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.

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.


Our new track home, a 35' Winnebago, formerly used by the state of NC as a mobile DMV

Someone 'Slashed' our tire. Get it?!?!

Speedy Cop's near famous upside down Camero

Look, an E30, surprised? Me either.

PBR is crap, but nice try on the theme

Go Clemson!

These guys were fast AND reliable this time out. One day we might be too.

LeMon Fall - We're here

The team is on track and turning laps. We got class B and one penalty lap during BS judging because judge Phil thinks all Hondas are cheaty, damn judge Phil. Roger is in now and then Ricky, myself (Robert), and Danny. The car has been reliable on our last two outings, so we hope it holds up. No issues so far and we're 6th in class and 24th overall. Many hours of catching up ahead of us. Will update with some pics tonight.

We Were 44th And We Are Calling It A Victory

CarolinaHondas.com Racing just wrapped up our Chump 24 Hours at VIR race. In spite of some glitches, it was a great weekend. Here's a quick rundown with some pretty pictures.

Ricky crosses the checked flag at 10am on Sunday (sans windshield)

We (Roger, Ricky, Kraig, and I) made it there Friday after having to drop the race car off the trailer and drive it the last 10 miles. The tow bus transmission was slipping and overheating. It needed a break, and is in need of a rebuild. But we all got there, got teched, and were all set to go racing. Chump Car races tend to be a little less picky about some of the rules, and the cars are generally much faster than your average LeMons field. Definitely much faster than us. We were not looking for a win, but a nice top 20 would be a victory to us.

Oh, and it was HOT and humid. A couple of hours working during the day could wipe you out. Ice would melt out of the coolers in an hour or so. Brutally hot to go racing. It would be tough on both the car and drivers.

We started off about 77th out of 101 cars that actually made the start, By the end of my first stint we were 27th and less than 10 laps off of the leader. As we pitted our position hung between high 20's and mid 30's and we generally stayed about 9 laps off of the leader. With the attrition at this sort of race we were looking at top 10 potential. Then it happened.

At our 8pm pit stop the hood pins were either left out our fell out. One lap into Kraig's stint the hood flies up on the front straight at over 100MPH. Kraig amazingly keeps his cool and makes it to the pit safely. The roof caved in, the windshield smashed, and the hood crumpled we just took ourselves out of any competition for the top 10, and had some work to do. After 2 hours of removing the windshield, cleaning up glass shards, and bending some metal we were back.

A few more relaxed pit stops later we crossed the finish at 44th. How could that be a victory? Well, the car ran great. Handling and braking were fantastic. It is a good race car and we learned that if we don't screw it up we have top 10 potential in a field of much faster cars. And, we had a blast; late braking past cars, schooling BMW and Miata drivers through the turns, and pwn'ing most of the field in the rain. Just a few pics below;

An Opel coupe. One of the few cars we could pass on a straight.

This picture is not blurry. That's actually what racing at night looks like.

Ricky down the front straight.

Stick a fork in us, we are done. (L to R: Robert, Kraig, Roger, Ricky)

Next up - LeMons Sept 21-22.

The next event for the team

We are of to the track again. Well, some of us. The Duff Beer Civic will be running at CMP for the THSCC HPDE event next weekend (June 15 & 16). Looks like Roger, Ricky, and Kraig will be flogging Duffy around the track, and collecting data via the new AIM Solo GPS. I'll be home in Atlanta diligently assembling my track toy (B18 CRX). Have fun, and next time my CRX should be ready to join ya'll.

Want to get your car on track? CMP is a great course for beginners and experts alike, and THSCC runs the best HPDE's I've ever been to. Join us: http://thscc.com/timetrial/

Or, show up to watch the action. We should have beer and t-shirt for any race fan that stops by.