Posts (page 2)
We have been having a great race so far here in Mexico despite some very frustrating circumstances. Everyone knows which car is the fastest, #105 from Monroe Washington. Our competition will not look us in the eye anymore and all of our friends including many of the race officials are rooting for us. They like to see new cars running fast since the same ones have been winning for the last ten years.
We won every speed stage on day two by a lot but the police escort screwed up with our group of cars that got delayed during a transit stage due to a head on collision. The cops led us to the hotel and we missed the final speed stage. The way the rules are written in LaCarrera is if any car makes the speed stage the whole field that did not make it gets that persons time. Since 25 cars made it we got an average time for those cars. Sill finished second for the day.
Day three was going as well as day two and we won every stage again and tied one. At the race track we were on pace for a blistering time in our six lap run. As I let off of the throttle at the end of the backstretch on my fifth lap, the engine blew up. We are not sure what happened for sure but the oil pan has dents in it on one side so it is not good whatever it is. We were super tired after five days of little sleep and tons of work on the car but once again Scott, Eddie,Darrell Mclean,Dad and I worked all night to swap the engine for our spare one (150 less horsepower). We fired it at 7:30 am and everything looked and sounded good so we went up to the room, washed our hands and face, and jumped in the car for another whole day. I cannot stress enough how blessed we are to have such a wonderful crew down here. It was difficult staying awake during the 150 km of transit but when the green flag dropped, we were able to fly just as before. I had to figure out driving this engine with a lot less power but my experience running a crate engine at Evergreen Speedway this year helped a lot. We finished second overall on day four and I flopped down on to the bed when we arrived to the hotel and slept from 6:30 pm until 6:30 am.
Today will be a challenge as we will drive back up the stage that we raced down yesterday. The small engine may show up a little more in todays run but we will give it our best and see what happens. Thank you all for your prayers and comments. All of the support from home is really appreciated. Every waking minute down here is a thrash so please forgive me for not responding to all of your great comments. Talk to you all soon....
I have been standing in a line in the lobby of our hotel for about 30 minutes to get to the computer and have 3 people waiting for me now so I´ll have to make this short.
Thursday was qualifying and after all of our issues in scrutineering, was a breath of fresh air to us. We did not get to find out how we did until the drivers meeting that night and it was torture waiting for the results. I felt really good about the run but you just don´t know what you are up against at a race like this with professional drivers form around the world. They waited to announce our class because it is the premier division and when they began reading the results I was disappointed to find out that we weren´t third...or second......first place from the USA Royer and Daryl Habich in the Studebaker! (They pronounce the G as a Y here so that is not a typo) The competition was stunned to find that we were 12 seconds faster than 2nd place and our car MUST be illegal. That is always the first reaction in any form of racing when someone is very fast and it is fun to hear different nationalities try and tell us that they think we are cheating without coming right out and saying it.
They did not think it was a mistake after Friday´s day one of racing. We won the day by 1:20:00 buyt made a mistake in passing the first Z control. (we were 9 minutes early) You ar esupposed to get to the Z early and then wait outside the control until your correct time to pass. When you are leading the rade there is nobody to remind you of this and we just got screwed up. Early arrival penalty is the most harsh and we were given 5:00 which kept us well off of the podium. The good news is it is only day one ond we have 6 more days to recover and we will not make the mistake again. Ther bad news is........well there is no bad news in this race because it is such an adventure being here but we just have to be perfect the rest of the time.
Our top notch crew is the reason we were able to continue after a rearend blew up in the first part of the day. Eddie and Scott helped us change the third member in the car during the service stop 45 minutes and got us back on the road in time for the next stage. The competition was licking their chops when they saw the smoke coming from the car and were stunned when they saw us at the next speed run Thanks Guys you are the best! Poeple are getting impatient and I must go. Thanks for followig along and I´ll try and report as soon as another computer is available.
Wednesday was a great day for us. We found out that the reason that we couldn´t get our car teched on Tuesday was because the person we have been in contact with all year about the changes they want to our car was not there yet. Victor Perez arrived Wednesday morning so we got in line and waited.........and waited........and waited for our turn in the tech box. One of the changes to this years rules was a minimum weight spec. It used to be the car´s original listed weight minus 5% which is why everyone builds Studebakers, but this year it is 3300 pounds period. One of the last things we put in the trailer when we loaded was some lead ballast. Scott and Eddie were giving me a hard time about how much I wanted to bring but I just had a gut feeling that we would need some. Since we worked right up to the last minute getting the engine in and running, we weren´t able to scale it before we left so we did it when we arrived on Tuesday. Thank goodness we had all of the lead because the car was 260 pounds light! Every piece that we brought plus the trunk locker chuck full of tools and we are adding a second battery to get there. They informed us that they could weigh us at any time and it must meet the minimum regardless fo the level of fuel in the tank. This basically means that we cannot count on the 132 pounds of fuel that is in the full fuel tank for weight so the second battery will make up for about one third of the fuel load and we wilol just have to keep the tank as full as we can all of the time. All of the other items that they asked us to address passed with flying colors and we got our highly anticipated OK sticker!
