YOU'RE IN! Vodden the Hell Are We Doing?

#24HoursofLeMons     #BecauseRoadkill

Hi, Muddy: 

Half-Life Racing (Seize-Z-um and Ra-D-ium) has been officially ACCEPTED for Vodden the Hell Are We Doing? at Thunderhill Raceway Park, Willows CA on May 20 - May 21. (Multiple entries? Log in to see what got in and what didn't.)

If you're racing, you must read this email completely!

1) FINISH YOUR INFO: Your team's current status is Not Ready to Race. If you're not showing "ready to race," log on here and fix what's missing. (In case you need it, here's a step-by-step guide to the reg process.) 

2) PRINT A TECH SHEET and inspect your car against every line. Bring your signed, filled-out Tech Sheet to Tech at the track, and remember--not every rule is reflected on the Tech Sheet. You still need to study the full LeMons Rulebook.

3) READ THESE NOTICES:

EVENT SCHEDULE, CAMPING, DIRECTIONS, ETC: Look for these on this race's Event Page--when we learn something new, we'll update it there.

DRIVER-SAFETY GEAR: FULL SFI 38.1-RATED HEAD-AND-NECK UNITS ARE NOW MANDATORY! To see helmets, suits, head-and-neck units, and all the other required crap at sponsor-subsidized rates, visit LeMons' online store.

RACE #s: If the number you want isn't available on your Team Home Page's pulldown menu, somebody else already has it. Pick another one.

RULES: The LeMons Rulebook has been updated! Read the complete Rulebook (http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/prices-rules) now and re-check it often, refreshing your browser each time. Remember, it's your job to know this stuff!

DROPOUTS: There are no refunds or fee transfers! When you enter a race, you're buying the right to compete--not a guarantee that you'll get your own act together. If you drop out, can't finish your car, blow up, go broke, catch swine flu, step on your own wiener, or otherwise fail to avail yourself of your grid spot, you forfeit your entry fees. That's why they're called "entry" fees, not "I got to drive the whole race" fees.

4) COUGH UP YOUR ENTRY FEE: Your entry fees are due now--all fees must be paid in full by 04/08/2017. Miss that deadline, and your spot may be given to a team on the waitlist. (Need to beg an extension? Drop Nick an email before the due date.) To check your current balance or pay online, see your Team Home Page at https://registration.24hoursoflemons.com/members/races/registration/signup_id/17825.

TO PAY BY CREDIT CARD, use the "Pay Now" button on your Team Home Page at https://registration.24hoursoflemons.com/members/races/registration/signup_id/17825.

TO PAY BY CHECK OR MONEY ORDER, make payable to "24 Hours of LeMons" and mail to LeMons Dept. of Up-Coughing, 5675-C Horton St, Emeryville CA 94608.

5) ALL SET? CLICK THIS LINK TO CONFIRM YOUR ACCEPTANCE:
https://registration.24hoursoflemons.com/login/acknowledge/sid/17825/hash/4a5e49b18a0fa22926fae72e1a10eb31

Got questions? Hit www.24HoursofLeMons.com or:
Nick Pon, Associate Perpetrator
5675-C Horton Street, Emeryville CA 94608
nick@24HoursofLeMons.com

Sears Pointless Finish

It was a busy three days of racing, so sorry for getting this out late.

Reviewing the two cars performance, we did really well with only minimal damage.  After the two days of racing we achieved the primary goal.  Both cars finished each day still racing.  When compared to the other 150+ teams we scored  Z came in 27 position and the D 43.

So, thank you everyone for a great weekend!

Muddy

New black flag system

There is a new black flag system where a message goes out on the race monitor. Torch called in that he was heading to the penalty box. He said it was probably passing under yellow or something. This is the message we got. 

Lugnut got punted at the end of his stint, turns out a Miata can brake faster than a crown Vic. Took out the rear rim, but other than that, no damage and the car is back out running laps too. 

 

Maybe some sunshine?

It has been sprinkling this morning, but the sun is poking out. The forecast is still for rain the afternoon but we are going with the optimistic call that we dodged the bulk of the storm. 

We are done with the first stints and now have our second set of drivers. Clean racing so far.  Here is the driver order for the day to boot. 

 

Sears pointless day 2

We were short two drivers yesterday, so there wasn't a lot of time to blog. It was a strong day for both cars. We picked up 2 black flags, one on each car, but other than those two drive through penalties the cars were on track all day. 

 

Seize-Z-um ended up in 28th place and ran fast all day long. It picked up a wheel mark on the door somewhere along the line, but no real issues other than flat spotted tire. 

