Time Off - Mexican Vacation

I have decided that breaking parts 5 laps into a race is just too much stress on me right now. I took the last few weeks off. Plus the heat of summer is kicking in. Man that sucks being in a car with the heat reaching 130 degrees inside it.

I forgot to mention too, work has sent me to Mexico. Working on a couple of crossover vehicles for GM over the next year here. This desk in the picture will be my home for the next year. Maybe I need to install my NASCAR Racing game and bring my pedals and wheel. I can practice on the computer at least.


CheapRacer tip: Buy a racing game (Papyrus made the best) and race online or by yourself. You can wreck all day long and not lose any money or have to actually work on the car. Just restart the game!!! Can't get any cheaper. One of my past competitors from Holland Speedway, NY, I use to race against, Rodney Arndt, has worked for Papyrus on their racing games. Great driver.



CheapRacer tip: I get $35/day for food. I stay at a Hampton Inn and get free breakfast. Lunch is free at the plant. And dinner can be had for about $10-15. If I really try I can get that down to $5. So there is at least $20/day going back into my pocket not to mention the stipend I get too.




I will be home for about 1 week over the 4th of July week. I am going to hit the track no matter what on July 5th. Just hope the weather holds out. Looks like I am going to be on old tires too. I can only make one more race after this. Can't justify $450 bill for 2 races. Kind of sucks but its a good way to build the wallet back up.

Shafted?

Last week the driveshaft. This week the transmission input shaft. More on that later.

We logged a lot of practice laps this week. Close to 40. I was getting worried that the right side tires have enough rubber left from all the practice laps I have taken this year. This made me a little tentative in really pushing the car. Qualifying times were consistent this week despite the whipped tires. 16.783 and 16.712. In the heat race I said to myself if I can get a good run I will see if I can get a heat race win. It all was up to the guy in front of me in the heat race seeing I was starting 4th in the heat race. The green flag flew and the guy didn't go. Being on the outside and not able to get anywhere in front of me or down, I started getting passed. I was pretty mad. What a waste of time and gas on these heat races. Never mind in a few laps him and the other slow guy started beating on each other. Come on guys!!! This is a heat race. $25 to win. Big deal. So I just started backing up and letting the rest of the field go. Go ahead guys. Wreck your cars. It wasn't going to change where you start in the feature. So there is a cheapracer tip in there somewhere.

For the feature I was really torn over that right rear tire being so worn. These tires have some tread on them. Most guys get rid of them when there is still plenty of tread left. I was down into the wear bars and the inner portion of the tread was almost gone. I figured with a 30 lap feature I was going to be real worried about that tire being wasted and blowing. I really wanted to get some new tires for the next few weeks that I could race if I could get by on the ones I have now. I caved in and broke out a tire I had from the 2006 season with lots of tread left. So now I felt better about having a tire lasting. The only question was, will the rubber be too hard and make the car so loose that I couldn't drive it? We got about 3 laps in and the first caution came out. Too soon to make any evaluation of how the tire was doing. Just as the green was ready to fly the input shaft of the transmission snapped and again I was done. Oh what fun racing is.

So in goes the back up transmission for now. I suspect my bellhousing is out of alignment with the block. For the mean time it will have to do. I only have about 3 races left that I can actually make. Then we will tear this thing down and find out why. Could also be that the transmission has been raced for 20 years.