2012 ChumpCar Schedule

‎2012 ChumpCar schedule has been announced. Here are the races relatively close to home:
21-22 April - Road America, two 7 hour races
2-3 June - Gimli Aero-Raceway (north of Winnipeg), two 7s
9-10 June - Gateway Motorplex (E. St. Louis), 14 hr
30 June - Brainerd Int'l Raceway, 14 hour race
25-26 Aug - Iowa Speeway, 24 hour
20-21 Oct - Road America, Double-7

While it might be fun to go to Gimli or Gateway, the reality is there are four ChumpCar races within reasonable towing distance. Gimli is about 400 miles away, roughly the same distance as from Duluth to Road America or Iowa Speedway, but there are more 2-lane roads and it's only four weeks before the BIR race.

Here's another event for you Fart-hinder fans. Tim plans on being there.
Minnesota ChumpCar Happy Hour
When: Saturday, November 19th
Location: Poor Richards Commonhouse (Hwys 494 & 100), Bloomington, MN.
Time: 6PM to Whenever (We have our own room with three TVs so bring some videos to share). Look for the Chumpcar sign/banners.

By the way, I spoke with Herm Johnson a couple of weeks ago. He is home in Eau Claire, recovering from his injuries. Sounds like he is doing well.

Herm Johnson injured in traffic accident

One of our drivers for the July race at B.I.R., Herm Johnson, was seriously injured in a car accident on Saturday, Sept. 17, on Highway 371 near Brainerd. Herm, who lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was in Brainerd as an instructor for the Rusty Wallace racing school.

Herm had been at Zorbaz on Gull Lake for dinner, and to listen to some friends playing in a band. He told them he was tired and headed back to his motel room. He was making a left turn from 371 when his car was struck in the right rear by a Ford Taurus. Herm's condition was initially critical as he struck his head on a windshield pillar. He was airlifted to North Memorial hospital in Minneapolis and was in the ICU for over a week.

Latest reports say he is up and walking around, and his condition has been upgraded to Good. He will still have a long recovery. Our best wishes that it won't be THAT long.

For updates, check the Caring Bridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hermjohnson

In which: We actually finish a race!

It has been three weeks since the grand 25-and-a-half hour race in Iowa and I have been slack in posting our results. In short... we finished... in 22nd place out of 45 starters. Therefore we achieved at least two goals, 1) finishing and 2) top half.

And we finished without any drama. The car was amazingly reliable, didn't use much oil, ran cool all weekend, and the gearbox seems to have lasted without major issues. There were moments when one driver or another would comment about a vibration or noise, but nothing ever got any worse so we never did anything more than top off the fuel, check the oil and add a little now and then, and change tires once or twice.

And now... the rest of the story.

Tim Winker, car owner and writer of this account, was part of the ChumpCar staff for the National Chumpionship so had to be in Newton on Thursday night for a Friday morning meeting at the track. Anthony "Izzy" Israelson along with his wife, Christy, and two small boys, Dante and Marcus, arrived Friday morning. Rick Moe and Jim Seubert came down with the car later in the afternoon, with barely enough time to get through tech. The tech guys gave us a little grief about the A.I.V. (Average Internet Value) paperwork, but no major issues. We did have to do some re-wiring to make the tail lights work with the headlight switch.

Tim was the first one on the track and it was quickly apparent that the Saab was not going to be competitive with the fast guys. In fact, the Fart-hinder Saab was probably one of the slower cars on the track (or maybe Tim was just one of the slower drivers... naaaah). Even so, the speedometer indicated nearly 100 mph on the back straight before making the turn into the infield. It started to rain a little and it was a good thing the Saab still had windshield wipers. During a yellow flag it was obvious that a couple of cars just ahead did not have wipers, plus the inside of the windshield was fogging up. The drivers were trying to clear the inside of the windshield with their gloves! No such problems for us.

We didn't have a clock in the car so it was hard to tell when the time was up. Tim made a stop just to see if it was time to come in and had to go back out for awhile. Eventually his time behind the wheel was up and he turned the car over to Rick. The Saab was running well, with no issues. For the next few hours Tim spent time taking photos and posting updates on the ChumpCar forums and the Facebook page.

The format for this race was different from most. It used both the road course and the oval track at different times. Most of the drivers in ChumpCar are road racers, so the racing on the oval was new... and scary.

Iowa Speedway is best known as an oval track, where the Indycars and NASCAR Nationwide series come to play. The oval is 7/8ths of a mile and was designed with the help of Rusty Wallace. In addition there is a short section of infield road course, complete with concrete racing curbs to define the corners. The road course is a little over a mile in length. It dips into the infield near the end of the back straight, makes a couple of tight left-hand turns, three rights, a short straight, and rejoins the oval between Turn 4 and the pit lane.

The first five hours were on the road course, then five hours on the oval, then back to the road course for three hours, until 11:00 PM. Yes, that's thirteen hours of racing, and that was only the first day. There was another 12 hours of racing on Sunday! There was an overnight break that allowed drivers and crews to get a decent night's rest instead of trying to catch a nap on an air mattress somewhere in the paddock. Some of the more serious teams used the time to make major repairs while the drivers slept.

The racing went on in all kinds of weather, including rain so hard that there were small lakes on the infield part of the course. Tim also had a driving shift on Saturday night in the rain with poorly aimed headlights and driving lights. On the wet pavement there was little traction, so it was nearly like driving in an ice race. At one point he slid off the course and straight into a bale of tires, shattering one of the driving lights.

