mainteam

	(9/3/08) A lot has happened since my last writing. For several weeks we've been chasing the setup of our car. What was working earlier in the season is not doing it now. Tried some changes that just didn't work out. If fact, a couple times we were just junk. But, fortunately we seemed to have finally found something. Meanwhile things have come to an abrupt halt to Harry's racing. In what seemed to be a fairly minor wreck in a qualifying heat turned out to be a disaster for him. In the accident his hand came off the steering wheel and got caught in the wheel spoke which litterally shattered his wrist. He immediately went to the hospital followed by surgery a couple days later. Ended up with a couple plates and 13 screws. The main bone was broken in six places while the smaller ones a couple breaks each. Overall he's doing well, his normal chipper self, despite now being pretty handicapped and not able to race. Since Harry wasn't racing our dad decided he would take Harry's car out for a spin. He was curious how different today's Late Models are compared to what he drove at Grandview 15 years ago. Well the big diference that caused him problems was the clutch. It works completely different from a standard clutch on a street car and he was getting all mixed up. This caused him to hit the wall in the heat. We got that fixed for the feature but after running a few laps he decided to pull off the track rather than get in everyones way. His intensions were good but the exacution had a little to be desired. He really didn't slow up much when he went to turn into the infield and as soon as the front tires hit the wet mud that is usually along the very bottom of the back straight the car just went straight. Straight into the concrete wall on the inside of the track. It was a pretty hard hit to the front of the car. Fortunately he was alright but unfortunately Harry's car is as broken as he is, also done for the year.
Chris Budihas Photo	(7/28/08) The week after our win we finished in one piece(woohoo). Started 18th and finished 12th. Got as far as 10th but I got into the 93 car a bit which bent the right rear wheel and caused the tire to go down. This made the car pretty loose for the last few laps and I lost a couple spots. Got pretty lucky there, one more caution and we would've had to pit (thanks Mr. Bill). Harry did a good job and also finished in one piece. We've been making several changes trying to get the car to drive as easy as we can get it for him as he continues with his learning curve during his rookie season. Harry went to the Friday night show at Big Diamond last week. Unfortunately I couldn't go because of a previously scheduled engagement with my son's Cub Scouts. (argh) Sounded like Harry did pretty good. He ended up finishing 13th in the feature. After having a week off I'm really looking forward to this Saturday night. I'll be at Scout camp Thursday thru Sunday with my son and his Cub Scout pack. But I'll sneak out for Saturday night of course. The weekend after will also be a busy one, I'll be running in the 2 day SCCA Al Holbert Memorial Charity Solo Event running the Acura Integra. With the week off this past week we have had the car at our garage doing some work on it. Fortunately the guys running the SCCA event are allowing me to make my runs earlier then my scheduled times to help make sure I get to Grandview in time for our races. I tell ya, great group of people there.
Chris Budihas Photo	(7/15/08) Man, it sure is nice when things go your way for a length of time. We're getting spoiled. Last Saturday we were able to win another qualifying heat followed by our secong win for the season. Nothing like being able to take advantage of good starting spots. Needless to say the car has been running good. This week we'll start towards the back again (18th) but this time we are not planning to do any chassis setup experiments so hopefully we will be able to make more progress to the front than the last time we started towards the back. A big thanks to all the guys on our crew for all the great work they do on the car every week and to all of our sponsors that support our little 'hobby that got out of hand'. Sunday I ran the SCCA car in Warminster for the Solo Autocross series. We won our class and regained the points lead for our class. So it was a pretty good weekend, a clean sweep. Doesn't get much better than that.
Chris Budihas Photo	(7/7/08) The good news is we made it through the 40 lapper unscathed (thanks Mr. Bill), bad news is we went backwards. Started 2nd and ended up 7th. We weren't completely sure on the chassis setup since we were running our feature before the modifieds instead of the normal afterwards. So I think we were just a little off. Not much, but enough. I also think some of the problem was I spent too much time running the bottom of the track. The top was faster this time. I've gotta do a better job at getting my butt off the bottom of the track more often. The 57 was hooked up on the outside, he was flying. I don't know if anyone had anything for him. Overall it was a good clean race. The late models put on a good show. Alright, is it Saturday yet?
