Since the team last raced at Toledo in October, Jimmy and Geoff were busy, building a loft in the Brownsburg facility to create a more ergonomically-friendly work environment. They did a fantastic job of constructing an upstairs level and organizing the things in the shop. Many kudos to them for the hard work they put in.
Jimmy was also able to secure some of the machine-shop items that he had at his former place in Missouri. This will make us a bit more independent when it comes to fabricating parts for the race cars. While we greatly appreciated the assistance and guidance that was provided last year, we felt that we were wearing out our welcome with a few local folks and did not want to spend this year, continuing to beg and borrow. It also helped to save time and resources as we don't have to run all over Central Indiana to get something done!
We've also found out that Geoff may be getting close to having a sprint car commitment that may preclude him from being as involved this season as he was last year. We'll look forward to having Geoff's expertise around when we can get him and we wish him a few wins in the upcoming sprint car season!
The pavement car has begun to take shape and is beginning to look more and more like a race car and less and less like a bare frame. Jimmy had some glass-coating done to the nose piece and has been able to get the radiator to sit at a better angle to allow more air flow into it. We hope that this will alleviate the over-heating issues that we faced at IRP last summer.
I assisted Jimmy with re-attaching the drive shaft to the rear end of the car. After some serious weight-lifting and shimmying, we were able to get everything reconnected smoothly. I don't know about Jimmy but I'm still sore after that episode!
There were also areas that Jimmy was able to tweak and outright remove to save some weight and give us a further advantage over what we had run with last year. It's amazing how the simple removal of some length of hose or using less fasteners here-and-there can really make a significant difference.
In the coming weeks, we expect to get one or two of the engines out for the ethanol upgrade. If things go as planned, we should be able to have them out before the end of this month and back by the beginning of April. Our first race is scheduled for the 19th of May and that will give us plenty of time to drop it into the frame and even give it a test run if need-be.
So, as winter continues to amble along, so do we. Jimmy and I are feeling very good about the prospects for the upcoming season and we'd like to think that it will go much better than what we had last year. Here's the upcoming season schedule:
2012 Silver Crown schedule
Right now, we're focusing on the Indiana races in May and as things progress, we'll start taking a serious look at what the rest of the year may hold.
- Gar
No comments:
Post a Comment