Great Race 2011 - Stage 4

Tuesday, June 14th - Day 4

Today's route departed Cumberland, MD and ended in Hershey, PA with a lunch stop in Chambersburg PA. I heard the Antique Automobile Club of America's museum in Hershey was AWESOME. I don't actually know because as we were coming into the over-night stop, my water temp shot through the roof. I pulled over and - yep - radiator problems. I filled it up with water and we limped into Hershey. An announcement was made and that's when I met Gary and Doc from Middletown Radiator. Bottomline: they saved us! We topped the radiator and drove to their shop. I started disassembly at 7:00 PM and by 9:00 PM I had a fixed radiator. Turns out the vibration from the crappy roads we've been on created a stress fracture in the bottom of the radiator. I can't thank Gary, Doc and the rest of the crew enough. If not for them I'd have the car in the trailer and be on my way home by now. Check them out at: 717.944.3823 - 148 (Rear) Geyer's Church Road, Middletown, PA 17057.

The rest of our day was okay:

Leg 1: 1 sec late

Leg 2: 9 sec early

Leg 3: 1 sec early

Leg 4: 12 sec early

Leg 5: 3 sec late

Good enough for second in class.

Great Race 2011 - Stage 3

Monday, June 13th
I'm grouchy tonight and not in the mood to blog.... We didn't have a good day. Scores are below, but the reality is we had a rough morning. Hey, at least it didn't rain today...
Here's a picture of our lunch stop:
Here is Jim and Mari in a very nice Ford speedster:

And here is the Hubbard family. I met then at our night stop in Maryland - thanks for making my evening so enjoyable. Great family!

Leg 1: 23 sec late

Leg 2: 39 sec early (YGTBSM!!!!)

Leg 3: 2 sec late

Leg 4: 1 sec late

Leg 5: 9 sec late

Total adjusted score 56.94 sec :-(

We're 3rd in class so far. Say a prayer - we need it!!!

Great Race 2011 - Stage 2

Sunday, June 12th - Day 2

Today's course started in Ashville, NC and ended in Salem, VA with a stop in Galax, VA for lunch at the Old s Motorcar Museum. The route followed the Smokey Mountain Parkway for most of the day - lots of twists and turns; lots of hills; and lots of scenic beauty........and one wild turkey.... who we almost hit. Rain came later in the afternoon, but wasn't too bad. The car ran fine thanks to our Southern engineering (IE: zip-ties and duct-tape). All in all, it felt like a pretty good day. And then we got our scores:

Leg 1: 10 seconds late
Leg 2: 6 seconds early
Leg 3: 12 seconds late
Leg 4: 18 seconds late

Total score 35.88 seconds (raw = 46 seconds) uuuggggghhhhhh!! That's HORRIBLE! But apparently everyone else did poorly too because for the day we're 7th overall, 3rd in class. And for the rally to date (thru 2 stages) we're 5th overall and 2nd in class. Hmmm, go figure.

Great Race 2011 - Stage 1

Saturday, June 11: Day 1
Today was the official start of the 2011 Great Race. Today's course began in Chattanooga, TN at the Coker Tire World Headquarters and ended in Ashville, NC with stops in Athens, TN for lunch and Maggie Valley, NC for dinner. Today's route was the Tail of the Dragon which is considered one of the best driving roads in the US - very scenic! The only issue for the day, driving back from dinner to the hotel, the car died. Turns out the rain shorted out the fuel pump. I brought a spare fuel pump and after a little repair work in the parking lot (Thanks BUD!) we were back in action. Of course, we didn't finish until midnight - so that's the reason this post is a day late.

Here is a picture of the starting grid at Coker Tires. We started 25th, so we're way, way in the back!!

The official starting gate:
Here's a great story. These guys are high school buddies - the driver is 16 and the navigator 15. They're driving a 1920's era Ford A... AND they're dressed the part!
So we had no rain during the timed portion of the rally. But twenty seconds after we were off the clock - BOOM! It started raining cats-n-dogs. yes, we got wet. Very wet...
The rain gears works better if you put it on BEFORE you're wet.... So after the first day of competition, we were pleased:

Leg 1: 1 sec late

Leg 2: 2 sec late

Leg 3: 4 sec late

Leg 4: 5 sec late

A total raw score of 12 seconds; adjusted for age factor to 9.36 - we're 3rd in class and 3rd overall.

