Dirt Track Demo Cross and Firearms Spectacular

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

Hooray BEER!

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

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

Hooray Rob!

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

-Scott

Car 467 Returns to Action

Just a quick Update:

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

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

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

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

Scott... Out