A bit curiously I purchased some tickets to go try out this Motorsports Carnival. These things are really good in theory, but if you think of any carnival the rides are usually a bit beat up, you can see the wear on them and well there are some parts and pieces that you think should probably be fixed in order to be safe however the novelty seems to get you through. In a motorsports carnival those parts and pieces just make the vehicle no fun to drive or unpredictable or just downright unreliable. So the level of maintenance is kinda important.

I had a primary purpose for going to the carnival, I wanted to drive the F2000 car. Why? Well, I don’t know, I just haven’t driven one before so It seemed like a good plan. I bought some tickets and headed down.

I truly stayed only long enough to drive the car, watch an Indy car run a few laps then go say Hi to a friend Kubo who was working the cobra ride. The F2000 cars were pretty fun, sequential gear box and a nice low fast car. It is definitely different than anything I have driven before. We only got about 8 laps and we weren’t allowed to pass in the corners… unfortunately, but driving one of these cars on a banked corner and feeling the wind pushing your head around at top speed was pretty cool. Speaking of that, it is interesting, driving an open wheel car for the first time, you feel that wind pushing your head around and you realize how much your head is part of the aerodynamics!

I talked to the workers, they said that the top speed on these is about 130 at the current gearing. The car itself has a sequencial 4 speed gearbox in an “H” pattern. No clutch needed after you get going, which is good because getting going was a bit of a chore. It is powered by a 2L ford motor and has a small (maybe 8 inch wide) steering wheel.There were 6 of us on the track at one time and definitely a range of skill levels out there from newb to well, it didn’t get much into the pro ranks lets say. The car was glued, you felt pretty confident at speed. I didn’t feel confident enough to give it full throttle in the corners, but I hit redline in the straight. I bet that someone who knew what they were doing could probably hold that thing flat out through the whole Oval however.

Afterward, I did a quick look around. An Indy car was lapping:

A lotus elise was doing autocross runs, some drifters were doing their thing, Lambo laps, Spyker laps and of course the Cobra “wet course” laps.

I only drove the one car, but I’d say it’s maintenance was pretty good. I believe that these cars are coming from driving schools who are using this opportunity to try to gain some customers. So since each event as a secondary backing this could be a nicely maintained fleet of cars. We will see what happens through the summer however! Anyhow, check it out if you have a chance, plenty more events to come and there is one nice thing to note. Contact them, send them a note and say Hi. They are willing to listen. If you have a reasonable request for an event that you want to see, well let them know!
Here is a link to their website American Dreams Racing

As a side note, I wasn’t allowed to take my GoPro this time, so no video. If I go drive the f2000 again I will take my roll bar mount so we can get some good stuff!

Each year we try to make it out to the Golden Super Cruise. It is just a huge gathering of people with their car that they have been slaving over for years. This year we got out to this first cruise with beautiful weather and of course with a full belly since it was also the 3rd annual Crawfish Broil at my friend Andrea’s house. Anyhow, there isn’t much to say about this one, so check out some photos from the day.

Be sure to check out photos from Last years Super Cruises here too (click here for a link to 2010)

It’s all part of building a race car. Nothing works perfectly the first time around. Ask Rhys Millen. They built a million dollar car for Pikes Peak last year and without enough testing they had issues with the wing, the transmission and on and on. Well, for the Kern’s it isn’t that different. Each test has revealed a problem. The first showed some issues with the diff. The second test showed some issues with the suspension and between those tests we had some issue with the oil pump.

Yesterday we headed out to CORE and we tested again. 11-2:30 with only a few stops that were each under about 10 minutes. About 3 hours of running at 80-100% (except when I was driving that was probably more like 50%!) This thing is proving itself! The engine runs strong, very strong! The transmission is working nicely and the suspension is nearly dialed. One more switch around with valving and possibly a bit of a change on the rear spring rate and this thing should be ready for whatever you can throw at it.

