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If I had only one wish for my 36th Birthday, it would be that I would enter my first ASC race in the new car. Somehow with Tim leading the charge, we pulled it off. With a car that had virtually no setup or development yet, I didn't expect to be remotely competitive so the goal was simply to make the race on Sunday, the day of my actual birthday.

Friday October 11th: Tim and I tow the ASC car up to Buttonwillow Raceway for an open test day. On the way up, I do a radio interview with the top commecial radio station (95.3 KLLY) in Bakersfield promoting the weekend's events with NASA. An old friend of mine does the morning drivetime radio show ("Dean and Darcy In The Mornings"). During the inerview, I quickly gain a new appreciation for the Winston Cup drivers who can ramble off their long list of sponsors in one sentence and soon discover that I need to practice my public speaking skills as my mind immediately goes blank when they start asking me questions. Somehow, all I manage to do is blurb out something unintelligible about NASA and Buttonwillow Raceway, besides, even though it's supposed to be live, they edit half of my ramblings and broadcast it with a minute delay.
It all ends up going like this anyway:
Darcy- "So Dave, tell me about this weekend's racing."
Me- "Well, uhhhhh..... we're racing at nearby Buttonwillow Raceway this weekend"
Darcy- "So what car are you in? How do we know which one you'll be?"
* At this point, even Darcy is trying to get me to mention our sponsors' names and of course I'm just drawing a blank.
Me- "Uuhhhhh..... we'll be in a silver car.... #44.... uhhh.... we're racing with NASA, which is the National Autosport Association.... duhhhhhh...."
Darcy- "OK, folks... so we have a packed weekend up here in Bakersfield...
you can go to the Races nearby or there's also the Pumpkin Patch Bake Off!"

We arrive at Buttonwillow Raceway to find that the track is already packed with other teams testing. Since the American Cities Racing League (ACRL) and NASA's new FranAm series' are also running, many of the teams are already there testing as well. Track officials have broken the cars into two groups: The "Open Wheel" cars and the "Closed Wheel" cars. The Openwheelers consist of the FranAm (carbon fiber tub F3 type formula cars) and ACRL cars (Sports 2000 open cockpit sports racers), while Closedwheelers consist of just about everything else. A few of the Arizona Region ASC guys (Ken Stinnett and Steve Carvajal) are there and they're already running fast lap times. Ken has won many of the ASC races while Steve is a recent convert, but both have very sorted cars and will likely set the pace all weekend long. A few other ASC teams have arrived but aren't running yet. Steve Rueshenberg's crew has his car in the paddock ready to go, but he's nowhere to be found, they tell us later that he's still stuck at work. Robert Davis parks his toterhome transporter across the track from us and is nowhere to be found. With our open trailer and pickup truck,Tim and I look like the "Beverly Hill Billies" under the shadow of Ken and Steve Carvajal's brand new transporter. We spend the first few hours making final adjustments on the car so we miss the first practice session.

