Side Lake

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=85 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Caintmakit! Racing</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>     </B></FONT><B>|     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Caintmakit! 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Friday, we did a good number of laps in it during practice. It only got stuffed real good once (Matt). That was a good test, though: The belly pan I made for it kept most of the snow out of the engine compartment. Saturday, it made about 10 runs, and laid down the winning time for 2WD rubber-to-ice class by a few seconds. That three seconds is all due to the welded differential. There were other cars that had the exact same tires or some almost as good. Then, it shredded a belt because of the extra load the auxiliary heater put on the alternator. Me and Matt got to the store just after they closed, and couldn't get a belt for it. Thus, it didn't run Saturday night. </div> <bR> <div> 'Burban: So many little things are wrong with that truck, and now one major problem, so it is time to fix it and sell it. I will be truck shopping this week for a vehicle to drive daily and replace the Jetta and Suburban. I will actually be buying something nice. And I can't take it to the Mounds. EVER. </div> <bR> <div> That poor truck! It got "road tripped" about one hour into the voyage. The interior remained trashed the rest of the trip. We stopped at TRE to drop off a transmission, and talked with Jon for a while about transmissions. He knows more about transmissions than any one person should. Then we hit up Bell's Brewery for dinner. There was an interesting crowd there. </div> <bR> <div> The Suburban was towing just fine at 70-75 most of the way up there. That truck wasn't kicking out much heat in the sub-zero temps. We messed with the heater core to try and flush it out, and just made matters worse because the lines didn't get tight enough, and we had to stop to fix the leak. </div> <bR> <div> Yesterday morning, it sounded really unhappy when I finally got it started. At 11 below zero, the oil pan heater took about 1/2 hour to get some heat into it so it would crank over. That isn't what killed it, though. It sounds like lots of bearings. We were playing the Silver Lake CD as a tribute to the truck when it was having its' death spasms. </div> <bR> <div> Other memories: Going to the Riverside, drinking a bunch of Grain Belts, and getting hit on by the local 40 year old barflys. Nick wouldn't even take one for the team. </div> <bR> <div> Oh yeah, it was too damned cold up there. 11 below with 30 MPH winds is not my thing. And this morning, it is supposed to be 25 below.</div> <bR> <div> Memories, part 2:</div> <bR> <div> More stuff: </div> <bR> <div> Friday night was lots of fun, at least what I remember. The GFY bunch started showing up at the bar, and then we closed it down and went back to the cabins. We were all up well past 4AM. I was surprised I could function at all on Saturday morning. Damn you Grain Belt, damn you Jagermeister and Red Bull, damn you Hot Damn 100. </div> <bR> <div> For the Death Pool; Stuff we fixed on the 'Burban is listed below. </div> <bR> <div> *Replaced headlights because they were shitty </div> <div> *Washer pump </div> <div> *Trailer plug adapter broke resulting in blown fuses </div> <div> *Plug wire that was grounded agaist the manifold </div> <div> *Wipers </div> <div> *Hoses going to heater core - we had to mess with 'em. </div> <div> *Put in about 2 gallons or more of coolant that mysteriously disappeared. </div> <div> *We put in a fair amount of oil, too. Then it started getting thin when the engine was acting up, so STP Oil Treatment came to the rescue to thicken the oil up. It got us home. Barely.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Course map:</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="69778230.jpg" border=0 width="888" height="547" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>SIDE LAKE 03</B></div> <bR> <div> Well, another year has come and gone, and our trip to Side Lake, Minnesota for the Big Sturgeon Ice Invitational hosted by C.O. was a success.  At least we brought all our vehicles back, however Skip's Jetta was in a few more pieces than how it arrived....  here's Skip's writeup.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Side Lake Ice Invitational 2003, Side Lake, MN.</div> <bR> <div> The trip started off eventfully.  After driving through a snowstorm on  I-94, we stopped just before Chicago to gas up and check the oil.  On the way back to the Interstate, the hood flew open, wrapping itself around the roof,  and bending like a potato chip!  Luckily, the windshield wasn't touched.  Apparently, the hood latch and safety latch had both iced up.  We pulled</div> <div> over, and I bent it back so it would close.  The hood secured with duct tape, we completed the drive to Milwaukee.</div> <bR> <div> Friday morning started out nice with a home-cooked breakfast at Nick's parents' house.  We were on the road by 7:30am, and making good time.   We discovered that the windshield squirters were no longer working, due to the hood failure.</div> <bR> <div> Just east of the Minnesota border, there was a coin-op car wash with garage doors on it.  The floors were heated, so it was like our own little repair garage.  We sprayed the car off, fixed the squirters and added oil.  The hood was re-sealed with duct tape, and did a little extra decoration was added while we had a warm place to work.  "01" was added to the doors, Dukes-of-Hazzard style, and our new sponsor, "DUCT TAPE", was spelled out on the newly junk hood.</div> <bR> <div> In the Twin Cities, we stopped at a microbrew restaurant called "Hops"  for lunch with another Mopar guy.  Nick picked up some headers and a camshaft for his Charger from the guy.</div> <bR> <div> From there, straight North, an hour and a half out of Duluth, we  arrived in Side Lake at Bimbo's Octagon, the restaurant and hotel.  A fellow GMI alum met us there with a couple others he works with at Bosch.  They are up north for winter testing on braking systems and stability control.  They brought a Durango from work to play with on the ice.</div> <bR> <div> The rest of the ice racing bunch showed up for dinner about that time.  A few others from Detroit that had made the trek, and the locals that were putting on the race.  We finished dinner, and headed out to the lake to break in the course and get some fun runs in.  </div> <bR> <div> Saturday morning, it was COLD outside.  It never got above 4 below (F) for the entire day.  Not just cold, but the wind was blowing a steady 20 MPH.  We started running cars at 10AM.  I took a few runs, and put down what I thought were some OK times for rubber-to-ice.  I spent a couple hours at the timing truck.  I was standing outside, and the only way I could tolerate it was to put my face in the window of the truck every few minutes to warm up. After lunch, I took a couple of runs on Pat's Arctic Cat SnoPro.  