knew what I was doing. Anyone who knows me will not be fooled by the videos but I don’t care. Screw you guys.

This was Robs first time on a race track and he did great. Ian has lots of track experience but has not been on track in about 5 years or so. Hopefully they can elaborate in their recaps.

THE CAR:

The weapon of choice, or circumstance, was a 1991 BMW 318is. This special ride was generously “prepared” for our use by a nice cell phone wielding driver who totaled the once daily driven race car. A $500 buy back from insurance and we have ourselves a candidate.

Yes. The car has a mustache as did all team members. We also had custom jean shorts, sweet T-shirts and cheap sun glasses to complete the ensemble. It was gross.

Since we are BeerTech and had months to prepare for the event we of course managed to throw this thing together in three days…the last possible three days mind you. Despite the efforts of some, we managed to get the car together and race ready. By race ready I mean the bare minimum safety gear that would pass the tech inspection at the track before the race began. Nothing like being prepared right?! Don’t forget to check out our sweet steering wheel in the pics and videos. Yeah, you like it.

A big thanks goes to JP for getting most of the car ready and many late nights to do so. Thanks also goes to MLT’s (Malt Liquor Tech) own Travis Wilson for some much needed assistance at the last minute.

Now that the car is complete we can race right? First you have to pass tech, no big deal but then you also have to endure the “judges” scrutinizing. There are two guys dressed as court room judges complete with gavels that pour over your car and insist that you are a liar and a cheater. They want to assess as many penalty laps as they can based on the Bull S**t Factor.

BSF points are based upon the judges decisions that you paid more than $500 for the car and or its performance enhancements or you are generally violating the spirit of the rules which is, s**t box cars for s**t box racing.

Luckily we got away with only one penalty lap. This means we start the race at negative one laps. They gave us one because they thought we were cheating but couldn’t prove it. Oh yeah and Rob called one of the judges a donkey, which probably didn’t help us but was funny. Penalties were normally between 5 and 30 laps. One team brought an all out race car and were assessed a 200 lap penalty from the start. More on them later.

The 24 hours of LeMons is technically a non contact race despite what you may find on YouTube etc. More on that later but the point is don’t bring a car you can’t afford to roll home in a little ball, if it’s not in one to begin with already. Oh, and to discourage cheating further, one car is voted on by its peers to be crushed by a 62 ton excavator. It truly is something to behold. More on that later as well as a link to the actual video. Aren’t you excited?

THE TRACK:

Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP) in Kershaw SC. Here is a track map for the race. In this configuration the track is 9/10's of a mile give or take.

TRACK MAP FOR THE RACE!

Executive Summary of our Performance:

I know, I know, blah, blah, blah, I don’t care about this anyway just tell me what happened. Okay here it is. Team Mustache Ride finished 12^th overall and 5^th in class. There are four classes in the Lemons and the judges also decide where you fall into these categories. They are; PW-prayer of winning, NPW-no prayer of winning, PF- prayer of finishing and NPF. We were in the NPW class. We finished 474 of 512 laps. The winner of the race did 512 laps over the 14 hours of racing.

MY RACE RECAP:

The race is set up as follows. Saturday race begins at noon and runs until 7:30 PM. Sunday race starts at 8:30 AM, stops from 11-12 to observe the quiet hour and resumes from 12 to 3:30. Actually went to 3:45 so we could finish the race under green flag conditions.

Our driver line up in order was JP, Steven, Me, Rob and then Ian. We inverted the order on Sunday.

Saturday started off great, we made up our negative one laps and then some. With three Spec E30 veterans leading the charge on our team we were gaining ground fast and completely embarrassing MLT as was expected. I was nearing the end of my stint, about an hour and a half in when it all went wrong. We were the overall race leader and had a 6 lap advantage over the second place car, see here:

BEER TECH LEADS LEMONS!!!

There were several lengthy cautions during both days as cars would inevitably give up and refuse to cooperate. The track would go full course caution as the wreckers came out to scrape up the remains and drag the steaming piles back into the pits.

When the track is FCY there is no passing. Once the green flag comes back out its easy to be caught asleep at the wheel and have many cars pass you. On the last restart of my stint I did like a always do and pass a ton of cars going into the chicane. This restart was no different except the #8 Miata (the car who was 200 laps down to start the race) tried to follow me, misjudged the braking zone and absolutely crushed me in the right rear. I’ve never been hit that hard in a car before. See the video here:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BRIAN'S RACE FOOTAGE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

He knocked me through the tire barrier and through another car. He also managed to cave our right rear fender in against the tire. I had to limp around the track a full lap and into the pits where we went to work on the car.

We managed to get it banged out and stop the rubbing and get the car going again but we lost 30 minutes doing so. At about 1 minute 10 seconds per lap, this hurt our lead a little. We also got a 30 minute penalty for metal to metal contact! For getting rear ended. How do you like that? Then we were black flagged as soon as we got the car on track because we didn’t report to timing and scoring right after the incident to serve our penalty. Lame.

After that Rob and Ian kept it pretty clean and brought the car home for the night. All we did Saturday night was adjust our rear end a little more, rotate tires, flip brake pads and bleed the brakes. We were good to go for Sunday.

SUNDAY:

With an 8:30 AM race start and this truly being a full team effort, we took it easy on the partying Saturday night. We watched MLT battle several problems from afar. Man, I sure do love work. I could watch it all day.

We got Ian on track early and were the second car out. We started clean and he had a good run save one spin due to oil in turn one. Rob was up next and did well keeping the shiny side up.

The race was stopped at 11:00 for the quite hour and was a good time to crown the Peoples Curse. This was the car I mentioned earlier that would be crushed. It was decided by all the teams in the race and voted on. Looks like our pals at Salazar Racing or SaladBar as we refer to them, made lots of friends with their driving “style” on Saturday. See the video here:

SALAD BAR GETS CRUSHED!

Their T-shirts were pretty good though, I have to admit. “F**k BeerTech’s Mom” More like…F’ yo car homies! Man that made me feel good inside to see that happen. Does that make me a bad person? I did truly feel bad to see the poor E30 get crushed but it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys!

The race resumes at noon with me behind the wheel. I’m feeling good out there and car is still in decent shape, well, for what it was. It was still going and kind of stopping and turning also which is nice. Sunday was hot and dry. My stint Saturday was mostly wet and more than half of it was in pretty heavy rain. I like driving in the rain so I loved it. Sunday was a good change and was fun to get some dry laps in. I kept it clean tried to take care of the car but I was racing hard when I needed to. Camera was full so unfortunately no video from Sunday of me.