Ra-D-um ended up in 39th just a couple of laps behind.  There is an issue with third gear, but not much we can do there other than swap out the oil and hope for the best.  In the rain everyone had issues with too much oversteer, so we disconnected the rear sway bar and had a very nice handling car all day yesterday. 

 

It is overcast this morning but the forecast of an inch of rain today is now down to drizzle.  We are hoping it stays away but with the practice from Friday if it doesn't at least we all had a chance to find a rain line and we are as ready as we can be for the wet. Looking forward to a good day on the track whatever the weather. 

We chased the video issues down to having run out of minutes on the phone's data plan.  Trying to solve that for today.

Video is now live

We will try to keep the Video from the Z up and running all day.  the link to find it is here

https://live.racecast.me/profile/577185b358bc560ca359e803

If that doesn't work, just go to live.racecast.me
and search for Muddy.  That will get the latest in case the ID of the stream changes

Enjoy

Race day 1

Unlike the soggy day we had yesterday, today promises to be sunny and is starting with blue sky's to back up the forecast. 

The good news about the rain is while most drivers failed to keep everything on track, speeds were low and damage relatively minor. Both cars are in good shape this morning and ready to roll. 

Drivers are a different story. We are short 2 drivers today as Tow is still dealing with recovery from a mountain bike incident and Queen is off to a class for the day. 

Driver's meeting is at 9:00 and then we'll get cars on the track. 

 

Yup, it's wet

Muddy is back and Lugnut is heading out. Forecast is for the rain to get steadily heavier until 5pm.  Car is running fine so now it is just practice in the wet. 

 

Practice laps

Rain or no rain, we are here to drive.  muddy took the first stint and pretty much has the track to himself. There is 1 other car at the moment so traffic clearly isn't an excuse today for not having fast lap!  

 

Tent city has landed

The cars have made it to the track, and we are setting up camp.  We are set up in our usual place and making it home for the extended weekend. We'll have the tiki flag out shortly. 

 

Forecast today is heavy rain until 5 and then clear through tomorrow. We'll see what Sunday brings. 

We are debating how much track time we want today in the wet. The D has gone through extensive suspension repairs, so it has to get a shake down. We are likely to run it for the day and call that good enough until tomorrow. 

 

The RV is well named for this trip. We have now both Thor and his hammer on our side this weekend. 

 

Back to setting up.

Driving Schedule For Sears Pointless

Here is the Drivers Schedule for this weekend if all goes well.  Weather is the early contender to throw this off.

Day 1
	Practice
	D						Z
	Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes		Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes
	10:00 AM	10:39 AM	Driver	1	Estimated     8 laps		10:00 AM	10:37 AM	Driver	1	Estimated     9 laps
	10:51 AM	11:16 AM	Driver	2	Estimated       8 laps		10:51 AM	11:16 AM	Driver	2	Estimated     9 laps
	11:28 AM	11:53 AM	Driver	3	Estimated     8 laps		11:30 AM	11:55 AM	Driver	3	Estimated     9 laps
	11:53 AM		Plan for BS Inspection				11:55 AM		Plan for BS Inspection
		1:00 PM						1:00 PM
	1:00 PM	1:25 PM	Driver	4	Estimated     8 laps		1:00 PM	1:25 PM	Driver	4	Estimated     9 laps
	1:37 PM	2:02 PM	Driver	5	Estimated       8 laps		1:39 PM	2:04 PM	Driver	5	Estimated     9 laps
	2:14 PM	2:39 PM	Driver	6	Estimated     8 laps		2:18 PM	2:43 PM	Driver	6	Estimated     9 laps
Day 2
	Race Session I
	D						Z
	Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes		Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes
	10:00 AM	11:00 AM	Driver	1	Estimated   22 laps		10:00 AM	11:36 AM	Driver	1	Estimated   46 laps
	11:12 AM	12:30 PM	Driver	2	Estimated  32 laps		11:48 AM	1:24 PM	Driver	2	Estimated   46 laps
	12:42 PM	2:00 PM	Driver	3	Estimated   32 laps		1:36 PM	3:12 PM	Driver	3	Estimated   46 laps
	2:12 PM	3:30 PM	Driver	4	Estimated  32 laps		3:24 PM	5:00 PM	Driver	4	Estimated   46 laps
	3:42 PM	5:00 PM	Driver	5	Estimated   32 laps
Day 3
	Race Session II
	D						Z
	Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes		Start	Finish	Pilot		Notes
	9:00 AM	10:00 AM	Driver	1	Estimated   22 laps		9:00 AM	10:21 AM	Driver	1	Estimated   38 laps
	10:12 AM	11:18 AM	Driver	2	Estimated   27 laps		10:33 AM	11:54 AM	Driver	2	Estimated   38 laps
	11:30 AM	12:36 PM	Driver	3	Estimated   27 laps		12:06 PM	1:27 PM	Driver	3	Estimated   38 laps
	12:48 PM	1:54 PM	Driver	4	Estimated   27 laps		1:39 PM	3:00 PM	Driver	4	Estimated   38 laps
	2:06 PM	3:12 PM	Driver	5	Estimated   27 laps		3:12 PM	4:33 PM	Driver	5	Estimated   38 laps
	3:24 PM	4:30 PM	Driver	5	Estimated   27 laps

