Travis

6/25/08

Entry 9

  Good day to all you nut jobs that actually read this thing.  We are down to the final four working weekends before we leave for SC!  We are looking very good and if the race was run today, we would be alright.  But, there is ALWAYS something else we can do to the car...

  Last weekend was TAJ Racing's media day where the Tampa Tribune came out to our racing shops to interview us.  You may be asking yourself why a classy organization like the Tampa Tribune came to interview a bunch of derelicts like us?  Well, I have no idea.  I just hope the photographer's camera didn't break when he was taking pictures of us and our car.  Honestly, we greatly appreciate the interest the Tampa Tribune gave us and look forward to reading the story when it is published.  Thank you Mr Burke and Ms. McKenzie for your time and efforts, it is much appreciated. 

  In preperation for our media day we had to get the TAJ Racing / Advantage Steel Inc Ford Escort GT into shape.  After a quick bath in the rain (the car, not us...although I did need one)  we started to apply our sponsor graphics.  This will be the livery we will run next month at Carolina Motorsports Park, plus a couple of more tweeks and suprises.  Go to our gallery page to check her out... purdy, aint' it?? 

  We also did a sound test and it turns out the single Cherry Bomb was a bit too loud so we'll have to make a couple of adjustments and make sure the car will be at or under the 92db @ 100 feet.   We have a link to some youtube videos as well on the home page.  Check them out!

  Thanks for stopping by!

Travis

Posted by Travis at 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

6/7/08

Entry 8

Howdy race fans!  Today was a real productive day working on the ADVANTAGE STEEL / SIGNSTAR Ford Escort GT Plum.  We installed our new windshield, installed the racing harness and fire extinguisher and we started to do some cosmetic work.   Many many thanks to DAN POWELL of SIGNSTAR with helping us obtain the materials needed for the windshield.  Without your help, we would still be making our illegal 'tests' with bugs in our teeth and dust in our eyes. 

We also attempted to swap out the steering wheel with the smaller one that is in our parts car.  I never imagined how much of a pain in the butt it was to do that!  We went through TWO steering wheel puller tool doo-hickies and still nothing.  If anyone wants to offer their services to help a couple of slack jawed yokles with the steering wheel, shoot me an email at travis@tajracing.com

At this rate, we will be ready for our test at the factory test track in a few weeks!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Stig 

Posted by Travis at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

5/31/08

Entry 7

Today was an excellent day working on the Advantage Steel Ford Escort GT.  We completed the roll cage (WHEW!), reinstalled the seat and test fitted our Hankook Ventus race tires.  We really only wanted to see how they looked on the car.  We pulled them right off and are storing them till race day.  Unfortunately, we broke the windshield when we were trying to remove it to weld the top roll bar.  Now that just gave us an excuse to manufacture a lexan windshield for her! 

My father wanted to see how the car acted on the SIGNSTAR test track (parking lot) so I did a few hot laps.  It isn't really a big test facility so I took the car out on Highway 301!!  ...without the windshield!  Aside from a few bugs in my teeth and dust in my eyes, it was a flawless run.  Words can't describe how quick this little Magenta Monster is!   I can't wait to get her on a real track! 

Posted by Travis at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Entry 6

5/24/08

Howdy again y'all!  We found out on Tuesday night that we have been officially selected to compete in the July race!  WOO HOO!  I had a feeling we would, but it wasn't official till this week.

The car is coming together great!  The roll cage is about 85% complete thanks to our buddy Keith Barrier.  Without him, we'd be duct taping the cage in...

The last couple of months I have been entering local autocrosses in rental cars (sshhh, don't tell Budget Rent a Car) trying to gain a little more seat time behing the wheel.  Some vids of my runs are here... http://www.youtube.com/user/Travisgt45

There is still lots left to do on the car, but with NINE weeks left, we are going to be ramping up and getting er' done!!

C-YA!  Hope everyone watches the Indy 500 tomorrow!

