Garage Heroes (In Training)

Learning as we go. Come along with us and Enjoy the Ride!

24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0085: Amanda and Adrian from the Faster Farms Racing Team

Faster Farms Racing Team

On this week’s podcast, we had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda Baak of the Faster Farms team who we met at last week’s Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca.  Vicki and Amanda had some very exciting racing for a dozen laps or so until things ended poorly on our end.  Their team races a Plymouth Belvedere, as everyone should.  After repeatedly racing with them Saturday and Sunday, we had to have them on to find out more about the team, Amanda, and Adrian who made an impromptu appearance.  We enjoyed our conversation and hope you will too.  We can’t wait to see them again, hopefully at the track. 

Chicken Car
Are You Scared!

Some highlights include: 

1)  How and why a Plymouth Belvedere came to be a race car for the past twelve years
2)  Faster Farms team history and its ties to a real chicken ranch/pick and pull
3)  We compare the different racing areas, like California, Colorado and the east coast race crowds
4)  How they installed their crystal auto-break system to make other cars break before passing them

Crystal Shifter
Crystal Shifter (With Auto-Brake Function) at least on our cars

5) Bill has a(nother) bad plan for west coast racing
6)  We also begin to make a plan for an upcoming Thompson race
7)  Seeking revenge on Willow Springs
8)  The upcoming Alameda parade
9)  Probably the best “Good” story we have ever had with our Good, Bad, and the Ugly segment.  We are pretty sure Adrian isn’t familiar with the word “good”, lol. 
10)  Shout out to our many Belgium and Australian listeners
11)  Differences between the Lucky Dog Series and the Lemons series

Goodbye
Sad to Say Goodbye

Hopefully, we can be a bad influence and get them out to Thompson for a race at some point, maybe even getting our all-female driven car team goal accomplished. 

You can follow them at FasterFarmsFacing.com

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0085: Amanda and Adrian from the Faster Farms Racing Team

Real Racing!
Waiting for AAA?

Judge Phil from the 24 Hours of Lemons

Judge Phil
Judge Phil at “work” during a 24 Hours of Lemons race

GHIT 0078: Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons

On this episode we started out with one show idea and quickly flexed into another when Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons was able to join us after some scheduling issues.  Judge Phil is also an automotive journalist and often uses the pen name of Murilee Martin and writes for a variety of venues including Autoblog, Autoweek, Jalopnik, Truth About Cars, Car and Driver, Roadkill, and the 24 Hours of Lemons.  We had been hoping to have Phil on as one of our original bucket list guests and we were not disappointed and we really hope we can get him on again, soon.  His stories are priceless and seemingly endless. 

Highlights and discussion topics of the episode include: 

1)  New installation of the permanent 240V line for the welder is complete

2)  Alan tries to blame Chrissy for his mess and no one buys it, ever

3)  Alan defines what’s a bucket load of shims and then decides we aren’t going to use them

4)  We may have a plan for our long-awaited female only race car entry

5)  Tips for working in the cold temps/potential items for Christmas gifting.  Hint layers

6)  Phil’s latest junkyard finds and exploits and several tips for finding things of interest  

7)  Phil’s Lemons history and how he came to be a judge at over 160 races so far

8)  Tips for how to improve at lemons, as if that matters, lol.

9)  Where Murilee Martin originated, the full story is at his website below

10)  How the Lemons series has progressed and the culture came around to the present day

11)  Our next Miata with a HT4100 engine

12)  Lemons hopeful entries in the coming years, especially several late model Detroit offerings

13)  Tips for finding cars particularly suited to Lemons racing

14)  Theories on what makes certain car surprisingly good or surprisingly bad in endurance racing

15)  The difference between the $500 limit rule as written vs as interpreted in Lemons

16)  Various fruitless paths to “domination” that have been shown to be lacking

17)  Which of the automotive journalists are really good drivers off the top of Judge Phil’s head

18)  Should GHiT be interested in a Lada, Phil knows a guy….

