I’ve been a life-long fan of people that burn gasoline, especially throttle twisters. Jeff Emig, Ricky Carmichael, Ricky Johnson, the list is long.
The standout is, and always will be Evel Knievel. This guy defined what it meant to go big. What a perfect day to pay tribute to the man, Halloween!
Thad Garner, good on ya.
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While many of my local friends are on road racing the Midwest Series race in Toledo this weekend, and all the honch dirt guys are busy at some ‘BIG’ race in Charlotte, North Carolina 
… I find myself heading to Las Vegas for a week of ‘work’.
It really doesn’t matter what field you work in, trade shows suck the life out of you. I’ll be staying in the Venetian, which is physically connected to the convention center the show is at. In theory, I could go all week without ever going outside. Breathing that much recycled air for a week… it’s like being stuck inside an airplane. Good times.
Me and some of my R/C dedicated co-workers will travel with our Losi Micro T’s. With our massive hotel rooms, we’ll construct the 2008 Venetian Indoor Super Cross track. Doesn’t matter if we’re not racing hour long 1:8 buggy mains, we’re a serious as a heart attack.
All you ‘Left Coasters’ think you have all the fun… Well, here in the Midwest, we simply bolt up two stroke engines to everything :) This past Labor Day weekend, we had probably the nicest three days of weather of nearly the entire summer. It was the perfect time to play with all the toys.
This is 25+ years old or now. My parents bought it (barely) used when I was like 11 or so. Check out the vintage decal action! The control off the front is a hydraulic throttle control, then it has a tether/kill switch that you can see going from the engine area to my vest. It’s a 2 cylinder, two cycle (pull start only) that I think it rated around 15 hp. It’ll top out about 30mph.
Braaapppp!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of nearly all forms of racing. I of course enjoy all the traditional forms, but who doesn’t enjoy some good ole’ lawnmower racing or belt sander racing? Anyway, as a fan, I typically find myself defending NASCAR to people that see it as a ‘they just turn left’ event. I enjoy watching a lot of the strategy that crew chiefs employ to position their driver in a position to win. Either way, the race yesterday at ‘The Brickyard 400′ was an unfortunate let down. For those not in the know, it seems like the combination of the Car of Tomorrow (isn’t it today yet?), the abrasive Indianapolis surface (not designed for NASCAR), and a unproven tire compound made for a less than stellar show. The event was stopped repeatedly so teams could inspect and replace failing rubber.
Well, my weekend fuel burning fun was not going to be put on the line. I decided instead to go back and watch some good ole’ demolition. This demo had actual racing, though…they call it Team Demolition. The goal, one of the team cars has to complete four laps around the mud oval. All the other cars can opt to run ‘offence’ or ‘defense’ however they saw fit. Cars were cutting across the track for massive take out moves. All this to a sold out crowd…and everyone left with a huge smile on their face.
It was brutal, primal…and awesome. Long live racing!
Unfortunately, this guy has to pay the bills before he goes and play with his toy cars. Work has kept me on the move, and I have to pass on one of the best on road events of the summer. The Byron’s Challenge is this weekend, and it’s one of the few events where a handful of the fast west coast guys show up and show us locals how it’s done. Turns out, I’ll be out on the left coast for work, so no toy cars for me.
I had another one of those birthday things a week back or so. You know when you were a kid, and you NEVER thought birthdays would become just another day…we’ll after a while it finally happened.
My wife, on the other hand, decided to have a big party. It had been a while since we’d had everyone over, so it was cool excuse for a summer cookout. I guess my wife didn’t think had enough fun things for the kids do, so she surprised us and rented one of those massive inflatable jumping castles. It was pretty sweet.
The best part of birthdays, it gives me an excuse to go out and buy something for myself that I wouldn’t normally buy. I got one of the coolest electronic gadgets I’ve seen in a while. It’s a Roku SoundBridge. It works in combination with my massive mp3 collection on my computer and my wireless router. I connected it to my stereo in my garage, and I can now play and navigate thru my entire iTunes library.
With summer in full swing, things are crack’n for sure, but it’s better to be busy than to be sitting on your hands!
10-4
Eric
You know what it’s like when one of your shock seals wear out, and shock oil occasionally leaks without warning… well seems like my dog has a worn seal… She’s getting a bit older, and is starting to ‘loose control’. Drip drip here, drip drip there… you get the picture. With 15-month-old twins in the house, that means two things. One, we need to fix the problem… and two we already have the tools in the house to do so.
A visit to the vet has things under control now, so no ‘pee-pee puddles’ on my watch!
I travel quite a bit with my job. The best part of scoring a descent size hotel room is they make killer micro r/c tracks!
Check out my super stealth, Losi Micro T travel case. What might look like an old school Oakley glass case turns out to be the perfect hauler for the tiny terror. Braaap!
This past week, a friend of mine, Collin Cocores was in town. There’s a Vintage Trans-Am National http://www.usvintagetransam.com/ at one of the local tracks http://www.harbor-hobby.net/. He’s in town for the event, and decided to come in a few days early. Sounds like a good reason for some mid week club racing, eh?
I threw 5 of my cars and all my racing gear in the back of his P/T Cruiser rental. Well, Collin driving a rental with all my racing gear in the back doesn’t exactly mix. Everything was fine, but I’m pretty certain that P/T is due for an oil change
I was able to squeeze in a mid-week club race, but it sure seemed like everything was working against me. It all started with my commuter train running late. Once I got home, I headed out in my car for what would normally be the 45-minute drive. It took me a half hour just to go 5 miles to the highway. Some crazy car accident had everything jacked up. From there, I merged onto a highway full of cars that were not moving. Turns out, a tanker truck full of fuel overturned and was engulfed in flames. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tanker-fire-webapr03,0,4173839.story
Once the traffic finally started moving, I was following a truck pulling an empty trailer. The driver nearly lost control of his rig, and the trailer swerved violently, taking up both lanes. Could there be any more things working against me?