We generally drove two hour stints, but with no radio communication and no clock to let us know how long we had been driving, we all came in earlier than necessary. In addition, since we weren't really in the competition (this was the National Chumpionship, and the Fart-hinder team was not among the qualifiers, but rather a late entry to fill out the field) our pit stops were generally much longer than the five-minute minimum. Probably more like fifteen minutes. That extra time added up to a lot more laps behind the leaders. For one thing, we had two seats, one for Tim's XXL derriere and a slimmer one for the other drivers. Though it took only a couple of minutes to make the seat swap, it was one more thing to be done on several pit stops. A digital clock was found and duct taped to the dash on Sunday morning which made time behind the wheel easier to calculate.

Tim was the first driver on Sunday, which started on the oval. It would have been nice to have a camera in the car at that time as there was quite a bit of action just ahead of the Saab. A green Miata got tagged by another car in turn four and slid up into the wall, the Saab missing the action by only a few feet. A pair of BMWs went past on the main straight but by the time they reached turn two, one had rolled onto its side on the inside of the turn. Also in turn two, another BMW ran into the back of a spinning Mustang with such impact that the engine in the Bimmer was pushed back into the firewall, and the Mustang spent most of the day in the paddock attempting to make repairs. Jim reported that another car started to get out of shape just ahead of him in turn two and he kept his foot on the gas, tipping the other car back into shape and they were both able to continue at speed.

Since Tim was doing double duty, taking photos and posting updates on the ChumpCar forum, much of the maintenance was left to Rick, Jim and Izzy. All were happy that the car was reliable and the only maintenance was to occasionally top off fluids or change a tire or two.

With less than two hours remaining, Tim took the wheel for the run to the checkered flag. This was once again on the oval. He stayed mostly to the inside line to let the faster cars pass, but the Saab was still running at the same speeds it had all weekend, touching just over 100 mph on the straights.

With no communication to the team, Tim did not realize the drama taking place at the front of the pack. The BSD Acura that had led much of the race was running low on fuel so the team had gone into survival speed in an attempt to make the finish without another stop for gas. The British-American Racing BMW team in second place realized this and told their driver to kick it up a notch. He did so, setting the fastest race lap in the process and passing the Acura with less than two minutes left in the race. The margin of victory was about 10 seconds, and the Acura ran out of gas on the cool down lap.

The Saab served us well, and won't need a lot of work to get it ready for another season of ChumpCar racing. We all got a lot of seat time for a small amount of expense, more seat time than an entire season of SCCA Regional races.

Rick was able to cross three items off his Bucket List: 1) Racing in an endurance race, 2) Racing at night, and 3) Racing on an oval.

Thanks go to Rick Moe and Jim Seubert who prepped the car and made sure it got to the race, and to David Steen for providing funds to get the car finished for the Brainerd race. ChumpCar is truly a team effort and it took the contributions of all to make it all happen.

Over a week to the race and the car is nearly ready???

Much progress has been made since the last report. The gearbox has been rebuilt, the engine runs again, and the leaky gas tank has been replaced.

Rick and Jim have done most of the Mechanical work, removing the engine and gearbox, and rebuilding the gearbox. They decided to use the box donated by Hanover European Auto Parts, which came from a '91 900. It has the later design, with larger pinion bearings. Once all of the internals were removed, Rick welded up the hole in the top of the case. Both Rick and Jim are Porsche guys, so the Saab gearbox presented some challenges, but eventually it all went back together.

While they were busy with building the gearbox, I added new graphics to the car. Much larger numbers, and sponsor decals were added to both sides of the car. While we hope the corner workers will never have to report any infractions by "92 minty green", they should have no trouble seeing the numbers.

Though we had been offered another engine, we decided to spend the time it would take to travel to Meyer, Iowa, and remove that engine to instead work on the existing engine. Way back last May when planning for the June race at BIR, one of the 2.1L heads was given a complete valve job. Nothing special, but it was freshened. It was installed onto the engine we ran at the July race, since that one still looked good internally.

The finished engine was lowered onto the gearbox, and the complete unit was dropped into place in the car. That's when Rick found the oil pickup tube. Somehow we all had forgotten that it needed to be in place or the engine would have no oil pumped through it.

The engine came back out, the gearbox was removed, the oil tube installed, and all back together and in the car again in a little over an hour. Unfortunately that hour was pretty late, so we packed it in for the night.

I did a few little things on the car Sunday, but ran into a few snags, so headed home mid-afternoon. I updated the list of things to do, and made myself another list of parts that should be sent to Rick's shop.

Tires were ordered on Monday. We have decided to use the Dunlop DZ101s, as they have a higher tread wear rating than the Star Specs, and we hope not to change tires as often.

By Tuesday, Rick reported the leaky gas tank had been replaced with a serviceable spare, the engine was running, and all 5 forward gears were working just fine. There are still a few details to finish, but with over a week to race day, the car is pretty much ready to go.

Izzy, our 4th driver, stopped by the house on Monday evening to show the new paint job on his rally car. We discussed some logistics on getting to the track and lodging, but it sounds like he's ready to go. His wife Christy and two young boys will be going to the race, too. I put Christy in charge of seeing to it that we have food and water, because you tend to forget to eat when you are concentrating on the racing.

