All Systems Are A GO!!!!
Launch Date: Oct. ‘05
This date is the start of a New Year for B.S. Motorsports (a.k.a) Tim B. and crew, in the “Super Hornet†division at Elko Speedway. The start of the season actually started in October of ’05 with the build up of the new car. A 1992 Mitsubishi Mirage 2dr hatchback was the monster of choice, for this years build. The car had to be gutted of all none essential components, this included the seats, carpet, headliner, heater core and so on. In this, the folks at B.S. Motorsports where lucky they had kept the car from last year’s season that had blown a motor.
In the fall of last year after many conversations with very wise Mits guru’s, it was decided a replacement motor that would have the best stock horsepower in a non-turbo set-up. From these searches a needle-in-a-haystack was found. A JDM 4g63n/t fresh off the boat with about 30k miles on this little gem was stumbled upon at the local junk yard while on a parts run for a different car. The price was right and it was now ready for a new life as a stock car engine. After getting all the new parts that are required for the engine swap, the madness began. Pulling all the old wiring out of the Mirage and installing the new, proved to be a very long process. After getting this beast of a motor tucked away in the little car, along with the go box, she was ready for the first fire up. And fire up it did, this engine with the straight pipe woke the neighbors from a sound sleep.
With the motor and transmission in along with the wiring it was now time to start thinking safety. Being a young race team and having seen their share of nasty crashes, they where thinking of a way to make this hoped up go-kart as protective as possible.
Race Date: 4-22-06
Today is the day of days; I wake up at 7am and start to think of the days activities. The race is 12 hours away and I am nervous as hell. Not because of what will happen, but because of what might happen. This is the same car as last year, but it really isn’t, this is a whole new animal to me. As I call my crew chief and close friend Scott, to see what is left to get finished on her ( always last minute things) I feel my self start to get even more nervous. I tell Scott that I would be over shortly to start on the car; I had forgotten to get the trailer reserved from the rental place. As I start calling around asking for a trailer, I start to think about the roll cage that we had just finished the day before. Is it strong enough?? I ask myself, is it really going to save my butt in a roll over? A few seconds later I get the words I’m looking for “yes†we have a trailer. WooHoo I thought to myself as I told them I’d be right there to get it. After getting the trailer and getting to Scotts house, I started to do some last minute things.
After tinkering with the blue beauty for a few hours, we where ready to load her up, when I remembered that the cooling system was full of antifreeze. On an asphalt oval track, antifreeze in the cooling system is a $500 dollar fine. So in a slight hurry I started to drain the coolant, and wouldn’t you know it, it was being a pain in the butt. After 1.5 hours of flushing the coolant out and refilling it with water only, it was about time for Scott to leave for a wedding. The count down now 7 hours to go till race time, but 4 hours till its time to get on the road, I decided to head home for a quick rest season.
5pm, my Father and I hit the track, as we pull in the smell of 110 race fuel hovers over this sun baked track. We check in and find a good spot to off load, now its time for tech. Tech for me is the worst thing in the world at the track, never knowing what rules have changed in the last day or 2. After waiting in the tech barn for 30 minutes while my car is gone over with a fine toothed comb, I get my little red sticker saying passed ’06. Not more than 2 minutes after passing tech I hear over the PA “super hornets†practice line up, now the heart starts to get that deep hard thump, the one that makes you sweat. I quick get my fire gear and helmet out of the truck and jump into my caged beauty, strap myself in and start her up. As I throw it into reverse and start to back up, I start getting the cold sweats (on a 70+ degree day).
As I line up, I can see my competition; a few preludes, crxs, Saturn’s and some others. The starter waves us out, as I start down onto the track I quick snap the throttle, and feel this baby go. I am able to keep pace with them, out corner them, even fall back and catch them and to my surprise pass and pull away. To me that is awesome, the first day out and she is as good if not better than the others. After the drivers meeting I find my starting position, and start to prep for some door to door action. My heat race rolls around and my adrenalin is racing faster than the cars, I buckle in to my 5 point harness, that keep me tight in the seat as if it where fingers holding me tight in a hand. We line up again, this time for real, the starter waves us on to the track, we make our pace lap and I check my gauges for that last time. 6 laps to fight for a flag that is white and black, the caution lights go out, as we inch our way around this concrete incased doughnut. Tighter to one another we get, waiting, watching the little man in the flag booth. The green flag drops, its balls to walls from here on out, as I start to press the gas pedal through the floor board, I hear a pop and a back fire coming from my beauty. She won’t get up and go like she had 30 minutes ago. I pull to the high side and wave everyone by, as I nurse her around 6 more times.
After finishing the heat race I got her back to the pit so I could figure out what was wrong. After 45 minutes of checking and testing different things, I found out that my alternator was not working. Luckily for me a few buddies that I made at the track had a battery that would fit in to my car. After a NASCAR style battery change, I had to hook her up to life support in the form of a battery charger. 9:30 pm and its time for the feature, I am still nervous, because the feature races generally are demo derbies. I was praying that it would keep up and that I wouldn’t get ran over. After the line up and the wave, we pull out for another show down. The car is handling great, but the power just isn’t there, the green flag drops and all I could do was try and try I did. I started in 11th place and by the end of 3 laps I was in 7th, as I was making my move on the outside of another car, I here a pop from her again. Knowing what I had in store for the remainder of my 12 lap feature, I stick to the out side. Watching and waiting as if I saw her fading away from me. At the end of my 12 laps I had fallen back to 13th place, losing 2 spots from where I started. But in my book, I had won, I had gone to the track with a fresh car that had never been on the road or tested. I have 1 problem to fix over the course of a month and that’s all, I feel even better because I finished every race and drove her on the trailer, without any damage.
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Hope the ankle gets sorted out.