The car was doing great as long as you kept the heat turned on so it didn’t overheat. The little 318 was a champ but you can only beat on it so much. Steven was after me and as he went on track it was double yellow. He passed some cars under yellow and got black flagged. This gave us a 5 minute penalty and he came right back in to serve it. After he went back out the temp gage began to rise after about 30 – 40 mins or so. It quickly pegged in the red and he brought the car in.

We topped off the coolant after finding no obvious signs of a problem and then JP went out to finish the race. He was quickly back in and straight into the pits. Overheating again. Looking over the car we again saw no obvious issue. We bled the cooling system and this seemed to help. JP went back out after several lost minutes in the pits and was able to finish the race and bring us home in 12^th place. Nice work Team Mustache Ride. Looking forward to next year’s LeMons!

Some things I learned:

SC’s highways are amazingly road kill free I found out. Steven and I went out with Malt Liquor Tech Friday night looking for road kill. What else are you going to do with purpose built trap door in your trunk rigged up with a latch for the driver to pull? Put some road kill back there of course.

Ian got new nickname. He kind of grew a Wolverine style mustache/beard thing and he is a ginger kid so of course he was called the Gingerine for the weekend. Has a nice ring to it don’t you think?

Never let a Miata get in your trunk, the next day, your car will really hurt. That context may only be good to Chapelle show fans but I like it.

Bring documentation to the judges at LeMons for your car to avoid penalties.

Overall the LeMons was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again. Another great weekend at the track with BeerTech, MLT and Salazar. Good to see you guys as always, hopefully you got all the good bits off of that car before it was “disqualified.”

---Brian Jones BeerTech Racing #380, Team Mustache Ride #88

Back from Lemons!!!

2008-07-28T05:14:00.001-07:00

Beertech Racing's 24 Hours of Lemons 2008 effort is now complete. The results are a two sided coin: we and the car actually completed the weekend, much to our surprise. We are very VERY disappointed however, as we were solidly in the overall lead most of the day Saturday (again, much to our surprise), until a certain cheater Miata demonstrated its driver's lack of talent, and hit us hard on the right rear corner, cutting our tire and causing a lot of headaches, and effectively putting us out of the running.

Even with that, we had a great time and are scheming for our next years effort, learning the lessons of this year, and we'll be ready, cheater miatas or not.

More results and pictures as they become available!

Bobert aka Team Mustache Ride's Official Anchor

Zero Hour for 24 hours der Lemons!

2008-07-25T11:14:00.001-07:00

After a lot of work on all of our parts, especially JP and Brian, the Beertech entry for the 24 Hours of Lemons- Team Mustache Ride- is close to completion, with a full cage, race seats, cool suit apparatus, fire suppression, race tires, etc etc. The final touch will be some clandestine visual enhancements to be performed tonight, most likely under the influence of Miller Lite, at the Track.

Saturday morning, the rest of Team Mustache Ride will arrive at the track, including me (Type Rob), our Yankee hotshoe Klaus, and Head Crew Chief Big Tom. Cigars, beers, lots of meat and lots of ice are packed and ready to go.

Pictures, stories, and videos will be shared as soon as they are available

Until then, take care, and don't let your PBR get too warm...

July 2008 Firecracker Run at CMP by BTR #380

2008-07-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Weekend Recap:

FRIDAY:
6.5 hours for me on the road means no enduro this time. I did show up in time to catch the end of the race and hear the lies from everyone about their motorsport prowess as usual. I knew it was going to be a good weekend when I started hearing about the MLT enduro award party favors...I mean c'mon, who dosen't like live chickens, malt liquor and fireworks? Sign me up!

SATURDAY:
Race was awesome. very intense, hard fought and a lot of fun. I qualified 10th but got a DNF for aggressive driving, doh! (would have been 4th but woulda, shoulda, coulda right?). Im fine with taking the DNF, it was completely my own fault. Ill post video as soon as its done uploading.

We had a standing start and I dropped the clutch with a few too many RPM's and spun the tires through first and most of second gear. Once the tires hooked up I was shot right past M3Bill on the outside and clear into T1. Lots of close racing ensued with R. Allen, R. Patton, Al Taylor, S. Canterbury and probably a few others.

I do want to apologize to Robert Allen again for running him off track. I feel really bad about that because it could have been a bad incident. Luckily Robert has great car control skills and managed to get the car back on track without hitting anything.

I botched T14, hit the rumble strips and then had to down shift into second. This gave R. Allen a good run on me and he went to the outside. As we approached the start/ finish line in a true drag race he was gaining. if all went as it should have we would have been side by side at turn in for one and I would have had the inside, no big deal. But since I was feeling racey, I wanted to practice some of what Ive been taught in my few races thus far.

As we went down the straight I started to take a line to the out side of the track to one, get a better approach into T1 and two, squeeze Robert to the edge of the track to defend T1. As I did so, I went a little too far and hit Robert right before the start/finish line. My passenger door hit his front wheel and he got sideways and went screaming off track in a cloud of tire smoke and dirt. I continued on but did feel terrible. I really didn't mean to hit him and it was a stupid thing to do. That was near the end of the race, and you can see it in the video.

I finished the race but was called up to Timing & Scoring to get a talking to and receive my DNF. I didn't argue.

Sat Race>>>http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8262836003680570314&hl=en

SUNDAY:
Sunday was a great race also, Qualified 7th, started 3rd and finished 6th after all the cheaters got by me. ;)
See video for action!

Sun Race>>> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7184612890027446906&hl=en
Of course there was some drama Sunday morning. As we made our way through the grass pre qualifying to take a team BTR photo with all three cars, I heard a loud clunking coming from the right front. Didn’t hear it on track but the front end felt a little funny when I ran through the kink, a 100+ MPH turn that you use a lot of curb in. When the front end would "land" after hitting the curb the car would bounce a little.

It turned out that the gland nut holding the strut in place was completely loose. Seems these have a way of working themselves loose. This left me with no right front shock, only a spring and my anti roll bar. Disassembled the front end, screwed the gland nut back in place and all was good once again. Seems the same thing happened to JP's car and Jim Robinsons the event prior. Will have to add this to the tech check before race weekends.

Congrats to R. Allen for a great Qualifying (2nd overall), and a great race (2nd place finish)

OFF TRACK HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Found out chickens can fly...sort of. and they will sleep in a tree.
2. Heard some of Travis' top shelf game for the ladies...pretty solid.
3. BRE Luke likes to have live chickens in his trailer at bed time.
4. Bicycle > pit bike...again.
5. Scott Mc can draw a kick ass possum on anything.
6. IndyJim has a generally negative disposition.
7. SC does have some laws that will be enforced...who knew?
8. Turnip can wreck anything with a motor.
9. As suspected, Sasha and Geeger are confirmed nancies.