Great Race 2011 - Stage 0

Friday, June 10th: This morning was rally school - which is just a meeting for the drivers and navigators to learn about new rules, course instructions, and the day's events. At noon we took off for a "practice" rally. It was more like a one-day separate competitive rally sponsored by Hagerty insurance. First place in each division took home some cash and a trophy. We came in fourth in our class so no scratch for Dixie Racing today. :(

Sorry hon.

Just for the record, a "leg" is the period from check point to check point. And a "stage" is a day's events. So each Stage consists of multiple legs - and you get a score for each leg. Clear as mud? I thought so...

Here is our car getting tech inspected and stickers put on it.

Number 73 is reserved for only the best team. Okay, that's a lie. It was actually the previous owner's graduation year from high school.

Thanks to Honest Charlie's Speed Shop for getting us ready....

Here is Coker Tire's replica of the 1911 Indy 500 winning Marmon Wasp. Now THIS is a cool car! I'm not sure how they painted it, but it looks like a nicely maintained 100 year old car.

When your name is Coker and the company's named Coker too, you get to have a few perks... like having your own city. Corkyville. That reminds me, have you ever seen the SNL Cork Soaking skit? FUNNY!

Here's Joe (Naviguesser) and Bud (Crew Chief) hard at work on something very, very important!

Here's my view out the Sopwith Pup just before a time-of-day restart. See that sign up ahead on the right? We have to depart at exactly the right time and right speed....

So today's efforts were just okay. We had a few good leg scores, but weren't very competitive. The first place finisher (Jim Menneto) in our class had a whopping 6.48 second day! Wow, nice job Jim. Our scores:

Leg 1: 1 sec late

Leg 2: 5 sec late

Leg 3: 10 sec late

Leg 4: 13 sec late

Leg 5: 6 sec late

Total: 27.30 sec which put us 4th in class and 23 out of 59 cars overall.

Great Race 2011 - Prelude

Wednesday, 8 June: It has started! For those of you just tuning-in, Joe and I are racing a 1928 Ford Model A speedster cross-country this summer. The course is shown below, it goes from Chattanooga, TN to Bennington, VT and will last over a week. The car has no roof - so if it rains, more like - when it rains, we'll get wet. On the other hand, we get to directly commune with mother nature all week! The sights, the smells, cow manure.... yuck!

My plan was to leave home around 8 AM and drive for 12-13 hours or until tired. The best laid plans of mice and men.... I didn't get out of town until noon. So the revised plan was to drive 2/3 to 3/4 of the way, stop, rest, and have a leisurely drive into Chattanooga this morning. Sure enough, about midnight, I had enough and decided to stop... whoosh... darn... that was a really nice rest stop I just passed. Should I turn around? Naw, there will be another.... not so much.

Thursday, 9 June: Arrive at Coker Tire World Headquarters about 1:00 AM. I parked and jumped into the backseat of the truck for a few hours rest. The rest of the day was spent going through tech inspection, filling out paperwork, getting settled into the hotel room, and seeing old friends. Joe and Bud arrived mid-afternoon - the stage is set. Bud, a new character in the tales of Dixie Racing, is a mild-mannered Virginian who graciously agreed to help out with support crew duties (IE: drive the truck + trailer cross country).

A little bird told me today that there are some fifth graders out there tracking our exploits cross-country. Hang-on kids, it's going to be a wild ride!!!!

PS- To: HD + Bobo.... xoxo

Post Script

Here are a few pictures from the rally. Here is where the work gets done. If the cockpit looks cramped, it's not. We're actually very comfortable (as long as it's not raining...)

After we discovered the loose alternator Day 2, the solution was to zip-tie it to the engine and frame. Hard to believe this worked, eh!?!?!

Hmmmm, those clouds look dark....

We had some awesome BBQ at the Dave Kane Route 66 Museum in Afton, OK. Thanks Dave. The car collection is worth checking out. I totally "get" buying an old gas station/car dealership and making a museum out of it.