19)  Potential leads and guidance on our 1974 Capri never-ending build

20)  How lucky we were to start our racing team with assistance from the Three Pedal Mafia

21)  Parts selling on the internet stories from over the years

22)  Crazy Lemons racing stories including lightning strikes and tornado chases

23)  How the post-race hangover is real, even if you aren’t racing

24)  The internet famous Lemons Wrap-up videos and what goes into them

25)  How the driver fields differ across the US

26)  Splash Gate makes a come back

27)  Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly per Judge Phil

28)  How to get started in endurance racing and resources that are available

29)  The relative importance of team/pit organization vs driving skill

We will put out another short episode to discuss the AIM Data Acquisition and Analysis seminar Bill attended last weekend that we started. 

Now if only we could get a weekly segment of “Story Time with Judge Phil”.  Maybe we can bribe with a seat at our races?  Please let Phil know if you’d be interested.    

[email protected]

http://www.murileemartin.com/

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0078: Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0071: Special Guest Driver and Judge Craig Ledbetter

Judge Craiggers
Preparing for a very good race weekend

We talk with Craig Ledbetter aka Craiggers, one of our favorite judges and team member of the Terminally Confused racing team from the 24 Hours of Lemons team.  Initially we review our future race at CMP and some of the recent debacle we had with relocating our El Jeffe/Bad Hombre race truck from a few episodes back.  Bill also makes a subtle plea to be a judge at some point. 

Craiggers has been a car guy for many, many years and has been racing for almost a decade.  We try to summarize many things from his vast history and things he has learned to do well, and things he has learned not to do.  His first car, at his first race, failed tech, so his history has started similarly to most others we know.  Unfortunately, his first race did not end with a checkered flag due to a lug nut tightening issue and a lack of repair talent and experience at that point. 

Craiggers and Curt are also well known in the southeast for their green egg derived barbecue parties in the lemons paddock.  Its not quite America’s Butt but it is reportedly awesome and a do not miss item.  We end up bribing them to bring up the green eggs to the NJMP race in 2020 by offering them seats in the soon to be completed Capri.  No pressure Alan.  Ok, a lot of pressure, since its up to you to feed the entire lemons paddock. 

We eventually went into how our team is doing and what we could do better along with how his team has progressed and learned over the years.  This ended up taking a lot of the episode and ends up with tons of good information.  This also forms the basis of the winter training program we are working on, as we speak.  Alan reviews his legendary pro move to load a trailer.  Luckily, Vicki won’t listen to the podcast.  Lol.

A lot of these stories came from the recent race at NHMS where we just raced and Craig was one of the judges.

Craig gets into his deliciously/devilishly bad plan for his RX-8.  Its not quite as bad as Alan mis-heard, but it is still a bit of engineering required.  It will likely come out better than Craig’s repair of the Fury at an earlier race.  (Details within)

We ended up developing a training matrix for our team, largely as a result of this episode.  Please let us know if you are interested.  We like to share what we learn.  Some of it may even be useful. 

Key points of interest we covered were with Craiggers include:

1)  How to successfully compete in lemons, beyond self-selection

2)  Is speed creep in Lemons factual or perception, or merely a result of the overall increase in performance of relatively newer cars

3)  ECU Tuning and modification strategy

4)  We develop a new strategy of making our cars last longer (If we don’t drive them)

5)  Alan and Craiggers discuss wheel bearing condition and potential management strategies, which led into the discussion of Alan and his CSI investigation/discussion with Judge Craiggers.  Strap in, this one is a doozy, and Alan

Alan’s Interrogation with Judge Craiggers

6)  (Im)proper use of 1970’s LTD’s as cornering aides

7)  Managing room and knowing which cars (and drivers) to manage in heavily crowded tracks

8)  Bill has bad Road Atlanta flashbacks from last year

9)  Many Judge stories from Judge Craiggers

Judge Craiggers and Bill at Pitt Race

10)  NJMP planning and potential bribing opportunities if we had 3 racing cars ready

11)  Craiggers takes a very solid run at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

12)  Bill’s mom’s actual podcast listening is brought into question

13)  Is it possible to make a Lemons legal rocket powered car?  Why yes, yes it is. 