As soon as we left tech, Dad and I jumped in the car and headed for the qualifying route. It is a very windy road about 35 minutes outside of Oaxaca on the way to Hiujpan. The road was not closed to traffic so we could only drive the route at limited speed but there was almost no traffic so I was able to go pretty hard. Dad told me that I went too fast for never seeing the road before but we were really only at about 7 tenths fo what the car is capable of and is there really such a thing as too fast? I´ve never heard of it. 9 km of tight twisty road with quite good pavement and a steep embankment along the whole thing, I wasn´t about to push it any harder but we had to see how everything worked with TONS more power, a different rear suspension, the car at 3300 lbs and the co-piloto (dad) lost after the first three turns! Everything worked perfectly and the engine lived up to our every expectation and kept it´s nick name of "Old Smokey" This motor has 6.125" rods with a slightly shortened stroke which moves the wrist pin up in the piston and requires an insert for the 3mm oil ring. It is difficult to make it completely seal so the result is smoke at low RPM´s. I like it down here for one because the competition thinks it is going to blow up, and it reminds me of some really good races we had in the past with our tour car. Hey Cris, remember the last Wenatchee Tour racewhere we started 26th and finished 6th? That was the last time "Old Smokey" ran.
Today we will prep the car some more and be issued our qualifying order. It is supposed to be a random order but I will not be surprised if we get number 100 and are running in the dark. All part of the adventure. I´ll update tonight after we qualify. Thanks for following along and bienviendos mi hombres or something like that. I probably just said the toilet is yummy but it seemed like a festive way to end this report.
Tuesday was the beginning of technical inspections for the race cars. It is always an adventure because we are so used to maximum efficiency in the U.S. Eddie, Darrell and Melinda Mclean, and Dad (other brother Daryl), unloaded the car and began preping it for the official inspections. I waited in the line for registration with the other drivers and crews. After 45 minutes of waiting, many of us in line realized that they had an undisclosed numbering system and after getting a number of our own, were relocated to the end of the now twice as long line. It was fun to watch all of the impatient "gringos" getting ticked off and yelling at the nice ladies who were handling the table. Before I new Christ, I would have probably been right along side of them adding my two cents worth and looking equally as ridiculous. we made it through the registration line in about 2 hours, passed the medical inspection which requires a heartbeat, blood pressure under something like 180 over 120 (walking dead man), and temperature above ambient. Finally we were ready to take the car through the scrutineering line. Not so fast. We were informed that "we" would not be able to have our car inspected today because we have had some issues in previous years and needed an appointment tomorrow at noon for the thorough look at our machine. This was a bit of a bummer because we were really hoping to get it all taken care of so that we could pre run the qualifying route today and have time to go and visit the ruins of Monte Alban which is only 5km outside of town. There is always next year¿ I don´t know the correct useage of that little symbol but I think it is sweet anyway.
Wow what an amazing road trip! I know that I promised to post the blog beginning in Laredo Texas but we literally rolled into the hotel at 6:00am Saturday morning which is when the Coyote Convoy was scheduled to leave for San Miguel Allente. We had been driving for 48 hours solid and really needed some sleep and a shower but we would have to wait until arriving in San Miguel 10 more hours south. A special thanks to Mike Bull (Shanna´s dad) for helping Eddie and me drive the truck and trailer down to Laredo. We threw open the door at the hotel, dropped Mike off at the front desk, said thanks a lot and hoped he had time to shower and catch a cab to his return flight at 7:50am that morning. CRAZY.