The museum boasts the oldest known RV in existence - from 1916.

Here is one of the starting positions. It's usually a sign with a good stretch of shoulder to run on in case of traffic.

Two days after the race I had the speedster apart - fixed the alternator, radiator, and few other odds -n- ends. June, here we come!

DAY 3 - The Agony of Defeat...

Sunday, 1 May 2011

Boy, things went downhill pretty fast. First, the weather finally hit. Rain. And more rain. The car slid through corners; the driver kept wiping the speedo so he could see it; and the naviguesser battled wet instructions. Second, the semi-permanent fix for the alternator didn't hold - and the belt slipped off, causing a nauseating 18 minute and 21 second delay. Any chance of a good showing evaporated at that moment. I've said it before - in a sport that measures success in seconds, minutes are a killer! Lastly, no ACES. :-(

On the bright side: we finished the race and did not DNF. Our Henri Lloyd foul weather gear kept us dry (it's made for yacht racing!). We did manage 3 ACES for the weekend (the top-ACE award went to a team with 4 ACES).

Leg 1: 19 sec late

Leg 2: 2 min (18 min 21 sec late!)

Leg 3: 3 sec early

Leg 4: 7 sec late

Leg 5: 5 sec late

Leg 6: 10 sec late

Our final position for the rally was 16th place out of 23 cars. Sigh. There's always June!!

PS- As soon as I can get more photos downloaded, I'll post them.

PPS- Thanks Rex for a fun weekend - we're looking forward to San Marcos next year!!!

Day 2: VCRA Rally - All Stars for Autism

Day 2: Saturday, 30 Apr

Remember the old ABC Sports tagline, "Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat?" That's kinda how the day went. We started off well enough but a spike in the water temp meant trouble. Sure enough, we stopped for the first break and found our alternator flopping around and the fan belt completely off. YIKES! It looked like the day might be over! Closer inspection showed that nothing was broke; so we zip-tied the alternator to the block and crossed our fingers. It held. It held ALL DAY! Unbelievable. Our luck continued to hold - the only rain today was a slight sprinkle that hardly mattered.

We felt pretty good all day, but you never know. Some days you feel like you've been spot-on and you windup sucking. Other days seem horrible, and you windup with an ACE. Who knows?

Today, we felt pretty good - but the results were mixed:

Led 1: 5 sec late

Led 2: CNX

Led 3: 1 sec late

Led 4: 7 sec late

Led 5: ACE

Led 6: 2 sec early

Led 7: 18 sec late (dropped)

Total: 11.7 seconds

Our Day 2 results weren't very impressive; but it beats a DNF (Did Not Finish). For the rally overall standings - we dropped to 4th place overall. They say The Masters doesn't start until Sunday afternoon on the 10th hole. . . . The Rally really begins tomorrow!

VCRA Rally - All Stars for Autism

Greetings! The vintage rally season is underway and this year's kick-off event is VCRA's All Stars for Autism in Grove, OK. Thursday, Apr 28th - Joe and I left Texas and drove the six hours up to Grove. We checked in and went through technical inspection, ran the speedometer check, and got settled into the hotel. Here are the Cajun Boys off-loading their sweet Model A Speedster. This is a nice car!

This nice lady wanted our autograph and tried to sell us rice-balls. Dixie Racing has a pretty fanatical fan base.... they come from all over the world - even Asia!!!

DAY 1: Friday, 29 April - The day started with mandatory meetings and prep for the first day of competition. There are 23 competitors - all of whom are veterans..... no rookies.... no touring.... just hardcore racers, some with 25+ years experience. Yikes! Dixie Racing started 17th, so we were mid-pack. Here is our 1928 Ford Model A Speedster ready for action:

Here are a few of our friends - including Gary and JeanAnn, Jim and Maury.

The weather was beautiful. The course was challenging. The roads took us through Oklahoma and Missouri. We missed a left turn at sign PP and had to make up some time. But in the end, it all worked out. Our raw scores were:

Leg 1: 18 sec early

Leg 2: 2 sec early

Leg 3: 3 sec early

Leg 4: ACE

Leg 5: ACE

Leg 6: 1 sec late

For a total of 24 seconds. But wait. There's more!....