F-H Saab goes to the Nurburgring

Not the one in Germany, the one in St. Bonifacius, MN. Dropped the car off at Rick Moe's shop for further building. Both Rick and Jim Seubert have offered their expertise as mechanics to get the car ready for Iowa. They will also be driving. We still need at least one more driver, and since this will be a 25-1/2 hour race, a couple more would be welcome.

And we are entered at Iowa, as car #92. New, larger numbers have been ordered. That gives us about three weeks to get it ready. There is quite a bit to do, including pulling the engine/gearbox again. And due to a swap agreement with Mayhem Racing, we will need to buy four more tires.

On the way to drop the Saab, I stopped at the Minnesota Saab Club meeting, held at Schmelz Countryside Saab just NE of St. Paul. Got some feedback, but no drivers ready to plunk down cash.

A few other updates: When removing the number 9 from the driver's door, the paint peeled off as well. This time I did more pre-paint prep, reduced the Rust-Oleum with mineral spirits, and rolled it on with a foam roller. The result is much better, with a fairly smooth finish, a far cry from the orange-peel of the first attempt. Though some sanding and buffing would make it look better still, that is a low priority before the next race.

I removed the gas tank from the parts car, but it apparently has leaks as well. The tank was left outside during a heavy rainstorm last week, and despite having the openings wrapped in plastic, quite a bit of water ended up inside the tank. Word from an expert is that the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) tank tends to crack around the fuel pump, which is mounted on the top of the tank and immersed in the gasoline. The tank, too, is at the Nurburgring, so Rick and Jim will fix it before installation.

As you may recall, the gearbox that we ran at Iowa last year lost 3rd gear. A call to Mike at Hanover European Parts to see if he had some decent internal parts for a gearbox led to the donation of a nearly complete gearbox. The case was damaged due to a catastrophic engine failure, so its value was much reduced. A quick look at the gears came out positive, with no apparent chipping of gear teeth. I will take this gearbox and last year's gearbox down to Rick's place next weekend and we will make them into one.

Also need to pick up an engine offered by Saab dealer Marty Adams of Meyer Garage in Iowa. It is in his dirt track Hornet Class Saab race car. That means we will have to do the extraction, so plan to spend an afternoon there.

Iowa? Maybe.

ChumpCar has opened the entry for the 25.5-hour National Chumpionship race at Iowa Speedway to everyone, so we are considering entering. The race is September 2 thru 4, with the racing on Saturday and Sunday. Rick Moe and Jim Seubert are on board, but we would need at least one more driver, preferably three. In a 25-1/2 hour race, six drivers would get over four hours of track time apiece.

The car needs some work (the list is about 16 items at the moment), and I have started doing some of that in the driveway. Rick has offered his shop in St. Bonifacius to work on the racer. Marty Adams at Meyer Garage in Iowa has offered the use of a 2.1-liter engine that he built. That would be preferable to the used engine that is in the car.

The tentative event schedule for the National Chumpionship is as follows:

Friday, 2 September 2011

· Gates open: 7:00am

· Tech Inspection: 10:00am - 3:00pm

· Open-track testing: 12:00noon – 6:00pm ($200 per car/4 drivers; $50 per additional driver)

Saturday, 3 September 2011

· Race 1: 3-hour road race (10:00am - 1:00pm). At 2:00pm the track goes yellow and the pits are closed while the track is reconfigured for oval racing. All cars on-track follow a pace car. Once reconfiguration is complete, the track goes green and racing continues. All laps completed under yellow count towards cumulative race total.

· Race 2: 5-hour oval race (1:00pm - 6:00pm). At 6:00pm, track goes yellow, pit lane closed, pace car is out, and the track is reconfigured back to road course.

· Race 3: 5-hour road race (6:00pm - 11:00pm)

Checker for Saturday's sessions issued at 11:00pm. Teams can work on their cars Saturday night, as long as they want, until the call for pre-grid Sunday morning.

Sunday, 4 September 2011

· Race 4: 3-hour oval race (9:00am - 12:00pm). At 2:00pm the track goes yellow, pace car dispatched, pit lane is closed and the track is reconfigured for road racing. Once reconfiguration is complete, the track goes green and racing continues. All laps completed under yellow count towards cumulative total.

· Race 5: 7-hour road race (12:00pm - 7:00pm). At 7:00pm, track goes yellow, pace car is out, and the track is reconfigured back to an oval course.

· Race 6: 2.5-hour oval race (7:00pm – 9:30pm) to the checker.

There will NOT be any safety breaks or interruptions in any of the race segments. This is, after all, the MOTHER-OF-ALL-RACES!

After the checker, ChumpCar will host a BBQ and awards ceremony to salute the all the participants -- win, lose or DNF.

= = = = = = = = = =

We have a few days to decide. Check back for updates.

Race weekend. Not exactly a success.

So much to report since the previous entry. The race has been run and the car turned out to have a few gremlins.

Thursday, July 14 - Got up early to spend time on too many last minute details. Made a switch panel out of a piece of stainless steel from some dairy equipment. Picked up tires at SVS and decals at Airport Signs, and bought some FRS radios with headsets at Gander Mountain. Got the gearbox linkage connected and adjusted the pinch bolt. Installed the front axles... and that's where the big trouble began.

