Thread: Electrathon - A Different Kind of "Hotrod"

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I've been very remiss in my reporting since my victory at Hillsborough Community College. The next race was at Wharton High School in Tampa on January 25th. The course was not to my liking. It was a very tight parking lot course, which is OK, but there were a couple of islands with concrete curbs surrounding them. When we were running in a counter-clockwise pattern around the track, it wasn't too bad. For the second race of the day the direction was reversed and there is a concrete curb at the exit of the "chicane" that is just too close for comfort. My right front wheel was running within about 3 inches of that curb on corner exit. A blown tire in that area of the track would have been disasterous. It's hard to explain without detailed pictures; suffice it to say that if they run that race in the same configuration next year I'll stay home. Anyway, I took it easy in that area and ended up with a 3rd place overall finish for the day in my red #94.

My son wasn't available on that day, so my black #13 car was being driven by an old friend and former IKF karting champion from Indiana. With only 3 minutes to go in the first race, the right front tire popped and he hit a curb as he was exiting onto the main straight. The right end of the front axle was pushed back about 3 inches and the normal 7 degrees of negative camber and 7 degrees of positive caster were now about 2 degrees positive and 1 degree negative, respectively. He thought he was finished for the day, but we went to work and, with the help of a couple of hard-working high school guys and Rodney Schreck's welder, we got the car back in shape to run the second race. The faithful old #13 ended up 4th overall for the day!

The next race on the schedule was at University of South Florida (USF) on February 22nd. The local weather folks and weather.com were both predicting about 80% chance of rain and it was already raining here on Friday evening when it was time to load up. My son and I decided to stay home - we didn't want to waste a 2-hour drive each way (Titusville to Tampa and back) just to get rained out. It rained all day Saturday... in Titusville. In Tampa all they got was a light sprinkle once and the races ran on time with no problems! Oh well...

On March 22nd my son and I trekked to Tampa Bay Technical High School for the last event in the Tampa area this season. This course was set up similar to the one at Wharton, but it's larger and there are no islands with curbs to crash against. In the first race I started in the rear of the field, ran a steady pace, took the lead with 3 minutes to go, and won by 3 seconds over Rodney Schreck from Miami. My son finished 16 seconds back in 3rd place. I started on the front row for the second race, so took advantage of the situation and jumped out to an early lead. I set the pace and led every lap for the first 54 minutes. Occasionally, late in the race entering the hairpin turn after the long straight, I would hear a loud "POP" from the rear of the car. At first I thought the chain was trying to jump off the sprocket; the rear wheel must be loose and is running out of alignment as I'm entering that turn... I was wrong. The "POP" I was hearing was spokes breaking under side stress; the rear wheel came apart and knocked the chain off with 6 minutes to go! I coasted to the pits and my son won the race over Rodney Schreck. When the laps and times were totaled up for the day, my son got 1st overall, Rodney was 2nd, and I completed enough laps to take 3rd.

There are two races scheduled in April, but I won't be attending either of them. One is in Pensacola, Florida (9 hours away) and the other one is at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama (12 hours away). My next race will be at Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa on May 3rd and then I'll finish the season at Quitman, Georgia on May 10th.

Not bad Jim, You guys are giving the competition some stress! Sorry to hear about the spokes failing, but nice that you still came in in the top 3! Thanks for the update!

Good results Jim, thanks for coming back on and giving us an update! This Schreck guy from Miami probably added you and your son to his hate list, every time he raced one of you beat him!!!!

Thanks, guys. I should have checked the spokes in the rear wheel between races; if I had I may have discovered the problem before it became catastrophic. Anyway, I have replaced those frail little 14-gauge spokes with some nice beefy 11-gauge.

Not to worry, Dave. I don't think Rodney Schreck is too upset. He consistently stomped my ass repeatedly for the first 5 or 6 years I was racing in Electrathon. Then I and some others finally started beating him pretty regularly. This year he is running a car that I built for him! He's won with it twice and is consistently running in the top 3 again. He loves the car so much he has mentioned having me build him a spare!

Jim,did Rodney ever tell ya why he couldn't use or drive Rolling Thunder? I even gave him the aero body plans I never added. He drove it around my block about 5 times ,said "wow" I like it,and then payed me for it,never herd from him again. And I've never seen it show up again,was most likely the highist tech chassie car there back then, with old motor ect. from you . I do keep a eye on what your doing,looking good Jim.

Hi Bat. Sorry it took me so long to reply; I didn't do it right away and forgot about it until just now...

I honestly don't know why Rodney hasn't run your old car. I suppose it's probably because it doesn't have a body on it yet (now required by the rules to protect the driver's legs) and he just hasn't got around to putting one on it. Right now he's been running the car I built for him and he's having good success with it. Our season will conclude next week with the race in Quitman, Georgia. Maybe he'll have time to work on it then...

Thanks for the compliment. I'm still having fun, but getting old; I don't know how much longer I'll keep doing this...

Final update for this season... The May 3rd race at the Florida Solar Energy Center got rained out. I had the cars ready to go, but the weather didn't cooperate. May 10th I went to Quitman, Georgia for the final race of the season. They had a great turnout this year with 14 cars. Rodney Schreck from Miami and I dominated both races, handily beating the other Open Class cars and the closest finishing high school team by over 20 laps. When the day's results were totaled, I beat Schreck by one lap and brought home the first-place trophy.

At the first annual awards banquet on May 17, the points championship for the season went to Rodney Schreck and I was second. Even if I hadn't skipped the USF race in February, I would still have finished second in points because of my crash and subsequent bad finish at the opening race. All in all it was a pretty good season. We get a rest now until October and then it starts again; I'll be ready...

Very cool! Thanks for posting your results!

good job Jim. Now you can work on the track style T!

Congrats on the effort Jim! It was a good season for you!

Thats a super job and great driving,happy for you and thanks again for all the help you passed our way back years ago,sure did add to the fun.

Thank you all for the compliments. It was a fun season except for the crash at the beginning.

Steve - I have the Track-T on jackstands, stripped down, and am prepping it for paint. You can see the results on my other thread in a few days.

Bat - You're welcome. I wish you and Lance were still involved; I might finally be some competition for you now... I've been following your roadster on your thread; it's lookin' good and I really love your interior work! If we lived closer I'd be on your doorstep with my door panels...

I don't know if anyone has been accessing this thread recently, but if so you may have noticed the pictures were missing! A couple of weeks ago all the pictures on my threads and many others suddenly disappeared. Brent has apparently found and fixed the problem because they're all back. HOORAY and THANK YOU BRENT. Long live Club Hotrod!!!

Jim, you apparently missed the announcement - Old picture attachments are back....