Arse-Sweat Apalooza Race Report

Originally from August 9, 2010

OK, short recap of a very fun and very successful weekend, then I really must sleep.

Thursday
We left Davis 6 hours late after working through the night, me until 6:30 AM, the others also very late but not as crazy as me. Bernhard and I met at the track and we lined up outside the gate at 11 PM, along with 40-50 more motor homes, trucks, trailers, etc., so we could get in early to get a good spot in the paddock, or at least one that had electricity. Bernhard and I slept in his truck, got up at 5:30-6 AM, and we got both a great spot and electricity. Great start!

Friday testing 
Brian and Bernhard had never driven the car and I had only driven it for two 20 minute sessions, and that was before the new clutch and tuning, so we each paid $100 to get test-day track time. We quickly discovered an engine temperature problem and eventually solved it by tightening the fan belt and putting the fan back in. The electric pusher fan wasn't quite doing the job. It took several tries to get that worked out. We also discovered a serious transmission leak, on a tranny that had all new seals put in. ???!!! It looks like we'd be adding lots of oil to it during the race, until the inspectors discovered the oily mess under the car. Fortunately and unfortunately, Saturday would solve that problem for us in another way. We also had a clutch cable problem, but Alan got under the car, found the root cause, and we were good to go, again. In the end Bernhard got some track time, and Brian a bit more, and just before the end of the day I got a few laps. We were happy and felt guardedly optimistic about the race.

Friday Tech 
Two minor problems, easily fixed on the spot, and we passed tech. That's a great confidence builder. Remember, Alan and I had never done this sort of thing before.

Friday BS Inspection 
This is where we "explain" our build and defend our budget, but Jay, event organizer and boss of everything, took one look at our car and said, "It's an Opel, you can't do anything for these, so just tell me what your costs were." He also asked to see under the hood. He was pleased to see a crusty old Opel engine in there, instead of a V6 like the other LeMons GTs were running. I said we were $100 over budget mostly due to sway bars, and while he was mulling that over I signaled to Bernhard, who was sitting in the car, to pull the lever, and the headlights pods flipped open to reveal an excellent Scotch in one, and a "racer" brand beer in the other. He loved it, told us to close it up, called the other judges over, and told us to do it again, then again for a guy with the video camera. Result, great laughs and no penalty laps for our budget excesses.

Saturday Race 
With Brian at the wheel we took the green flag!!! I doubt I can describe how big a moment this was for Alan and I, and Geoff and Bernhard who had also put a lot of time into the car. It was big grin hour, historic, one for the autobiography.

Forty-five minutes into the race Brian was back in with the tranny stuck in 3rd gear. It wasn't the clutch this time. And hour and a half later Geoff and Zep had swapped in the tranny from the parts car. But here's the really cool part. Mr. Bob and another guy, sorry I forget names easily, but anyway, two Opel guys, came to the race to see us run the car. Even paid $20 for the privilege. Awesome! Then they joined in to help with the tranny swap. I've already used the word "awesome" here, so what can I say? What word captures this? Family?

After the tranny swap Bernhard took the car back out. The tranny was working and it did not leak oil. How lucky can you get? But soon Bernhard was in for a penalty, "passing under caution". They had us park the car with some others, probably because they wanted to put together a parade of shame, but forgot about us, then just told that "It's an Opel, that's punishment enough, go back out and race." Bernhard went back out and ran some great laps, then it was Zep's turn. Zep was doing great, knocked off a great 2:36 lap, then had an off that had something to do with avoiding another car's dive-bomb-gone-bad, but an off is an off is a penalty, so we all met in the judgment area again. The judges talked to Zep to assess things and before long they let us go again without having to do anything humiliating. I think they liked our car. But then Zep went out on track and spun in T6 of his first lap, so back in "penalty" they explained that we now had three and that got us a 3 hour penalty, which left us with one hour of driving in the day, but if we got a fourth penalty in that hour we'd be sent home. We elected to take the rest of the day off.

We used our "free time" to inspect and work on the car, and visit other teams. Zep's spin had loosened the exhaust hanger, so we fixed it. We also installed a timer for the driver, rotated the tires and did other minor things, then we discovered a problem with the right-side tie rod end. Bernhard was concerned about a catastrophic failure while Geoff thought it would be OK but we'd monitor it.

Sunday Racing
Alan drove first. Race starts are interesting, but this being his first time in a race, I thought the pre-green lapping would make for a good warm-up and chance to relax before things got hectic. Alan drove great for about 1.5 hours. A bit slow, but that was never the point. He cranked out some laps, got no penalties, the car wasn't hit or anything, the tranny was holding, temperatures were good, so that was a great start on the day.

Next up, me. I think I drove well, got passed a lot, did a fair bit of passing myself, had no problems, but figured out that the tie rod problem probably did lead to Zep's second off on Saturday. When Zep had entered T6 on Saturday he said the car pushed bad and would not turn. Normally you straighten the wheel a bit and stay on the brakes to slow the car enough that it would turn again, but this just made it worse and Zep drove off in T6 trying to get it under control. The first time this happened to me I just lifted on the brakes and the car turned fine. So that was what I did in my session. Still, it made things interesting, like when I entered T2 inside another car, and my front wheels were squealing as I got closer and closer to his door, and I know he knew I was there and heard it, but once I was off the brakes things were fine again. Other than that, it was a good session. I turned some mid-to-high 2:30 laps. Zep had been doing about the same lap times. Bernhard and Brian were in the mid-to-low 2:30 range and Brian even broke into the upper 2:20's a few times. Not bad for 85 whp on a 41 year old car that had been left out in a field for the past 25 years and whose engine we had never even looked inside.