The worst leg is thrown out and 1928 gives us an age factor of .78, sooooooooo

Our adjusted score was 4.68 seconds, which was good enough for 1st Place (Day One)!!!!!!! Yeeeaaahhhhh! It may be short lived, but it is nice to do well. I'm addicted all over again..... kinda like hitting a jack-pot at the casino. I'll play for another five years just to have another day like today. Katy Bar the Door! Check in tomorrow for Day 2....

VCRA Season Opener next weekend!!

The first race of the season is coming up. Check back on this blog beginning Friday, April 29th to track our results. See you on the road!

World's Best Car Wash Gets It's Own Site

Just to keep things neat, "World's Best Car Wash" gets it's own site:

www.worldsbestcarwash.blogspot.com

This way I can blog about rallying and old cars and not bore you with soap sud and vacuum stories.....

:-)

Dixie Garage News

Okay. I suck. I haven't posted since January and it's March. I realize the point of blogging is to update frequently. My apologies - I'll try harder....

Now, on to some news:

Go to www.greatrace.com and click the Great Race Video. It's AWESOME! If you are a Greatracer, it will put you in the mood for June. If not, it will make you want to rally. Nice work Corky.....

And now for the real reason I've been a bad blogger for the last few months; I bought a car wash! It has 6-self serve bays and 1-auto touchless drive through bay. See for yourself:

I've owned it for 13 days and talk about a fire hose!! Lots to learn... I'll blog about the car wash for a little while just to keep the three people who read this site up-to-date. But eventually I'll move to another site and just use this for rallying. I haven't decided yet if we need to have a website, blog page, Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn site, etc. or all of the above. Jeez, I remember when social media meant thumbing through the phone book to look up a number so you could call somebody. Yeah, I know. I'm a dinosaur. Actually, I prefer to think of myself as an Analog Man living in a Digital World. Nice, eh!?!?!

Back to the car wash. I'm calling it the "World's Best Car Wash." I figure we should Aim High (insert Air Force joke here). I'm working on the logo and should have new signage, business cards, etc. soon. If you're in Denton, Texas and need to wash your car, look us up at 1611 McKinney.

That all for now....

Happy New Years! Welcome 2011!!!

Ya gotta love the English....
There is no better way to ring in the new year than with a little spotted dick. A staple of Anglo fare for centuries (??), okay maybe just decades (I'm really not sure), this stuff is great. Next holiday season, give a can to your boss and for the next year you can walk around saying, "Yep, I gave the old man a little spotted dick for Christmas!" Eh, eh, eh, eh. That just never gets old. I gave my wife some spotted dick... AND SHE LOVED IT!

2011 Vintage Rallying Season

Well sportsfans there's lots to blog about:

Looks like the Official Dixie Racing season for 2011 will be:

• April 28: VCRA's "All Stars for Autism" in Grove, OK
• June 11: The "New" Greatrace - Chattanooga, TN to Bennington, VT

Joe and I will be driving the #73 '28 Ford Speedster (pic is from this year's Roughneck Rally):To find out more about the "New" Greatrace, goto www.greatrace.com and read Corky's letter, page through the photo galleries, dream a little dream, etc. The highlights so far include: Hemmings is title sponsor (Thanks Jim!), it will be a week long rally, entry fee is $3,000 (discounted $250) if you get your check in quick, plus other info. The pictures say it all - FUN times! Plus, you get to hang out with JA.

Speaking of video's, if you have 32 minutes to kill, go to www.fsignitions.com and click the RUFFNECK Rally tab. Lots of cool pics from this year's rally (and the music is nice too).

Since I'm plugging websites, I'll include VCRA's: www.vintagecarrally.com. Rex and the boys have kept the flame alive for several years and they put on fantastic events. If you have ever thought about vintage rallying, you really should check out a VCRA event.