It scared me, but it was fun.  The Mustang was equally as scary and fun.  </div> <bR> <div> Nordern Minnesoooooda hospitality is something else.  At lunchtime, food was brought out to the boat dock.  Extension cords had been run from the house, and there were crock pots full of chili, hot dogs, trays of cookies, hot cider, hot chocolate, and all sorts of other good stuff.  The race organization is great, especially for a non-sanctioned event.  Timing and scoring is all electronic, and run using some custom software on a laptop computer.</div> <bR> <div> I missed out on first place in my class by 0.13 seconds.  My fault for not paying attention to how close the competition was, and how many runs they were taking.  I was fooling around on the lake, running other vehicles, and helping with timing the cars.  Oh well, I'll pay more attention next year.</div> <bR> <div> Other classes were more hotly contested.  "Fastest man on the ice" was battled out by Jeremy's Mustang on the pick tires and a Polaris 600X sled set up for ice racing with a really wide front track.  Jeremy finished only ½ second behind the sled.  Jeremy won the studded 2WD class easily.  Although there were two other cars there on pick tires, but both had problems.  The 4WD rubber-to-ice class was led by a Subaru and a Galant VR4, both on really good tires.  </div> <bR> <div> After dinner on Saturday, a handful of us went back out of the ice for some shenanigans.  With the course taken down, and nothing but soft snowbanks left, we felt compelled to drive like total idiots.  The Mustang (on regular Blizzaks now), the Jeep, and the Jetta did battle (and the Chevette, until the cooling fan was broken).  I was driving the wheels off the Jetta to keep</div> <div> up with the Mustang.  Literally.  I stuffed it four times, and spun a few others.  A tire was cut on the sidewall some time in the mix-up, but I had a full-size spare Haaka Q.  At the end of the night, the bumper cover was loose, both pieces of fender trim broken, and the motor mounts were getting a bit clunky.  </div> <bR> <div> Driving back through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it was a winter wonderland.  Plenty of lake-effect snow was falling.  About 13 hours for the drive home, many of them snowy.  It was a great trip, we plan to attend next year!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5c980e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5c6a53c0.jpg" border=0 width="421" height="316" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5c4e0800.jpg" border=0 width="480" height="640" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Klas-eeee.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5cb2b510.jpg" border=0 width="811" height="593" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Flyby on the ice, not during the actual event.  80 mph on a frozen lake is pretty incredible.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5cd3d7a0.jpg" border=0 width="573" height="378" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> 66 GTO on studded tires.  Ran well, still couldn't hook up.  Needed nasty pick tires like our buddy Jeremy...</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d080e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> But wait, it gets better!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d2828f0.jpg" border=0 width="642" height="399" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Jeremy hangin' the tail out and making a mess of the course on his quickest run of the day.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d483860.jpg" border=0 width="643" height="390" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> 2nd fastest vehicle overall, beaten only by the Pro-X sled.  By less than half a second, I might add...</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d6fa3c0.jpg" border=0 width="762" height="572" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> It's returned, with the same meat grinders for front tires as last year, and now with a pair of skates out back!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d857c10.jpg" border=0 width="599" height="449" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> WORST.  IDEA. EVER.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5d9a2f00.jpg" border=0 width="418" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5da80e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Jeremy Peterson's BMW.  Acceptable power,  but the studs didn't hook up all that well and the 5k rev limiter prevented serious fun.  Vehicle formerly owned by crack whore.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5db80e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The Chevette spec racer.  $1 per run, quickest time splits the pot with C.O.'s grandmother.  Rear brakes were non-functional, barely got out of it's own way in 1st gear.  Long wheelbase and rear wheel drive made it easy to control...however it appears that I broke the cooling fan on Saturday night when were chasing each other around.  Hopefully it'll return for next year.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5dd59c30.jpg" border=0 width="601" height="451" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The debacle on Saturday night.  Don't give me keys to a Mustang on regular snow tires, I will seek and destroy every single available snowbank on the .33 mile course.  Jeremy should've kicked my ass for driving so poorly!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5df2ea30.jpg" border=0 width="558" height="419" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> However, that can't compete with Skip.  4 spectacular offs later, the Jetta was much worse for wear.  Missing the front bumper, fender flares, inner fender liner, motor mounts, and a mystery exhaust leak.  Oh, and it was so cold, a piece of the trunk lid broke off.  Poor car!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5e1a3fa0.jpg" border=0 width="675" height="506" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5e2cc190.jpg" border=0 width="716" height="537" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Note Mustang in backround.  The Jetta was a nice car when we left Detroit.... ?!???</div> <bR> <div> The drive back consisted of several lake effect snowstorms in the UP of Michigan.  Great scenery, too bad visibility was poor.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5e4cf050.jpg" border=0 width="719" height="517" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The piles of junk we brought back...headers & cam for my Charger, and the bumper cover.  Are we white trash or what?</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5e631a50.jpg" border=0 width="561" height="421" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> At least we made it home!  Next time we're trailering our junk up there...</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>