Brian drove next but came in after about an hour after he started noticing tranny problems (crunch 3rd gear) and a new engine noise. He didn't want to break someone else's car. We added oil to the engine (it was low), checked the oil in the tranny (it was fine), checked the tie rod problem (no change, not getting worse), then Bernhard took it out again.

We were entering the closing phase of the race now and the guys did this while I was off doing something else - they decided that I should take the last stint and the checkered flag. Alan would pass on his stint, and Zep, who felt he was in the dog house anyway, passed on his. I encouraged Alan to take his stint, and told Zep he was not in the dog house, and I think I had Zep ready to drive again. We'd split whatever time was left after Bernhard came back in. Then Clint, from Evil Genius Racing, the guy who built the cage and did other work on the car, asked for a short stint in the car. So that's what we would do. Clint would drive for 20-30 minutes once Bernhard was back in, Zep declined his stint, and I'd take the last hour and a half.

I am driving now. When Bernhard brought the car in the tranny problem had gotten worse. It was a bit crunchy getting into 3rd on up-shifts and down-shifts, plus the rotors were warped or acted like they were warped, and now an engine problem had been developing and was now pretty bad and had the engine was missing in high-G turns. Fueling? Electrical? No time to fix it, just drive and monitor it. So that was the car I finished the day with, except now it was also using a lot more fuel. An hour later the gauge was hitting "E" (Actually it was hitting "F" on our 0-90 ohm gauge/90-0 ohm sender combo.) so I pitted for fuel.

Normally after a stint that long you'd change drivers. Not this time. They wanted me back in the car. Repeat - they wanted ME back in the car. That's the kind of team you want to be at the track with. People who will back you.

With 20 or so minutes left on the clock I took the car back out, drove as well as one could with power cutting out in T2 and T11 and a few other turns, mostly left-handers, if I recall correctly, and with a shaking front end during braking, and some grind in 2-3 and 4-3 shifts. Even so, I found some cars to chase, and cars to avoid.

Damn if the last few minutes of this kind of race doesn't get nutty! The cars in the lead positions were racing each other hard and slow cars like mine were not going to be an obstacle. If I left 6 inches between me and the edge of the track, one of these cars would get in there and make a pass. It was great to watch, though. They looked like they were really having fun, and I considered every pass made on me as a successful pass I played a part in. Does that sound weird? Anyway, I had a great chase going with an MR2 that it turns out had 50% more power at the wheels than our little Opel, so I guess I was doing pretty good. I'd reel him in in the turns and he'd inch away in the straights. Give me another lap or two and I'd get him! Then the checkered flag came out.

It was bit emotional. Really. Not because it was a big race, or that we had won, because we certainly didn't, or almost won, because we certainly didn't, but because for something that intense to end so abruptly does trigger some emotions. Plus, the guys had sent me out to that the checkered flag, plus at each corner workers station they were waving all of their pretty flags, giving thumbs up and waves, all that stuff, celebrating the successful completion of this 2-day crapcan race, plus this project that Alan and I took on back on May 23 was a grand success. We had rescued that car, got it ready to race, started the race, and finished the race. And people like Geoff and Brian jumped in to wrench and drive with us, Zep (Alan's son) joined to wrench and drive, Alan drove in his first race, Zep in his first, me in my second, and Gill at OGTS had supported us, and folks on the OpelGT.com forum had supported and encouraged us... it was all a bit much.

Back in the paddock we all reflected on this, and how great the weekend had been, took pictures standing next to the car, and I put on my sun glasses to hide the tears that kept showing up if I thought about it all too much.

Not a bad weekend.

Credits for the photos below go to Head-on Photos, Judge Phil, and me.

From left to right: Mike Meier, Geoff Straw, Bernhard Wagener, Zep Brattesani, Alan Brattesani, Brian Doty.

We knew exactly what those headlight buckets would be good for at our first race.

“Wow! What a great story! I am proud of your little Opel, and glad that I could play a tiny roll in it! Good going guys, it sounds like you did great! And, great photos, the Opel looks great!” – Jim (JimVonBaden, OpelGT.com)

“Hey Mike, What can I say? Yellow Opel with a wing on the rear, can relate to both!!!!!!! This story told from the first post to the completion of the LeMons race was really a treat for me and would say to a lot of others on this forum. You made us feel included, and involved in the rebuild, rolled paint job (Jim), T1 to the checkered flag. Thanks, to you and the team for a job well done.

PS. Your first picture from the above post will be my new screen saver!!!!!!!” – Micah1, OpelGT,com

AMAZING JOB GUYS!!!! And congratz on the finish. I live in Oklahoma and they are having a ChumpCar race later this month. I would say you have the car to run if you can. The track is Hallett Raceway in Hallett, Oklahoma. I am buying a '75 Manta this weekend if I am able to get off this drilling rig.

I have to say you have inspired me to live a dream and do just what you all have done. Thank you for all your great pictures and to see a bunch of normal guys like the rest of us, can build and race a car and have a lot of fun!! Thank you very much!! - JOZ1973GT, OpelGT.com

Thanks a lot. I am also building a Lemons race car out of an Opel and have been using this site for most of my tech info. (I posted on your Lemons forum also)

I have read your whole thread and it was very informative. I will be racing my car in September. It was my intention to put a bunch of pics of my suspension and brakes up on this site after I have proven them to work. Hopefully mine will be as successful as yours. - Team Unter Puff, OpelGT.com