Hudsonville Fair

This week was the Hudsonville fair which has 2 off road scrambles and a demolition derby. We missed Wednesday nights race but saw the scramble on Thursday night. It's actually a little strange now being able to watch a whole event, rather than running around making sure my car is competitive. I would run Hudsonville but for 2 things; they make you move the fuel tank and you have to sign up early in the summer which can mean you enter the event and then get stuck with a broken car when the date comes round.

Thursday had rained most of the day and the clay track was very wet cutting the speed back dramatically. The track was however better suited to the faster cars as it seemed that whoever got off the line best could hold the lead especially as the track was a regular oval with just some large berms in it. No crossover where you could catch the cars in front of you and try and spin them out.

There were a couple of drivers who run the Unique Motor Sports circuit and you could see that all the additional racing practice and knowledge paid off in their performances. One of them Russ in B4U took the feature.

Watching the event though from the perspective a driver I thought they ran a really tight pit and marshalling area but their race safety and flag men were below par. There were guys sticking their arms out of the window to wave at the crowd and even more dangerously they didnt stop the race when things like steel bumpers fell off and littered the track. At one point a bumper from the track almost came through someones window and the flag staff seemed oblivious.

Saturday we went back for the demolition derby as the year before it was probably the best derby I saw. This years however seemed lackluster in comparison. The heats were very staid as the track was so wet. Some of the best hits were in the compact derby and the best win of the night was in the powderpuff where 730 took her little 4 cylinder Cavalier to the win in a field that was a mix of big and small cars. Yep she beat up on the old reliable Chevy Caprices. Yet more prooif that 2.2 liter Cavaliers are almost indestructable.

1981 Chevrolet Citation

So far this year I have raced and retired 4 cars:
1994 Chevy Cavalier
1989 Chevy Cavalier - still runs and may come out of retirement again
1989 Buick Le Sabre
1999 Ford Escort ZX2

Now we are building the fifth car, a 1981 Chevy Citation and its proving to be a pain. Everything normal is done but we just cannot seem to resolve a fuel leak problem and a braking issue. Right now the car has all of 1 and a half brakes - I need at least 2. I guess we were too happy too early after we coaxed it from its resting place in someones garden with starting fluid and a new battery. It had been sat there for almost 2 years and is suprisingly not that rusty at all.

Now we have to finish it for the next race in Cadillac on 9/9

Catching Up

I knew things had got busy and I hadnt updated the blog for a while but a month is simply too long. So much has gone on since the last update. Three scrambles have blown by since then including the mid season state championship in Coldwater where the what would Jimmy Buffett do ZX2 came out to play for its second time. Other drivers thought I was nuts running a stick out there but even so I managed to come home second in the feature garnering my biggest trophy yet and shock horror - prize money.

Unfortunately after running the feature I came straight back out to run the Figure 8 in the car and blew the clutch. Another car done.

I had hoped to run Cadillac in the ZX2 but we resurrected the Cavalier again which just keeps plugging but not very competitively any more.