Tag Archives: racing

photography, racing

American Le Mans at Laguna Seca

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Saturday’s ALMS 6-hour endurance race at Monterey’s famous Laguna Secs was fantastic. The GT class was the most closely contested race I’ve seen in a long time, where the lead changed between the last turn and and the start finish, right in front of the main grandstands! Talk about excitement!

Watching, and photographing racing at night was a first for me. A learning experience, and despite this being my first attempt, I’m still happy with some of the images I was able to capture. Most of that I need to attribute to Canon’s fantastic 200mm f2.8 L glass (which I obtained from the L.A. Times a few years back).

So.. without further yammering, here are just a few of the shots that I’ve processed so far, that I like. Keep in mind that Word Press re-compresses the images so you lose clarity… when I get unlazy enough to replace Word Press with a better CRM (when.. maybe never…) this sort of thing will not be such an irritation to me.

In the mean time, it is what it is, and these are the results:


Astin Martin 007 - The name is Bond, James Bond.
Class champion M3 passing an LMP car entering Turn 2
Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid - it completely dominated GT.
One of two Patron Ferraris, this one entering turn 2
LMP entering Turn 2 under the lights
///M3 between turns 1 and 2
Corvette attempting an honorable mention finish, enters turn 2
racing

American Le Mans – a few shots from qualifying

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I shot over 500 photos yesterday at ALMS qualifying and practice. Here are few of those shots:

One hot car!

This happened early in the first qualifying session. The British, known for finding ways to make things leak, make the Jaguar, which dumped most of it’s oil on the track in the first turn:

British Fire - oil leak catches fire exiting turn 1.

Start Finish line into Turn 1

American Le Mans - Laguna Seca Turn 1

Turn 2 Action

American Le Mans - Turn 2 at Laguna Seca
Prototype enterting Turn 2
Ferrari self recovery - Turn 2
Patron Ferrari - Turn 2

Photos from the Paddock

American Le Mans - 911 GT3 Cup
Paddock - Volvo Touring Car
Radio Control, RC Trucks

Evolution of a theme – New race body debuts at “Treads Gone Wild”

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With the slow destruction of my old race body, the damage done to the very old temporary body, and the debut of the BRCR Summer Race Series “Treads Gone Wild”, it was high time for a new body. But, time was not on my side, so my original plan of a complex and amusing theme was out the window.

When I originally started to race the first Cow Body truck a few months back, it was a big hit at the track. Despite it’s very simple design, and the multitude of very nicely done air-brushed artwork on other trucks, the amazing acceptance was, to say the least, surprising!

SC-10 "Cow Car"

Short Course racing takes it’s toll on these little Lexan bodies, so replacement is just part of the hobby. The neat part is that you are not stuck with a design forever. The bad part is that you can’t keep using your awesome design forever. I purchased a couple of new bodies on sale, and set them aside for the future. You never know when one will develop a catastrophic crack and need to be quickly replaced. With speeds of 30 MPH+, aerodynamics actually does matter.

“Cow Car 1” suffered a pretty nasty break in the rear mounting locations, and had to be retired about a month ago. But I was not ready with my new design concept, so I pulled an old Traxxis Slash body out of the dustbin of bodies past (for reference Traxxis is a good basher brand, but it does not have a reputation for real race performance). It was a musing for a while. People were shocked to see a crappy old Traxxis running so well and so smoothly on the track. LOL. Little did they know, at first, that it was covering arguably the best Short Course currently made, a Kyosho SC-R. But the body is pretty cheap to start with, and it was not long before the stresses of a very competitive race class took it’s toll too. Again, I was not ready with a new design.

After procrastinating for months, and with the start of a new Summer Race Series at our track “Treads Gone Wild“, despite my air-brushing skills being squarely in question, I had to come up with something fast! I literally had but a handful of hours to get a concept, design the pattern, lay it on the body and paint it up! Traxxis body was severely damaged in practice Friday night (so was the truck, but that’s another story), so I could not simple use the Traxxis body for the opening of the serious, and I had to fix the truck too. All in the matter of a few hours yesterday morning. Plus, it was the first warm sunny weekend day this year, so I also had to squeeze in some motorcycle riding. Had to act fast.

The “Cow Car” theme had stuck, racer announcers started to call me “Cow Car Dave”, and people expected to see me cowing it up. But I didn’t want to do the same old thing, again. Plus I wanted to experiment around with some design elements, like flames or tears. I spent some time looking at all the awesome designs in this RCTech air brushing thread, and It hit me. I could do both! So, I did!