Thanks for reading the blog, tune in for more accounts of the weekend and look for the 24 Hours of LeMons, should be ....interesting....

Brian- Car #380

Lemons Car Update

2008-06-15T15:09:00.001-07:00

Finally got started on our steed. Stage one is to gut the thing, and I got most of that done today. I really need a garage. JP and Brian are picking to car up this week to take it to the Beertech Lake Retreat, where the prepping will continue. I remembered why I hate northern cars.

A couple of pictures...

Beertech goes Guerrilla

2008-06-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Beertech Racing Goes Guerrilla!

This is just a small update, but a precursor to a frenzy of near future updates. Beertech Racing (and its subsidiaries, trusties, hangers-on, lackies, and wenches), have officially been accepted into the 2008 24 Hours of Lemons on July 26 at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC (http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events/carolina/ ). We are excited because this event embodies the very essence of Beertech, and of course we’ll get to drink during the festivities (once the cars are parked that is)

Due to an unforeseen personnel change, Beertech Racing is pleased to announce that a member of our chief competitors, Malt Liquor Tech, will be putting on his drinking shoes and trying to hang with the big dogs. Hopefully Steven won’t embarrass us too badly, or at least no worse than we already do to ourselves (I’m looking at you Ian…). The storm of mudslinging has already begun, although hopefully both teams have better drivers than they do shit-talkers.

On the equipment side, a wonderful young Indian lady was gracious enough to total one of the Beertech Wench’s daily drivers, and now that a suitable replacement has been found, our trusty steed is being prepared to carry us onto the fields of battle, conquer the competition, and still start (hopefully) the next day. Pictures of our weapon of choice will soon be posted.

That’s all for now, please be on the lookout for updates in the near future!

Type Rob

Roebling Road Raceway BeerTech #380

2008-05-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

RRR? Yeah…I was there. IFU2?...done.

I hated this track 4 years ago. I was there once for a DE during my first or second year of chasing the coveted HPDE championship. I was in my E36 M3 and this was before the track was resurfaced. I never did get comfortable on track and being new to HP driving didn’t like the various amounts of grip or lack thereof provided by the different surfaces.

I was excited to get back and try the new surface in my raze car. I kept hearing about what a great track it was to race on and after missing last years IFU I was chomping at the bit to try it out again.

I felt great once on track and after taking almost all of 2007 off from driving/racing, I felt like I was getting back to the level of confidence and comfort that I was used to.

Saturday- Practice was great, took it easy learning the line again and feeling out the track. Thanks to Mike Skeen for lots of good tips while we were walking the track on Friday, I was paying attention and able to remember what he said and apply it. That really sped up the process for me. I also learned quite a bit following R Patton around, nice work Robert, we had a lot of very close racing that was a hell of a lot of fun.

Qualifying was good, I qualified 9th and finished 9th in the sprint race. I was extremely happy with that performance. Had some great racing with Al Taylor and was able to hold him off at the end.

IFU. I started in the last spot of the 4th group and was moving up pretty quick, I caught lots of people and was running great until the restart. At the start stand it was Pantas, Lear, Skeen, Damion and I at the front. I had a good start and was holding my own coming out of 2 when Skeen and I had to quickly split Scott Lear, me to the inside Skeen to the outside.

Having successfully negotiated that situation, I promptly went wide in 4 and off track trying to keep the fast guys behind me. Oops. Oh well, I had good racing with Foushee for several laps and had great runs on him out of 9 but the car was starting to starve. I was getting starvation after turns 2 and 9 consistently with about ½ tank of fuel. I had a great run on Steve coming out of 9 on the last lap and would have passed him for the position but the car fell on its face and he was able to hold me off for 19th place.

Sunday: Wow, I thought I was feeling good during qualifying and my suspicions were confirmed when the times came out. 7th place. Uh oh, this means someone will be coming up quick! JP was right behind me as well as Travis and Geegar. I knew this was going to mean no mistakes to keep my hard earned spot. Oh yeah, Sasha was back there too but he was my whipping boy all weekend so he was more of a chicane for the others. Thanks for the help buddy.

I was holding my own for most of the race up front. I think I was up there until lap 2 or 3 when I went off for the first of my 3 offs. (Turns 6,7 and a good one in 9) I managed to turn my 7th position start into a solid 18th spot finish. Get some. I was bummed about not keeping it on track but I was still happy overall. I knew my comfort level was going to be pushed a little further and I needed that. Don’t worry, I’m coming. Give me some time to work on my race craft and consistency and chumps like Geiger and Wilson will be back where they belong…with Jim Robinson behind Beertech. That’s right, you just read that. ;)

Unfortunately I screwed up the AV portion of my weekend pretty good. I have no IFU footage, bummer, ½ of Sundays race and I think all of Saturdays race. I also didn’t have the image stabilizer on so the videos aren’t very good. Ill post what I have, hopefully some of it is good.

Thanks for reading teh blog. -Brian Jones BTR #380

Back in the Saddle Again!!!

2008-05-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

This was officially my second race weekend ever and first with the NASA South East group. I did run the 3 hour enduro at RA with Scott Mc but not the sprint races. I now have my four races (2 from last year at VIR) in my rookie booklet and off it goes for an actual comp license. Now on with the recap….

Friday: was going to be nice and relaxed. A leisurely ride to CMP, unload, hang out and crew for the enduro boys. I had been itching to do the enduro myself, as I have only been to CMP once and that was 3 or 4 years ago and I wanted the seat time. In the weeks leading up to the event I couldn’t find a driver willing to drive my non ABS car nor could I find anyone dumb enough to let me drive their car….and then there was Geeger.

JP and I talked Craig into doing the enduro with little effort as he already wanted to do it anyway. It was fun until we retired early so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings by winning the whole thing. It would have been awkward for the rest of the weekend you know? I’m pretty sure we were leading when we had to pull it behind the wall. We had a slow leak in the left rear tire that was getting worse every lap and shaking the car apart.

I drove the first stint and a couple of laps in I swore I flat spotted the front tires in one of the braking zones. This was the first time I’ve experienced a tire going down at speed on the track. It feels just like having a flat spotted tire that keeps getting worse.

Weather was great all day until the evening when the storm rolled in. We had a great lightning show for about an hour and then Al said….”Hey, I think it may start to rain soon.” And then a split second later the skies opened up and absolutely poured on us until Saturday night. Awesome. This meant that Casey, JP’s brother, would be sleeping in the BeerTech Motor Home with us instead of his tent. I can still hear the snoring. That was remedied for Sat night.

