Tunachuckers Can-O'-Blog

Now that we've (sort-of) gotten our wheels back on this internet thingie, I figured I might as well play a bit of catch-up for our loyal (and few) fans who have been occassionally checking the ole website and finding, well, squat.

The Tunachuckers finished off the 2009 season with a rousing 40-something-th place finish at the 24 Hours of LeMons South Fall race.  However, unlike past races where the car's occassional fits of non-running-ness have played a large role in our midpack finishes, this time we had only ourselves to blame.

Well, _mostly_ ourselves to blame.

We got black flags.  A lot of 'em.  As captain, I have to take the blame for setting the standard here- a mere THREE laps into my first driving stint and I'd gone "wheels off" and was thusly penalized by having this welded to our roof:

More black flags ensued.  Only our eldest, and thus by extension most conservative driver, Graybeard was able to escape the blight of the penalty box.  Of course, he never once reminded us of this fact.  Naw.  Not Rob.  Never.

But there was more.  Not only did I set the precedent of black flag attainment for our team, but at the end of the first day, I somehow managed to get the car to catch on fire.  Of course, this had to happen at the point on the track furthest from any possible help.  This was one of the more exciting moments of my life.  I can recall it vividly in my mind's eye, including the running internal dialogue I was having.  Basically, it went something like this:

"Hmm, there's smoke coming..."

"Why is there orange?"

"Oh shit, those are flames shooting out the hood!"

"Oh crap, why don't the brake work?"

*steers car into the dirt and spins out*

"Let's see if I can get out of this flaming pile in less time than I had to during tech inspection."

"I really hope my mom doesn't find out about this."

Luckily, racing was almost over for that day and we had all night to fix the damage incurred by the (either brake overheating or caburetor leakage-induced) immolation.  The repair consisted mostly of me feeling really, really bad about breaking the car and drinking beer while Katie and Rob rewired it, and Brian went out for Arby's.  I recall there being some drama about melted SU carburetor parts that we had to fabricate out of RTV, and *hope* they'd be set come morning.  Anc come morning, they were, and we were back out racing again.

Despite having a lot of effort tied up in rebuilding a fresh B20 engine prior to the race, nobody thought the new engine ran particularly well, and especially after the fire, nobody seemed to feel the car handled particularly well, either.  This was likely due to the suspension bushings which were turned into smoldering chunks of mishapen ash, resulting in Camber, Caster, and Toe that could best be described as "variable".  But we soldiered on, taking the checkered flag Sunday night and also taking home the covetted "Highest Placing 70's (or earlier) Car" trophy.  This marked our 5th award in 3 races, which if nothing else, proves that the folks who give out the trophies have a twisted sense of what constitutes "achievement".

After a post-race dinner Sunday at a Chili's somewhere in a very flat part of SC, during which we tried to figure out how much we'd all spent on the race and deciding we'd be better off just drinking Margueritas, we all returned to our respective domiciles, to shower, sleep, and dream about...the next race.

Which brings us (in a roundabout sort of way) to where we are now.  And that seems like a pretty good stopping point for tonight.  I will leave you with a URL where you can find all sorts of LeMon-y pictures, including many of the pictures I'll use in this blog.  Point your browser at: http://www.roadflares.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=395 and browse around a bit.  Its a good way to kill some of that overly productive time you've been having lately.  Promise.