Check out some video from the day and don’t forget to check out RaceKern.com for updates from the Kerns

Well, we are pretty good ad doing odd things that many people will talk about and few people will do. We are considering a new project. Something that we would love to do…

Yesterday the rule book arrived… well I should say, the outdated rule book. Magically the 2011 rule book is running about 4-6 months behind. Should be a close call on whether or not we’ll get it before the 2011 race! Anyway, we are considering running the Baja 1000. Yes, that sounds pretty intense… and it is. This will eclipse both of our soapbox vehicles in cost and time commitment. It will be a huge undertaking! Building a vehicle is just a small portion of the complete package here. The race will be more demanding that anything that we have attempted before. Physically the course is full of sand, dust, dirt, rocks etc. The heat is in excess and the potential for disaster is pretty incredible. Mentally the race is extremely demanding. 36+ hours of commitment in the car digging out from sand and silt, spectators are always all over the road and there are all types of dangers to keep an eye out for.

We are extremely excited about this one though. This is a historic race, this is a big deal and if we do make this happen we will be running class 11, the most demanding class. I’ll keep you up to date as we make decisions, but in the mean time, watch Dust to Glory. Check out the Class 11 Tecate bug and think to yourself… Why in the hell would they want to do that!

The Kern’s BMW is finally running. we rocked, we rolled and Dave just straight up deprived himself of sleep and rest, but in the end: that car rocks. Yes, it is running. we finished up saturday, did a big donut in the parking lot at around 9 pm and then headed out to CORE for some testing at 10:30 the next day.

First impression… EVERYTHING WORKS! it is incredible how many little things you need to think about when you do this type of thing, but everything works! It is kinda a miracle. The car was a blast and Dave gave me a ride in it to show me what all the sleep deprivation, bloody knuckles and just general tinkering is all about. Man that is fun.

The course is rough, it is narrow and it is pretty quick. I think we topped out 5th gear in the straightish parts and jumps, tight corners and “other” were regular occurrences. It makes me want to get my hands on a car that I can play out there with…

No post is complete with out video right.. well check out some in car action!

I’ve been helping Dave Kern build his BMW rally car whenever I have free time. Unfortunately that isn’t that frequent! It has been teaching me a lot about cars and letting me do one of the things that I enjoy the most, figuring out solutions to problems!

Dave has about 16 months into this car, I have maybe a few weeks, so I can’t take a whole lot of credit, but I was down there the other night and we got some of the “you may actually drive this soon” parts put on. Brakes are bled, the engine is all ready, pedals are in, skid plate mounts are in. It is actually looking like we may run this and stretch its legs this Sunday!

A quick note about Dave. Man can that guy drive. It is pretty incredible really. You don’t really have a solid appreciation for what a good driver can do until you are riding along and seeing all the things they can do with a car. Last year he drove my car at Georgetown and I watched as my car did things that I didn’t know it was capable of. I am pretty sure that even Subaru may have been baffled. This year I rode in my car again with him at the wheel at BWDS and again, wow. How does it do that! However one of the most awesome experiences was in Mitch Williams rally car. Dave threw that thing around and at one point said “yeah, that is about as far as I would want to push someone elses car.” I was thinking “well that is about 45% more than I would want to push my own car! Allison, his wife and co-driver is brave enough to ride with him and incredibly skilled at keeping him on track. I suspect we will see her behind the wheel of the Bimmer soon! Check out their website in my links, you’ll be following along with their adventures soon enough.

When the pedals are in, the steering wheel was installed and we could sit in the drivers seat. Well your imagination puts a track in front of you. Your peripheral blocks out the shop walls and you create the sense of speed and suddenly you realize that you are making the engine sounds you imagine will emerge from the hood. Yes, we both did this, but Dave quickly remembered…. TURN THE KEY!

I have at least been working on a train. In 2008 my soapbox team “Team Save Ferris” installed our first soapbox car in the Forney Museum of Transportation. Since then we put in our second car the Mach 5. Well, the Forney is a pretty cool place so some of us have done a little bit of volunteer work. I have to say that I haven’t done a whole lot there, but I got the bug the other day and headed down to the Forney to see what I could help them out with.

