2012 promises to be a great year for our team, and as we have expanded to another car, we need more people. Our base of operations is in Birdsboro, PA (east of Reading). This year we are going to run all 4 northeast races. We have at least two spots open for all of the races right now, ideally for those who are local enough to come and help out with the builds. Here is a bit more about our team and history:
People: We currently have a 4 member core team, with several others who have run with us for multiple races in the past, and one new local. Our team works because of attitude, everyone gets along, everyone contributes to the best of their skill set to the varied needs of the team, and we are all team players, racing for fun, while trying to do as well as we can.
Cars: We have a 91 Honda Civic Wagovan, with the very obscure 4WD system, with plenty of NLA parts. It is reliable, comfortable, easy to drive, handled quite well, but has been fairly slow. Never missed a beat in the races, track days, and testing days. This year we have added a turbo, 22 gal fuel cell, and a few other tweaks to refine it. It is a mid pack B class car in the past, though with the mods it will probably be in A now.
Secondly, we have our new project for this year. Details are not completely public yet (though will be soon), but nobody else has done it, it is guaranteed to be an absolute riot, and I can’t imagine it will end up anywhere but class C.
How we roll: We have a good history of clean driving, have a good reputation with the Judges (I’ve judged twice) and others, and want to keep it that way, while having a great time. Our mechanical skill varies from mine pretty good fabricators to people with basic mechanical skills. Everyone has been improving in their skills with a wrench as we build the cars, and everyone will help to the best of their ability and have others around for direction, and we usually all stay busy. We end up having build days or weekends every 3 weeks or so, depending on our schedules. Sometimes more often, sometimes less, and not everyone has to be there, but we try to make as many as possible. Our builds are in a small two car garage, but it is enough! We've built cages here and have the specialty tools for it. We aren't ultra competitive people, but like to do well, but have a great time while doing it, and one of these days we may really try to push the Civic to see how well we can really do. Keeping the car in one piece and turning laps is our ultimate priority, so shifting a bit short of redline and giving up a corner to some overcompetitive asshat is the norm: he can crash as he overdrives and we keep turning laps, this is an endurance race. We have a team RV, a tow vehicle or three, and a new flatbed trailer. We stay at the track, bring plenty of great food and booze, have a great tailgaiting/track camping setup. We have a nice setup, great group, and just have a great time.
We typically find that a race costs about $800 all in, which includes not only the car and getting it there, but consumables, tires, food/booze, Lemons fees, testing day, etc. We always run testing day to shake the cars down, get more seat time for everyone. With 4 people/car there is guaranteed to be plenty of seat time, and if one car breaks, there will be seat time in the other. Both cars are mechanically fairly simple with good parts availability, and we have some spares to keep them going. My point being, this is not a basic level of racing, we try to run the best race possible, and give a lot for the cost, as that’s how we like to roll ourselves. The only things you need to take care of yourself is your driving equipment (we have 2 DefNders that you can use in the car), some sort of lodging/tent/whatever (staying at the track is highly recommended), and your lemons comp license.
When we brought on additional teammates for the Wartburg, we had a quick survey to get a little bit of info about people to get the conversation started. We’ve done that again here, so please click the link and fill out the survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MPMCPQQ
I can be reached at abbottcd at gmail
. This is a really cool group to work with. Know their stuff, have a lot of fun, and a great attitude. The new project is going to be awesome! If you can join in, you should.
