Thread: Electrathon - A Different Kind of "Hotrod"

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On May 12 we went to Quitman, Georgia for our last race of this season. Quitman is about 4 hours away from my home and the race course is a real challenge (tough, but fun!). It is about 4/10 of a mile, has 7 turns, and some uphill and downhill areas. Bump-drafting is not practical on a course like this, so for this race I removed the bumpers. My son was not available for this weekend either, so I tapped my old friend and former stock car rival, Ralph Foss to drive for me again. (If you look back at the December race you'll see he won driving my #13 car.)

As expected, Cliff Rassweiler ran away from the field again in both races with his 48 volt system. Ralph and I put on a show for the spectators late in the first race. We were having a "tooth and nail" battle for position that went on for several laps. We were nose-to-tail and swapping positions every few laps. I finally prevailed and finished second with Ralph right behind. Rodney Schreck from Miami was fourth.

In the second race I messed up my strategy. In an effort to conserve my batteries until later in the race, I let the leaders get too far ahead and then couldn't catch them. I ended up fourth. Meanwhile Ralph and Rodney put on a spirited battle for second. Late in the race, while they were racing side-by-side, Ralph bumped the tire barrier with the right front wheel. He managed to eventually beat Rodney for second place, but afterward told me that the car was not handling right after his brush with the barrier...

I waited until I got home to check and measure the damage. I build these cars with 7 degrees positive caster and 7 degrees negative camber. The right end of the front axle was pushed back 1 1/2 inches and twisted. Caster measured 1 degree negative (a change of 8 degrees) and camber measured 1.5 degrees (a change of 5.5 degrees). No wonder it didn't feel right. In addition, the king pin boss was cracked loose at the top of the axle (see pic). Ralph had run about ten laps this way; another ten or twelve laps and there's a good chance it would have broken off!

At the end of the two races Rassweiler was first as expected, Ralph was second, I was third, and Rodney Schreck fourth. All the high school teams finished behind us!