…when I write only in generalities. But I’ll risk being specific to say on behalf of us all: Thanks, Pat, for pulling together the TARP crew for this insane project. Without you there would be no we. And we led that race for a chunk of day one, not to mention having a lot of fun up to and even past when this “half-shaft” ejected itself from the car. And even then if the junkyard would have been open or one of the other MR2 teams could have helped us out…but I digress.
Thanks, Pat.
Engine Trouble, Logistics, MR2, Parts, Race Prep, Team Strategy
From: Brad
I’ve been gathering information about the camping facilities at MSR-Houston. Here’s what I’ve learned: there is running water, but it’s non-potable. There are permanent bathrooms, including showers (but only 3) as well as a bunch of porta-cans. There are somewhere between no and very limited electrical hookups, but there is a ton of paved space for camping out.
The paddock/pit area has a canopy (although I’m still not sure if we are allowed to sleep there or not), but it’s just shade netting so it’s not waterproof. In other words, we’ll probably want to bring tents for those of you who will not be sleeping in the back of my Suburban. Which, given my snoring, means everybody who’s not me. 
So in addition to all of our foodstuffs, we will need to plan to carry in all of our beverages, too. Just FYI.
Logistics, Race Prep
Author: Pat
I just registered and paid for the TARP team’s testing day at MSR-Houston the day before the big LeMons race. So we should be ready to go for that.
There are still a few things to do with the car, but it’s getting awfully close to ready. I’ve got to finish repairing the rear engine mount (using this instead of pricey urethane bushings) and then it’s a bunch of little stuff like hard wiring the fans to the switches, installing the fire extinguisher, installing some electrics to run the cameras and data acquisition system (thanks again to ChaseCam and TraqMate for loaning those to us for the race), etc.
What we really need to do at this point is figure out what trailer’s going on which tow vehicle and some logistics planning on food and beverages.
Logistics, Race Prep
Author: Pat
We had our break-and-tune testing session on Sunday out at the Motorsport Ranch complex in Cresson, Texas. Big thanks to Jack Pharr for letting us use his track for about an hour to shake down the TARP Special and get in some seat time for all the drivers who were able to make it. Another thanks to Shannon and the guys at Motorsport Enterprise Racing for letting us borrow a Miata for the track time too; between the MR-2, the Miata, and Jack’s Mustang, we all got in many turns of high-speed practice. Who knows if it will translate to success at MSR-Houston in a couple weekends.
One of the mechanics at MER is an MR-2 fanatic and pointed out a few free things to do to the car to make it handle better. Primary among those was to cut the coils. So we’ve taken a coil-and-a-half off the front and a full coil off the rears. Did it with a cut-off wheel on a die grinder so as to not heat-temper the springs, which are soft enough as they are. It definitely lowered the ride height; we had taken so much weight out of the car that it looked like it was ready to go rallying!
We put the car on the scales: 2007 lbs. Not too bad for a car that was at 1050kg (~2315 lbs) from the factory!
Grayson is doing some welding work on the front engine mount today, then Jesse’s going to flatbed it back to my garage. And I’m sure that what little work I have left to do on the car, I’ll be working on tonight
Logistics, MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
The good people at TraqMate have agreed to let us borrow their complete TraqMate video and data acquisition system for the race. We’ll be able to record the entire thing via our ChaseCams. It should also make writing the story a lot easier. The stuff will arrive in about a week.
Logistics, MR2, Race Prep, Videos
Author: Brad
No, don’t freak out or anything. Our MR2 will be fine for the race (so long as we can run down this starter problem or rewire the electrics, which probably wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway since we’re probably carrying 40 pounds of extra wire around at this point).
But we need a second car for the test day next Sunday. Anybody got any leads on this? It needs to be a manual transmission. It would be very nice to have a second car so we can each get some significant seat time. Bueller? Bueller?
Logistics, MR2
Author: Pat
Pat asked me to get Sampson Racing Communications to agree to loan us their “Expert Package” radio system plus the crew package for free. They said, “Sure…except for the part that bolts into the helmets. Once you put those in, you can’t use them again. Each helmet setup will cost you $140.”
So, the question is, do we want to pay that?
Note for the hygenically minded: It’s not as nasty sharing helmets (from a radio perspective) as you might think: Sampson would give us sets of ear buds for each driver. That’s the part that actually goes in your ears.
Logistics, Parts, Race Prep
Author: Brad
ChaseCam, one of our many generous sponsors, agreed to send the camera equipment early so that we would have it in advance of our track testing day. Pretty exciting stuff for a technodork. Anybody know any of those around here? It’s a whole brown box of really cool equipment. Thanks again, ChaseCam!
Logistics, Parts, Race Prep
Author: Pat
Well, I’m excited as he-double-hockey-sticks to get going this weekend. Here’s the plan, Stan:
The bender and notcher are scheduled for delivery to Jesse’s house today. He was planning to go out to the shop yesterday to get some setup done for where he wants to mount the bender to the floor and where he wants to set up the floor drill press that will run the notcher. Don’t know if he made it out there or not.
Once the gear is delivered, Jesse is going to phone me and I’m going to drive out to the shop to meet him there and help him get the new gear set up so that we’ll be ready to work come Saturday morning. I might tinker around on the car some, too. Or maybe just put the seat in it and make racing sounds like the dad in Breaking Away. I’m going to rack out at the shop overnight tonight. Hopefully the sound of my snoring will keep the coyotes at bay.
Tomorrow will dawn bright and beautiful and we will get the roll cage done! As well as pretty much everything else on the list that’s not done already (except for the coolant flush/fill) that would prevent us from running the car on the track on the 15th.
BTW, I made up a big pot of Texas Red that’s sitting in the fridge right now. I’m going to bring that out for us for lunch on Saturday. After it sits in the Crock Pot for a few hours it’ll be good to go.
Logistics, MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
Pat tells you our team got in, and that’s true enough. But here’s a peek behind the scenes, to the true center of 24 Hours power. Behold this e-mail exchange between me and grand poobah Jay Lamm:
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Logistics
Author: Brad
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