When I walked into the museum I talked to the Volunteer director and he went through a list of projects and asked me what I’d like to work on. Well, I figured I would work on whatever was most important to him so I left it up to him. Turns out I ended up working on a 104 year old train car. This train car is pretty beat up. The whole thing is wood (with the exception of the chassis and wheels) and all the wood is definitely in rough shape. If I had all the time and money in the world I’d say that pulling all the wood off, planing it and re installing only the good stuff would be the best plan, but for now they are replacing just the really bad parts. So I was provided with wood, a handheld jigsaw, some sandpaper, a hammer and a cordless drill. The initial project was to replace the outer boards around an oval shaped window.

I was able to replace the boards and get the shape pretty close on the window without butchering it to bad with the limited tools that were available. but I am going to go back and finish it up with a bit more sanding and some primer and paint.

I will take some better photographs when I get a little farther on the project. For now the iPhone pix will have to do!

Spectating at Pikes Peak is NOT for everyone. It is a full commitment sort of thing. You need to know when you leave your house at 1 am that you will not be getting home anytime soon. You will be sleeping in your car, you will be eating whatever you brought with you and you will be dealing with the elements with whatever you are prepared with. You need to be ready to be isolated to one place on a mountain side for a solid 12 hours.

At 2:45 am we rolled up to the line of cars that had already formed at the Pikes Peak Highway gate. We were about a mile back fromt the gate and we were ready, sleep was tough to come by even at this hour…so we waited…we chatted and we watched the row of racecars that drove up the access lane.  At 4 am the gates opened and we followed the twisty road up and up the mountain. It is fun driving up there at night because you can see the headlights of the cars ahead of you traversing the road thousands of feet above and below you.

We arrived at our destination, 12,760 feet above sea level, Devils Playground.  We parked the car and attempted to sleep. Anticipation is the key problem to sleeping however, so sleep was light and strange. Dreams mixed with reality and eventually we awoke to see the sun shining, it was 7am, 2 more hours.

We prepared for the day, a light hike to about 13,300 ft to see Boulder Park, then we would slowly make our way back to Devils playground.

Cars were on their way when we arrived in Boulder Park. Actually they were on their way, completely out of order. We were fortunate to have arrived prior to the Unlimited classes departure however, so we got to see them speed past at unimaginable speeds through corners and at the edge of clifs on the way up to 14,000 ft.

We began heading back along the road in order to take advantage of a few shooting locations, but the weather began to turn, so we started making quicker time back to the safety of the car.  We spend some time using the cars shelter, then time out on the course watching and spectating the race. Rain came, lightning, hail, sleet and sun… Temperatures fluctuated from cold to hot in an instant and the road’s personality was revealed. I don’t think the mountain wanted to be beaten that day. 10:15 was the fastest time, posted by Monster Tajima. Marcus Gronholm crossed the line about a minute slower, with a blown turbo and a rear wheel/tire/brake on fire.  Eriksson crashed at Engineers corner, which is a popular crash location and Mark Rennison posted a mediocre time because of engine trouble.

Dave and Allison Kern were looking amazing all week during practice…however their car just sounded a bit different during the race. They posted a time of 12:15 (approximately) and I came to find out that they lost an intercooler line at the start line. They went from 30lbs of boost to 4-8lbs in an instant. The power loss was dramatic but they were able to capture 2nd place even with this loss!  Imagine what they will be capable of with all their horsepower available.

I am already looking forward to next year. I have my fingers crossed that Gronholm and Eriksson will return ready to take on the mountain with a bit more experience under their belts. I hope to see Rennison return, maybe with a more reliable motor and I hope to see the Dave and Allison Kern return with their motor in full working order too.

Pikes Peak is an amazing race, there is no other event that I am aware of that puts the spectators so close to the race, the drivers, the cars and the course. The history of the mountain is a great thing. I look forward to seeing it again… and if you are an event organizer reading this, drop me a line, i’d love to help you make this race even bigger and better than it is already.