In less than 3 hours, I knocked out this little gem, combining my first attempt at airbrushing rips, and adding drop shadows, but still sticking with the “Cow Car” theme (between “Cow Car 3”, shown here, and Cow Car 1, I also painted up a Cow Car for my daughter… more on that later.)

TA DA!

Cow Car 3

It’s pretty rough, and there are a lot of mistakes in it. Some of it because I was rushing, most of it because this is only the 2nd body I’ve tried to airbrush (the first body was “Cow Car 2”, in the middle).

A lot of people liked the design, and I do too. I got my rips, my neon color and stuck with the Cow theme. All in all, pretty good. But, now, I’m really starting to enjoy the air brushing thing, and I want to keep practicing, and paining more bodies, but, I have all the bodies I need for my race vehicles. I guess I could just go and buy more bodies, paint them up and maybe sell them for cost at the track, so that I can practice, and not go broke doing it.

Finally, here is the full family of Cows, 1, 2 and 3 (left to right).

Original Cow Car, Strawberry Cow Car, TGW Cow Car

Radio Control, RC Trucks

MooOOoooOOOoOoooo – The Milk Man Delivers!

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Oh yeah, what a nice of racing!!!

This is the second outing of the ‘Mooo Mobile‘, drive by me, aka The Milk Man.

Had a good couple of hours of practice, and the truck was running pretty good. Did some baseline laps with the setup from two weeks ago, then I started tweaking the suspension.

For the last few days, I have been researching suspension from the other manufactures. Seeing what they do differently, and working up some research for a new iPhone / iPad App. Yes.. going to see about making this hobby pay off in $$$, not just silliness. During this research, I saw a possible solution to a setup problem in a set of springs designed for Losi trucks.

Here is the issue. For front springs, AE (aka Team Associated) maxes out with the ‘Red’ spring at 3.90 lb./in. Which is pretty stiff for a vehicle that weights maybe 4 lbs. total. The Associated spring is 2.25″ long, and right now I have to run it at the max length, just to get it to sit at the right front ride height. Adding to the issues, the setup sheets recommend cutting a coil out of the spring, making it shorter and stiffer. I’m thinking that cutting a coil will make for a sloppy suspension, since the top of the coil will no longer be flat, and not sit right on the spring perches.

Then I get this brilliant (well, different, if not brilliant) idea to purchase a set of the Losi front truck springs in the 4.1 lb./in. rating. They are close in diameter. Plus, the Losi spring is only 2″ long, also giving me the ability to lower the truck more using the shocks built in threads. Something I could not do with the stock 2.25″ spring.

It turns out, the Losi springs have a slightly larger ID. Almost too large. But, they fit well enough, and under tension do not move around adversely. So, I gave it a run tonight. And I must say, it did help quiet down the front handling, making the truck handle more neutral. Less sliding in the rear end. I took some notes tonight on what I tried, which I’ll be including in a different post later on this week.

I did OK tonight, again making the A-Main in Stock (17.5 motor) Short Course. We had a couple of pretty full grids tonight. I held my own in the main, finishing where I started, in 7th place. Not stellar by any means, but the track was also VERY loose, so those with better skills really dominated. Not finishing last is always a plus, when racing against so many more experienced drivers. Most of these guys have been racing for 10 years, a few more like 30! I’ve been at it for a total of 7 months so far… so.. I don’t feel to bad about my progress.

But, the best part of the night, was the post Main rounds entertainment. We call it Hack for Cash. This little race has a different set of rules. And they are pretty simple.

  • Race in an oval, skipping the inside, making the track 1/3 as long, and cutting the jumps down to 7 and 2 table-tops.
  • There are no corner marshals. You crash, tough. You wait out the race in humiliation, unless another racer hits you and accidentally knocks you back into the race. It happens a lot when things get dicy, so it’s truly not over until the fat lady sings.
  • Punting other trucks is encouraged. In fact the race leader has a big fat target on them, everyone wants to take them out
  • Last man standing, or the driver with the most laps when the 10 minute buzzer goes off wins the entry fees. Tonight it was 14 racers at $2 a head. 28 bucks on the table for the winner!
  • It’s OK to work as a team to take out other drivers, but in the end, only on person wins.
  • You cannot stop on the track. If you stop, you’re OUT! That does not include being crashed out. See the rule above about how you might get back into the race.

So, with 14 trucks in the race, starting in a modified Motocross start (trucks lined up side by side all the way across the lane in the back straight. Overflow trucks are placed *on top* of the front line trucks. When the buzzer goes off, it’s anyone’s guess who’s left standing. I was 2nd truck on the inside of the front row, so I started with a truck on top of me, as did most of the front 9. When the buzzer sounded, I made it 1/2 way down the straight before the truck that was on me, came up from behind and knocked me onto my side. I was out. I sat there for many laps being passed. Trucks trying to dodge me. Finally, I was able to wiggle sideways enough to get clipped by another truck and end up ride side up again, and back in the race!.