Saturday: Since I got zero sleep thanks to the Snore-a-saurus, I was wide awake as the rain poured down and filled my race car full of water. I enjoy driving in the rain but having a car with no ABS and no rain tires makes for interesting sessions. Practice, Q and race were all very wet and slippery. I changed tires three times for three sessions that day. talk about soaking wet. I Qualified 13th then finished 15th and a big thanks goes to Steve Foushee for selling me some rain tires that I had mounted for the race.

We had a rolling start and I didn’t start well. I dropped two spots right off the bat. I was running well besides the fact that I could not stop the car in any of the braking zones. I would start to brake, lock up, release, lock up, release, turn in, at every corner. It was interesting and manageable for a while until I went off in 14 once and lost two spots, oops. I got those two back but in 15th is where I stayed. It was a lot of fun though. Scott Gress and I had a great run for a while and I managed a last turn pass for 15th!

Sunday: Beautiful day once the sun came out. Qualifying was wet at 8:50 AM. Nice. Back to shaved tires I went and managed to qualify 10th. I had a decent start and a good race. Steve Foushee and I had a great race together for several laps, should be good video. Thanks to Steve for the clean, fun racing. I managed to finish 8th.

Over all a very good weekend for me on the track and as always, the Spec E30 community is amazing. What a great group of people and a fantastic bunch of racers as well. Its great to finally have all three Beer Tech cars back on track. Thanks to NASA-SE as well for again dealing with the weather and keeping things on schedule. I cant wait for Roebling and the IFU2. Maybe Canterbury can bring some chicken to cook up?

Brian Jones car #380

CMP Report from BeerTech #467

2008-04-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

I pulled into CMP friday afternoon at around 1:30 and committed to be the fire bottle/fueler for 3 teams (BeerTech, Malt Liquor Tech and #82 car). The sky looked threatening but didn't interfere with the race. It was interesting to be a part of each teams strategy to beat the other. In the end it came down to team MLT making a bad call on a fuel stop. If they had filled up all the way... they could have had the overall win. But I'm sure the #2 car (Al's car number not a reference to the condition of the car) team is happy with the 2nd place trophy.

Friday night was a low-key affair. Hamburgers, hot dogs and a few spiked beers. After a fairly impressive light show (complements of mother nature) the sky opened up, blew our tent into a worthless ball of metal and fabric then proceeded to rain... and rain... and rain.

Saturday was wet and miserable most of the day. Practice was alright but the track during qualifying was some of the worst conditions I have ever been out on. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. I couldn't even keep the car in a straight line on the straights. I qualified 16th out of the 19 cars that showed up (3 cars either didn't go out or didn't do a full lap)... so I was dead last. And after watching the Thunder race I was telling everyone I wasn't going to race because I didn't have rain tires... of course I was saying this as I'm putting on my drivers suit and climbing into my car.

While race conditions were far better than qualifying it was still pretty slick. My fastest lap was a 2:10.498. But none of that mattered. It was a great race and it was the first race where we had all three of the BeerTech cars actually racing. JP started somewhere up front (1st I think?) and Brian and I started towards the rear. Things started off cleanly and without any of the turn one excitement that was seen in the February race.

I had Brian in my sights for the first several laps but with my tires being what they were, he was slowly putting some distance between us... that was until I passed him as he tested the waters of the outside line coming out of turn 14. From there I was able to move up spots but the highlight of the race was on the last lap, when coming out of turn 8 I got in front of IndyJim as he was coming back on to the track after a spin. We had a great race all way to the start finish. We were drag racing down the front straight while all the cars passing the start/finish line were almost coming to a complete stop. With Jim and I door to door... I wasn't going to lift until I reached the finish line. I'm not sure if I was more than an inch or 2 ahead of him or if our transponders were if different locations, but it didn't matter. I had beaten the February, 2008 CMP 6th Place Award Winner.

Sunday didn't start out as sunny and clear as we had hoped. For qualifying we were the second group to hit the track and there were still several slick spots. I got behind some traffic that was wasn't going to willingly let me by so I came in early (2 laps left) and settled for my 12 place starting spot.

I completely blew the start by spinning my wheels and then shifting to 2nd with nothing to go on. I got passed by 3-4 cars before ever even getting to turn 1. I was able to work my was past a few cars and played leap frog with Bob Chrystler most of the race. The highlight of the race (for me) was on lap 11, when I caught up to the Pink Panther, Gasman and Bob going into turn 1. We were all bunched up and we 3 wide coming out of turn 3 and I was able to pass all 3 of them.

Soon after that, my brakes had started to fade and I was having a much tougher time going into 1, 11 and 14... and my lap times had started to go up. Steven's #77 had been reeling me in for a while and I could no longer fight him off. Going into the kink with a lap and a half to go, he moved ahead and held on to that top 10 finish that I've been chasing since the start of the race.

While 11th is pretty good—especially when you consider the level of drivers that were in our 19 car field, I was mostly pleased with the fact that I left CMP with the 9th fastest lap of the day (1:54.963), the satisfaction of knowing I'm improving my performance (with lots of room for improvement), and that I still have my car and friendships in tack.

Looking forward to RRR and the IFU2... oh and a 10th or better finish

Some random off season pics

2008-01-14T08:50:00.001-08:00

Twas the night before BeerTech Christmas

2008-01-11T04:43:00.001-08:00

'Twas the night before BeerTech Christmas, when all through the house
Not a person was stirring, except for Brian who was concerned about the Russian Army
Scott and Shelby has prepared the house with diligence and care
In hope that a Santa Klaus soon would be there
Little did they know he blew all his cash
On booze and cheap floozies and now has a cream for that rash

The boys were nestled all snug in their beds
While vision of Lemons (24 hours of) danced in their heads
Rob with his coozie and Brook with her cloak
Had just settled down for a long trip back

When from the back of the house there arose such a clatter,
We all sprang from our beds to see what was the matter
Away to the bathroom we flew in a flash
Tore open the door only to turn back
It was the Puke-A-Potamus giving his drinks back

Then he was harassed into his E30 with Lisser in tow
And away down the street giving the gear box a good row

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

This bedtime story has been brought to you by Ian "Santa" Klaus
(BeerTech Director of Operations)

I lost something at Roebling

2008-01-10T20:58:00.001-08:00

With the start of the 2008 season fast approaching, I wanted to weigh in on the last Spec E30 race of 2007 for BearTech. Roebling Road may be one of the further tracks for us to haul (350+ miles), but it's worth every bump South Carolinas I-95 has to offer. The track was resurfaced last fall and that has earned it the BeerTech seal of approval. The votes were split after our last trip down there in 2005 (or was it '04?) for an HPDE with the Dark Side/ Sand Piper PCA. While RRR may not have been the best lapping track, it is one hell of a great place to race.