14)  How to properly use 1960s brakes in a racing condition and at least one method for how to determine if a car is race ready

15)  Potential ways to entertain Lemons judges at a race

Where else are you going to hear about a jet powered golf cart?  Now, that’s real racing!

Craig is nearly useless for theming, but a bunch of fun, as always. 

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we have. 

GHIT 0071: Special Guest Driver and Judge Craig Ledbetter

GHIT 0069: NHMS Race Weekend Review

NHMS Flag
NHMS 2019 – 24 Hours of Lemons race

Our podcast this week focuses on our race weekend at NHMS with the 24 Hours of Lemons teams.  We had a bit of a struggle getting ready, but the cars eventually cooperated and raced well, at least for a bit.  In the end, we had a great time and caught up with a lot of friends and made several new ones this weekend.+

  • Team at Tech
  • Mia as Death Doctor
  • Brad made it to his first race
  • Passed Tech Inspection
We confused Guitar Heroes with Garage Heroes, oops.

On this episode, Alan, Jennifer, Kate, Vicki and Bill are still recuperating from the race weekend hangover, but did manage to discuss:

  • Vicki learns the alphabet, finally.
  • Pre-race prep and race car struggles.
  • Not going as planned
    Not going as planned
  • Lost but found
    Lost but found
It all started innocently enough
  • We broke the first rule of racing and brought an non-prepped car to the track
  • El Jeffe/The Bad Hombre/The Trophy Truck/Race Truck was finished literally hours before the race.
  • The E36 BMW struggle did not complete until midday Friday afternoon when our great friend Bruce figured out a simple electrical issue that we could not find on our own
  • We had to pick up a windshield, which was in Canada
  • Bill learns to not joke with the border police
  • Normal race induced issues led to a lot of on track repairs and replacement for the race truck, especially related to our steering, power steering, and steering rack.
  • SpiderStang was almost brought into race trim since we had all hands on deck and needed two cars
  • We rolled the dice and brought the E36 to the track and hoped we could fix it with the aide of our friends in the paddock area
  • Friday testing went well with El Jeffe and we were able to get almost all of our new to NHMS drivers
  • Jennifer clears all prior NHMS demons from last year
  • Kate enjoys her first time on this track and then promptly has internet issues in mid story
  • Jennifer is very excited and saw many benefits of the Watkins Glen HPDE we sent to two weeks ago.
  • We may finally have solved our braking issue with the El Jeffe race truck
  • Bill creates a new word for the dictionary
  • Bruce saved our team having to get another engine and perform and engine swap by solving our issue and getting the engine in the E36 to fire.
  • Bill confirms that by fire, they meant to get it running and not that it had caught on fire.
  • Special thanks to the Thunder for Days team in their Folgers E36 BMW for all their assistance as well.  Apparently, they travel with an entire parts store worth of spare parts to each race.  Thankfully.  And Wisely.  We owe you all.
Team Folgers
Thunder for Days saved us
  • Our one time only Guitar Heroes In Training Theme for this race
  • Vicki confuses AC/DC and Kiss somehow
  • Mia tormented Craiggers as the Plague Doctor all weekend
  • Several other teams were theming hard this weekend including appearances by the Three Pedal Mafia’s Ambiguously Gay Duo themed new Pontiac Solstice and the entire gang that represented Baby Shark.
  • Baby Shark
  • New Driver
Baby Shark team and new driver
3PM is not Ambiguous
3PM is not so ambiguous
Solstice NHMS 2019
Their new Solstice race car
  • Jennifer’s costume was very helpful in getting our cars to have no penalty laps
  • Harley Quinn and the harlequin GTI were also a big hit, ad it was quite fast on the track.
  • We had a run on power steering pumps for the race truck this weekend, using three total, and we also lost the steering rack/box
  • We then run through the race for the race truck and then for the E36 race car
  • NHMS this year was the most aggressive race we have been in and there were many incidents, especially Saturday
  • We also had a Guest driver this weekend, Jeff Wright, who we met at our Lucky Dog race in Portland this summer.  We hope he had a great time.
Jeff at Tech
Jeff rocking out awaiting tech inspection
  • Our wheel spacers led to tire tracking issues in the El Jeffe race truck
  • We eventually (think) we lost the steering rack and had some steering difficulty that eventually led to the race truck parking for the last half of Sunday
  • Jennifer gets here first black flag in the race truck
  • Bill ran first in the E36 on Saturday and raced with several of our friends on the track for long periods of time
  • We peaked at 5th place overall, our highest position ever.  Now we need to figure out how to stay there for the whole weekend. 
Proof we can drive
Proof that we can drive a bit (5th overall)
  • We learn that there are two different style safety harnesses/safety belts
  • Saturday night dinner and post-race festivities
  • Vicki finally meets her girl crush, Amanda Tully, in full costume, in the Three Pedal Mafia’s hot tub, built for 4, but somehow managed to squeeze in 9 that evening.  Hopefully, we will have her on as a future guest.
  • The festivities went long into the night.
NHMS at night
NHMS at night
  • Alan eventually gets into a on race CSI investigation that gets edited out a bit.
  • Vicki proves that numbers are hard
  • We end up talking all over each other during the review of Alan’s Sunday stint
  • The Egan’s new car modifications led to a lot of fun but also a lot more gas usage
  • We ended our day in the BMW E36 when we lost either a wheel bearing and/or a hub
  • Team improvements for next year were abundant
  • Radios for each team member if possible
  • Earlier starting prep on race day morning with more people
  • Training matrix will be developed and monitor our progress towards overall team knowledge and skill improvement for next year and the future
  • New Pit Crew Chief election for 2010 season is very likely
  • Spares parts for the BMW for next season
  • On site car alignment verification capability within our team
  • We begin planning our off season and our 2020 season, including re-theming several cars for the 2020
  • NHMS 2019 is Over
    NHMS 2019 and our racing season is over