Thought I had a couple of axles ready to go, but since the gearbox was not the same one we ran last year, the axles had to be different. Saab switched to axles with a larger shaft diameter and inner tripod joints in the later model 900s. Though I had an assortment of axles to choose from, all had at least one problem such as torn boots or damaged inner tripods. After inspecting several axles, I chose a couple that needed only a little work. Of course, that took much longer than I had anticipated. The axles went into place with difficulty, sucking up more time. About 11 PM when I thought I was finishing the job, I discovered that the left front wheel bearing had a fair amount of play. I looked at the spare that I had and was not happy with it, and the same with the piece on the parts car in the yard. That meant I would have to drive back into Duluth in the morning to remove the bearing housing from the parts car at SVS. I got to bed about 3 AM.

Friday, June 15 - Got up at 5 AM and finished off a small task or two, then drove into Duluth to remove parts. That took about two hours for the round trip and I got home about 9 AM, the time I had intended to hit the road for B.I.R. Installed the serviceable bearing carrier, with a replacement ball joint because one had a torn boot, and put it all back together. No play this time. But there was still plenty to do and time was running short.

I went over to Izzy's to pick up his truck and trailer about 11:30 and got home just after Noon. Then I had to load up the spares, the tires, the tools and the race car. Got it all in and lashed the car down to the trailer. Stopped in Cloquet to pick up a metal rod for the window net, and grabbed a sandwich at Arbys. Good thing I did because it would be a long time before I would eat again. Finally on the road a bit after 4 PM.

Called the ChumpCar folks to let them know I was running very late and they said to not worry because they got a late start as well due to transportation issues. I arrived at the track about 7 PM, just as registration was supposed to close.

Dave Steen and his son David, Rick Moe and Jim Seubert were already at the track and had saved a spot in the paddock for the race car and trailer. Rick and Jim installed the seat and the safety belts, the window net and the fire extinguisher, while I finished off the wiring for the headlights. We talked to Mike Morrison from ChumpCar staff and he agreed to tech the car first thing on Saturday morning. We finished up about midnight.

Saturday, July 16 - Race day and the car is finally ready. Mike came by about 7 AM and gave the car a once over and his approval. We went to registration and completed the paperwork. Herm Johnson and I installed the final decals, a task slowed by the high humidity which made the decals difficult to separate from the backing paper.

The drivers' meeting was at 8:30 AM, then it was time for me to suit up and get into the car. The wheels were torqued, tire pressures set, and I started the engine and drove through the pits, the last car to do so. As I approached the start line, the flagger dropped the yellow flag and waved the green. The race was on!

My intent was to run a very conservative race in order to be there at the end. But less than an hour into my driving stint, the shifter began to act up. Sometimes I could find a gear, other times I couldn't. And the engine was running pretty warm. I pulled into the pits and determined that the pinch bolt had not been tightened sufficiently and the shifter alignment kept changing. Rick and Jim set to tightening the shift linkage and bled the cooling system in hopes that the problem was just an air bubble somewhere.

I went back out to finish my stint at the wheel, but the car continued to run very warm. At the allotted time I pulled into the pits to turn the car over to Herm, but when he went hit the START button, the starter would not crank. That was quickly traced to the main positive power cable which had fallen off the starter. Once re-connected and engine running, we discovered a leak at the water pump shaft. Though I had a good used one among my spares, I had forgotten to bring it to the track. A few phone calls and one was located at the NAPA warehouse in St. Louis Park, a good three hours distance one way. We were able to locate someone to pick it up and bring it to the track, which saved about three hours.

With the new water pump bolted into place, I went back on track for a few laps to make sure everything was working. The car still ran pretty warm. Since the race was nearly half finished, we decided to put David Jr. into the car. Once again the car refused to start. This time it was traced to the positive power cable which runs from the starter to the alternator, which was missed in the earlier starter cable incident. Re-installed and David Sr. was on the track for a few laps.

Video: Dave behind the wheel through turn 12.

Jim and Rick each were able to get a little time behind the wheel, but the overheating issue kept plaguing the car. In addition, the gearbox got stuck in 3rd gear while Rick was driving, so we packed it in for the day. Rick also had a flat tire after apparently running over something as there was a hole in the tread.

We were only 11 laps behind the car ahead of us in the standings, a Buick V8 that was out for good with a blown engine, so considered driving 12 laps in 3rd gear just to move up a place. However, since we were near the bottom of the lap chart, decided instead to just leave the car parked.

In all, the Saab was credited with 55 laps, though five were bonus laps, so we really only covered 50 laps on track (125 miles). The winning Tubby Butterman BMW completed over 400 laps (384 laps on the official lap chart + 18 penalty laps = 402) or just over 1000 miles on the 2.5 mile course. By comparison, the average SCCA race at BIR is about 20 laps or 50 miles.

The only other ChumpCar races near us this season are at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas in early August, and the National Chumpionship at Iowa Speedway on Labor Day weekend. It will probably not be possible to make repairs in time for Topeka, but Iowa is a possibility.

Some afterthoughts: The gearbox had a couple of issues. The gearing was a bit too tall for BIR, so the engine revved too high in 3rd, but not high enough in 4th for optimum engine torque in the back part of the course. In addition, that gearbox must be an early version, in which the centering of the shifter took place at the shifter. The later gearboxes, and later 900s like ours, had internal centering. The result for this combination was no centering, which is why finding gears was difficult.

Still have not figured out the overheating problem, but I have a newer radiator and a thermostat with the center punched out, so will install those if we take the car to Iowa.

Three days to go

Picked up a few last minute items that I had forgotten, like exhaust hangers, and dropped the other two wheels at SVS to have the new tires mounted.