It was brutal. Crashing trucks, people yelling ‘Get the leader’. Take out the owner’s truck!! Brian, the owner, is a pretty damn good driver, and he’s won just about every single one of these Dash for Cash events. Tonight, we were all gunning for him. One of the racers said.. “It’s going to be tough to keep track of who’s in front.” I told him that it would be a little easier that he though, since he didn’t have to worry about it being me.

After a few laps, a couple of trucks were upside down, and one of them even flew completely over the wall and off the track. That one was NOT coming back. It was about 1/2 way into the race when I got my truck jammed up into one of the upside down trucks in the main sweeper (corner for you non-racers). Nice high speed WHAM!, CRUNCH!. My front wheel was jammed up into the other truck’s suspension. A truck with a reputation for being built like a tank. The best outcome I could hope for was someone else understeered into us exiting the sweeper, snapped off my first right control arm and gave me a chance to drag the chassis around the track until the end.

I didn’t have to wait long. One of the mod truck guys went in to deep on the corner, hit the wall then shot off it into me, knocking me free of the big Traxxis 4×4. Except, it remained upside down, and I didn’t lose my control arm! And, I was back in the race!

Nearing the end, Brian was clearly the target, and I was clearly driving way too fast, at least that’s what everyone was yelling. “Slow down! Brian is behind you.. slow down and take him out!” So I sped up! And in a few laps had run him down, and I had him square in my sights. On the last straight to the main fishing I had my shot, and I had to make it good. It’s a tight left-hander to the Start-Finish. He was 3/4 of the straight ahead of me but going slow, trying to make sure he didn’t catch up too lap traffic and also make a clean jump. I punched it. Let all 250A blast into my torque motor and did my best to t-bone him as he made the turn.

I missed. And with ever bit of speed my truck could make, went straight into the cinder block wall on the outside of the turn. Completely perpendicular to the wall. I could not have hit it harder. This time, it was game over.

Or, was it? NO! It was NOT! I bounced off (thank YOU RPM products for not letting my frame snap in half) and ended up on the complete other side of the lane, across the start finish, pointed in the right direction! I punched it and chased him down again! This time there were three of us right on his tail, and we were going to nail him to the wall on the outside of the big sweeper. We lined him on the front straight, and at the last second he jammed on the brakes and two of us shot straight past him into the turn at full throttle. Again it looked like a trip to the parts store for me. But this time I was on the binders, slid the truck in backwards, tapped the wall and was off.

Back in the throttle again, I put the hammer down trying to catch up to Brian. I was concentrating on the fact I needed to catch up to him, I sort of missed the fact that he’s been clipped by the 3rd truck in our assault, and was on his side! I just kept pouring it on, and then I noticed, there were only two trucks still running in the race, Steve and myself. As the timer counted town, Reid (Race Director) called out for a big “Mooo” and to not blow it. I only had 2 turns and two jumps and I was going to take the checkered flag.

Which, of course I did, because, I’m The Milk Man. It was and EPIC Hack for Cash. high-fives for me all around. It was a blast, and at the end of the night, all my racing was paid for with the winnings, and I split the rest with Steve for being the driver to finally knock Brian out of the race for good! Thanks Steve!

What a night! What a great design and paint job on the body, courtesy of my daughter, and what a blast!! I just have one last thing to say.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Formula 1, racing

Kubica Rally Crash – very seriously injured, but lived

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This past weekend, rising Formula 1 star very seriously injured in Italy.

From CNN:

Kubica undergoes emergency surgery after rally crash in Italy

(CNN) — Formula One driver Robert Kubica has undergone a seven-hour operation in an Italian hospital after crashing while competing in a rally.

The 26-year-old Pole lost control of his Skoda Fabia car at the beginning of the Ronde de Andorra rally near the town of Testico, causing the vehicle to leave the road at high speed.

Kubica, who drives for the Lotus Renault team, was airlifted to the Santa Corona hospital in nearby Pietra Ligure where he underwent emergency surgery.
[…]

I just recieved this photo of the crash. Guard rail protruding from the vehicle. It’s amazing he survied that at all.

A British website had a video from an Italian team racing on the same section, that came across the crash scene. The video was hair-raising. The route very narrow and clearly requiring amazing skill to complete without serious consequences.

Unfortunatly the video appears to have been taken down, and I have not yet found an alternative location for it.