Thank you to all our friends, we can’t wait to see you again next season!

GHIT 0069: NHMS Race Weekend Review

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week

Our plans are unravelling
Our preparation plans are unravelling

Our ineptitude continues

NHMS race weekend prep status.

One race, three cars, none working.  The rest is good though.

On one hand we have the BMW E36 3 series from 1998. Issues, yes.  It won’t start.  It seems to not be getting power to the computer system and won’t turn over.  We found one wiring issue and are tracking down any others, slowly.  One good thing is that the prior owners live very close to our race, so as a last resort, we may ask for some assistance.

New to Us BMW E36

El Jeffe/The Bad Hombre:  Braking issues abound.  Still.  The caliper/pads do not fully release from the rotors, which may be the issue we have been battling this entire season.

It is a race truck

On this NHMS Prep episode:

  1. Alan breaks up into a game of boggle with things like DME, EWS2, etc.
  2. Vicki breaks back in and tries to get us to explain what is going on
  3. Bill breaks down the entire battle we have been having with the brakes on the race truck
  4. El Jeffe brake theories, plan, and a review of the current status
  5. An El Jeffe Transit story for the books
  6. Alan talks about flashing ECUs and seeking additional help to get the E36 running well again.
  7. Alan does his best weatherman impression and forecasts clear skies for the E36
  8. Kate even makes a quick guest appearance towards the end

It seems to be a standard week before the race.  Now will this turn out?  Tune in tomorrow, same bat channel, same bat time.

Or actually when we record at the track this weekend. 

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week