The hood pivot is still a little out of alignment, but the hood pins are now installed and holding it down.

Since the left side wheels were off for the new tires, I took a close look at brakes and bearings. There was a patina of rust on the rotors, not uncommon after sitting unused in Minnesota, but a light buffing with a wire brush revealed no pitting. The front brake pads Axxis Metal Masters, which saw about 14 hours of use at Iowa last year, had almost no wear. Since I had new pads, they went onto the car and the used ones will make good spares.

Still work to do on the interior and some wiring necessary to make the headlights work. The seat is still out of the car, and the window net and fire extinguisher need to be installed as well. The camera mount is in place, and I have added some of the roll cage padding.

The axles need to be installed, and the shifter has to be connected to the gearbox. This got put off because I couldn't locate a good taper pin for the linkage. Found a new taper pin at Foreign Affairs of Duluth.

It really looks like a race car now. Note the early SAAB logo on the grille. It's new, as in never been installed on a car before, so won't stay there for the race.

She bucks!

The engine runs! Tried to start it on Monday but it would only crank. Gave it up as I had to go to work. Looked at the wiring on Tuesday and found the problem immediately, a wire disconnected from the coil. Slid it into place, flipped the switches to ON, pushed the starter button (yes, button!) and it fired right off. Let it warm up a bit, but the radiator fans are not yet connected so shut it off when the temp gauge read midpoint.

Still have to install the axles and connect the shifter to the gearbox. There is a bunch of wiring to do including headlights, gauges & idiot lights (because most drivers don't watch the gauges very well, myself included), radiator fans, and a few other items I'm sure. The hood does not want to slide into place, but that's probably because the pivot mechanism is bent.

One week to race day!

The engine and gearbox have been mated and lowered into the race car. Still a lot of connections to be made, and parts to swap from other 900s. Once the racer is running, there are still a load of tasks to accomplish.

Here is a summary of the past few days:

Wednesday: Since the engine was off the gearbox, the main and rod bearings were easily accessible so I removed a few bearing caps to evaluate the condition of the bearings. They showed little wear, indicating that the engine had been rebuilt, so I put everything back together and re-torqued the bolts. Unfortunately, either the bolts had been over-torqued previously or the torque wrench was out of spec. One bolt snapped off in the engine block, another was badly stretched. Fortunately, the broken bolt end came out easily, and since there was another engine at hand it was easy to steal bolts from that one.

Thursday: Picked away at several items at home, including a second coat of paint for the racer. Removed the badly worn right side upper control arm bushing for replacement. Also removed a few spares from one of the parts cars. Tires have arrived at SVS, Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Specs, eight of 'em. Two wheels are already there and Phil has agreed to sell me four more for their value as scrap aluminum.

Friday: Started the day at SVS, picking up the engine, gearbox and several other parts. Had an exhaust system made by Bill's Muffler in Duluth. Spent the afternoon and evening getting the engine and gearbox ready for installation. It seemed to be a one-step-forward, two-steps-back process as I struggled with working what should have been easy tasks, then had to disassemble and re-do them because they were in the way of replacing the alternator. Finally knocked off shortly before midnight with the engine and gearbox close to mating.

Saturday: Had planned to show the racer at Morrie's Saab Car Show and Swap Meet in Wayzata, but gave it up when the engine was not in the car by 9:00 a.m. The show was to start at 8:30 a.m. but it was a 3-hour drive from home. Mark came over to assist with the installation as it always goes much easier with more than one person. Shortly after 11 a.m., the engine/gearbox unit was dropped into place. With luck, the car will run on Sunday. We discovered that the power cable to the starter was damaged, apparently when the ignition stuck in the START position last year at Iowa. The insulation had melted and one of the connectors snapped off as we were inspecting it. So the cable will be replaced with a new piece, which we will pick up on Sunday.

Rolling the race car

Paint, I mean. After reading several articles on the Interweb about how to paint a car using cheap paint and a roller, I decided to give it a try.

Proper automotive paint from PPG or Dupont costs about $150/gal these days, but a gallon can of Rust-oleum, mixed to your preferred shade, is less than $30 at Menards and many other fine outlets. I did halfways decent prep work, removing trim pieces and using Goof-Off to remove leftover adhesive, even pounded a few dents back into some semblance of straight. Then I sanded the entire surface to be painted with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Didn't really mask anything, just tried to be very careful around the windshield and rear lights.

Since a paint roller does not work well on bends and small areas, I began by painting those with a foam brush. Then I poured some Rust-oleum into the roller tray and began application. It took less than half of that gallon to cover the car once, so I will probably go over it all again.

The end result is that the Saab LOOKS like it was painted with a roller. Not all that bad from a short distance, but easy to tell when you're up close. The paint probably would have flowed better if I had thinned it with mineral spirits. It might look better after some sanding with #600 or #800 sandpaper, followed by some buffing with the electric polisher, but don't know if there will be time for that before the race.

Holiday weekend progress

Izzy came by on Saturday for awhile and we knocked off several little items on the To-Do list. Lights have been installed on the front end since the race at BIR goes until 11 PM. They still need to be wired, however.

Izzy also rewired the ignition so that there is a push button for the starter and an OFF switch for the ignition. These will mount on the dash along with the gauges and very large idiot lights.

The seat was removed because the foam cushion was full of water (no drainage holes) and to facilitate access for other interior work. I am trying to get a new seat cover made as the old one is pretty rough.