Travis (The Stig)

Posted by Travis at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Entry 5

4/26/08

Greetings!  Another killer Saturday spent not fishing, not playing at the local theme park with the family but working on our lemon entry with my Father!  ...and honestly, I wouldn't trade that time spent for anything in the world.

I would like to announce that our newest sponsor "GUARANTEED RADIATORS" of Tampa, FL has officially signed on and now part of our team.  Many thanks to Mr. Blake over there for testing our existing radiator and making sure it's alright.  All of us greatly appreciate his help and support.  GUARANTEED RADIATORS of Tampa joins ADVANTAGE STEEL, SIGNSTAR, POSEY BATTERIES, and TAMPA CLUTCH AND SUPPLY in sponsoring our efforts to get to Kershaw! 

The last three weeks have been very productive in tranforming our 1993 Escort GT into a ...yes, don't laugh... racecar.  Three weeks ago we were working on the rear brakes untill my lovely wife called me and said that her car was broken into.   Nothing really important was stolen, but I was still pissed with the broken window.  So my efforts were briefly haulted to tend to the result of some little ass clown poking around our neighborhood.  Just to let y'all know, according to the rules for the LeMons series, any brake component work does not fall under the $500 value limit.   

The week after that, (last week for the slack jawed youkels reading this) we finished up the rear brakes and worked on the exhaust system.  She actually sounds like a real car now!  We cut out about 12 feet of pipe, TWO mufflers and the CAT converter and installed a Cherry Bomb!  Again, working well within the rules of the LeMons series, any exhaust work is OK and does not fall under the $500 limit as long as all work done is aft the header.     

Today, my father and I really kicked butt and knocked out the front brakes, installed a cheap-o oil pressure gauge (real fun for a big guy with Popeye forarms...NOT) from Summitt Racing, and installed some coil spring lowering clamps in the rear to drop the car a little.  We found enough of those at a yard sale to do the rear end but we'll have to go buy more for the front...  I know all of you are in suspense and you have nothing to worry about, the oil pressure was fine!  

Hopefully our roll cage guy will come through THIS FRIDAY!!  I'll feel sooo much better once the cage is in!  <fingers crossed> 

Thanks for stopping by and checking us out!  Drop us a line!

Travis

www.tajracing.com

Posted by Travis at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Entry 4

I do apologize for the lack of blogging on here.  Hopefully I will be able to add more to this as we get closer to July.  Work has been busy for all of us so we have not been able to do too much to the Plum lately.  Yes, the Plum.  We still have the original black Lemon, but we have found another auto capable of taking us to Victory Lane.  Once we put the cage in (yes, we still need the cage installed) we'll be able to concentrate on some of the racy fun stuff!

The Plum was originally going to be our parts car or backup.  We found it in the Gainesville Craigslist and after driving it back to Tampa, we decided to make it our primary car.  It is two years younger than the Lemon with HALF as many miles on the motor.   We have gone through most of it and checked a few important components.  We would love to be able to do more to her to increase our reliability and pick up a few extra horsepower but that would be against the main $500 rule.  :-(

The 12 Hours of Sebring was a week and a half ago and I went down there to do some investigating on how some of the bigger teams handle endurance racing.  Boy, do they have a lot to learn from TAJ Racing.  haha, just kidding.  We did find a Hankook tire tech that helped us out with our questions about tire pressures and how much camber we should be using.  He was a big help and I wish I remembered his name...I'll try and find him at the St. Pete round next week.  Why am I blogging about Hankook tires you may be asking yourself...  Well, we may have found a tire sponsor!  We have a couple of loose ends to tie up first, but it looks like we'll be racing on a real quality high performance tire!  

I wanted to do more to the Plum over the Easter weekend but unfortunately I had to go to a local ER for a wacked out gland on the side of my face/neck.  At least it happened that weekend and not next weekend because that is when the St. Petersburg Grand Prix with the ALMS and IRL series in town.  I'll be there for the ALMS race but I'll have to miss the IRL race for my first AUTOCROSS!  The Plum won't be ready yet, but I will be driving the 'yet to be determined' TAJ Racing entry (from Alamo Rent a car)   SSshhhhh!  Don't tell them! 

