Wouldn't you know it...

We have just one Formula 500 meeting at our local track this season and it's this weekend.. It will be a good meeting as we've had rain all afternoon today making for a nice damp track and fast racing but...
Our number one driver had to have a full knee reconstruction two weeks ago and he's still not walking without crutches. He wont be racing this week... ( a football injury)
Our number two driver had to change his license from the saloon car to the Formula 500 and it still hasn't come through so he wont be racing either..

A chance to fly the colors locally and we miss out!

Not a happy team.


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Bloody race cars again?

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For a long time part of my work for the race team has been to make the bar work for the cars. Chassis, roll cages and bumpers, this includes Nerf Bars for the Formula 500’s. Nerf Bars are the small side bars that prevent cars getting locked together when they collide, what with all the bumping and jostling for place these bars get replaced every few meetings at least.
Up until now I made these bars out of my head, this does not mean I scull a pint of Scotch and go make them*; it means I remember the shrink and expansion rates as well as the lengths to cut and bend the pipes without ever writing them down.
Apparently this is no longer good enough! Now the team has delusions of grandeur everything has to be written down so every man can do every job. YeahRight!
So it was that I committed every length and bend to paper, labeled every sheet and made it as clear as I could.
Two of our team members decided to test the procedure by making a few Nerf Bars all by themselves…
They rang me at home to say:

A: Something’s not right, we seem to have done something wrong, please come and help us work it out.

B: Something’s not right, we’re not sure what’s wrong, please come help us work it out.

C: Something’s not right, your measurements are wrong! We need to change your plans.

If you guessed ‘C’ then you're more right that they were…
They, who had between them made just two bends in their life were sure I, who has made countless bars (ok, sometimes wrong) had got the numbers wrong and they wanted to change and alter my plans.
I went in to save my precious work.
After some time listening to them moan about how I had got it completely wrong I consulted the plans they were using to find they were using the measurements for one car and the bend rates for the other car… An almost understandable mistake as the pages followed each other in the book side by side. EXCEPT that one page had KAWASAKI RACE CAR printed across the top and the other had YAMAHA RACE CAR across the top.
Now and again I do make mistakes, but these bars are made from seamless stainless steel tubing which is very expensive, I triple checked my measurements…I knew they were right. There's only two of us that know how to use the hydraulic bender and I taught the other guy a few weeks ago; no one else can weld the thin stainless tubing but me so I don’t see the point in anyone else doing my work. It only adds to my work load by me having to fix other peoples mistakes. (grumble, mutter)

*though these’s an idea…



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Update..

This is pretty much all that's left of the car that was supreme just a week ago...




Well the car came back in one piece but with a fair amount of damage. Race one did not go well, the car was sluggish and didn’t want to go. A quick carby re-jetting and it was supplying peak power again. This little car wheelstands the full length of the straight and you have to back off to get the front wheels on the ground long enough to go around the next corner, then it’s back on the power and front wheels off the ground again, lap after lap for the full race.
Toward the end of the second heat and well in front of the pack, a backmarker spun in front of us and we hit him hard… so hard that he went over the top of our car. He ripped the steering off, crushed the Nerf bars, bent the Jacobs Ladder and broke the disc brake rotor and caliper, bent the back axle and tore the big wing off the roof. All because the backmarkers steering wheel fell off in his hands…. He did the same thing in the next race and took out another car, he was black flagged for the rest of the night. (too late she cried)
We had all the new parts on hand so the car was quickly repaired in time for the Final Race…
Half a lap ahead with only a few laps to go the car suddenly lost power and pulled infield and out of the race.
The impact of the accident had critically stretched the control cable to the four carbies and it broke.. (weep!)
I’ve spent the last two days making new Nerf Bars and doing repairs to the body. We have a week off so there is time to fully rebuild the suspension and make ready for the next encounter. Of course we always hope to finish a race so we get the points but racing is often more about luck that good planning. (or whether some twit crashes and takes you out) LOL
Such is life! (Ned Kelly’s last words)




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...and so it begins

Last season turned out pretty poorly after all that hard work getting ready for the season. We loaned our best car to someone who totally wrecked it. It was new, undriven and season ready when he rolled it every which way, he destroyed the new hand made body I’d built, tore the wheels off and tumbled the thing lengthways along the track.
So begun a rushed rebuild to make the car ready for the season…which had already started.
Although we missed a couple of meetings, the car was made ready and raced, but for the next several meetings it failed every time at the eleventh hour. Each failure was traced back to cracks and fractures coming from that first wreck, the last straw was a complete motor meltdown caused by a partial oil starvation as the motor had continued to run as it rolled. By the time it all became too much and every nut, bolt and replaceable item was replaced it had cost us a full season.
The lesson was learned…. In the off season the two cars have been stripped to the last bolt, everything being crack checked or replaced as a matter of course. New bodywork, new brackets and all these weeks spent crafting one off pieces so everything fits perfectly. Our team manager is a Fitter and Turner Machinist so everything is fitted to exacting specifications.
The two cars are now sitting on their own stands, surrounded by all new tools, flanked by a new spare motor each and several new bodies. They sit with their fully rebuilt Methanol engines ready to fire up, ready to race.
Nothing left to do but wait for the season to start…. This weekend!






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