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Here's our inspiration - the original Porsche 917/20 "Pink Pig" at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
Copied from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_917
Chumpcar 12 hours at Willow Springs - 13 Nov 2010
Somehow, we got lucky, and won this race. I still don't see how ;)
Chumpcar July 10-11 2010 at AutoClub Speedway - Fontana
Two races, actually: 7 hour race on Saturday, and another 7-hour race on Sunday. We learned a lot about what we needed to do to compete. Almost got on the podium, too.
INFINEON RACEWAY 8-9 December 2012 / Chumpcar 2012 Western Regional Chumpionship
Another two car outing. Both cars finished, running. We finished 28th (Pink Car) and 32nd (Black Car) out of 56 total entries.
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY: 3-4 Nov 2012 (9 and 6 hour Enduros) The L.A. Freeway Dash for the Cash
Two cars made for twice the usual problems, if not more: we blew-up, bent or broke a lot of stuff at this race: engine, shock, front axle, front strut, front wheel, Watts link, radiator, wheel stud, and probably a few other things I don't remember. Needless to say, we did not finish well...
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STREETS OF ENSENADA (True "road course" race) - Chumpcar ”La Carrera de los Necios" (The Race of Fools) 11-12 August 2012
We took the Pink Pig to the beach in Ensenada, Mexico for a little vacation. The Pig came back with a souvenir (fourth-place trophy) and some great memories of racing on the streets along the beach.
June 2012 - Father's Day at Buttonwillow
Two cars, eight drivers, and 114 degree heat! Quite a tough weekend of racing. We finished the two cars at sixth (black car #77) and thirteenth (#74 Pink Pig.) Both cars were running at the end, but the Pink Pig suffered a 2-hour repair while we rebuilt the front right suspension. That's our car on the left, exiting the track onto pit road. The black thing flying through the air is our strut/spring/axle/brake/wheel/tire. Thanks to the "2nd Chance Roadster / 949Racing" Miata team for the video; check out our flying parts at the 12 second mark.
May 2012
As we are focused on prepping our cars for the upcoming Buttonwillow race, Eric Rood of the The Rusty Hub, a crapcan racing blog, interviewed our Co-Captain to get some background on the team. You might get a chuckle out of the article, it's posted here:
http://www.therustyhub.com/2012/05/q-with-michael-chiapetta-from-leftover.html
December 2011 issue of Grassroots Motorsports
Every dog has his day? With our car's appearance in Grassroots Motorsports, this was "our day" ;)
(obviously, this is Grassroots Motorsports copyright property)
December 2011 - New Car for 2012!
Picked up this old racecar in Roswell, NM on Christmas Eve: a 1972 Mazda RX2. Needs a little work, but it will be on the track sometime this year. Maybe a vintage race...
Chumpcar Double 7 Fontana: Oct 15-16, 2011
Two races, actually: 7 hour race on Saturday, and another 7-hour race on Sunday. We finished in Third Place both days.
CHUMPCAR CHAMPIONSHIP, Newton Iowa, Labor Day, 2011
Based upon our team's successful races at Mexicali and Willow Springs, we received an invitation to the Chumpcar National Championship, in Newton, Iowa.
The race promised to be "one for the record books", as it comprised a total of 25 1/2 hours of continuous racing, alternating between road course and oval racing. How did we do? Well, we brought a Pig to Iowa, and it got slaughtered - what could we expect?
The oval-track racing was new to everyone on the team, and one driver had an interesting spin coming out of an oval turn (not to mention a few other off-course / gravel-trap / tire barrier incidents) but the car was not badly damaged by any of it.
Transmission tailshaft problems began early - we destroyed one tailshaft during the Friday practice. No problem - or so we thought - we just installed our spare transmission. Ultimately, the second ("our spare") transmission tailshaft failure meant we were only able to run Saturday, and spent Sunday morning searching Craigslist, RX7Club, eBay and the local junkyards for a replacement, to no avail. Ultimately, we had no experience on oval tracks,and it showed. The car was geared too low for the continuous high-speed ovals, necessitating RPMs to be held at high levels, leading to vibration-caused transmission/driveshaft failures.
Swapping-in a new transmission (sadly, we are getting pretty good at this.)
THE STREETS OF MEXICALI
Taking the green flag at the start of the Chumpcar Streets of Mexicali: 14-15 May 2011 . The cars are doing approximately 80- 100 mph at this point along the "front straight", and, as you can see, only a small curb separates you from trees, signposts, spectators, wayward bicyclists, and whatever or whoever else happens to wander down the sidewalk!
Racing in Chumpcar"Streets of Mexicali" was a blast - lots of good racing and great camaraderie with teams who made the trip to south of the border. Street racing has its own special set of challenges - there is no "runoff" if you make a mistake, which took a toll on most competitors, us included.
24 Hours of LeMons "Sears Pointless" at Infineon, 26-27 March 2011
For the 24 Hours of LeMons "Sears Pointless" at Infineon, 26-27 March 2011 , we celebrated the rotary engine's piggish weaknesses (poor fuel economy and nasty emissions) and paid homage to the Porsche 917 "Pink Pig" on its 40th anniversary of competing in a 24 hour race at a French town in 1971.
24 Hours of LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza at Thunderhill November 2009
And, here's the car at our first Crapcan race 24 Hours of LeMons at Thunderhill Nov 2009 This pic "borrowed", with all due respects, from the official 24 Hours of LeMons photo gallery. We were too busy asking the officials to "black-flag" our flaming car into the pits to think about taking a photo.
RACE LOG ===============================================================================================
2015:
THUNDERHILL, ROAD AMERICA, TEXAS WORLD SPEEDWAY, GINGERMAN
2014:
LAS VEGAS Dec 2014 Chumpcar West Regional Championship
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY: 11-12 Nov 2014 (two Enduros) Saturday: Broken wheel stud, small engine fire, flat tire, etc... Saturday night we fixed it all and achieved a podium finish (third) on Sunday!
LAGUNA SECA 8 MARCH 2014 / 6 Hour Special Event
Back to the Bay areal for a one-day, 6-hour race at Laguna!
Love this track - against a very strong field we were in the top 10 all day long, and finished 9th!
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY: NOVEMBER 2-3 2013 / two 8-hour enduros.
Saturday: 10th place, Sunday: 7th place.
Our first race with the 13b motor, Holley carburator, surge tank and a few other goodies on the car. It all worked!
Yes, that's fire underneath the car. Replacing the thick, old, nasty differential fluid with fancy new synthetic fluid seems like a good idea until you realize the worn axle seals aren't capable of retaining the slippery new stuff. Leaking differential fluid + hot rear brake rotor = wheel fire. Eventually the differential froze from lack of lubrication and our race was over.
THE CAR, AS PURCHASED
Here is what the car looked like the day I bought it. It's a "special edition" 1983 RX7-GSL with the very rare Stainless Steel roof band, glass sunroof, rear spoiler, and (non-working) power windows. Quite a find for $500, isn't it? The stainless roof band and glass sunroof are so desired by RX7 owners that I was able to sell them for $100 apiece. Not that the LeMons judges will ever believe me ;)
One of the reasons I purchased a car with straight body is that I needed good body parts to swap onto a different race car. So, the first thing done to the car was to remove the good hood, doors, bumpers and front fenders. This is a picture with all the dinged-up leftover body parts transplanted onto the car, prior to its original racing (checkerboard / Italian restaurant tablecloth) paint scheme: