Americans are just dumb

I am doing my annual bi-monthly stop into Rowdy land. I decided to take a break from working at my new company, Competition Innovations (a division of RG Automotive, Inc.) and take a road trip to Watkins Glen with some friends last week with some friends. Watkins Glen is an awesome place and it reminds me alot of Tennessee, except my hometown hasn't hosted Formula One Grand Prix's.

But as I sat in the stands on Saturday and Sunday in my Marcos Ambrose gear being ridiculed by most around me, I did end up fulfilled at the end of both days. But my question is how is this unexpected, I mean the guy dominated Aussie V8's but unless your like me and watch those races at like 5am on Speed maybe he is a bit foreign. The guy is in the top 10 in Nationwide standings, with pretty much all Chase contending Cup drivers, finished high in the Busch overall points last year but you never hear about him and he gets no respect outside of the garage. For me to sit in my hotel Sunday night and hear the first caller on Wind Tunnel say that it was a fluke he won and he sucks as a driver just might be one of the top 5 dumbest things I have ever heard. This guy won I believe 26 races in two seasons in Aussie V8, has almost won two cup races (he blew thru his trans case at Sonoma), raced his way in and ran 22nd at Indianapolis in his first cup Oval track race, is in the Nationwide top 10, and outran alot of F1 podium regulars in Europe. Forget about Carpentier or Franchitti, Ambrose and Montoya within 5 years will in my opinion have most of the Nascar communities mind's changed that a driver doesn't have to come from California or North Carolina to be successful. And you can bet that at JTG Daugherty (which is getting alot of Ford factory support, the Ford Racing guys are behind Ambrose 110%) will be pretty successful (top 25, good for a rookie team) in 2009.

All in all Ambrose and Montoya are two of the most talented drivers this sport has seen, too bad we still don't recognize that fact. If Dodge gives Ganassi the help Ford is giving JTG for 2009 Montoya might be a chase contender.

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Ganassi Wind Tunnel

I have been meaning to post this earlier, and when the subject was brought up a few days ago about the quality of Ganassi cars and criticism for too much engineering and wind tunnel time, I think everyone will be surprised at what their "wind tunnel" is. All of this info is taken from Race Car Engineering magazine.

The Ganassi facility is in Laurel Hill, PA. It is an old railroad tunnel. It features an air lock, climate control, and because it uses stable air, instead of a big fan, results are more repeatable. It is able to use stable air because the cars are actually driving thru the tunnel, wind is not being forced over them.

The tunnel features a 20m setup area on either end. A 460m acceleration zone, a 430m test section, another 460m deceleration zone. It features 3 data beacons along the 1350m of track connected to a central computer.

The real thing is that they have a flat surface, convex surface, and super speedway banked surface sections to drive on in the center 430m. The main problem is that the smaller the car the better the benefits, as the tunnel supposedly respons better with the Indy Car (about 5 percent cross section of the tunnels cross section, as opposed to the COT at 10 percent).

Kurt Romberg of Hendrick Motorsports says, "Ive heard about it, and we are pretty sure they have not been near a wind tunnel in a long time"

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Troll on Rowdy

First, in response to the person who posted a Back To the Future pic on my last blog I must say, "You built a time machine out of a Delorean, whoa doc thats heavy."

Second, I have seen someone who I have noticed trolling and lying on other message boards named Misan Akuya, I posted this as a blog comment also, but If you guys will google Misan Akuya, you will note he has been banned from several racing message boards, even had a group devoted to slamming him on myspace because he would go into these forums, groups and tell everyone he was a development driver for roush racing, was going to run an ASA schedule, he says on here he is running USAC, every time he has been asked about his cars he has responded that he doesnt know because someone else maintains them. Also I read elsewhere that he is bff's with JGR devo driver Marc Davis, and also in a myspace group had a picture of him self holding up an honor roll(from school) trophy that he claimed was for winning a late model feature.

I am not doing this to be malicious, but I just don't want these kind of people on here trolling around and lying to the rowdy nation, especially since I am back in TN and Farrell's here, and Im in effect 24/7.

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Figured out Gibbs!

Well although I consider myself an engine person, I have spent the whole season mulling over chassis setups and all that good stuff. When KB said this weekend that it was something the Gibbs drivers had figured out, so as im sitting here reading my 30 year out of print "race engine preperation" by Waddell Wilson book I luckily found yesterday, I figured it out.

When they are exiting the corners, by keeping more wheel into the car you are causing oversteer(loose), well with the rear end already canted, doing this will keep even more sideforce on the wing holding the back of the car down, and less load on the rear tires, less load = more traction. I think they also have started sweeping the entry more, thus putting more force on that wing. Like I said this is just my thoughts but I feel like I am close.

Anyways my new website, competitioninnovations.com will be up in a few days, I am gonna take my vegas money and my new equipment and dedicate myself to building a business out of small block ford engine development and building. so check it out

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Just Some Thoughts

So I just got back from what might have been the worst 2 hours of my life, yes I went on a date, and yes I had to go to the midnight showing of Sex and the City. I consider myself a pretty stable person, but I was on vzw superpages on my cell phone looking for gun stores within a 5 mile radius, so needless to say I believe this will be the like 11th straight girl I have gone out with once and probly wont call or anything again.

