Jps1145's Little Baja - Build Thread

[bajaherbie]

looks damn good! so your first race is in notrees, tx? doubt i will attend that one but will make a texana race to spectate..

[jps1145]

looks damn good! so your first race is in notrees, tx? doubt i will attend that one but will make a texana race to spectate..

First race is in Notrees on April 5th. Let's hope I can keep the engine together...

[TexasBaja]

I know it's a little early but I think we need a race report. I had to leave the track early for a family thing and John was stopped on the course.

[TimS]

A preview?

jbug big.jpg

[Getrdone]

That's not good, hopefully not what it looks like

[CentralWAbaja]

Looks like it is still holding air

[jps1145]

I have lot's of wounds to lick...
Stand by.

[jps1145]

That's not good, hopefully not what it looks like

it was what it looks like...

[jps1145]

Here's a quick summary of events...
Before the start:

Just after the start...

The first lap is where all the excitement really happened.
Within the first mile I broke my right front brake line. I folded it in half and hose clamped it to the tie rod so I wouldn't lose more fluid and still stop (or so I had hoped...)
Trying to stop in a straight line with only one front wheel really served us up to the DNF Gods...
The first hazard after the brake line fix that I had to stop for, put us right into it... We ran right into a big rock on the left side, bent my spindle, lower trailing arm, and sheared the bolt holding my steering wheel. Also, it really jacked my alignment. I had about 10 degrees of positive camber and about 4” of toe out… It really made it tough to drive.
About 2 miles before making it back to the back side pit we had a flat on the left rear (seems like that is the only tire that ever goes flat...) We made it to the back side pit and straightened the alignment as best we could.
About 5 minutes later I hit the brakes after a long straight to slow for a left hand sweeper through a gate. With only the left front with brakes, it put me into a left hand slide that I couldn’t recover from. She bit, and over we went. It was pretty slow though and only enough momentum to go over onto our lid, half a roll.
All I can say is hanging upside down makes it VERY HARD TO UNLATCH. It took us WAY too long to get out. If you are racing, PRACTICE THIS!!! Fortunately, this was slow and my gas was contained as it was designed in the fuel cell. My oil on the other hand was not. Most of it drained out of the breather.





We got her back over and continued, but with most of the oil on the ground and only the two quarts we carry back in, we could not sustain oil pressure. We had to pull over and radio for more. We also lost the GPS antenna during the roll. The course was pretty burned in by now, but the GPS would have saved us a couple times from blowing some corners...
The rest of the race was really uneventful. We managed to continue and finish two more laps but decided to park it before starting the fourth lap as we would not have enough time to complete the fifth in the time limit.
This was another really disappointing showing, but I'm glad we kept going even after the roll. I'm also really glad my engine stayed together. It ran flawlessly the whole day. I hope I've finally chased those gremlins away…
Had I installed a $2.00 elbow at my front calipers, this whole story could have been told much differently.

[jps1145]

Oh... I'm also glad we didn't get hurt!!!

[rickosuave1987]

Really glad that the roll wasn't too bad! Bummer about the DNF though. I saw the picture of your car (second one you posted) on the TDRA Facebook page and was exited for you.

All I can say is hanging upside down makes it VERY HARD TO UNLATCH. It took us WAY too long to get out. If you are racing, PRACTICE THIS!!!

How?

[jps1145]

Really glad that the roll wasn't too bad! Bummer about the DNF though. I saw the picture of your car (second one you posted) on the TDRA Facebook page and was exited for you.

All I can say is hanging upside down makes it VERY HARD TO UNLATCH. It took us WAY too long to get out. If you are racing, PRACTICE THIS!!!

How?

Good question... maybe sit in your seat and push your feet on the floor to put as much pressure on the latch as you can then try to get it undone.
We had to push up on the top of the car to take weight off the latch so we could undo it.

[bajaherbie]

sorry about the bad luck john. will you attend the texana race in july?

[TexasBaja]

I am also glad you guys didn't get hurt. Other then that how did the new suspension feel?

[CentralWAbaja]

And here I thought you had got away without getting a flat.

Glad to see it was an easy over and nobody got hurt...including the motor.