Spent part of Saturday and much of Sunday prepping for paint. All of last year's decals, and the gooey adhesive that stayed on the paint, have been removed. The entire car has been buffed with sandpaper, and the bare spots have been coated with primer. (The hood for the race car is the whitish one on the black 900 in the background.)

I will be going to the annual Winker Family Picnic at Uncle Fred's on Independence Day, plus I have to work in the evening, so not much will get done. Hoping to get paint done on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I have decided that Engine #3 (see previous note) will get assembled to use as the race engine. I have a new timing chain, thrust washers, main bearings and rod bearings, so will install those when things are slack at work. That is unless Mark suddenly gets lots of ambition and quickly builds engine #1.

Engines #1, #2 & #3

Still don't have an engine to drop into the race car. All three need a bit of work.

Engine #1 - Last year's race engine. The cylinders rusted due to water left from the blown head gasket at Iowa. After the engine failure at BIR, which resulted in a damaged crankshaft, Hanover European provided a 2.1L short block which is the basic engine we ran at Iowa (block B, red), with the head and other bits from the BIR engine (block A, blue). Due to the rusted cylinders in block B, the plan is to use Block A from the BIR engine with pistons & crank from the Iowa engine (are you following all of this?).

I attempted to clean the rust from the cylinder walls of Block B in order to remove the pistons to build a new race engine. The head from this engine still needs to be resurfaced, presuming it warped after overheating. Instead, it will get the head from engine #2, which has recently had a full valve job.

Engine #2 - from the 1992 900S parts car. The cylinders in this block (painted light blue) are pretty worn, though with no scoring or scratching. It appears something once failed in the #3 cylinder as there is some damage to that piston. There is a pretty good ridge at the top of each cylinder. Ideally this engine should be re-bored and get new pistons. I will probably put it back together as is for the time being as it ran when it was removed from the car. Hopefully we won't need to use it.

The head from this engine has had a valve job and resurfacing at Midwest Engine Rebuilders in Duluth, so will go on the race engine.

Engine #3 - from the 1993 900S A/T - Good compression, so I am not removing the head from this engine. Will check the timing chain and the rod and main bearings, but expect everything will check out OK. This engine has been off the gearbox once upon a time, but not sure why. It may have already been rebuilt, or the automatic transmission may have been rebuilt.

Either way, we have two engines for the 14-hour race at BIR. The 5-speed gearbox from the '92 900S parts car will be in the race car. If I have time, there is another 5-speed gearbox in one of the cars in the yard, but it will take a day to remove it.

Another engine, part II

Got called into work on Friday, so the engine-ectomy did not take place until Sunday. After watching the F1 race at Valencia, Spain, on FOX TV (Vettel is a truly amazing driver, is he not?), I headed in to Duluth. Mark provided me with a key to the shop, but Phil was there working on a project so helped me get started.

Shortly after Phil left, Dark Dan wandered in the door. He had been doing laundry across the street. Since his evening was without structure, he offered to give me a hand. Together we worked on making all of the disconnections, and about six hours after I started, the engine and trans were on the floor.

The biggest problem was the cable from the shifter to the automatic transmission. A call to Mark gave me the correct procedure and the cable was easily removed.

Now to remove the engine from the A/T and determine if the timing chain needs replacement. At 240,000 miles, it probably does. Then it can be dropped onto a manual transmission for installation in the race car this weekend.

Dave Steen has come up with a couple more drivers for the team, Jim Seubert and Rick Moe, some friends from the Porsche Club who have experience racing at B.I.R. That makes six.

Another car, another engine

Since none of the three 2.1-liter Saab engine blocks that I have for the race car are perfect, Mark is not too keen on building a race engine our of any of them. He proposed another possibility. His son, Phil, bought a 1993 900S for very cheap a year or more ago because it needed an automatic transmission. Phil intended to find a suitable slushbox to drop in so he could sell the car, but good automatic transmissions for the 900 are not easy to locate. I made Phil an offer on the car, and FHR now has another 2.1-liter engine available.

Got the car started with a battery boost and drove it into the shop. Planned to do a compression check and leak-down test, but the compression check came back with about 120 psi on all four cylinders. That's pretty damn good for an engine with 240,000 miles, especially one that hasn't been run in over a year and had not gotten up to operating temp yet.

The plan is to pull the engine & gearbox on this car on Friday night at SVS in Duluth. Because of the high mileage, Mark wants to replace the timing chain and guides, but I am all for just dropping it onto a 5-speed gearbox and go racing with it as is.

More drivers!

Dave Steen and David Steen, Jr., have signed on as drivers for the July 16th race at BIR. They will also provide sponsorship from Dave's firm, Teleplus Consulting.

And it looks like Herm Johnson, former SCCA Super Vee Champion (1976), USAC Super Vee Champ (1977), ChampCar driver (1979-85) and Indianapolis 500 competitor (who is listed in Wikipedia), will be our fourth driver. "From ChampCar to ChumpCar"... I can see a News Release coming.

Since this will be a 14 hour race, there is still room for a driver or two.

I spent part of the weekend working my night job, but did manage to dig through some of my spares to load into bins for the race. I've seen other teams spend hours to find parts after a failure, and would prefer that our team is prepared for most anything. I have three or four plastic bins, and two are already full.

Mark Strohm said that he wanted to get his Toyota Corolla ITB car out for the SCCA regional at B.I.R. in a couple of weeks, but he would need to get a waiver since it's been a few years since he raced it. I suggested that he should enter it instead in the Exception Class (EC) at the ChumpCar race a week later. He could get a season worth of seat time, and so could three other drivers. He is considering it.