Ray Masser Photo	(7/1/08) Since we won last week we had to start from the 18th position. That can be good and that can be bad. I like it because I like the challenge of trying to pass the car in front of me. Every pass is an awesome feeling. But obviously there is a better chance at getting caught up in somebodies elses mess which is usually how our luck goes. (but heck, we've got Mr. Bill now) (knock on wood, again) We've had a chassis adjustment we've been wanting to try the past couple weeks and decided we'd try it this week. Figured since the 40 lapper was coming up we wanted to know before then whether it was going to work or not. Well, it didn't work. The car pushed so badm it really sucked. I'd turn the wheel and it would just go straight. Right up the track. Either I'd have to keep hitting the brake to get it to turn or I'd have to break the tires loose and just slide it thru the turns. Both ways are good ways to go slow. Man, I told them not to do that again!! Anyway, we ended up 11th.
Ray Masser Photo	(6/24/08) They gave me this space to write something so I guess I should write something at least once in a while. I missed a few months. Unbelievable, the season is half way over. Geesh, where does the time go. We started with a DNF the first two weeks which really put us in a hole. We just couldn't seem to get a break. We needed something to change our luck. In the Garage there has been a Mr. Bill doll hanging above the race car from the ceiling for at least 10 years now. Well, we decided to take ol' Mr. Bill for a ride and strapped him to the car. Two zip ties created a nice set of safety belts for him. (knock on wood) since then things have gone much better. We've slowly been picking our way back up in points. Though I did take a week off to go on vacation to California with the family which didn't help point wise. But with where we are it enables us to get some front row starting positions which we were able to capitalize on to get a much needed feature win for the team on 6/21/08. A big thanks to all the guys on our team.
	(3/7/08) The race season is upon us now. We had the car at a couple different shows along with having it at a couple different Cub Scout pinewood derby races. Had some fun and got to meet a lot of great people. But, time to get into gear and get everything finished up and make it race worthy. It has just been a big push toy for the past couple of months. Harry, my brother, and his crew have been busy working on the #81 car. He is using my car that I used the past few years. It's a good car but did need a bit of work to get it back up to par. He's got a good group of guys helping him so hopefully all will go well for him. The guys from my crew have been giving them a lot of help while my car wasn't being worked on. I must say, this'll be an interesting year for the team.
	(1/21/08) Seems like no matter how much time I give myself to get the graphics done I'm still cramming to get the car done in time for the show each year. The two nights before we were to bring the car down were late ones. 2:00am and then 3:30am. Long nights when you still gotta get up for the daily grind at 5:45am. We were bringing the car down in one of the trailers from Cargo Trailer Sales that would be in the show and the trailers had to be in Wednesday so we loaded it up Tuesday night. Unfortunately the trailer we were taking had a cabinet over the wheel well on the inside so we had to take the whole nose of the car off to get it in. What a pain in the ass. Nose, fenders, hood and both side panels. Then once we unloaded it we had to reassemble the car. (left) We laughed, "some assembly required". The show went well. Saw some old faces, met some new ones. Generally always a good time down there. We had a good meal at one of the food buffets at one of the casinos but lost a few bucks at one too. Fortunately just $30 at blackjack, had fun though.
	(1/2/08) Here, this will give you a preview on what the new car is going to look like. I have it all layed out on the computer, now to start cutting the decals. Should look pretty cool.
	(1/1/08) Happy New Year to all and welcome to the updated web site. I hope you enjoy the changes. It was due for a refreshing. We are currently getting the car ready for the 2008 season starting with the annual Motorsports show in Atlantic City the weekend of January 18 - 20. This is always a fun show though being there for the whole weekend does get kinda tiring. But, Teresa (my wife) and I are looking forward to a weekend in AC without the kids. Woo-hoo! A couple weeks ago my dad and a couple of the guys from the crew took a trip out to Bernheisel's to pick up the new car. Boy it's nice. I'm currently laying out the graphics on the computer and should start applying them by the end of the week. Steve picked up a new dash panel, complete with new gages for us for Christmas. (Man what a guy) Thanks Steve!