Let me recap our trip to Laredo. I got off work early Wednesday afternoon and went directly home to finish the car and pack the trailer. The engine was ready to run finally and we received all of the last minute parts and pieces to complete the car. By 2:00am, we were ready to test it on the runway. Scott was my first co pilot for the test drive and we brought it up to temperature slowly in 8 or 10 passes. I ran it through the gears carefully, listening for anything out of the ordinary and then stopped to check for any leaks. I really wanted to know how the thing would run at full throttle so we went out and gave it a go. This thing honks! In my first speed run I ran it up into fourth and then laid the pedal to the metal and the car immediately began smoking the rear tires like a top fuel dragster doing it´s burnout. We were probably going about 80mph when the tires blew off! The end of a 2100 foot runway comes up fast when you are traveling at that speed so we were able to bed in the new brakes nicely as well. Scott and I then sat at the far end of the runway and laughed our heads off in disbelief. We had to do it a couple more times to make sure it wasn´t a fluke and the results were equally as impressive. I took Eddie for a spin after that and he was looking for something to grab on to the whole time while laughing out loud. The timing couldn´t have been better for this adrenelin rush as we were able to load the trailer and the car in record time, go home and shower, pack (thanks Shan for taking care of most of this for me) and be on our way by 5:30 am Thursday morning. Monster drove the first 8 hours while Eddie and I slept. 48 hours, 4 blown out trailer tires, and 250 gallons of diesel later we rolled into Laredo Texas.
This post is long enough so I´ll cut it off here and add some more tonight. Thanks everyone for all the uplifting words . It really helps keep us going to hear from our friends at home when we are away. To Shanna and the boys, I love you guys and miss you a lot. Jayce be a good example for your brother. Carter hit them hard at football. Shanna, if you could edit this for me that would be just great because this keyboard is WEIRD with things like ° and ¬ and ¡ ¿ ñ
My boss, (he's a racer too) recognized the anticipation on my face today and let me go home early. I thought I would give you all a list of websites to check during the next couple of weeks leading up to and during the race which starts the morning of October 26th. A special thanks to Jason Gibb, Bruce Mack, Dan Schwandt, and Michael Link for covering the work load while I am gone. These guy's efforts at Precor is what makes it possible for me to chase this dream each year.
And to Shanna. I don't know if it would be possible for you to spend the time and money on shopping that I have spent on racing during my career if you went every day from today until you are 80. I'm sure you could have fun giving it a try though! I know that I don't thank you enough for the sacrafices that you make for me and the boys. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for accepting me as I am and for helping me realize my potential and my areas of improvement. I love you tons babe.
Here are some websites to try and follow the race on:
www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx
www.rogerhabich.com of course!
mjb on my vox neighborhood will be posting as well from Mexico. Keep the comments rolling during the race so we know that you are actually reading the stuff!
Well that is it for now. I'll try and post from Laredo before we cross the border on Saturday morning. Thanks for everyone's support this year.
We installed the new bullet and made it bark last night and this morning. I tried a new drink, I think it is called a Tiger Woods. Ice tea & Red Bull and it tastes good! Thanks Marcia for the Caffiene shock. How did you know we would need something of that nature?
Everything went as planned and the motor sounds really good. They always sound the best when they are brand new and right before they grenade. In 17 years of racing I have never figured out why that is but lets pray we do not experience the latter with this one! I did not get time to drive the car yet as we didn't fire it until 2:00am and by the time we broke in the cam, set the timing, and adjusted the idle circuit in the carburetor, it was 3:00am. Time for a short nap. Thanks to Scott LaCross, Eddie Castillo, Mike Bull (Big Mike), Marcia Blas, and our engine builder Bill Hunt for sticking it out last night and doing whatever it takes to finish the job. Mike and Marcia started loading the trailer while we hooked up the life leads to the powerplant and for the first time in this process I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait to get home and button up a few things so I can close the airport for a few test laps.
Yesterday I was reminded just how incredible our team of people who make up Total Velocity Motorsports are. Gerie Bledsoe who is the North American coordinator for the La Carrera Pan Americana announced that he will not be competing in this years 20th anniversary event due to insufficient time to test and tune his car before leaving for Mexico. This is a huge shock as Gerie is our connection to the race and one of the guys who could win the thing. It made me think of how confident I am in the people who work on my racecars and what it must be like to not have that. I mean, we just stuffed the engine in our car and heard it for the first time 5 1/2 hours ago, and I will be driving it at nearly 200MPH in a little more than a week without any doubt that it will be the safest and one of the fastest cars there. Thank You TVM crew. You are the best team on the planet!
Here are the car specifics for those of you who are interested.
1953 Studebaker Champion Hardtop
Engine by Bill Hunt
Displacement: 358 cubic inches
Compression Ratio: 9.5 :1
Heads: 23 degree Brodix 10X ported by HVH
Crank Callies 54# steel (I know it is heavy but this is an endurance race)
Rods:Carillo 6.125"
Pistons: J&E
Cam: Top Secret solid roller. .around .690 lift and .290 duration on 106 degrees.
