Toot Sweet Racing

Some great photos from NASA at Pueblo Motorsports Park

rare — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:45:58 -0600

Some great photos from NASA at Pueblo Motorsports Park:

Fred Greenwood seems to have gotten nice shots of every car there … except mine.

Ready for the new season! At least I think so. The race is at...

rare — Fri, 03 May 2013 07:04:59 -0600

Ready for the new season! At least I think so. The race is at Pueblo Motorsports Park, with NASA. There will be 10 cars in my class, which I hope means some good racing.

Forget rollercoasters, put your kids into NASCAR racecars

rare — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:56:19 -0600

Forget rollercoasters, put your kids into NASCAR racecars:

Not your ordinary childhood experience.

Roller coasters, go-carts and Knight Rider have allowed the average person hints of the high-octane thrill of competitive racing, but until you’ve been on the track at high speeds, you haven’t felt a thing. Taste high-velocity euphoria with Today’s Deal from the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience. Choose from the following options:

$64 for a 3-Lap High Speed Ride-Along Experience ($129 Value)

$64 for a Jr. Shotgun 3-Lap High Speed Ride-Along Experience, Ages 8-16 ($129 Value)

$119 for a Qualifier 10-Lap Racing Experience ($319 Value)

Options are available April 26-28, May 3-5, June 7-9 and 14-16 at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Preparations

rare — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:20:24 -0600

This is my first full rookie year. I will have my first BMWCCA Club Racing races. And because I ran an interrupted season last year, I still have one more NASA race with my rookie “R” in its orange tape glory.

I wasn’t intending to do much with the racecar this year but gut out the extra weight now that I’ve dropped the regional SpecM3 class to go for full-on GTS-2, but after talking to Dan Goodman, who built the car, and Mark Baer of SCR Performance, I decided to go for some rather profound improvements in my suspension — with new control arms, new bushings, new springs.

All of these things will add to the cars stability and safety, which I consider features I don’t want to blow off. The car always felt a little squirrely under hard braking and I hope these improvements help.

For a bit better performance, I also added a Bimmerworld race exhaust and DSC delete. And for safety, a 6-nozzle fire system.

I still don’t have a decent tune to max out my power under peak, so I don’t expect to be driving the quickest car out there. But I figure the biggest improvements to be had are in the driver, and that comes from seat time.

Which hopefully will resume in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

This weekend we’re at PMP with NASA, and though we had a...

rare — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:26:35 -0600

We did get a dusting earlier this fall.

For the first time, we pit in style!

Kate has been driving a street car. A pretty good street car, mind you!

The previous owner of Kate's car had crappy steel brake lines installed. They failed quite suddenly one track weekend. Luckily it was at a gas station, not going into turn 4.

Kate is good to go

Laura is good to go

Kate on the carousel at PPIR

PPIR pit

This weekend we’re at PMP with NASA, and though we had a dusting of snow earlier this fall, it’s looking to be a sunny and warm weekend. This is going to be fun!

Some pictures from this year.

Trailer!

rare — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:07:38 -0600

Toot Sweet is now a proud owner of 28’ of hauling space. Pictures once it’s cleaned up.

Pueblo-bound, but first....

rare — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:10:51 -0600

We have a busy week and a half: stripping some more weight from the M3.

Thinking about leaving SpecM3

rare — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:48:02 -0600

This has been my first year of wheel-to-wheel racing, so maybe this is premature, but I’m racing for the racing. It’s no fun running alone. In fact, it sucks.

So as this season approaches a close, I’m looking at dropping SpecM3 as a target racing class for next year. So far I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s still racing SpecM3. Those who did in the past have moved on to other classes, mainly GTS-2 or GTS-3 and higher.

This year with NASA, I’ve stayed within SpecM3 specs, but raced GTS-2. It’s doable. The problem is that with a full tank my car weighs in at nearly 200 pounds heavier than the competition. I have a lot to learn as a driver to be truly competitive, but having the wrong car can make that a challenge for seasoned racers. In the end, though, it’s about the fun, and I feel it just might be more fun racing against Lee, Gene and others in NASA GTS-2 with something other than a street-legal Panzer tank.

