Chasing a Camero at VIR North with Tarheel SCC

Roger, our car owner and driver, is an instructor for driving events. Below is a little video of he and Ricky (passenger) driving Duffy in the green group (beginner group at Tarheel). Good lines and smooth driving.

NOTE: Before you comment on how slow or lame he is - this is not a race he is an instructor amid beginners. This is tame, safe, smooth driving, not race conditions that would scare the heck out of the green group.

VIR North with Taheel SCC

2015 Race Schedule

Hi All - Here's our planned 2015 schedule for the Duff Beer Civic. This includes races and track days. Join us out at the race and cheer us on, or bring your own car to the track and drive with us at club track day. Roger is an instructor now, so you might even get teaching from us and a ride along in the Duff Beer Civic. What could be better!

February 7-8 - LeMons Race - Barber Motorsports Park - 3rd in Class B
March 21-22 - NASA Mid Atlantic Track Day - VIR
April 4-5 - Tarheel Sports Car Club Track Day - VIR North
May 2-3 - LeMons Race - CMP
June 6-7 - Tarheel Sports Car Club Track Day - CMP
July 18-19 - NASA Mid Atlantic Track Day - VIR Full Course
August 8-9 - Chump 24 Hour Race - VIR Full Course
September 12-13 - Tarheel Sports Car Club Track Day - VIR Full Course
September 19-20 - LeMons Race - CMP

For more details to attend a race or sign-up for a track day;
Tarheel Sports Car Club: http://thscc.com/index.php/track/track-news
NASA Mid Atlantic: http://www.nasaracing.net/?page_id=13
LeMons (May): https://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events-results/article/145-southern-discomfort
LeMons (Sept): https://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events-results/article/154-lemons-south-fall
Chump (VIR 24 hour, Aug): http://chumpcar.com/register/supplementalrules/222.pdf

Barber 2015 - Third in Class

Duffy is running strong. Apparently having a real shop assemble your engine, as opposed to dragging a blown one out of a junk yard and patching it up, really works. We ran the whole race and finished 3rd in Class B and 16th overall out of 76 cars.

Barber is a great track and a fun race, and I did NOT burn up the brakes this time. A strategy of early throttle lift and a few quick pulses on the brakes, as opposed to sustained pressure and heat kept the brakes and tires looking like new. Ricky, fresh off a car accident, was not really in shape to be in a car. Much less racing. He earned a couple of black flags at the start of each if his stints for spinning in turn 1. Danny, after more than a year away from driving, again from a head injury, had a slow start, but dropped his pace a good chunk over his two stints. Roger was safe and consistent, and at a pretty good pace.

We finished 16 laps behind The Generar Ree, the class B winner. Basically, no black flags and a faster overall pace and we would be fighting for a win.

Hooniverse has a nice write-up:

http://hooniverse.com/2015/02/17/24-hours-of-lemons-shine-country-classic-recap/

Now for the important part, the beer! Here's the recipes for the two creations I brought;

Rosemary & Clove

• Steep a half pound each of biscuit and caramel malts (25mins)
• Boil and add 6lbs light DME
• Add 6-10 cloves and 2 tablespoons of dry rosemary
• Add 1oz of Mosaic hops and boil (30mins)
• Add 1oz Nelson Sauvin hops and boil (5mins)
• Cool and pour into a carboy. Fill the carboy to 5gals
• Add West Coast Ale yeast and ferment 1-2 weeks
• Boil and add sugar water for bottling.
• Add a handful of fresh Rosemary from the garden and stir into the bottling bucket
• Bottle and wait a week

 

Smoked Whiskey

• Steep a half pound each of smoked and rye malts (30mins)
• Boil and add 3lbs dark DME and 3lbs amber DME
• Add 1 packet (approx. 1oz) of whiskey barrel oak chips
• Add 1oz of Fuggle hops and boil (30mins)
• Add 1oz Hallertau hops and boil (5mins)
• Cool and pour into a carboy. Fill the carboy to 5gals
• Add 1oz of whole leaf Hallertau to the carboy for dry hopping
• Add English Ale yeast and ferment 1-2 weeks

Latest Beer Recipes

Another LeMons is coming up. We'll be at Carolina Motorsports Park racing cars and giving away free beer May 3-4. (LeMons event page). Come on out, have a beer, and cheer on your favorite Honda race team. In case you can't make it, but want awesome beer anyway. Try these receipes. They are what I'll be bringing to the track n May.

