Racer in the family.

[Doc]

Thank goodness your bro is alright. Flying through the air like that at the high speeds they are driving, I can only imagine how hard the impact would have been. the safety restraints are awesome. They sure did their job.

About how fast do they get up to on that track?

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I'd estimate about 80mph on the straight and down to 50 in the corners.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Here's video of the wreck if it works.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Here's the in car view.

 

[Doc]

wow. Awesome video. Like we are riding with him.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

wow. Awesome video. Like we are riding with him.

He has a go pro he uses each race.

 

[norscaner]

Here's the in car view.

great video Brian.

 

[waybomb]

God, I miss going in circles. I was on asphalt. I love watching clips from the driver's view.
My first race, hobby stock, 67 Chevy 2, bench seat. Was so excited I forgot to put the seat belt on. Any idea how hard it is to throttle with your left foot, while hanging on the steering wheel attempting to stay in the car instead of flying out? Well, at least I didn't use the brakes since I couldn;t reach the pedal haanging on slid into the passneger side of the seat, and learned the limits of that car real quick.
Track etiquette at the time for greenhorns was to drive them into the wall as initiation, which I expected to happen. But the regulars saw I had a problem and let me run. Made alot of friends there,
I ALWAYS wear a seat belt since then.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Time for an update. My brother stripped the body off the car and the roof roll bars bent down when it slammed down. The chassis originally came from a manufacturer in the states. They watched the incar video and basically said that the roof shouldn't have bent down and offered to buy the bare chassis back off him to study to make improvements to future chassis they build. And they had a 2 year old winning car someone else had traded in for a new model. They sold it to him for a big discount.

Last weekend, he set out to race 5 hrs away from me. They practiced Saturday but got rained out Sunday. This weekend is the grand opening for our local track. Last fall was a special invitational event where the track was leased by different people. My brother is coming down for it. Sadly, I have other commitments but plan on attending Sunday.
Here's the new car.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

His first outing in the car was a bust literally. Due to bad fuel, he blew 7 pistons and cracked the block. He's now running an open engine with a new racing carb he just got from down in nascar country. He's been running his normal 3 tracks closer to home but is here for this week's racing. It was supposed to be last night but got rained out part way through.

Anyways, here's some drone footage of the racing from last week. I was there.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

He went out on Wednesday and didn't even turn a lap at speed before the skies opened up. He came back starting the bmain in the back working his way from 11th to 5th and they only advanced the top 3 to the feature. That meant he from 5 hrs away to only race one race.

They normally start 21 cars in the feature but this week was a special memorial race night to honor the man whose dream was to build a race track and bring racing back to the city for the first time in 30 years. (We had a small track way out in the remote country side a 40 minute drive from here that did a once a year event only every fall.) The whole area where the track and parking is located was nothing more than a muskeg swamp which required 10 years worth of fill being brought in to fill the swamp before they could even begin to build the track. He worked tirelessly to make it happen but less then a year before the track was complete, he passed away from cancer. His car number was 22.

Because of this, they wanted 22 cars in the field and gave a provisional starting spot to my brother starting him last in a field of 22. It was a 50 lap race. He was able to work his way up to 13th place.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

The original track promoter was also a racer in the same class as my brother. After he passed away, the family wanted to include his car as a promotional tool for the track. So they raised it up and placed it on a concrete support right at the entrance to the track.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Looks like my brother's race season is done. He was at a 2 day race weekend. The first night was rained out so apparently things got a little rowdy at night with the racers all staying in the pits. Alcohol may or may not have been a factor. 🤣

 

[Tech011]

That's fantastic! Thank you for the dirt track as well as your brother's success in acquiring the trailer and car. This is an amazing possibility for you to join your siblings to chase your dreams of racing. Take advantage of the process of making the track more ready to race and having a blast in the coming spring season when racing season begins!

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I've been slacking on the updates here. My brother has been racing full time every week at our local track making the 4 hour drive every week. My son has been helping him out in the pits every week but had to work this week. I went to help last night.

My brother's biggest problem is that he has has 3 strokes in the past 7 years and no longer has any feeling or muscle control in his left hand without looking at it so when he goes to put on his helmet and safety neck restraint, he can't feel to grab the straps and clamp them to his helmet the in the car, can't reach for his left shoulder belt. Then guide him in and out of his pit stall. I also changed a couple of rear tires between raves and helped quickly remove and straighten a rear quarter panel after another car turned in to his left rear to avoid a spinning car below. The back drivers side tire jumped over the left front of the other car and mangled the panel. The sides just bolt on. Even at that, the biggest loss of the night was a battery charger that wasn't disconnected before he left the pits. It just ripped the cord in half which I repaired.

He started 7th and finished 6th in his heat. Top 4 transfer to the a main which put us starting 3rd in the b main. He worked his way to second with a half a straightaway to the third place car in a field of 20 cars. That transfered us to the a main where he started at the back and stayed there to avoid carnage as he is racing tonight 4 hrs away and didn't want to have to fix the car.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Our race season opener was supposed to be Wednesday night but got rained out and postponed to last night. Over the winter, he had stripped the car down to bare frame and hauled it 8 hrs south to the manufacturer in Minnesota to he refreshed and updated.

The first heat race he was in was a survival show as the track surface was dry and everyone was set up for wet. He went out second and finished 3rd transferring to the feature race. We made some adjustments on the car and swapped out the tires for a different set to change the stagger.

