For the car/racing fans...

[PUCKER]

I road race with SCCA in the GT-2 class and I just completed a new livery of the car, #13, it's an ASA/GTA late model stock car. Weighs 2,600 lbs dry with 420 HP at the wheels, power is from an ASA spec LS1 V8 through a Jerico 4-speed to the Tiger quick change rear end. Tires are Hoosier short track asphalt 27x10-15 bias ply slicks. A LOT of fun and a handful to drive!

[Rex B]

Nice ride
I am also SCCA for many years. Not currently active, but held a comp license up until a few years ago.

Going to the Runoffs?

[PUCKER]

Thank you! Figured there would be a few SCCA folks on here. Yes, first time to the runoffs! Daytona this year, going to be a BLAST! I won the Mid-states Majors series this so I definitely qualified!

[jimlongley]

I have been a (car) racing fan since I was a kid. With three stock cars headquartered within a mile and a half of my house, and a local bar named "The Checkered Flag" it was almost a given for kids in our neighborhood. We played sandlot baseball and football, but by the time we were in our teens most of us also had field cars (mine was a '49 Plymouth wagon" that we raced against each other.

I used to be a NASCAR fan until this year.

[Rex B]

Good for you. Good luck at Daytona. Should be a hoot.

I've run FC, ITB, and SRX7. Never got serious enough to make the Runoffs

[ShootDontTalk]

My dad was good friends and did oil/gas consulting work with Jim Hall. We used to go to the shop where they built the Chapparal's. Those were amazing cars and the technology was ahead of the day.

I raced cars for a number of years - drag racing though. I learned one great lesson: never sell or trade off a rare race car. I bought a used Plymouth factory-built drag race car, a 1963 Plymouth Savoy with the lightweight mods and the aluminum front end. After running it for two seasons, we pulled the Stage III Max Wedge and put in a race hemi. That thing weighed 2800 pounds and though we never put it on a dyno, based on performance it probably made close to 1,000 horsepower on racing gas. It was huge fun to drive, but the silly rules game caught up with us. That thing consumed every spare penny. Even my future wife used to endure "mechanical dates" and wash parts for me.

They dumped us into a class with injected cars making more power and less weight - all because the Mopars were "winning too much." I sold that car with both motors for $4,500 in 1973. Today you cannot buy a lightweight factory race '63 for any amount of money. One sold about ten years ago for, IIRC, near $6 million. I sold a forgotten air cleaner for the max wedge engine for $900 in 1997. I think they made less than 30 of those cars.

Like guns....never, never, never sell.

[The Annoyed Man]

A life-time Man Card has been awarded.

When I met my wife, I was an active motorcycle roadracer, and she was about to take the Jim Russell school at Riverside Raceway in Formula Ford cars. Love at first site, and we celebrated our 27th anniversary 11 days ago.

[ShootDontTalk]

PUCKER...I apologize, I got busy talking about the good 'ol days and I forgot to ask. Did you build the car from scratch or buy an ex-NASCAR racer?

[PUCKER]

Good for you. Good luck at Daytona. Should be a hoot.

I've run FC, ITB, and SRX7. Never got serious enough to make the Runoffs

Thank you, didn't plan on it when the season started but then things started going good....

I've got a buddy who races SRX7, it looks fun! I have ran a race in SM, that was a tight squeeze!

[PUCKER]

A life-time Man Card has been awarded.

When I met my wife, I was an active motorcycle roadracer, and she was about to take the Jim Russell school at Riverside Raceway in Formula Ford cars. Love at first site, and we celebrated our 27th anniversary 11 days ago.

Awesome! Congrats!!! My wife is my crew chief.

[PUCKER]

PUCKER...I apologize, I got busy talking about the good 'ol days and I forgot to ask. Did you build the car from scratch or buy an ex-NASCAR racer?

I bought it turn-key from a local pro racing shop, Pinnacle Autosports, he specializes in tube frame road racing cars. This car came from the ASA series, it's a 2003 model or thereabouts. They make great road racing cars (neutral chassis, turns right too LOL!).

[ShootDontTalk]

Interesting. I won't ask what something like that might cost. Car racing, at least a lot of classes, has become such an expensive proposition that very few people can afford it. Shame.

[PUCKER]

It's not the cost of the car, so much, that's the expensive part, is all of the other things (consumables like tires, brakes, clutch, fluids, upkeep/race prep, transporter, motorhome, diesel, etc...). The further away the race is the more it goes up, furthest race so far was High Plains Raceway, an hour east of Denver, CO. The Daytona National Runoffs is a loooooong event, we will be gone a bit over two weeks, will be at the track for 10 days. Crazy!

[Bob Wolff]

I was with San Jac Crash Rescue for many years, you may have started after we stopped working races. We were doing what the pro racing organizations have been doing but with volunteer people and equipment.
Also crewed for a few friends who ran f prod cars.

[PUCKER]

Bob,

I'm fairly new to this (started last year), have been racing/competing in forms of motorsports since I was a kid though, I always have extra appreciation for the corner workers/safety crews!