Second, while JGR may have 3 things I dont like Kyle, Denny, Toyota. I just got done with an engine build for a neighbor of my parents who has a 65 mustang convertible, he wanted to retire the a-code 289 for posterity and get a built 302 in there. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil, While I will stick to my permatex assembly lube, The JGR Cam and Valvetrain Assembly grease, the BR break in oil, and their new series of hot rod oils are probably the best I have ever used. This was a 302 w/performer RPM heads, Airgap Dual Quad Intake, .520 lift, 280 duration hydraulic flat cam, with dual 500cfm carbs, made 387hp/354 lb ft on the dyno at SAE conditions. But what I really liked was that the break in oil survived 1 hour of test stand run time and 2 step dyno pulls from 2000-6500 which is moving up 500rpms at a time and holding for 15 seconds before moving up again, these kinds of dyno tests are brutal on an engine but this one did great, and since I got the pistons specd and coated from Mahle, Stroked from 3.0 to 3.1, and increased my con rod from 5.090 to 5.4 this thing makes better torque but will rev itself out of the building. Im still trying to figure out the loading pics from my phone trick but when I do,ill try and get some up.

But Thanks to Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil, Ford Racings new Boss 302 block, Canton for the oil pan, pickup and accusump, edelbrock for the top end, crane for my valve train, ferrea valves, mahle pistons, clevite bearings, perfect circle rings, kn filters, champion spark plugs, crower for the custom crank and rods. I use these parts and so should you.

(this shameless promo for JGR racing oil is in no way affiliated to any positive feelings towards kyle, denny, or toyota cough cough sadie)

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COT problems

So supposedly Nascar hand built the COT and didnt farm out the work to the monkey exhibit at the Charlotte Zoo. Why in the world would you build a car that is so aero dependent in traffic and handles like crap. If your gonna build a car with bad aero you need a car with lots of suspension adjustment built into not only the car, but the rules. The inverse is also somewhat true bad handling, you need good aero. The reason the racing is so bad is that these guys are riding around on bump stops, have like 4 inches of shock travel available if that, and having to use 1/4 turns of wedge to barely adjust weight and having that just make or break handling is bad. This shouldnt be a guessing game, dont penalize teams for staggering the rear ends, lets see a coil over front suspension or atleast give more travel and adjustability on what is there. Quit telling the teams what to do and let them figure it out for themselves, all forms of racing except for open wheel and nascar have like a 5 page rule book, they give basic parameters, tell you you cant use resevoir shocks but coil over is ok, give you engine cubic inches, legal cylinder heads, legal camshaft types, transmissions, rear end specs, and wheel hub specs. Then they let them work in a big big big box, and they go out and have awesome racing. Dirt late models and sprint cars have this system figured out, most lower stock car series have this figured out, grand am cup and scca/scca pro series have this figured out, why cant nascar figure out that more freedom = better racing. Yes there will be cheating but, if nascar keeps there penalty system in place, it wont happen like it did in the old days.

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Run what ya brung All Star Race

I was watching speed this weekend as usual and saw an interview with Humpy Wheeler where he said it might be interesting if Nascar would allow a run what ya brung all star race. Basically something like this would have to be 1.) No body modifications 2.) Any Naturally aspirated engine up to 360ci 3. Unlimited suspension/chassis 4.) 10 inch wide tire max 5.) Dual Carb Manifold Allowed up to 1100cfm each carb

If they had something like this, pretty much set perameters and beyond that anything goes, along with bringing back the inversion and 10 lap shootout i think it would make for such a great race.

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Toyota Engines Pt. 2

Let me clarify part 1 first. I realize I may have not said what I wanted exactly right, but my main jist is that 1.) Regardless of team or engine builder, from 1964 on the Small Block Ford has won more races in Nascar and International competition than any other by far. The current heads are directly based on the 40 yr old Boss 302/Cleveland canted valve large port designs(there are ported cast iron Boss 302 heads that can outflow not just peak airflow but area under the curve Yates C3 and SC-1 heads), the 351 Cleve/Winds Nascar engines made the best power in the garage long before Ernie Elliott, Junior Johnson or Robert Yates, Problem was that Bud Moore, Wood Bros and a few others were the only people running Ford as after the downfall of Holman Moody, Ford Racing support dried up quickly until the mid-late 80's. So I find it hard for an engine package that can trace its roots back 40 years and has won everything from Trans Am, Lemans, Nascar, Drag Racing to make that much less than a brand new package.

