Car 467: on its way back

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

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!

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?

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

BeerTech Racing goes teh blog.