From:

Rally footage shows aftermath of Kubica crash

Footage of the aftermath of Robert Kubica’s career-threatening rally crash on Sunday has been posted on YouTube, and it shows just how perilous the course on which the F1 driver came to grief really was.

The pictures come from a camera on board on the car of Italians Mauro Moreno and Corrado Bonato, which was just behind Kubica’s. It shows them hurtling along the narrow and twisting route through the villages and countryside of northern Italy.

After speeding along roads barely wide enough for a single car, often with crash barriers mounted on either side to prevent vehicles from careering down the steep hills or into houses, the car tears through a small town. After more than three minutes […]

Good luck Robert. I hope for a speedy recovery and eventual return to Formula 1.

Radio Control, RC Trucks

Wednesday Night Short Course Racing – Another win!

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Ah.. it’s good to win. 🙂

SC10 Factory Team - in pit at BRCR
So, it’s still in Novice class, but it was not an easy win. There was one competitor (also named Dave) that was really giving me a run for my money, in fact he was just ahead of me when his truck broke on lap 5. He had qualified just ahead of me in the first two rounds, but not by much!

So.. here are the results… in all their ugly glory. It was a hard fought race, and I crashed many times, many more times that I should have. But I was victorious none the less. One more Novice win and they’ll kick me up to the big-boys. Which, I’m not that worried about since I raced them heads-up on Monday and came in 3rd. 🙂 

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 2
9:16:02 PM  02/09/2011
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
              Demartini, David    #3      17     8:03.504     24.370           
                      A, Steve    #5      16     8:11.161     27.822           
                      O, Johny    #2      15     8:20.383     28.348           
                       F, Jeff    #7      14     8:24.719     25.223           
                    T, Garrett    #1      13     8:06.876     24.525           
                       R, Dave    #6       5     1:58.614     25.758

Unfortunately, this will likely be the last race for this truck’s body. There are now parts of it missing, and one crack that extends from the front wheel well all the way into the windshield. She’s just about dead, Jim. I did keep it together by drilling 6 holes along the crack and using zip-ties to keep it from breaking completely in half. It looks pretty rough. The paint touch-up I did this morning is really of no consequence now. I already have a new body ready to go, but I’ve come up with a brand new concept I want to debut for this Saturdays race (it will be my first Saturday night race with the big crowds). But first I need to get some vinyl graphics cut for the truck, and even before that, I need to design them!

This hobby is not cheap (but not that expensive in the grand scheme), but it’s good clean fun, lots of great people to meet and talk too. I’ve even run across a number of people racing R/C that I used to race with when I was running my Porsches with Bremerton Sports Car Club. Some people are just gear-heads, and I’m one of them.

Radio Control, RC Trucks

Monday Night Racing results

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Wow, it was a challenging night at BRCR on Monday. Turnout was a little down so Alex (race director) combined what is typically 4-6 racing classes down into two.

Class 1 – Novice, Stock and Open Class Short Course Trucks.

Class 2 – Stock Stadium Truck, Stock Buggy, Open Stadium Truck, Open Buggy.

So, instead of racing just Novices (we are allowed to basically run ANY set-up in our Short Course trucks), I was racing against Stock, Modified and Open class Short Course as well. Field was 8 entries deep:

   Demartini, David    #1    (novice)  
   Kuiphoff, Chris    #2       (novice)     
   Arns, Zach    #3                
   Hansen, Dylan    #4     
   Livingston, Wes    #5     (open)          
   Wirtanen, Tony    #6      (open 4x4)        
   Pergam, Ewan    #7        (open)     
   Cigledy, Mike    #8

Still sorting out some handling issues from last week, I was not running at my best, yet, I managed to complete the two qualifier rounds and start in the 4th grid position for the final A-Main!

The race itself was a little chaotic. With the fast drivers and fast trucks picking their way through the slower traffic. Again, I had problems getting my track rythem until the last few laps. Really not my best work at all. I was really concentrating on getting good laps in and not paying any attention at all to my position in the pack. I knew I’d been lapped at least twice by someone, but when the 10minute race was over, I was VERY happy with the results!!

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 1
 8:24:46 PM  02/07/201
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
                Wirtanen, Tony    #6      21     8:21.280     21.988           
               Livingston, Wes    #5      20     8:22.139     22.404           
              Demartini, David    #1      18     8:20.438     24.441           
                 Hansen, Dylan    #4      18     8:26.542     24.410      6.104
                  Pergam, Ewan    #7      17     7:54.331     23.808           
                 Cigledy, Mike    #8      17     8:00.449     25.100      6.118
               Kuiphoff, Chris    #2      16     7:55.236     26.385           
                    Arns, Zach    #3      13     6:37.676     26.224

Racing against some of the best Short Course competitors in the area, I managed to pull off a podium finish. I even turned my 2nd fastest lap so far! I think that if I’d not spent the first 15 laps crashing and lawn-darting the jumps I could have been right up there with the top 2 guys on the lead lap.

