Ascutney 1 2013, The first Hillclimb of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

         Moultroup Racing just got back from its first Hillclimb Race of the year. I am happy to report that I couldn't have been better. The car ran great, the weather was fantastic, and most of all the nut behind the wheel (me) didn't put it into the bushes.
         We arrived on Friday at about 3 pm at the Mt. Ascutney State park. The evening was busy with tire changes, brake pad changes, tech inspection, registration, and general setup of the car for the next day. There was also rookie orientation, in which one of the more experienced drivers took us up the hill and explained some of the trickier aspects of the course.  Since the hill is around 3.6 miles, it took us almost 2 hours to go from bottom to top and back again by the time everyone's questions were answered.  Many thanks to Sherman Baumann for the great information.

Tech inspection

         As you would probably expect neither I nor my wife slept much Friday night. Even though the workers and drivers meetings weren't until 7:15-7:30 we were up and around by probably about 5:30 am.  I should have been tired but the excitement of the day outweighed my lack of sleep for most of the day.  The drivers meeting was at 7:30 sharp, in which they covered all the usual safety topics and regulations.  After that it was a mad dash to the cars for the first Fam (familiarization) run.  I ended up about 8th in line out of about 45-50 cars.  The Fam run was fairly uneventful.  The only problem I had was being stuck behind a slow car and not being able to go fast enough to keep the engine from loading up.
         A few drivers ended up stopping at different points on the way down the hill which put me 4th in line for the first run of the weekend.  Before I knew it, it was my turn.  I lined up at start, they chocked my tire and I was ready to go.  One green light and a little big of tire spinning later I was off. I took it easy for the first run of the day.  The last thing I wanted was to stuff it on cold tires on a cold road on the first run of the weekend.  Four minutes and Fourteen seconds later I had covered the 3.6 miles and was at the top, for and average speed of 51 mph.  Not bad considering the posted limit on the road is 15 mph.  Two more runs that day resulted in a best time of 4:02.  My third run was spoiled by the fact that I didn't shift straight and got the transmission stuck in 2nd gear for the fastest section of the course.
         I couldn't have been happier with the results of day 1 and day 2 (Sunday) got even better.  After some initial frustration with missing the Fam run, God was good and actually provided me with an extra run for the day.  Timing missed my first time of the day which bought me a re-run.  So instead of following a slow car up the hill on a fam run. I got a "Fam" run by myself at speed. I couldn't have been happier.  The first official timed run of the day was a 3:51 which shattered my goal of breaking the 4 minute barrier.  At the beginning of run 2 I noticed that in hard right corners I was getting an oil pressure drop. Not left hand corners only right.  Despite monitoring this all the way up the hill and taking it a little slower in some of the tight right handers we still managed to drop off another 3 seconds for a 3:48.  Run 2 ended up being the best time of the day. After lunch, and being delayed by a couple incidents on the hill the weather started to turn.  Rain was gently sprinkling down for my last run of the day.  Run three resulted in a time of 3:59 due to taking it easy to keep from putting it in the bushes on the last run of the weekend.
         Overall I was very happy with the event, the car, and myself over the weekend.  It was an amazing expirience for all who attended.  I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in racing in the New England area attend one of these events.  Its a great group of people, and a good time is had by all.
Here are a short video my wife took of me driving by while working a checkpoint on the hill. You can really hear the car in full song. Enjoy.

     
       

This past (May 4-5) weekend I finally got to try out Howie the race car at St Lawrence Motorsports Park (SLMP). It was a  blast, the car was as good as I could have expected. I only ran into one little snag on the first day. My left front inside brake pad decided to leave the car just before the first hair pin. Luckily the friendly auto parts store was open until 9pm. The flip side was that I ended up running all new front brake pads for the weekend. I'm having trouble getting videos to post on the blog, so head on over to the Moultroup Racing YouTube channel to catch a few videos of the action.

Finally we have had some nice weather, so here are some pictures of Sam and I doing a little suspension setup on Howie, we couldn't resist the opportunity for some good photos.

 

This is a YouTube video of Smokey (previous owner) demonstrating the power that Howe has.  Howe shows up at 3:30.  Make sure to turn up your speakers :-)

A lot has happened with Howe since I last posted.  I don't have a large amount of time so I'll give you the quick rundown. First I have finished the installation of the wire harness and the helper springs in my pickup truck. I am only waiting for new rear shocks to arrive in the mail for the truck to be ready for towing duty.  The trailer is registered and ready for the road pending a small fender fix.  The car is almost ready to go, thanks to the generosity of my brother I now have some stylish numbers (#70) and some Moultroup Racing stickers to go along with it.  Howe's seat is almost complete and just needs to have the old unused harness hole welded up to keep it strong.  I will try to post pictures of the car soon if I get at nice day to take it out of the barn. The first event I will be attending will be an autox style track event at the St. Lawrence Motorsports Park in Morristown NY.  This event will be good practice so I can figure the car out before I am dodging trees May 17. Will give you more details when I have more time soon.

Big News

          Due to the generosity of a fellow racer, it looks as though I will be able to run a nice set of soft 15" wide slicks this year.  This is more than I had ever hoped for as I had recently inspected the rear tires I have and found them to be junk (cords showing).  He is also going to look and see if he has some rims to go with the wider tires, as I only have 2 rims (currently on the rear) that can fit a tire that wide.  I am very grateful for his generosity.  This is a prime example of why I am exited to be a part of the Hillclimb "Family".  Everyone I have met is extremely nice and helpful.  Its not uncommon to see racers helping their direct competition with their car.  There was a good example last year at the fall Ascutney race, where a racer was beat for fastest time of the day, on the last run of the day, shortly after helping the driver fix his car so that he could do one more run.  It truely is friendly competition.
         On the car preparation front things are going well. The seat is all bolted down and I only have harness routing to worry about.  Im not going to have to change any of the mounting locations luckily.  I will need to cut new holes in the seat to route the harness in a fassion that will work correctly with my hans device.  I am currently awaiting the delivery of all my safety gear so I can finish my seat modifications.  The good news is that the seat is bolted down so as soon as the weather warms up and the ground dries I'll be able to take her out. 
         The only other thing I have done lately is order add a leaf spring stiffeners and all the other stuff I need to get my tow vehicle ready.  That includes a trailer brake controller and all the neccisary wiring to hook it up.  Ill also update on this project as it unfolds. Ill post again once my equipment comes in and I can work on the seat again.

Seat Relocation

       My first project to complete on Howe is to relocate the seat to a position that fits me comfortable and allows me to safely operate the car.  The gentleman I bought the car from was about 5'6" or so and I am 6'2"  so some work is in order.  The first thing I have done is to move the seat down as far as possible to give me ample head room. I also leaned the seat back an extra 10-15 degrees to give me some more arm room.  I have also moved the pedals forward about 2-3 inches to accommodate my long legs.
     My current struggle is with the harnesses.  Since I moved the seat down considerably, I was worried about the belt angles being off. Luckily since I am considerably taller than the previous owner all the belts line up quite well.  Only problem is the shape of the seat and the height of my shoulders don't allow the harness to route correctly.  I will be wearing some sort of head and neck restraint system and that necessitates that the harness be run in a very specific way.  Long story short I am going to have to cut new harness holes in the seat and weld up the one that the seat originally came with it.  I think that brings everything up to date so Ill post again once I work on the car more tomorrow.