As JP has pretty much covered... this was a great race weekend for all. And while many of the racers were heard to say "this was the best race ever", those words couldn't have been more true for anyone more than they were for me.

I left for the track a day ahead of JP to get some extra track time in Friday's test-n-tune with Seat-Time. Things didn't get off to a very good start, due to RRR management not letting anyone in until the last minute, no schedule available from Seat-Time and the solo group being sent out on track 2 minutes after the drivers meeting.

Not that I'd complain... but REALLY? Even with one missed session, I was able to get in more than enough time on track that I had a much higher comfort level, going into Saturdays race.

It's been a while... so I'll spare you all the hazy details. But in a nutshell... Saturday was OK.

OK... until the Factory 3 IFU Challenge. (read JP's account for the real details)

Starting up front and having the opportunity to race side by side in a way that I hadn't really been able to do... helped me figure a lot of things out.

One of those things was that the guys I'm out there racing with are really good drivers.

Another was that I can race closer to them anywhere on the track... straight aways, braking zones, turns...

And while all those guys were saying "the IFU race way the most fun they had ever had"... The most fun I ever had on a race track was to be the next day. The Sunday race.

As JP has pointed out (thanks JP)... my Sunday qualifying was less than spectacular. Sure, it was on par with all my other back-of-the-pack postings. And I guess there may have been higher expectations after the IFU? But it wasn't from a lack of coffee or the extra beers the night before... I just didn't want to be overly confident. I wanted to make sure my last race of the season wasn't going to be like my first race of the season.

Never to be.

I don't know when or where it happened? But somewhere at Roebling Road I lost that "turn 10" monkey that had been on my back all season long, and I found my confidence.

I didn't give away any track. I mixed it up. I stayed in close a fought for positions—every turn of every lap.

I know I'm no Skeen. I didn't start in the back and work my way to the front in the 2nd lap. But I finished better than I start. Not just in that last race, but in my rookie season.

I can't wait for CMP.

Roebling Road Race Recap

2008-01-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Very late posting, good thing don't have a following that reads this with frequency!

This was by far the best weekend race experience that we have ever had. We is Scott and I as Brian spent another weekend at home clipping coupons for canned food from the paper so he could eat...... And Al actually washed his car, at the track no less.

Aside from the normal two races we run, Factory 3 Performance sponsored an IFU Race (Inverted Field Unlimited). We took the quali times from Sat. and inverted the field. Good times ensued but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The weekend started on Friday with a LONG haul down to Roebling. On the way I managed to loose both my trailer license plate and a trailer brake light. Who knew towing at 100+MPH would do that? After arriving later than planned I set up camp (literally) and unloaded the car in the dark and without cranking it due to Roebling's draconian rules.

At this point in the season I was simply hoping that the motor would hold together long enough to finish the weekend and not explode on track. I set out for my first session on the track in two years and was surprisingly on pace for the mid-pack. I qualified 13th of 22 with Scott posting a nice 19th of 22. I was well ahead of Robinson but shocked to be so far behind Geeger (6th???) Fortunately both would graciously drive off track to help me move up.

I finished the first race 8th ahead of some truly talented driver, and also Geeger and Robinson. It should be noted that both Geeger and Jim practiced all day on Friday while I was towing down..... Scott was able to maintain a clean race and finished in 18th.

After every other race had ended on Sat. the main event was started, the Spec E30 IFU Race. Everyone at the track was there to watch us. I started in 13th and Scott got to start in 4th! Outside second row. This race was absolutely incredible. There was very little time when you weren't involved in some sort of battle with two or three cars. Scott later said that it was like a year's worth of racing experience in 45 minutes. Invaluable to rookies like us.

I had worked my way up to 4th!!!! before I saw a double yellow fly to remove poor Laura from the dirt berm. Oddly, they had us stop single file on the front stretch. Little did we know that they were going to invert us for a second time, madness. I was heart broken as that forth would have been my best race of the year. So, as we restarted I was forth from last, 19th. By the time the dust had settled I crossed the line three wide to finish 8th. I lost out to 6th and 7th by a bumper. Scott crossed the line in a great 15th with a new found aggressiveness that was lacking before.

The night was spent swilling beers to drown the red dogs and mini bike fumes and listing to lies from Travis about how crappy his car is leaving only his talent to blame for his great race. Lame.

Here is the video. Its long and the sound is turned off due to technical difficulties, but it is still exciting to watch:

IFU Video

The Sunday race had me a little worried because the car was acting up a good bit. The alignment, or lack thereof, was making the car very nervous through T3, a very high speed left hander. Also, I was fouling spark plugs every two sessions due to my crapbox motor's dying rings. Last race of the year, oh well.

I quailied 9th. Two spots better than Sat. but Robinson was right on my heels. Lame. Scott qualied 20th obviously hungover on a great IFU race and maybe some beer.

This race didn't do to much for me other than to reinforce the fact that my motor was done. I would get pulled by everyone down the straights. The video really shows this. An early spin in front of the entire field by Damion left the whole field mixed up. I was up to forth when we all came back on track. Feeling out of place I decided to drive straight off in T9. This put me back in a much more familiar 7th. Fortunately for me Robinson and Geeger were kind enough to realize that I had much more talent than themselves and drove their cars off as well. Good job guys!

I followed Patton for the rest of the race and finished 6th, or so I thought. The pink panther car was found to be under weight and was DQ'd. Preesh fellas. I finished 5th and even squeaked some Toyo bucks out of it. Scott however had the race of the day. He went from 20th to finish 13th. His best race of the year.

Sunday Sprint

It was a great end to a wonderful Rookie year. I really hope B. Jones gets to join us for some races next year.

Dirt Track Demo Cross and Firearms Spectacular

2007-11-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

On the weekend of November 3, a small group of individuals was reportedly spotted in Eastern NC engaging in a plethora of activities ranging from marginally rude all the way to extremely offensive to the environment and society in general. While the reports remain vague and unconfirmed, some details about the events that occurred in that corn field have surfaced…..

Weird Al's 1st Annual Dirt Track Demo Cross and Firearms Spectacular!

The participants came from all walks of life, although they were homogenous in a deep appreciation for fire, alcoholic beverages, dented body panels, and violence. Each brought his own talent to the field, whether it be driver's skill, artistic ability, or just ammunition. All brought something to drink.