Engine work progress

Took the head and crankshaft from the backup engine to Midwest Engine Rebuilders in Duluth Tuesday for some service. The prognosis is good on both counts. Bobby says the crank may need a little cleanup but that should be all. The head will likely get by with shaving the surface rather than a complete valve job. Good news since that means less expense.

The progress on the race engine from last season? None. Mark is pessimistic about cleaning up the rust in the cylinders, and whether the crank may have acquired some rust as well. But he has not done any further disassembly to verify anything. He is many engine re-builds behind at the shop, and since the FHR engine is not a paying gig, it has low priority.

QUICK ENGINE UP-DATE (6/16/11) Mark decided he doesn't liKe the rust in the cylinders so wanted to re-bore with oversized pistons and rings. That's not in the budget so I brought him another B212 engine block. Cleaned it up and painted it blue before I dropped it off at his shop.

Since “The Good - The Bad - The Ugly 14 Hours of Brainerd” runs from 9am to 11pm, lighting will be required. I have been pondering whether to re-install the stock headlights, or to go with a pair of driving lights and a pair of fog lights. The front bumper we are using is just the stock, very heavy aluminum bar with the plastic cover and styrofoam guts removed. It should be easy to mount lights to the bar via the stock mounting holes in that bumper.

Another driver inquiry, this from a dirt track guy in Southern Minnesota. He has to clear it with his other half, but should have an answer in a few days.

Out of time for the June BIR race

Every race car needs a parts donor... or two... or three. Total cost to buy these four Saab 900s? $800!

With less than ten days until the June race at Brainerd Int'l Raceway, it has become apparent that the race car will not be ready. The entry has been transferred to the July 16th race at BIR, a 14-hour enduro. As the Volkswagen ad said: Drivers Wanted.

In the meantime, I continue to work on rebuilding the spare engine in my garage as time ... and money ... permit. Disassembly is down to the short block. I'll check the main and rod bearings, but will probably not remove the pistons. The cost for parts and a valve job run about $500. Pistons and rings are expensive for the 2.1L engine due to the rarity of that powerplant. I did buy some parts at RockAuto on closeout, rod bearings and a timing chain and some brake parts, so they were cheaper than wholesale.

As long as the engine block was stripped, I decided to paint it. But instead of the factory red color, I decided to use a light blue. I bought a spray can of engine paint at Central Sales, the local surplus store, for $2.99. The color was "Chrysler Blue". I shook it up for some extra time since it had probably been on the shelf for several years. When it started to come out the coverage was poor, as if there wasn't a lot of pigment in the spray. Suddenly there was more color to the spray and the nozzle quickly clogged up. I removed it from the can and cleared it with pressurized air. but it quickly clogged up again. It wasn't long before the spray was spitting something that looked like varnish beads, so I quit painting.

Picked up a can of Dupli-Color Engine Enamel at the local O'Reilly store for $5.49. The hue was Pontiac Blue, but the shade was nearly identical to the Chrysler Blue. I attempted to scrape off some of the previous paint job, then proceeded with the new paint. What a difference! The paint covered nicely, no clogs, and dried quickly. The finished product looks pretty darn good.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to go cheap.

Rusty cylinders

The top two photos show some of the wear from last summer's racing at Iowa Speedway. The bearings from one inner axle tripod are gone, which must have made for some serious vibration for the later drivers. In addition, the rubber bushing for the upper a-arm is pretty trashed.

Tore the race engine apart yesterday. The cylinders do not look very good, which you can see in the other two photos. When the engine overheated at Iowa last summer, it apparently warped the head because water was getting into the cylinders. We knew that at the time. However, I was not able to get to the engine tear down until lately, so rust was able to form in all four cylinders over the winter. That rust extends to the valves in the head. The head gasket held up, so the head itself must have warped due to the heat. Don't know yet if it is salvageable. I'm hoping that it can be cleaned up with a little honing.

I did not disassemble the gearbox, but several gear teeth came out when the lube was drained. We know that 3rd gear went away early in the Iowa race, so that will need to be replaced.

Did some cleanup in the engine compartment of the racer on Sunday, so it isn't quite so gross. There was a lot of oily sand in most of the usual collecting places, and a bit of engine degreaser followed by a high pressure douche got rid of most of it. Followed up with several cans of brake cleaner to get much of the rest.

Also tried to do some work on the engine out of the parts car but did not have the correct size socket to remove the crankshaft pulley (27mm).

Looks like the right side engine mount is bad, but the one out of the parts car may suffice as a replacement.

Less than three weeks to race day and there is a lot of work to do.

Grime & slime, rust & crust

Finally got the drivetrain out of the parts donor today. Spring has been slow in arriving this year, so I have put off the final plucking of the engine/gearbox unit in my unheated garage until it warmed up a bit.

Rust and other corrosion were a serious problem, as were years of oil and other fluids dribbling throughout the engine compartment.

The donor car is back on its tires and has been rolled out of the garage. Mark Strohm stopped over to help remove the racer from the trailer and it has been rolled into the garage for a similar extraction. Hopefully it will take less time to remove as there is no rust nor slime to deal with.

The Parts Donor

Spent much of the weekend attempting to remove the drivetrain from the parts donor 900 (pictured in its former rusting place). Did a leakdown test of the cylinders to see if the engine was good as is. It is not.