He started 12th in a field of 24 and the adjustments we made were an immediate improvement as the car launched like a rocket ship and he had worked his way up to 4th when a caution came out for another car spinning. On the restart, he got door slammed by a spinning car in front of him but thankfully it was only cosmetic dropping him to 11th. He ended up working his way back up to finish 9th. Not bad considering there were 47 cars in his class to start the heats.

We did have a scary episode in the pits when the car slid backwards off the jack without the rear tires on. After a moment of panic, we managed to jack up the back end one side at a time and remount the back tires. No damage other than pride.

My brother lives 4.5 hrs away but will be making the trip here every week. He recently upgraded his motorhome this winter to a diesel pusher from his old one which was a v10 gas engine. He also picked up a fuel sponsor who pays all his fuel and oil for both the motorhome and race car. So he will be racing 3-4 nights a week at different tracks. This morning, he was heading home to repair some cosmetic damage on the car then heading 7 hrs west of him to a track in morden Manitoba.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I was at the races again last night helping out in the pits.

All day, it was looking like a rain out as we were under a thick layer of dark clouds in a thunderstorm watch. The skies held off long enough to get the show in.

They start the heat races by a draw. There were 53 cars in his class alone and 126 total. He drew poorly starting us 8th out of nine cars for the heat race. Top 3 transfer to the feature race. He made it to fourth place which put us fighting in the b main starting 6th in a field of 16. He was running 5th when the car in front spun out. He restarted 4th with 2 laps to go and did a bonzai move in turn 4 coming to the checkered flag to make it to 3rd.

We scrambled to get back to the hauler as he made the feature starting 20th in a field of 21 cars. He managed to work his way to 12th in a very clean race. This is in a field of cars where the top 10 are fully sponsored full-time racers with much better equipment. The car that finished only 2 positions ahead of us is a top end car from a track 5 hrs away worth 100k. My brother has maybe 20k into his. And he buys his tires used off the other guy.

 

[m1west]

Its a tough road racing on a budget, I raced a whitewater marathon boat for one season. It took me 5 years to get the boat put together and I thought that was the expensive part. Wrong, the expensive part starts when you get it in the race the first time. Same as your brother, other racers had big sponsorship with teams of mechanics that worked on there boat while they slept. I remember the first race I showed up at, All the other racers were ribbing me because I didn't bring many tools, my response was, if you don't have any spare parts, you don't need tools, when it breaks were done. I never placed in the money but I returned from every start and that is an achievement in itself. Good luck to you and your brother in the racing. I started my business and that was the end of having any personal time for much of anything

 

[NorthernRedneck]

You get it. There's times when he's got a good car but mired back in traffic amongst the local racers who don't give a $hit and beat and bang and drive through you to get to the front because they've got a week to fix it for the next race. My brother is racing for Canadian points this year and already has 12 shows under his belt in the past 3 weeks. If he goes out and destroys his car to gain 2 positions and maybe an extra $50 on his payout, he doesn't race the next night. Another top racer here who is racing 4-5 nights a week between here and Wisconsin/Minnesota tracks just rolled his brand new car last week. Thankfully he had his car from last year sitting there for sale ready to go.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

We were at the races again tonight. We didn't do so well as the car was just not performing. We started 2nd in the 4th heat race and fell back to fifth. We made some adjustments to the car and started the bmain in 4th but just couldn't gain any spots. Top 2 transferred to the feature. Afterwards we found an issue with the clutch master cylinder as well as a bad shock in the rear.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

A little update. He had an issue with his transmission a couple weeks ago. After diagnosing the issue, he ended up pulling the transmission and rebuilding it. He did alright with it in emo 4 hrs away the other night.

Last night, he pulled in to the track here. Discovered that his brake pads on the front had disintegrated and had to rebuild them before the first race. He drew 2nd starting spot in the last of 4 heat races and went out and won. That put him starting 1st in the feature race against 22 other cars. He fell back to 5th and worked his way back to 3rd. There were 41 cars in his class.

Here's the kicker. He had to change the front shocks as we in between races as his new ones weren't performing. He threw in a 5 year old set that were worn out and left over from his first b mod car that he rolled 3 years ago. The only 2 cars to beat him were ones that are fully funded and race 4-5 nights a week. One is a brand new car this season that has already won 13 times.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

If he didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck apparently. My brother was in the pits at a track 7 hrs west of here halfway in the back wheel well changing the transmission on his car when one of the other racers kid slammed into him and the car on an atv. I don't have many details but he's home and very sore. Nothing broken. Most tracks don't even allow electric golf carts let alone atvs in the pits for this reason.

 

[dendori]

It's been a dream of mine and my brothers to get dirt track cars together and go racing. Only problem was the nearest dirt track was always an 8 hour drive away. A new track was just finished literally Saturday morning as they laid down the last of the clay. It's only 2 hours from my brother and 6 hours from me. So, my brother managed to scrounge up a car and trailer for free in lieu of sponsorship decals on the car. He was literally one of the first to get a car on the track. There's still lots of work to get the track ready for the spring but it's nice to see a track come to life.

https://www.kenoraonline.com/local-sports/feelin-the-need-for-speed

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I've had this dream since childhood and I hope to fulfill it as soon as possible, the only problem I have is that I don't have a car, but now I'm saving up for it