The event began unenthusiastically, with the Beertech crew arriving first, unable to pinpoint the exact destination, due mainly to the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere, and everything looked pretty much the same. Once their target location was discovered, the quickly went to work implementing a bold plan to create the single most fearsome BMW 320is ever to exist. Thanks to the artistic vision of one recovering weird M-Coupe guy, the 320 quickly became the centerpiece of the event, and a symbol for the lengths at which all the participants would go to have a good time. At 10:15am the first alcoholic beverage was served, and subsequently enjoyed.

The other vehicular participants arrived, and soon after, the Saab was already on its side. There are conflicting reports as to the cause of this incident, but all evidence points to driver error. The Beereck 320 and Weird Al's Audi both ran flawlessly.

At approximately 12:32pm, the firearms were unsheathed, and a defacto state of war resulted. No metal duck was safe; no clay pigeon flew without at least 3 eager shotgunners attempting to take it down. Unfortunately, sometime during the hostilities, the Beereck 320 received two grievous gunshot wounds. There was no driver or passengers in the car at the time.

Once the firing slowed down, the serious racing commenced. The pile of empties was getting large, but reinforcements had arrived with more provisions. The DemoCross was a violent affair, lacking any formal rules or regulations, and the track was challenging, especially with spectators hurling objects at the participants. The racing continued late into the evening, fueled by delicious grilled chicken, innocent deer, and more booze. The cars became battered and bruise, and most kept on running. Bump drafting was encouraged, and in the pits, love taps ruled. The S10 Blazer crapped out early, and was subsequently the victim of a wiring problem and engulfed in flames.

The winners of the actual racing are yet to be determined, although only two vehicles left the field that day: Weird Al's Audi and the Beereck 320. All of the participants are anxious, and ready for Big Al's Dirt Track Demo Cross and Firearms Spectacular…….2008!

Please take a moment to enjoy the artistic vision of Scott M's video:

Pictures to follow.

Road Atlanta: mini report

2007-09-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

As I prepare to head off to Roebling Road for the weekend, and there's no report from Road Atlanta. I'll keep the RA report very brief.

Road Atlanta is an extremely fun track to drive. Scary... but that is what makes it so fun. The combination on hills and blind turns add to the thrill. August is a very hot time of the year. We saw temps over 110°. Factor in the humidity and it was just über hot. Lucky for us, we have cool suits. I really don't know how someone could sit on grid without one.

We had a good time. So much fun it hurt. I'll just leave it at that.

Oh... Thanks to Discovery Parts (www.discoveryparts.com) for the random drawing and the $50 gift certificate.

CMP & VIR Reports

2007-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Don't let the lack of blogging activity fool you into thinking BeerTech hasn't been racing. The truth is, I've been racing every other week for the past month and a half. Three weeks after JP and I raced at Rockingham, I hit CMP with the Southeast guys and gal, then with just one weekend off... I joined the Mid-Atlantic guys for a hot weekend of racing on VIR's north course. And in a few short days, JP and I will be attacking Road Atlanta for the first time. Which quite frankly is why I'm going to crank this race report out. I don't want to have to try to recap 3 races in one report.

CMP | July 14-15

In short, this was another weekend that I'd just as soon forget. I spent the whole weekend just trying to avoid being lapped. I was able to stay with the pack for the 1st lap but after that... they'd just pull away. I was spending all my time just trying to keep the car on track. If the car wasn't plowing though turns it was all over the place. Turns out it was because my whole rear end suspension had worked itself loose. I even had a loose rear axle nut on the drivers side. The combination of the car and the track conditions on Sunday made me think something had busted. Even at low speeds, I couldn't get the car to turn right. I think things were compounded (no pun intended) by running off line and picking up a bunch of rubber and trash. The only upside of the on-track portion of the weekend was I was able to practice driving a very poorly set up car. Something I learned, I'd rather not do again.

Off the track was a totally different experience. In contrast to the hot days, the evenings were nice and cool. The awards ceremony had some added entertainment with Al receiving the coveted 6th place trophy and Brandon winning his first race and the raffled CoolSuit system. The evening however hadn't even started until we ran into Hippy Harry and his stuffed possum. I'm not at liberty to divulge all the details of the evening, but Sunday started with an eerie fog that mysteriously cause several cars to be misplaced.

VIR | July 28-29
With only a week before heading to VIR and a very heavy work load... a questionable rear wheel bearing and whacked out alignment, I decided to let someone else deal with things. So I took my car to Carr Industries. Dropping it off on Wednesday and picking it up on Friday on my way out off town. I was going to just have to hope they'd get everything worked out.

My first test was in Saturday's practice. The car setup was so different from CMP, I had to get used to driving a totally different car. By the time qualifying rolled around I was much more comfortable in the car, out qualifying Canterbury. That may have been the highlight of my weekend and the ego boost I've needed to dial things up. Sadly, come race time... I would fail to complete the race due to an "off" that was triggered by me pushing too hard on greasy tires and Canterbury closing in. Coming through hog pin with 3 laps remaining, I dropped 2 wheels on the outside, came back on too soon... went back across the track and "brushed" the inside Armco, pulling my spoiler half off. All the way off would have been better. I was forced to return to the paddock and free the spoiler.

Not the ending I was looking for, but it was good to run with the pack for a change.

Sunday's quali was not as fruitful. I started 22nd... dead last. The track was HOT and the racing was intense. I was able to take a few positions throughout the race but the most eventful lap was the last. Paul M. had spun ahead of me in the middle of the race (as he tends to do) and was in my rearview for a better part of the race. Closing in as we dropped into roller coaster, I felt confident I was going to be able to keep him from getting past me before the checker. Little did I know, he was going to dive-bomb me in the last right hander... running me off into the grass and taking the position. I was not happy! Especially due to the fact that Paul received the meatball flag (he had been dumping fuel on the track the entire race) with only 3 laps left, but failed to pit. After a heated exchange on track and a much cooler discussion in the paddock, I decided to let it go. Going from 22nd to 17th was good enough for me. I had a good race... stuck with the pack and had a few battles.

However... once the official results were posted (days later), I saw that Paul got moved to the last position and I was awarded 16th place. Nice to know there is justice out there.

Next up Road Atlanta.

And JP's turn to post a report.

Scott's Rock'n Race Report:

2007-06-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Scott's Race Report: BeerTech was still one car shy for NASA's "Roll the Rock" race (June 16-17) at North Carolina Speedway (previously know as Rockingham or better know as the Rock). JP and I were able to make what may have been one of the last races to be held at the track that was at one time one of the southeast's premiere race venues. And let me tell you, that was a long, long time ago. Although the racing was good (better for JP than me… but I'll report on that later) and the garages are a luxury we rarely get to experience—the overall facility is a run down mess. But none of that stopped us from having a great weekend.