Thanks to everyone that visited this website and actually read this blog.  Please check out our sponsor page!  Hopefully we'll be able to add more names to the sponsor list soon.  If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of four nut jobs in a beat up Ford Escort GT, please contact me at travis@tajracing.com

Posted by Travis at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(Entry #3)

Hey y'all...

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm watching Daytona pole qualifying with a lower back that is just screaming Vicodin!!  ARG!  Unfortunately I'm all out of them so I hope the two Alieve's I just popped will kick in soon. 

This morning I cleaned up and secured a bunch of the electrical system that is under the dash.  Plus we cut away even more metal from the interior of the car that isn't required and wouldn't feel too good on our limbs if the car takes a tumble and our arms and legs start flaring about...  I also installed HOOD PINS!!  WOO HOO!!  It's looking racier and racier by the day!  I'm starting not to like the idea of doing all this work to the car with a chance of not being able to run this more than once.  I kinda hope this survives so I may have a toy to run a couple of SCCA regionals or something in the future.  We'll see... 

We removed the passenger seat and got the area ready for the re-location of the battery.  Re-locating the battery to the passenger area accomplishes a couple of things.  1) it opens up the engine compartment to give us more room to work around.  2) it helps balance the car out weight wise to compensate for the large amount of weight on the drivers side.  There's other reasons why the balancing of weight is important but mainly, if the car is balanced properly, it will perform better.  Think of the four legs on a table...if all of them are 'balanced' and are of even lenghts, the table will not rock.  If one or two of the legs are just a hair off, then the table will rock.  Now, if a car is balanced, better yet, if all four corners of a car is balanced, then the car will perform better.  If you have one heavier side of the car than the other, you won't be able to run through the corners like you would want to.  For this race, we really won't do too much more to try to balance the car out, (wink wink) but if we were to turn the Escort into a SCCA competition car, then getting the car cross balanced is very important.  (Right front corner weight = left rear corner weight and left front corner weight = right rear corner weight)  Whoa, I got off track a little....anyways, we'll take the car to our good friends at POSEY BATTERIES so they can show us what to do exactly and make sure everything works when we relocate the battery. 

This week we hit a little speed bump with a rule change by the organizers of the LeMons series.  Jay Lamm, the head nut that puts these shows on is here to make sure we are all safe so we really can't blame hime for changing the rules up a little to make up a little more safe.  All of the roll cage tube that we just bought is now no longer good due to the higher specs brought on by the recent rule change.  Good thing none of it is installed yet.  We swapped it out and got it delivered to our roll cage guy in Plant City only to discover that the man who was going to do it for us is in the hospital again.  I hope Mr. Hammock gets better soon!  We are now back to square one looking for a roll cage guy.  Another rule change is that we have to wear SFI longjogns now under our firesuits!  (Like it wasn't going to be hot enough out there to start with)   I did have the chance to run up to see Patrick Utt up at RACEQUIP and he is helping us get into the correct safety gear.  I had a firesuit fitting session and found out that I was fat.  Yes, hard to believe, isn't it?  But the good news is that they make a firesuit for fat guys!  :-)   Anyways, I think we have it worked out what size suit will work for me at least...  I have to drag the rest of the team up there to get fitted too.  As for Jason up in SC, he is up in the middle of NASCAR land so hopefully there is something up there he can find.   Thanks to RACEQUIP we now have a window net, mounting kit and a couple of neck braces.  Firesuits will be coming in due time...

We got our 5 point harness in this week also and it is really kick ass!  Got a real good deal on it at www.OGRacing.com.  We also got some roll bar padding for the yet to be installed roll cage.  More is on it''s way this week!  July can't get here fast enough! 

As for the last topic in the title above, well, you know who you are...  :-)

Posted by Travis at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)