And I suspect it will be more fun in SCCA to be racing against … somebody, anybody.

I’ll finish out in SpecM3 for SCCA at Pueblo Motorsports Park next month. And then I’ll probably start removing car weight. First on the list: that carpet!

So the NASA Rocky Mountain weekend at Pikes Peak International...

rare — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:37:13 -0600

So the NASA Rocky Mountain weekend at Pikes Peak International Raceway was, for me, personally, a mixed bag. The long summer off cost me in pace. I didn’t suck too bad in terms of fast times (1:07.13), but I was definitely off the GTS-2 pace. And I get an F for consistency, mainly because something I ate was messing with my stomach, leave it at that. TMI.

Good news: Dave Balingit is signing off on my racing license. No more provisional status! Yay!

Bad news: Thanks to a scratch and a DNF (due to aforementioned ailment), I still have 3 races to complete before I lose my rookie orange. (Silver lining: Other racers give me a wider berth when they see those markings, which could be used to advantage. Heeheehee!)

Two events at Pueblo Motorsports Park next month (NASA and SCCA). Looking forward to the new surface!

Representin’!

rare — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:20:07 -0600

Representin’!

One of the oddball race prep items

rare — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:04:14 -0600

Sewing sponsor and club patches onto the fire suit. I plan to use stickem and an iron. Needles are too dangerous! ;)

It’s been a long summer off. Really excited about getting...

rare — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 18:17:06 -0600

She's ready

Fresh spanking new purple crack, on new wider wheels!

New spacers for the new offsets.

Forecast is for rain, but just in case....

Alas this will go neglected. Borrowing a bumper hitch trailer for the weekend.

It’s been a long summer off. Really excited about getting back out on the track. I have my rookie orange R I have to earn off!

swissstash: 1959 Troy Roadster Love it!!!

rare — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:07:12 -0600

swissstash:

1959 Troy Roadster

Love it!!!

We spent the last weekend with SCCA. Laura was in driving...

rare — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:28:16 -0600

Arriving at High Plains Raceway

"Maggie" waits in the carport

The elite machines of our instructors

100 octane at 9 bucks a gallon

Two of us students

We spent the last weekend with SCCA. Laura was in driving school, which is really racing school. Kate ran the Club Time Trials, where she won 4 awards for being the fastest, even when handicapped for car class. Yay!

The school was pretty much like the NASA competition school, except that the rules were SCCA rules … which is important, because every club does things a bit differently! Then we got out on the track for practice runs and, finally, participation in the qualifying and final race.

Laura won the SpecM3 class. She also came in last, because there were no other SpecM3s there. Maybe next time?

We joined Twitter.

rare — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:06:11 -0600

We joined Twitter.:

What we say is, “Slow on social media, fast on track!”

Not only is this M3 pretty, she has low miles and a Euro motor....

rare — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:16:00 -0600

Not only is this M3 pretty, she has low miles and a Euro motor. Yum!

While waiting between sessions, this Adventador showed up. Many...

rare — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:14:00 -0600

While waiting between sessions, this Adventador showed up. Many oglers.

Taking in some practice with some Porsches and the PCA.

rare — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:34:00 -0600

Taking in some practice with some Porsches and the PCA.

Taking it easy tonight before a weekend with PCA at High Plains Raceway.

rare — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:16:04 -0600

Taking it easy tonight before a weekend with PCA at High Plains Raceway.

"At once, or right away, is the literal translation of this French phrase. This is very often written..."

rare — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:39:34 -0600

“At once, or right away, is the literal translation of this French phrase. This is very often written incorrectly as tout suite. The English have never been comfortable with adopting French terms into English and, compared with Latin phrases say, there aren’t as many as we might expect considering how close the two countries are geographically. This ambivalence, and the fact that most English can’t actually speak French or even make a decent stab at pronouncing French terms, is the source of the attempts to poke fun at the French by deliberately mispronouncing those French phrases that have made it into English - in this case as toot sweet. This teasing dates back to the First World War….”

- The Phrase Finder: The meaning and origin of the expression: Tout de suite