Carburetor: Holley 600 CFM by BLP in Orlando Florida
Transmission: Jerico 4 speed
Rearend: Ford 9 inch by Kelly Waller
Front Brakes: AP 6 piston calipers on 12.188" X 1.250" directional vane rotors
Rear Brakes: Wilwood 4 piston billet calipers on 11.750" X 1.250" rotors
Wheels: 16" X 8" steel by Diamond Racing
Tires: 255/50-16 Toyo RA 1 H compound
Shocks: Ohlins CCJ mono tube by Mike Naake. Tuned up by Steve Craig.
Front Suspension: 31/2" Eibach coil overs mounted to custom built chromoly SLA control arms
Rear Suspension:: 5" Hypercoils on an all chromoly three bar with Watts linkage for lateral stability
Chassis: custom built by Daryl and Roger Habich First Air Speed Team..
Weight: 2800 pounds (we have to add weight this year to make the minimun)
Don't let the old sheet metal fool you, this thing is a real fire breathing 550 horsepower racecar. It goes and stops as good or better than my Super Stock that I drive at Evergreen Speedway and in my opinion is more prepared than most, if not all of the cars that we will be competing against. I truly feel that we have a legitimate shot at winning this thing this year. Look for daily race updates here on my blog beginning on October 19 from the hotel in Laredo Texas.
Viva Mexico!
Since my last blog post, the team and I have been hard at work getting the Studebaker ready for the 20th anniversary La Carrera Pan Americana 2007. There are 100 teams entered form all over the world and all are bringing the best that they have to try and win this prestigeous event. I made a pre-race to do list while on a business trip in Cleveland and it ended up having 200+ items to get the car in top notch condition for this 7 day endurance race. We leave on Wednesday night for the 36 hour drive straight through to Laredo Texas where we meet up with the rest of our crew and 40 other racers to convoy down to Oaxaca, the starting town for this years race.
On our way thorugh Mexico, we will stop in San Miguel Allente for a "Feed The Hungry" benefit and car show. (we are the car show). Feed The Hungry is a NPO who feeds 3500 underprivilaged kids a hot meal each day! I am so excited to participate in this event because it is also a school supply drive for those same kids. I talked with pastor Rory at The Rock Church and he said he would gladly donate some of the school supplies left over from BPD to the children in San Miguel Allente. It is great to be involved with such a globally minded church, you all are awesome, thank you.
Last night the engine finally arrived at 6:30 pm. We have been pacing the floor waiting for it as we could only do so much with the car without it. As soon as it hit the floor the guys sprang into action putting the components on so it could be installed into the car. At 2:00 am the engine was ready to bolt in the car and we couldn't see straight anymore so we went home for a few hours of sleep. Tonight we should make it run and hopefully test drive it. If you hear what sounds like a drag race happening in the wee hours of the morning please do not call the police. It is just us making speed runs up and down the runway at the airport and the Sheriff is probably already on their way.
FYI We had our sponor for the last three years bail on us at the last minute and now have a blank car to take down to this huge event. Bless their heart! If you or someone you know would like to get involved with our efforts to bring the La Carrera trophy back to the United States, we would love to plaster their company's name across the hood and quarter panels of our red white and blue racer and parade it in front of hundreds of thousands of Mexican race fans for 7 days. Nothing like last minute don't you think?
Keep us in your prayers these next few weeks as we begin this awesome adventure!
With the 2007 Evergreen Speedway season coming to an end, my focus must immediately shift to my father and my efforts in the La Carrera Pan Americana. I briefly touched on this subject earlier in the year during our team bios and promised to write about it at a later date.
The time has come…
La Carrera Pan Americana is a 7-day, 3000 km vintage automobile road race in Mexico that begins in Oaxaca and ends in Nuevo Laredo. Here is an excerpt from Gerie Bledsoe's page www.panamrace.com which best describes the race history and format.
“ We have few opportunities in our lives to experience a legend. La Carrera Pan Americana or the “Pan Am” is one of those rare opportunities. It is the last open, top-speed road race of its kind in the world. No one can predict how long it will survive in this modern age.
This October, eighty or more vintage race cars--each with a driver and co-driver--line up in southern Mexico to race nearly 2000 miles back to border with Texas. It’s seven full days of full-speed racing over paved roads, through some of the most beautiful countryside north of the Equator. Seven days of freedom. It’s a week of feeling very special and a lifetime of memories.