1973 VW Camper - The Finale

At last! The big day arrived! We took the Campermobile camping!!!!! After 8 months of on-again-off-again work, the VW was ready for it's maiden "voyage." I'll cut to the punch-line: we had a BLAST! I originally planned on Friday night being mom and dad only (IE: a little romance) with the kids joining us Saturday morning. Then all of us could enjoy a day together and spend Saturday night by the campfire, roasting marshmallows, etc. Well the best laid plans of mice and men.... it rained Friday night..... hard. We ended up staying home. So no romance. I ended up changing the battery Saturday morning and we all finally made it out to the campsite Saturday afternoon. Then it was smooth sailing. A nice campfire. Long walks by the lake. We all had a great time.

Here we are unpacking. Notice there are no hub-caps. I removed them in order to paint the wheels but never got around to it. Then I forgot to put them back on for the weekend. Oh well..

Here's the interior. Notice the nice blue and white gingham curtains. I bought the material myself and had a friend sew them for me. The ugly brown comforter is from 1976!!! It was my bed spread in junior high..... The bed was actually comfortable except it got down to about 40 degrees so we FROZE! Next time I'm bringing my space heater. I used Liquid Gold on the wood panelling and it worked okay. I really need to remove all of the panelling and recondition then reinstall.

Notice the blue carpet. I bought an area rug and cut it down to fit. It goes nicely with the blue curtains. I still have quite a bit to do in the front (IE: recover seats, new rubber mats, new front kick boards, etc.) But for now, it is perfect for family camping.

Texas isn't New England in Fall, but there is a little color. Unfortunately Autumn is a short season. Texas goes from hot to cold pretty quickly. Anyway, the plan is to get out every month if only for a day. I'm going to keep the Campermobile packed with everything we need except food, drinks, wood, and ice. That should make the prep time quick.

1973 VW Camper Part III

Fresh from the paint booth!!! I went with solid white on top. So the concessions one makes with a $2,900 paint job: sanding vs media blasting, windows in vs out, door jams sprayed vs not sprayed, complete dis-assembly vs partial, etc. Like I said before, the main objective here is to go camping. In Texas, it is too hot to camp with a VW in summer (no A/C) and not super fun in winter, so fall and spring are it. It's Late Sept/early Oct and I want to camp before winter gets here so good 'nuff. The bus still needs buffing and final assembly, but MAN OH MAN am I happy.
Bay window still out. Dash still needs a coat of black.

Sa-weet! I can hardly wait to put it all together!!!! Next: Final chapter - back on the road.

1973 VW Camper Part II

Here we are at the "work" stage. I bought the parts and dropped them by as they arrived at the post office, so I had plenty of excuses to stop by the shop. I've always discounted Maaco, but I have to say the guys in Denton (TX) have been great to work with. The only real rust issue was below the bay window...

The dash will get a fresh coat of black while the window is out.

The only hole: driver's side front. Lots of cars rust here (IE: Porsche 911s, etc) because of the way the seal keeps water trapped.

1973 VW Camper Part I

So I finally am getting around to fixing my 1973 VW Camper. I bought it last March and haven't done much to it. First project: paint. The short story goes like this..... Guy #1 wanted $10,000 to do a "less than car show- just don't want to be embarrassed" job. Nope. Guy #2 wanted $7,500 for the same thing. Nope. Guy #3 wanted $6,000. Nope. Guy #4 wanted $4,500 and understood when I declined. His suggestion was Maaco. And I'm proud to say, for $2,900 I got EXACTLY what I wanted: a paint job that isn't embarrassing. (Insert plug for Maaco here). It's not perfect, but hey - I'm going to use it for camping anyway..... Here are some prep pics:
Lots of surface rust below the bay window.

The side cover is rusted in place... yikes!

Th only glass coming out is the front bay window - everything else stays put.

Great Race Lives Again!!

Corky Coker announced at the conclusion of the Coker Challenge Rally in September, that he has successfully purchased the rights and assets of GREATRACE and will merge with the VCRA to form a new GREATRACE rally schedule for 2011.

The 2011 GREATRACE event is tentatively scheduled for June 11-17 and will go from Chattanooga, TN (home of Coker Tire) to Bennington, VT (home of Hemmings Motor News).

Yaaaa Hoooo! I can hardly wait!