RPM means Raceway Park of the Midlands

Our first race this season was in early May. The next race close to home was in mid-August. That's a lot of time between races, so the Fart-hinder Racing troupe decided to take advantage of several incentives offered by World Racing League and entered one car for the July race at Raceway Park of the Midlands in western Iowa. The 2.2 mile track, formerly known as Mid America Motorplex, is located just off Interstate 29 a few miles south of Council Bluffs. Towing distance was roughly the same as to Road America from our northern Minnesota headquarters. Iowa in July can be hot, very hot, and it seems we managed to pick the hottest weekend of July to go racing.

We chose to race the Fart-hinder 900 instead of the much faster Fart-kontroll 9-3. The 900 had been geared lower for quicker launch out of the corners, plus WRL had dropped it into the GP4 class, the slowest of their classifications. The 900 drivetrain is very stock, though the engine and transmission had been overhauled with new bearings and seals over the winter. There had been a few minor issues with the car at the May race which required work in the paddock, but nothing really major. Those had been corrected and we figured the 900 was ready to go mechanically. In addition, it received a new coat of paint to cover the black streaks left by an encounter with a tire wall. In addition to the Spa Blue that also graces the 9-3, we chose a deeper green shade for the lower part of the car. Tim was trying to get it as close to U.S. Forest Service Green as possible, but it ended up a little darker. Still a nice shade that compliments the blue. A yellow stripe separates the main colors, matching the yellow wheels.

We arrived on Friday for registration to sweltering heat. Air temp was in the high 90s, with a temperature index of 110 degrees. Some teams that showed up early for a test day reported they had gone through several cases of water that afternoon. Just after the Friday evening drivers' meeting and social, a violent thunderstorm hit the area. High winds wrecked several teams' pop-up canopies, including ours. On the plus side, the rain dropped the air temperature into the low 80s.

Tim was the first driver scheduled and he was on the line and ready to go with the rest of the cars for a 9-hour battle. He hit the starter button... and all of the lights blinked off. A couple of tries, wiggling the battery wires, and it finally caught. He took the green flag, but it was quickly evident that there was a misfire in some corners. He brought the Saab in and the team opened the battery box to check cables. Sure enough one was loose again, it was tightened, and Tim went out to play, last in a class of five cars.

The Saab seemed to be holding up well and turning consistent laps, quicker than a couple of cars in the category, but lagging behind a VW GTI and a Miata. Then another disaster... Mark reported that the exhaust was suddenly very loud. He came into the pits and the problem was quickly obvious. The exhaust downpipe had broken at the weld just below the manifold, where two pipes merge into one. John Stachnik from JAB racing offered to weld it back together, but a patina of rust and 110 volt power made the job more difficult. In addition, the crack had to be sealed completely as it was right next to the inner axle driver. Eventually it was sealed, though hardly pretty, and we were back on track, an hour behind the third place Mercury Bobcat (a badge engineered Ford Pinto). Due to the early transmission failure of the 4-cylinder Mustang in our group, we had moved up to fourth in the standings.

Though the temperature was not as hot as on Friday, in the mid-80s and overcast, it was still plenty warm and we were rapidly consuming the water and Gatorade that our crew, Larry and Cyndi Walter, had picked up for us. They were staying in Council Bluffs and loaded their Fiat Abarth with as much refreshment and ice as it could hold.

We began to strategize.

As the end of the race approached, if we were still running last we would bring the car in early and just head out for the final few laps to be classed as a finisher. If, however, another car should drop out, we would stay out and collect a third place trophy.

It was the latter scenario that developed. The leading VW snapped a rear spindle and lost the wheel, brakes, everything. JAB, who has suffered the same fate on their VW more than once, and has since upgraded to more robust components, offered spare parts so the VW guys could get back on track, but there wasn't enough time left for such a major repair. The Saab held on to receive the third place trophy.

Since RPM is in the heart of farm country, with corn and soybeans growing pretty much everywhere, and herds of pork and beef in abundance, it only made sense for the team to visit a steak house. Instead, we went to a Mexican restaurant. We were, after all, south of the (Minnesota) border.

Another huge storm rumbled through early Sunday morning, but the forecast indicated that the rain had passed and there would be no rain during the day's 7-hour race. The Mustang and VW were DNS, which meant the Saab should be able to be in the podium group again if the car would last to the checkered flag. We knew that the Miata was considerably quicker than our steed, and that we were faster than the Bobcat. Attrition could make the difference. We also planned to make much quicker pit stops, dumping just one 5-gallon can of fuel at each stop. With four drivers, each would use up only six or seven gallons in their stint, so the 18-gallon tank should still have gas at the finish. Our fastest stop, dumping one fuel jug, making the driver change, and checking tires and under the hood, was one minute, 45 seconds.

Aidan Hicks, the youngest driver on the team, was first behind the wheel for Sunday. He went out and drove a steady pace, eventually setting what would be the fastest lap for the Saab over the weekend. As the tires wore down and the heat of the day caused the track to become a bit slippery, lap times dropped a little throughout the race.

Like many good plans, our strategy blew up on us. Once again the Saab sputtered and died on the track while Mark was driving. He was able to get it re-fired and brought it into the pits where the diagnosis was loose battery cables once again. It finally dawned on us (after several seasons of racing this car) that the battery was sliding back and forth in the plastic battery box. The decision was made to fix the problem once and for all. A spare battery cable was located to replace the rather frayed positive cable in the car. It took some finesse and about a half hour, but it did not give us any more trouble all day. On the down side, we were now many laps behind the Bobcat in third place.

Due to the heat and the odds that we could not finish higher than third, we offered the chance to take the Saab to the end to John Stachnik, who had repaired our exhaust, and who had done his first race driving the day before in the JAB VW. Our instructions were to go out, have fun, and don't break anything. We had found out that the Saab did just fine in fourth gear around the entire track when in survival mode, so the clutch and synchros should get little abuse.

Sure enough, John drove it under the waving checkered flag a little after 3:00 PM, and we were presented with a pair of 3^rd place trophies for our weekend's efforts.

Our next outing is back at our home track, Brainerd International Raceway, for a 12-hour ChumpCar World Series race. The 9-3 is the only team car getting prepped for this race, as we only have a few drivers. The plan is to race on the original 3-mile Donnybrooke track, which opened in 1968. Unfortunately that section of the track has been converted nearly exclusively to drag racing. The surface has a coating of tractionizing compound that becomes slicker than black ice when wet. If there is any hint of rain prior to the start, the race will revert to the 2.5 mile Competition Course. If it were to rain during the race on the old track, it would have to be immediately red flagged. Since our front wheel drive Saab loves the rain, we are hoping for rain in the forecast.