The modern race is a revival of the famous international Pan Am that was conducted between 1950-1954. Many of the world’s most famous drivers, including world champions like Phil Hill and Juan Manuel Fangio, came to Mexico during these years to test their cars, skill, and stamina. The race was started in 1950 by the Mexican government to inform the world that Mexico had a new system of highways that stretched across the country – from north to south – for commerce and tourism. When the race was canceled in 1955, its purpose had been accomplished.
In 1988 a group of Mexican and North American auto enthusiasts revived the Pan Am. The event operates in a “pro-rally” format. Each car is given a route book with detailed instructions to follow for the entire seven days. Every turn along the entire route is listed, and each is rated by degree of difficulty. Warnings are given about dangerous conditions, and even speed bumps and special attractions are noted. But there can always be a surprise lurking around each blind corner.”
The race is run in rally format with both transit and speed sections. The transit sections are where the racecars travel on the highways and streets with normal traffic. The object is to get to the next checkpoint at the exact correct time (within a one minute window) for no penalty. Arrive early and the penalty is severe. Show up late and it is much less painful to your time card. You are given a start time, and each transit has an amount of time assigned to it. Take your start time and add the transit time to get your target arrival time. It is that simple. What they don’t tell you is the section time was calculated by the race officials during off peak traffic times, at or a little above the speed limit. You have to do it during rush hour with dump trucks, busses, local traffic, and 90+ other adrenalin junkies bidding for the same piece of roadway! Needless to say there is a ton of passing (on the right and left), massive speeding and chaos during the transit sections. Luckily the towns we travel through are ready for us, and the Mexican Federales that are monitoring traffic get a kick out of egging us on as we zoom through their cities. I often have thought that if we operated a motor vehicle in the states like we do down there, we would lose our license each day before lunch!
Once you have arrived at the end of the transit section, it’s helmets and belts on, and the speed section begins. The race officials start the cars in thirty-second intervals with a green flag draped over your windshield and a countdown. Cinco, quattro, tres, dos uno, and you are off for an all out, full speed race against the clock on portions of roadway that are completely closed to traffic and that neither you or your co-driver have ever seen before. For you fellow oval track racers it is like a 5 to 15 mile qualifying session on the street where you can drive on both lanes and shoulders of the road, and the only thing you might see are the cars that started thirty seconds ahead of you, and a the occasional cow, duck, chicken or goat who apparently didn't get the news that a race was taking place here. Talk about nutty! Have you ever traveled to Leavenworth WA on U.S. 2 and wanted to drive really fast through the super windy lanes of Tumwater Canyon? That is exactly what it is like to run a speed section and we get to do it 5 to 10 times a day for 7 days. The roads that they choose for speed sections are some of the windiest I have ever seen. One section we race on is called Mil Cumbres, which translates in English as One Thousand Curves! And did I mention altitude changes from sea level to nearly 10,000 feet and very few guardrails? It is the most incredible thing I have ever seen or done.
This year, three of the guys from TVM are going with us to be our service team. Eddie, Scott, and Dano will be there for us to help keep the car in top shape for this grueling event. An hour-long service stop around lunch is where we meet up with the crew for any needed repairs or adjustments. Here is where we will have the advantage, as our crewmen are accustomed to only 15-20 second pit stops. These guys can change an entire engine and gearbox in one hour! We will also be accompanied by Nathan Farley, Darrell Harrison, Darrell McClain, his daughter Melinda, and Franc & Marcia Blas Who are building a Chevy 2 Nova for the 2008 Pan am race. With this much help we will be able to have one crew drive the race route behind the racecar with the truck and trailer, and have a group ready for us at the service stop when we arrive. This will save valuable time in the event of a break down.
The race continues on into the early evening where we arrive in the next overnight town. Here thousands and thousands of people hoping to get an autograph and picture with the drivers and crews meets us. Last year we gave away some of our left over antenna ball helmets and nearly caused a riot in every town with them. People would reach in the car as we made our way to the town center and try and grab them from us while the car was still moving! And they line up at the speed bumps (topes) and stop signs for autographs and free stuff because they know we will have to slow down there. Schools let their children out of class when the race moves through town and they line the streets in their uniforms for any race related item. We learned that the route book pages are a great souvenir as well. Luckily the pages that were ripped out at 10mph were from the previous days route.
Obviously there is too much to tell in one post so I'll cut it off here. We will be preparing the car for a few more weeks and then will head for Mexico on October 17th. I'll cover the specs of the car for all of you gear heads in my next post so stay tuned. If you have any questions about this race, sign up with vox and post a comment and I'd be glad to answer them here.
Until then... Adios amigos!