There’s always Wednesday Night Short Course racing! 🙂

RC Trucks

Monday night R/C Racing at BRCR

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Monday night was another great time down at Bremerton Radio Control Raceway.

On the heels of the 4 hour Enduro race just 2 days before, turnout was pretty light for a Monday night. In fact, there really wasn’t enough depth in each field to run the normal Novice, Stock and Open class for each vehicle type. So, instead of being able to race in Novice class, I was pitted with the Stock and Open truck racers that have been doing this for a long time. It was going to be a learning experience!

This week I was prepared with plenty of battery power, a dialed in rear differential, upgraded toolbox and new carrier box too. My pit space was a lot more organized than last time.

SC10 being prepped for the first race.

We ran 2 heats and a main event for “Truck” and “Buggy”. I held my own in the first two heats, finishing near mid-field, and certainly not last. I’d learned quite a bit in my first race the week prior, and it was paying off.

At the end of the first two heats, I have qualified 6th in a field of 10. Not amazing, but better than I had expected, considering I was not racing all Novice racers, and not all stock trucks (some of them were a lot faster on the long straight than my 13.5 powered sled).

We ran a 10 minute main event. It was chaos. Lots of vehicle contact, more a lot of rollovers. We kept the track marshals very busy. About 15 laps or so into the race I was starting to find my pace, and able to get all the way around the track without a running across the edges, without crashing out (without being crashed out by others) and hitting a pretty good rhythm on the double-double and double-triple jump sections.

To my pleasant surprise, I managed to cut a couple of very fast laps, that got the attention of the race caller and timer. What I noticed on the runs I did really well on, despite a sea of surging Lexan, if I put all the other vehicles out of my mind, not looking at relative speed to the other races, or where they were lining up their trucks, basically running like I was the only person on the track, I was much smoother and much faster. Sure, a couple of times I got pitted around by another truck, and I did t-bone another racer on who was much slower on the long straight, but, nobody got broken, and neither of us had to be recovered. It’s not going to be a strategy that will work 100% of the time, but I found that greater concentration on the line that is best for MY truck, my tires, my drivetrain and skill, I do much better.

In the end, the 6 1/2 hours I spent at the track testing, tuning and finally racing was so much fun, I was smiling for hours and hours afterward. And one of the test parts of all this, the 6 1/2 hours of entertainment, and friendship, cost me a grand total of $9.37. That’s a pretty good value, don’t you think?

SC10 ready for action. But not so pretty any longer.
automotive, racing

Old photos – some pics from my Autocrossing days

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While reading FaceBook tonight, someone posted a funny picture of an MR2 towing a small boat. That reminded me of a picture I had of me towing my Ducati 998 with the Miata! So, I went looking for that photo.

It took a few minutes to locate it, but I did. 🙂

Ready for a track day.

While locating that, I stumbled across a few other photos of the old Miata, and thought I’d post them too, just for old times sake. When I find a few more of the car in action, I’ll post those too.

Ah.. photos, they are like a time machine, taking you to places you once visited, and sometimes showing you places you’re going to go!

Out along the Hood Canal.
Stopped for a photo on Elphandahl Pass.
Side shot, taken at the Varsity Compound. Sure do miss that house. 🙁

Finally, a pic with the new seats, roll bar and video camera installed:

Roll bar and video camera mount.

Forza 3, racing, Technology

More Forza 3 Livery Fun – Hello Kitty!

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Bordem and Beer are a bad combination when it comes to creating vinyl groups in Forza 3.

I won the NSX during Season play, and immedialy the first Honda Fan that came to mind was my friend Mary (I still owe ya $30 for the game.. damn I’m a flake). The next thing to my mind, was that I had to create a ‘Mary Tribute Car’. So… here it is, just for you Mary. A 2007 Acura NSX all decked out.

Hello Kitty NSX
Hello Kitty NSX

I’m not sure who was laughing more while I spent the 2 hours laying out the 201 separate layers it took to make this abomination, but I have to say much laughing was had by all once I was finished!

And to top it all off, I uploaded it to the Forza 3 Storefont, with the design for sale at $10,000 each (limited run of 3). Overnight I sold 2 of them! LOL. That matches the downloads of my FREE Shelby GT500 Mustang design (which BTW looks like a proper race design). Does this make me a professional artist?