Packed and Ready to Hit the Road

We are all packed and settling down for the evening.  We plan on getting to the track early to get a preferred spot.  Practice and Tech Inspection open at 10:00am.  Guess what line the cars will be in.  Yep, hoping for track.

As for the status we believed we were track ready when we loaded the cars.  However, while loading the Z the brakes felt soft.  We have new pads, so we will drive through the paddock early and bed the brakes in and hope it is just that.  However, a soft brake pedal is usually hydraulic issue, so we will see when the Z come off the trailer.

For the D it appears ready.  With the amount of work and changes, it might take us sometime sort it out, so let the fun begin.

Live Video Feed From the Z During Sears Pointless

For this Pointless race we again will run the Racecast video from the car.  We will run the system on Friday (10:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00) in practice then again on Saturday (10:00-5:00) and Sunday (9:00-4:30) for the race.

 Here is the link:
https://live.racecast.me/event/585d9526331731840179bb4c


Racecast

Half-Life Racing Plead For Residual Value in time for Sears Pointless 2017

Judge Phil,

Half-Life Racing runs two cars named Sieze-Z-um and Ra-D-ium.  These two chariot's have several races, so they are getting well worn.  After a lot of wrenching we were able to cobble both cars together for the Ares-Freeze race.

Alas, all well and we even got in a few laps before:

This was a substantial hit for Ra-D-ium and we felt lucky everyone walked away.

After a review of the damage we got to work; cutting, pounding, prying, welding, and 2 hours, we were able to get the D back on course and running laps.

On day both cars were running well until the differential in the D failed and we were Tow bait again:

After an hour to replace the Differential.

The D was sent out for the last 1:30 hours of the race

In the end we where able to get both cars to the checker.  These the cars finished both days seeing the checker.

Following the race we inspected both cars and identified a lot of work that was needed.  For Ra-D-ium the front left is fairly bent up.  What was obvious was the 1" elevation of the right to the left frame rail.  With even more intense pulling and prying we were able to get the suspension's pickup points straight-ish.  Now for cost, the upper control arm was fairly well destroyed.  So we, would like to replace the upper control arm and plead for $47 to allow it's replacement.

For the Z it appears that we almost had front left wheel failure.  Upon review, we sheared off the spindle and melted the bearing to spindle.  The wheel freely wobbled and was only held on by a metal flange.  To prevent this we would like to replace the Spindle hub for $34.

In total Half-Life Racing is looking for $45 for Ra-D-ium and $34 for Seize-Z-ium.

Thank yo for the review

Muddy

Hotel Reservation for Sears Pointless 2017

THANK YOU. YOUR ROOM RESERVATION HAS BEEN CONFIRMED.

NAME: Muddy Confirmation Number: 5136B9632941                                        5136B9633030                                        5136B9633042 Ramada Vallejo Near Six Flags Discovery Kingdom 1000 Admiral Callaghan Lane Vallejo CA US Phone: (707) 643-2700 Hotel Website | Hotel Email Modify Reservation | Cancel Reservation Reservation: Non-Smoking guest room with 2 queen beds This non-smoking guest room offers 2 queen beds with room for up to 4 guests and includes kitchen supplies, mini-refrigerator, microwave, and coffee/tea maker. Stream your favorite programs with free high-speed WiFi or watch a variety of shows on cable TV. Air conditioning, complimentary newspaper, in-room safe, iron/ironing board, and hairdryer ensure comfort throughout your stay. Maximum Occupancy: 4 room with 1 queen room with 1 king from 3/24 - 3/27 Stay: 2 Room(s); 2 Night(s) 2 Queens (5136B9632941) 1 Room; 2 Nights; 1 Queen (5136B9633042) 1 Suite; 3 nights; 1 King (5136B9633030) Occupancy: 2 Adult(s), 0 Child(ren) ages 0-17 Check-In: 3/24/2017 3:00:00 PM Check-Out: 3/26/2017 12:00:00 PM

Final Weekend Work Checklist for Sears Pointless

A lot of hard work has gone in to getting the cars and Daws close for the upcoming stress test.  With a week to go we are close.