Rice beer

5-6 cups cooked rice - add to blender

Fill blender with water to the top of the rice

Add 8oz honey to the blender and liquefy for a couple of minutes

Half fill your brewing pot with water
Pour in blended rice

3.3lbs Pilsen Light LME

3 tablespoons ginger

Bring to a boil

Bittering hops - 2oz Nelson Sauvin hops (30mins)

Flavor/Aroma hops - 1oz Mosaic (5mins)

Chill and pour wort into carboy, and fill to 5+ gallons with water

Add Kolsch yeast

Dry hop - 1oz Citra (leaf)

Mulled beer

Steep grains (30mins):

• 1/2 lb Carapils (Dextrine) Grain - Briess
• 1/2 lb Special B Grain - Dingemans Belgian
• 1 lb Maris Otter Pale Malt - Muntons

Add Malts and spices and bring to a boil

• 3.3lbs golden light LME
• 3lbs Wheat DME
• 2oz sweet orange peel
• 1oz cinnamon sticks
• 1oz cardamom seeds
• 3 tablespoons Cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons Anise seeds
• 3 tablespoons Nutmeg
• 5-8 Cloves

Bittering hops - 1oz Hallertau (35 min)

Flavor/Aroma hops - 1oz Sazz (5min)

Chill wort and add British ale yeast

When bottling add 4oz Blackberry fruit flavoring

What Do We Do When We Aren't Racing?

We race some more!

Yep, we are pretty much single minded and obsessed with emptying our wallets at race tracks. A few videos of our leisure time (outside of Chump and LeMons races).

Roger driving Duffy at a Tarheel Sports Car Club event:


Ricky, same car same evert:


And finally me, Robert, tossing my Focus ST around a Peachtree BMWCCA AutoX:

New Engine Means New Problems

So I just posted how we patched up the body on Duffy, and BAM! Less than 10 minutes into our first race at Barber - WALL. What happened? Roger had a fresh D-series engine assembled for this year's races and we didn't know how it would do. Would it burn oil? make good power? And since this is an endurance race we can't just stop every 30 minutes to check things out, so he added some extra oil. A quart of extra oil. The extra oil, created extra pressure.

Anyway that pushed out the dipstick and spilled oil on the engine which ran along the suspension to cover the driver's front tire. Then things got slippery;

It was pretty minor and not much damage beyond tweaking the body panels a little. We zipped tied down the dipstick, and back on track we went. Latter in the day the electrical system went out, thanks to an oil bathed alternator. We bought a new alternator and battery and back to the track we went.

With our oil-related stops we lost a lot of time and finished 28th out of 68 cars. A least in the top half. Before sliding out of control, we were 3rd. We did however beat a diesel Chevette by 6 laps. Yeah. Hopefully, we've excised the demons and we can keep it on the track for our next race.

Some pics:

Arriving a Barber

Driver's meeting - nice facilities at Barber

In the parking lot

On Track

Pitstop action shot

Front straight

Passing on the inside - turn 5

Diving into the turn

 LeMons FB gallery: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152030162244495.1073741845.36766739494&type=3

Video recap (We are @ 2:35)

Race Schedule for 2014

Come out and watch or sign-up and join us on track! Always free beer for anyone that asks.

LeMons

• 03-04 May - Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw SC
• 05-06 July - Sebring International Raceway, Sebring FL
• 20-21 Sept - Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw SC

Chump

• 9-10 August - Virginia International Raceway 24 Hour, Danville, VA

THSCC

• 5-6 Apr - Virginia International Raceway North, Danville, VA & Apr 5 - Karting Enduro
• 7-8 June - Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw SC
• 6-7 Sept – Virginia International Raceway Full, Danville, VA

NASA (Road Atlanta)

• 1-3 Aug (maybe)
• 5-7 Dec (maybe)