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.

Parts donor!

Came across this on Craig's List. It was only about 30 miles from Duluth and needs some serious TLC. Like the Fart-hinder racer, it is a 1992 900S with the 2.1-liter n/a engine. It is even the same shade of metallic blue! Picked it up for only $200.

The crankshaft pulley (a.k.a. harmonic balancer) is kaput. The rubber between the crank mount and the pulley portion has separated so the engine runs but the pulleys do not turn, thus no alternator nor water pump nor power steering.

It had been sitting in a field for well over a year, so the brakes and exhaust are rusty. The exhaust broke at the catalytic converter as it was being unloaded from the trailer. The brakes work but the disks are obviously rust coated. The clutch goes nearly to the floor before the disk is disengaged, but it does work. The 5-speed gearbox is apparently out of an '87 and sometimes grinds going into gear.

What we need most for spares are the brake parts and the engine. Wheels, axles, suspension parts... all are nice to have, just in case.

On the plus side, it looks to have less structural rust than my daily driver 1987 900S. Consequently, this 900 would make a good candidate for a crap can racer as it sits. Just strip it out, add the roll cage and fix the broken stuff.

A good used crank pulley has already been purchased from Hanover European Auto Parts. We'll start there.

We got some video!!!

We had a camera mounted in the race car for the first couple of hours. The first 20 minutes of the video was before the race started, so lots of boring stuff sitting in the pits. This video clip is about 6 minutes and features the start of the race and the first four laps, Darrell Peterson at the wheel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNz4GgFECVg