One item that has been bedeviling (me specifically) is the balance of the D.  The events of the past four races have simply destroyed the D.  In a previous blog I went into detail of what mess we have and how we worked to "fixed it".  Under static look it appears fine, however, on simulated driver load (which is 2 x 350Z rotors, a lose car battery, a tote of brake parts, 6 x five quarts  jugs of oil, a gallon of water, and spare alternate = 190 lbs ) the corner weighs go to hell.  The left rear out weights the front right and the left front is 2/3 the weight of the entire left side.

So, after days of fiddling, by adjusting ride heights with various blocks under wheel while the car is on the scales (Thank you Torch for the ideal), I have developed a "theoretically" fix.  Now this weekend I need to apply these "fixes" and set the final height.  How can this go wrong?

In addition to the balance here is the rest of the items that need to be completed:

Work Checklist for Sears Pointless 2017
Electrical Systems			Status
		Items	300z		Type D	Comments
	1	Power disconnect switch	Done		Done	Test
	2	Dashboard / Gages	Done		Done
	3	Alternator light	Done		Done
	4	Descuzzify wires	Done		Done
	5	Main power battery hookups	Done		Done
	6	Traqmate				Check D
	7	Battery charged	Done		Done
	8	Check charging system	Done		Done
	9	Check ECU error codes	Done		Done
	10	Switch for the cooling seat	Done		Done	Not Needed
	11	Start button	Done		Done
	12	Cooling fan				D and Z- Mount thermocouple
	13	Idiot light system	Done		Done
	14	Racer Connect System - Car				Camera Setup
	15	Racer Connect System - Pit				Jackspot setup – Laptop - Monitor
Engine and Drivetrain
		Items	300z		Type D	Comments
	1	Engine compress test	Done		Done	Z-  1-170, 2-170, 3-170-, 4-170,   5-170, 6-160 D1-175, 2-180, 3-180, 4-180
	2	Spark plug	Done		Done
	3	Replace oil filter	Done		Done	D - Install new filter housing
	4	Replace engine oil	Done		Done	Need 18 quarts for the race
	5	Check transmission oil	Done		Done
	6	Check differential oil	Done		Done
	7	Check clutch fluid
	8	Inspect timing belt	Done		Done
	9	Inspect water and alt belt
	10	Check air box	Done		Done
	11	Check and add water to radiator
	12	Check and add water to overflow
	13	Inspect throttle cable
	14	Oil cooler and lines inspection	Done			D- Need Replacement
	15	Run engine to temperature	Done		Done
	16	Radiator	Done		Done
	17	Radiator screen	Done		Done

Suspension and Brakes
		Items	300z		Type D	Comments
	1	Check strut and tighten
	2	Inspection ball joint
	3	Check wheel bearings
	4	Front and rear sway bar mount	Done
	5	Check rear and front bushing
	6	Check rotors	Done		Done
	7	Check brake pads	Done		Done
	8	Bleed brake lines
	9	Alignment
	10	Tires and rims				Have tire need to mount
	11	Check tire pressures				Z – 29 f 28 r D – 28 f/r
	12	Strut tower support
	13	Springs and Perch Inspection
	14	Brake Bias	Done		Done	D – Acquire and add
	15	Brake Cooling	Done
Safety Systems
		Items	300z		Type D	Comments
	1	Check fire extinguisher	Done		Done
	2	Fire suppression system	Done
	3	Check seat	Done		Done
	4	Check back rest	Done		Done
	5	Check seat harness	Done		Done
	6	Check mirrors	Done		Done
	7	Roll bar pad	Done		Done
	8	Check tow hitch				Make sure they are labeled
	9	Cover remaining glass	Done		Done
	10	Secure roll cage	Done		Done
	11	Arm restraints / driver net	Done		Done
	12	Fire wall inspection
	13	Battery disconnect outside	Done		Done
	14	Main battery secured	Done		Done
	15	Rear fire wall
	16	Windshield	Done		Done
	17	Fuel system and vent line	Done		Done
Chassis
		Items	300z		Type D	Comments
	1	Wipers
	2	Front skirt
	3	Rear diffuser	Done
	4	Rear spoiler	Done