CarolinaHondas.com Racing: January 2014

Friday, January 17, 2014

Duffy is Pretty Again!

We started this team with a wrecked '94 Honda Civic. The front and hood were a little ugly, but she cleaned up nicely.

Lovely metallic green, with a crunched front.

Some spray cans and child labor...

Ta da! It's a race car.

Sure we had some minor scrapes, but nothing a few zip ties couldn't handle.

Zip ties are great for body work too!

She was still looking pretty until the LeMons race in Sept 2010 at CMP. Bam! 80 mph hit to the passenger side and a trip to the tire wall.

After a few more seasons, and a few "who left the hood pins out!" incidents. It was time to for some fixing up. Fortunately, Rock Auto sells body panels for $35 a piece. We bought some stuff and Roger went to work. Duffy is looking good and ready for more action this season.

Gotta love Rock Auto. Dirt cheap Civic parts

Off with the old...

... on with the new

Add a little primer,

and spray some rattle cans, and Duffy's prettier than ever.

We even have a new trailer, with brakes!

AND, a new camera. Race videos coming soon.

We'll be posting our 2014 race schedule soon, come out and join us.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Some More Beer Recipies

We brew beer and race cars. So that's pretty much what you'll see here. This post, BEER. Here's some of my latest beer recipes. If you want a taste come join us at the 'Shine Country Classic, 01 February 2014 - 02 February 2014, Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham AL (more info).

Super Hop fermenting

Super Hop

Steep grains (15mins) - 1lb biscuit and 1lb victory
3.3 lbs liquid malt extract - Pilsen light
2 lbs dry malt extract - Pilsen light
Add bittering hops (boil 30 mins) - (1oz ea) Spalt, Saaz, Warrior
Add flavor/aroma hops (boil 5 mins) - 1oz Millennium
Liquid West Coast Pale Ale yeast
Dry hop during fermentation with 1oz each - Spalt & Saaz

Ginger Beer

3.3 lbs liquid malt extract - golden light
Blend distilled water with large chopped ginger root

48 oz light agave nectar

.5 oz Nelson Sauvin hops (boil 30 mins)

.5 oz Nelson Sauvin hops (boil 5 mins)

Champagne yeast

If It's Not Scottish It's Crap

Steep grains (20 mins):

4 ounce chocolate malt
4 ounce caramel malt
4 ounce crushed smoked barley malt
4 ounce crushed roasted barley malt
2 ounce whiskey oak chips
1 ounce chicory root

3.3 lbs Liquid malt extract - Amber

1 lb Dry malt extract - Sparkling Amber

1 lb Belgian dark candy

2 cups table sugar

.5 ounce cascade hops (boil 40 minutes)

.5 ounce cascade hops (boil 5 minutes)

British style beer yeast

Apple Ale

3.3 lbs Liquid malt extract - light pilsner extract

1 gal Apple natural juice, no preservatives

Spice with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, vanilla

.5 oz Spalt hops (boil 30 mins)

.5 oz Spalt hops (boil 5 mins)

Champagne yeast

When Good Beer Goes Bad

As a home brewer it is inevitable. At some point you will make a batch of beer that sucks. Wrong ingredients, bad procedure, or whatever. My most recent fails seem to be from the plastic fermenting bucket. My best guess is there was some kind of bacteria or other contamination that gave a very a acidic aftertaste to my beers. My brother just tried using bacon in a beer (seriously, what could go wrong with bacon). It turns out bacon is a little too salty to use straight up.

I have already switched to glass carboys exclusively, and my brother, Roger, now uses an extract for bacon flavoring. But we still have many bottles of bad brew. Rather than waste our strange brew we have some options. Common uses for less than ideal beers:

Soup stock
Beer pancakes or bread
Beer cheese soup
Marinades
Reductions/gravies
???

Any other uses for off-flavored beers? Post 'em in the comments.

We Finished, So What

Aaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhh!

Another LeMons in the books. I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick that stupid football. When will we ever learn. If you don't get that reference you're too young, deal with it.

Well at some point during the second driver shift we lost all compression in one cylinder. At that point we were second in class and top 10 overall. We were on a roll to victory, were. Since we couldn't be competitive with 3 cylinders, we decided to just change to the back up engine and minimize damage to our current power plant.

Roger and Ricky swap out the engine. I, helpfully, take pictures

Unfortunately, we wouldn't be back on track that day, and not due to our sluggish wrenching. There was an incident. Specifically, a fatality. Not to minimize the incident or the very real dangers of racing, this was not a wreck-related fatality. According to the Kershaw County coroner, Sidney Brayton, of Norcross, Ga. died of a heart attack on track. His car then went off at turn 14, through the sand trap and into the tire wall. All in-car and on-track equipment worked as designed. RIP Sidney, the details;

http://www.thestate.com/2013/09/22/2995761/driver-dies-in-kershaw-countys.html

So, we we get on track Sunday, after a delayed start to repair damage to the barriers from the impact at turn 14. We turn some laps, the car felt good, we finish mid pack, and head home. Another promising start shut down by mechanical issues. Still as the saying goes, "A bad day racing is better than a good day working." On the positive side, the beers were great (we actually had a bacon, maple porter courtesy of Roger's brewing skills), the Friday parade was fun, and the 35' Winnebago was pure awesome. Some random pics below, next time.