The weekend started with checking in and setting up shop on Friday night. Now that our cars are built there's not much more to do than unload the cars. That's nice because that leaves a lot more time for beer and trash talk with the other drivers. While Laura slow cooked her low country boil… that left extra time for the others of us to perfect our beer spiking techniques. While Al, Travis and JP all tried to out match me… this is one area of the weekend where I believe I may have out performed them. On the track however—they currently still have the edge.

For Saturday’s qualifying JP made a fairly strong showing with a 7th position while I brought up the back of the pack with at 11. The up side… I wasn't last. The first race of the day was a 20 minute sprint. You'll have to wait for JP's report to know exactly what went on up front but he had a very strong race. He was able to move up several positions and held Laura and Al off to finish in a very strong 3rd place. Taking the bottom step of the podium, he brought home a nice trophy, some Toyo bucks and a victory for BeerTech. Meanwhile I was able to hold DP off, out last Skeen's POS (just kidding Mike) to take a 10th place finish and win $50 from CDOC.

The second race of the day was fairly uneventful from our perspective. For Mike D however it was a very different story. In the early portion of the race Mike had a pretty scary off that brought the red flag out. By the time I turned into the road course portion of the track, I was looking at the underside of his car. With the passenger wheels digging into the soft sand, he came pretty close to flipping the car. After landing back on all four wheels he's exhaust started a small grass fire. He was able to get out and extinguish whatever was burning.The race came to an abbreviated end but everyone was alright and Mike's car was in one piece. JP ended up in 4th (another strong run) and I was 11th (not so good).

Sunday's qualifying came sooner than I expected. I for some reason (idiot) or another (idiot) failed to take note that there wasn't a practice session. Oops! So without pushing it, I qualified in 10th while JP qualified 5th. Again… you have to get JP's version of what happened up front, because I haven't a clue. I was slow, had a an off and a spin which secured me the bat ottom of the order with a solid 12th place finish. JP fished 7th.

The Hard Rock 3, which is a 55 minute enduro was the 4th and final race of the weekend. For this race—the powers to be decided to invert the starting order. I gotta say, I loved this idea (sort of). Race time came as mercury bubbled up to a nice, balmy 98 degrees. And by balmy, I mean nice thick hot southern sticky air. The only clouds I recall seeing were the ones that came out of JP's tailpipe.

The start of the race was as exciting as you'd expect a spec series to be with all the slow cars up front. Although I still wasn't pushing things as much as I could or should… the inverted start gave me some much needed "in the thick of it" track time. For a while there I thought I was going to be able to battle it out with a few of the other cars, but things just slipped away and I decided to stay on strategy and just go for another finish. The enduro took it's toll on several cars. While fighting his way to the front… JP got a little too familiar with the curbing installed by our good friends at the THSCC, taking him out of the race much earlier than expected. After a long hot race and a close call coming through turn 7… I finished in a somewhat respectable 9th. Too bad CDOC doesn't pay out for that.

Proving the durability of an E30, Mike D came back from his little scare the day before and took the top of the podium in both of the Sunday races.

All in all, it was a great weekend.
Bitter sweet in some ways…
but it was still another weekend at the track.

–Scott

NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge

2007-05-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

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

BeerTech Spring Cook-Out

2007-05-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

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

Carolina Motorsports Park Recap

2007-05-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

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

CMP this weekend

2007-05-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

Rob in a cave

2007-05-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

Rockingham Race Recap

2007-04-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I know its a bit late, but here is my story of my second race weekend at Rockingham:

I spent the morning getting ready for practice and making sure I had all of my excuses for being slow lined up. Fortunately, I was able to use one immediately as I only did one "hot" lap before I felt a nasty thumping/gallop from the right front. This is especially scary with the high banking that Rockingham has. I brought it in fearing the worst and it only turned out to be loose lugs on the right front. I must have forgotten to tighten those down while telling lies to Travis and Al. Whoops! Even with loose lugs an one lap in, I was still only 3 seconds off the pace. I ran a 1:15.8 for the first practice session.

With the lugs all secured, it was time for quali. I had some good clean laps and even got to dice a little with a white 944 for the last two laps. I ran a 1:11.776 putting me squarely into 6th out of seven racers. Not as fast as I wanted, but it would suffice. Robert Patton took the pole with a blistering 1:08.917! That is an eternity faster on such a small track.

When race time came I found that I was surprisingly calm and relaxed as I was sitting on grid waiting to go out. The green flag fell and I got and alright start. I found myself staring at the car in front of my instead of the starter. I settled into position and started racing. On about the third or forth lap, Steven Canterbury pulled a perfect pass into the braking zone for turn 3. This rattled me a bit because I've never actually been passed for position. I tucked in behind and focused on staying with him for the next few laps. The chance to take back my position came in turn 4, fishhook. Steven was running wide on turn in and leaving the door open. I trail-braked in and snuck along side him. I got a great run out of the turn and the position was mine. Steven follow me the rest of the race, never really letting me relax. Al Taylor overheated early allowing me to finish 5th for my 3rd ever race.

Results:

Robert Patton
Mike Skeen
Travis Wilson
Laura Patton
JP Coates
Steven Canterbury
Al Taylor

The second race was a combined race with the faster group. They used our fastest race lap to grid us for the race. I ran a 1:10.862, my fastest of the weekend. This had me starting 5th out of eight racers. Al got by early and then promptly overheated again (thanks Al). Steven, David Herrington and myself all diced for the entire race. I got shuffled back to last place and fought back up to finish 5th. That was a great race. There was never a dull moment as I was either passing, being passed, or watching my mirror to anticipate a pass the entire time.

Sunday:
Sunday morning we all got up with great expectations only to have them doused by nice rain showers. Stephen got an emergency phone call from his wife and had to pack up and leave first thing (everything was OK later). However, before he left, he let me use his rain tires for our first race. I qualified 3rd less than a second behind the pole. I LOVED the rain.

At the start I got a good run on Al, who was second, and pulled along side him before the banking. However, I forgot that I was in third and when I hit the rev limiter, Al pulled ahead. David Herrington then came from no where and passed me putting me back to 4th. Al and Herrington checked out in the lead while I was racing with Robert Patton. He has a VERY strong motor and would pull me substantially down the straight away and through the banking. I was turning faster laps but I couldn't get past him the whole race. Finally at the end Travis and I got by him with one lap to go. I held Travis off for the entire lap until the last turn. I ran a very defensive inside line while Travis swung wide and got a great run off of turn 7 and pulled up beside me. It was a drag race to the finish from there. When we crossed the line, I was ahead by a fender for third place. My first, and probably only one this year.