But we do have a saving grace, the Toyota Cup Package has proven for a year and a half that it has to sacrifice to make this power, they have a high cam location similar to Ford, but a short height Chevy style cylinder head(a chevy sb2 has a cam tunnel lower than the Ford which was a big advantage for Ford engines for years aka lighter valvetrain with better geometry) but the Toyotas are running some extreme valvetrain geometry especially the gibbs cars on intermediate and short tracks , and as evidenced tonight, it will cause so much valvetrain deflection that they are wearing out Jesel and TD rockers which is next to impossible. Atleast that is my assesment from watching tv telemetry and just listening to reports, They have also figured something trick out with the exhause ports, lsa, exhaust headers/collectors or something, Just hearing a Toyota run I believe this is where they have developed those big big torque numbers. Of course I may be totally off base as no one seems to have gotten really into a toyota nascar engine, notice they dont sell there blocks or heads to the public that i have seen like ford racing, gm performance, and mopar performance do.

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Toyota Engines

So Ive been paying close attention to engines alot this year, pretty much the COT is the great equalizer in Nascar and the Engines are really what seperate the teams. They all use COT bodies, Jerico or C&R Transmissions, and Ford 9 inch floater rear ends. I went to Charlotte this week to pick up some used engine parts on the cheap from Roush and decided to visit a few other shops with some friends. The one thing I noticed is that Nascar definantly let Toyota get away with some stuff, maybe it has something to do with all that money they promised to bring into the sport.

1. We all know Ford engines have made the best power in the garage for a long time. The 427 tp's could hold there own against hemi mopars, The 70's - Early 90's 351C engines w/ B302 and C302 heads won alot of races. Then in 93 the Yates/Ford C3 head came along and it and its spinnoffs C3L and C3H and SC-1 beat up on Nascar for 10+years. In 2002 Ford Developed the D3 head, a raised port, SB2.2 Valve angles, SC-1 modified valve cant angles, highly unshrouded valves. These heads made such good power, in the dirt series (where they were legal) drivers wouldnt even use them on fast packed down tracks because they made too much power, It took 4 years, yes 4 years to get them Nascar approved.

The Toyota Nextel Cup engine was developed in 16 or so months like I said it took Ford 4 YEARS to get HEADS approved, Toyota was freed by Nascar to take cues from Chevy, Ford, Mopar engines. Toyotas have extremely vertical valve angles, a camshaft located high in the block similar to the ford block, tall heads similar to ford and mopar, and an intake manifold with a 2 inch cast in spacer(gotta love that extra plate track power).

So pretty much Toyota got the full run of the candy store in building an engine, and even got to push the limits in some places.

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hey from vegas

well once again i dissapeared off the rowdy radar, and for the past month life has taken me all the way to fabulous las vegas nevada...shortly after new years i won a 2300 entrant $55+5 tourney on full tilt, cashed out my winnings and came out here and for the past month i have been at the mgm grand where after a week i was upgraded to a terrace suite(by the way i have some wicked pictures of when the monte carlo hotel was on fire it was right across the street.) But alas I only have tonight before heading back to tennessee.

It is currently 9 in the pm and im currently sitting here on my laptop which a tourist from canada generously donated the money for me to get a few weeks ago, I have been playing nightly at the bellagio, venetian, mirage, caesars or binions and all i have to say is wow, this is one crazy place...but i made enough out here (partly in thanks to the giants) to where i already bought a seat into the main event this summer and my hotel is being comped because of my extended hours of blackjack and poker play and i probly dont have to work for atleast another year.

I stepped off the airplane and checked into the mgm, I enter the 3pm 70 dollar tourney at caesars and win, so at 7pm i go on to win the 150 dollar tourney also at caesars, i decide this will be a good bankroll to play some blackjack with, after going thru 2 8 deck shoes (the first one having a negative count all the way) I am up about 1400 after spreading 2 bets and having a variance of between the 10 min and 100 max, anyways late in a shoe the count was ridiculous like +8 when i get 2 kings, i split my kings(never do this if your not counting) and double each bet for a total of 400 being bet, needless to say my 20's beat dealers 17 and shortly aftwewards a man in a nice suit asks for my players card, figuring they want to reward me for my play i oblige, he says"congratulations mr farrell my people upstairs tell me you are playing at above 95% correctness, unfortunatly you are no longer welcome to play at our blackjack tables, after some meal comps and a free bathrobe(no offense but a tshirt wouldve been better guys) i am escorted to cash out and exit the premesis by 2 guys who i still have nightmares about(they were big)...So a good first day in vegas, im up almost 4 grand but i can no longer play anything at caesars but poker and sportsbook, i am feeling very oceans 11 at this point. as i step outside just intime for the bellagio fountains to start playing along to "my heart will go on"...

that was probly the most exciting day ive had and it was my first, the rest is pretty much just poker tourneys wherever i can find them around town...Its amazing how much cash changes hands here, I am just so at awe of it. And finally because I have a bad southern accent I figured out if I just talk alot and act like I dont know how to play none of my poker opponents give me any credit and its almost to easy at times, I even found a girl who plays locally we have started playing together same table and using chip placement and different signaling and just taking down the 2/5 5/10 nl tourist tables around town. at a 10 person table we have 1/5 of the table covered which gives us a huge edge over the other players that its almost a shame i have to leave...I got 2 new phones but i cant figure out how to upload pictures but as soon as i do ill be sure to post for you guys...

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