#1 - 32%

#2 - 48%

#3 - 68%

#4 - 56%

And the #3 spark plug had some whitish deposit on it, so there are issues. The engine did run, however, and there were no banging noises within, so hopefully it just needs a valve job, head gasket and rings. It has over 220,000 miles, so it is due.

Removed the grille, headlights and turn signal lights to sell. They should be worth at least what I paid for the car. The radiator looks good, though it could probably use a good flush, so it will be kept as a spare. Disconnected all of the electrical stuff and removed the air conditioning condenser from atop the engine.

In order to remove the engine/gearbox assembly, you must first remove the axles. Here is where I ran into trouble. First of all, the car sat in a field for a couple of years before I bought it last fall, and it was not driven any distance, just moved around the yard a few times over the winter. The lug bolts that hold the front wheels on were pretty rusted and took a lot of effort to remove. The nuts that hold the axles to the hub were also slow to remove. Then came the stopper: I could not get a couple of the ball joint bolts out on the right side. I was able to remove the nuts, but one upper and one lower bolt are rusted into place. I tried pounding, I tried the impact wrench, I tried the air hammer, all to no avail. I will try heat from a propane torch next, but I don't have a cutting torch to melt the bolt heads. I do have some cutting wheels and an angle grinder, so might have to resort to that, but there isn't much room to work in that area.

The front calipers came off pretty easily and seem to be in working order. The brake discs, however, are rather rusted from their years of disuse. They might be salvageable with a bit of machining, but machine shops don't like them in that condition because it's hard on their cutting blades.

Menards had fire extinguishers on sale this week, along with the CCWS required metal mounting bracket, so there is a new extinguisher to mount in the car.

Brought my MP3 player out to the garage and was able to plug it into the "Tape" input on the 1960s vintage RCA Solid State console stereo out there. None of the music on the MP3 player is newer than about 1965, most is Big Band from the '30s & '40s. BTW, "Tape" in those days meant reel-to-reel, as cassette tapes were not popular until a few years later.

Lists

Ten weeks to the first race at B.I.R. on June 4-5.

Didn't get a lot of work done on the racer this weekend. Made lists of what needs to be purchased and the work that needs to be done. The engine/gearbox remains the largest job.

Two of the six tires from last year are not usable, two are nearly worn out but would be OK in a pinch, one has pretty decent tread left. We'll need six to eight tires per race weekend at about $100 apiece.

I would like to paint the car. Nothing fancy, but for many years I've wanted to have a race car painted USFS green, a sort of mint green shade. Maybe some dark green stripes on the sides. I've seen several Chump Cars painted with rollers; that would be fine with me.

The race car is back home.

Fetched the race car from Hogdal Turf in Ham Lake on Saturday. Denny McGinn showed up to help me load it on the trailer. Made it as far as the driveway. The borrowed 2WD Ford F-250 diesel could not get enough traction to make it up the icy driveway, so I had to back the trailer down the hill, through two curves, and parked the rig on the road.

Izzy came over on Sunday and secured the use of a 4WD Chevy Blazer. Made it up the hill with the trailer, so the racer is now in the yard.

Once I get tires, glass and parts out of the racer, it will go to SVS to remove the drivetrain for repair. It needs a head gasket and starter, and the gearbox needs a new 3rd gear. Maybe more.

BTW, there is a chance we could still enter the Iowa race at the end of April. All it takes is some hard work and money. Interested?

Entered at B.I.R. June race!

Drivers, I have ponied up the pre-registration fee for the June 4-5 Double 7-hour races at Brainerd. Now I need a solid commitment from you. That means a deposit of $100 apiece to hold a place on the team.

Contact Tim Winker. 218 - 213 - 8432. TXT message is good, too. I accept PayPal, call or write for the email address.

Reorganizing...

Several folks interested in racing the F-H Saab this season met tonight at Clyde Iron in Duluth. Discussing possibly building another Saab to use for Road America and Iowa. That would give us TWO cars for BIR.

At tonight's meeting: Jon Anderson, Cody Havlick (and his lovely girl friend Amber), Anthony "Izzy" Israelson, Aaron Abramson, Tim Winker. Everyone wants to drive, of course. I think we can handle that.

Drivers and crew needed for 2011 season

Bill Collins has lured Darrell Peterson, Greg Wold and John Hogdal to form a new ChumpCar team for 2011. Since Collins runs a truck driving school, their crap can racer will be a Dodge Dakota pickup. It is already well on the way to becoming a race truck and they hope to have it ready for Road America at the end of March.

That means Fart-hinder Racing will need at least three drivers, plus crew members, in order to go racing the Saab 900S in the ChumpCar World Series this year. As mentioned in the previous post, the Saab race car is unavailable until the snow melts, so we will probably only be able to enter the two BIR events in June and July.

Interested parties contact Tim Winker.

Road America? 'Fraid not.

Called John Hogdal this weekend to see about picking up the Fart-hinder Racing Saab from his farm where it has been since last fall.

"I have good news and bad news," he said. "The good news is the race car wasn't in the shed when the roof collapsed from the weight of the snow. The bad news is that the car is under a pile of concrete hard snow, so you probably won't see it until spring."

Sorry to hear about the shed, John. Yes, I am glad the racer wasn't in there. Guess we won't be able to fetch it in time to prep it for the Road America race at the end of March. Heck, we probably won't even be able to get at it before some time in April.