My time from the first race again put me 3rd on the grid for the 4th and final race of the weekend. This one was going to be an hour long. The rain was going off and on in between the races. When race time rolled around, the entire Spec E30 field had made the call to run on dry tires. As the pace car pulled off, rain drops started to fall. This is where I was taught a valuable lesson by Robert Patton - The apron is a racing surface. I had a great run on Travis and Al and this time I even remembered to shift to 4th!. I looked in my mirror and saw Robert closing fast so I moved down to the apron line to defend the position. The next thing I know Robert is on the dirty flat apron of the track flat out passing everyone. The apron was so dirty with rubber and dirt that he literally had a rooster tail of debris coming off of his tires.

This is where the mess happens. As the pack rounds turn seven headed for the start/finish there is a wall of rain - and we're all on shaved dry tires! It was raining so hard that if I was driving on the street, I would have pulled over. The top 4 guys; Al, Robert, Travis, and David all checked out as I limped my car around. They got out to about a half lap lead on me. I was just going fast enough to keep Laura Patton behind me. This was not easy. The rain only lasted about 5 min. Then it was time to play catch-up. The leaders were racing and catching traffic and there were caution flags everywhere which means no passing. I had clear track and put my head down and tried to run fast laps. I caught Herrington with about 4 laps to go. In the meantime, Travis had gone off in Turn 1 and was stuck in the gravel trap. It came down to the last lap with me right on David's bumper. I tried to stick the nose inside in every corner and even got beside him coming out of fish hook, but I couldn't make it stick. I crossed the line in 4th.

Al ended up winning the race with Patton in 2nd and Herrington in 3rd. Great race and a great learning experience for me.

All in all this was by far the best track weekend I've every experienced. The racing was close and clean and the camaraderie and sportsmanship of the Southeast racers is unparalleled. Rockingham is really not a very nice track but after this weekend, I'll be at every race they have there.

To quote Travis "This ain't no high school beer party"

JP

Car 467: on its way back

2007-04-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Between receiving my Comp License and qualifing for my first race there was the dreaded Armco of turn 10.

TURN 10 Clip

Cold tires + cold track + cold brain = bad day at the track. Good thing a bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office ; )

The damage was ugly but not beyond repair. The car hasn't been totally put back together yet, but she's in the capable hands of Steve Bassen (of Bassen Auto Body in Winston-Salem) and on her way to a full recovery. The photo above is of the new nose and the photo to the right is what the damage looked like. If all goes as planned... we'll be back on track for the May 4th race at CMP.

Beertech Takes too the ROCK

2007-04-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

Today, as the sole surviving Beertech car, will race at Rockingham "the dirt track" as Brian calls it. Its an old Nascar track that we use with 28 degree banking. We hit "Nascar" turns one and two and then use the infield section. Its notoriously touch on the cars so lets hope that the last intact Beertech car stays intact!

2007-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Brian had a tough weekend at VIR this past weekend. The damage is 90% cosmetic which means he should be back on track by May/June.

Above is perfect shot of how we roll; banged up race car being repair with a beer in hand! Get some of that.

Sasha, one of our buddies and part time BeerTecher, sent us a great recap of his weekend via email:

"So, can I peel the sticker off the back of my car?
The BeerTech curse continues. Check out the attached
photos documenting damage to my car on the BeerTech
sticker side. Jens spun Carter in the uphill esses,
so I was ahead of Carter! It didn't take him long to
catch us, though. He passed me on the back straight
after a lap or two. As I followed him into Roller
Coaster, I thought I'd learn from the master. I
followed him, trail breaking, rotating the car, and
hooking up after a brief slide. Then...wham! Matt
Olson had gotten in the marbles behind me, then the
infield, and then my passenger side. He booted me off
the track sideways and I dirt-tracked it over to the
turn before Hog Pen, still ahead of Matt (for the rest
of the race, too). Yeah Son, that's the way I roll!
Now I've got work to do on the car that's no fun to
pay for. There was a big to-do after the race. I got
impounded, had to write an incident report, and then
had to defend my racing to Jimmy and Piloti. Ultimately
I got signed off, though, so I'm no longer
"provisional." I still suck though. By the way, my
fuse blew on the transponder, so I don't register on
the results. I finished behind Laura Patton, again.

To give you some idea of the BeerTech curse, I'll tell
you about the other photos. I was chasing Laura all
race. As I came across the start/finish, a Sports
Racer came up to lap me yet again. He got the
checker, which fucked me up for a second (I had to
process that I was still under green). Realizing that
I had just one more lap, I went for broke to catch
Laura. In turn 4 I got sideways like I had been doing
all day. It was a sloppy strategy, but it was
working. I let go of the wheel for a self-correction
like I had been doing, but it didn't work (I think I

got on the throttle too soon). I ended up losing it
big time, going all over and heading off the track at
T5 straight for the Armco. I was on the brakes hard,
but not slowing much on the dirt and grass. Just as I
was about to impact, I remembered that steering was an
option, too. I stopped braking and turned. It
worked, and I grazed the tire wall (see the skid marks
by my tail lights and the edge of my rear view). It
was like it happened in slow motion--I could see the
corner worker leaning out of his gazebo to watch my
bite it and then give me the nod of approval as I
escaped disaster by about .25"!

Sorry more of you weren't around to keep me company.
We all need to get drunk and do some body work.
And just maybe, peel all the BeerTech stickers off to
lose the curse!"

Sasha

What is Beer Tech?

2007-03-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

The most frequent question any of us have to answer is "What is BeerTech?", or more accurately "What the hell is this BeerTech crap?" Well, honestly, we're still answering that question. It started out as a few friends with common interests -- namely things with engines, moderate BAC levels, and being cheap. Our group comes from all walks of life, but we're all just regular guys who would rather get a little dirty and figure out how to fix something than drop off our cars with a stranger, pay through the nose and hope we don't get ripped off. So that's where we're coming from with this, and I suspect we are not alone. Our type has been around since the first monkey used a stick to get at fire ants, so in this regard we're not special. What we are trying do here is to translate our work into a resource for anyone, like us, who has the will but not the knowledge to get the job done. BeerTech seldom takes the traditional proper" path in our endeavors. We're not UAW workers; we haven't graduated from BMW's STEP Program. Hell, Ian can't even spell graduated, and he went to Wake Forest. But what we lack in skill, or resources, we make up for in pure, unadulterated enthusiasm. Frankly, that's all you need.

We're Live

2007-03-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

BeerTech Racing goes teh blog.