At around mid morning, I get suited up and go out for my first practice session. Ken and Steve run the first session and skip the second so we seem to be in alternating groups. Since we haven't added mufflers yet, the car is brutally loud. This actually works in my favor when I'm entering and leaving the pits as a simple blip of the throttle gets the attention of any errant pedestrians. It's always fun to watch them jump as you crack the throttle and all 110 decibels give them a wake up call. But once out on the track, driving the car becomes an experience unlike anything I've every had. Every bodily sensation is elevated... the smell of exhaust, tires and fresh fluids heating up for the first time... the deafening levels of noise... the Brutal forward, backward and sideward thrust of the car... the limited vision between the heavily sloped Lexan windshield and bulge of the hood... the extreme heat (exceeding 140 degrees after a few minutes). With it's lack of suspension setup, driving the car also requires a whole new level of coordination. Justin describes this as similar to rubbing one's stomach and patting one's head at the same time. The car doesn't have power steering or power assist brakes but utilizes a non-synchro gearbox. Slowing down means mashing on the brake pedal with enough force to lift your butt off the seat, shifting means blipping the throttle (I simply left foot brake) and gently nudging the shift lever into gear, while turning the steering wheel requires the physical effort of doing 50lb dumbell curls. If this seems like it lacks any finesse, remember that the car is still completely unsorted so any abrupt transitions cause it to spin out of control. The whole process is best described as similar to wrestling an 800lb Gorrilla while holding a soft boiled egg in your hand. Driving a large ASC car does tend to dilute your sense of speed though. It's not until you blow past a Spec Miata or Porsche 911 vintage race car that you realize how much velocity you're carrying. But it's size can also create problems in finding the edge of the road. On several occassions, I miss the apex by several feet while other times, I drive right over it ("it's the orange cone that spit out the back of the car!"). Meanwhile, the car is looser than a five dollar hooker... under braking, it's loose, under acceleration, it's loose... turn-in is loose... in fact, it's the car from hell! I don't believe in naming my cars but if I were to choose one, "Christine" comes to mind. Part of the problem lies in the fact that we're running very old tires with several heat cycles in them. I had actually found these tires at the track's tire shop trash pile after another ASC competitor had cast them away. Hey dumpster diving isn't so bad, you can even find a few aluminium cans to help pay for entry fees! But it's pointless to do an initial shakedown on brand new tires. After all, we aren't even sure if the car will be running at the end of the day... we really need to find a sponsor who will buy us new tires every event.

After our download session, Tim makes adjustments to the tire pressures and takes out about four rounds of rear wedge. Weight jacking is a technique of adding or reducing ride height in these cars. Lowering the ride height adds more static weight transfer to each corner, while raising the ride height transfers the weight to it's opposite side. And in following the basic principle of physics, the more weight one has on each corner, the more friction is generated, and we all know that friction equals grip. One of the symptoms of a "Loose" (oversteering) car is lack of rear grip so adding more rear weight balance (or reducing front grip) is needed. We also review lap times and discover that I've gone about six seconds faster than my previous time at this track in a highly modified normally aspirated Porsche 944 race car. It all seems impressive until we realize that Ken and Steve are turning laps about ten seconds faster than me!

The second session shows significant improvement. The car seems to exhibit a little less oversteer at turn-in, though rolling onto the throttle is still a tippy toe maneuver. Braking remains the same with the back of the car still wanting to pass the front. But my lap times indicate a five second improvement, except that everybody has improved theirs by a few seconds as well... Damn! Tim takes out another four rounds of wedge. He also suggests that I turn the Brake Bias dial a few revolutions to increase the front brake pressure. After lunch, I go out for my third session and pull out onto the track right behind Robert davis' car. Based on Tim's stopwatch, Robert has turned in the fastest lap times, less than a second faster than Ken. Figuring that I could stand to learn a faster line by following him (he's now nine seconds faster of me), I try the "Lead-Follow" method, convincing myself that these cars are basically identical... if he can do it, so can I! Never mind that they've tested and developed their cars over the course of the year, and they've been racing while we've been building the car. So Robert enters the first turn, brushes the rumble strip and is back on the throttle. A second behind, I do the exact same thing, except that my car doesn't like the rumble strip and immediately breaks loose! By the time I gather it up and exit the corner, Robert's purple beast has dissappeared around the next corner... so much for Lead-Follow! At around my third lap, I approach a hill preparing to pass a Porsche 911 and notice yellow and black flags at the corner station. I slow down and crest the hill to see pieces of race cars scattered across the track. A few seconds earlier, Ernesto Rocco's American Iron Mustang had spun across the path of Ken's ASC car. With no time to react, Ken centerpunches Ernesto's left fender with so much force that it collapses his left front corner. Meanwhile, Steve Carvajal crests the hill and rearends Ken's car. In one incident, both ASC cars suffer severe damage to their front clips and the Mustang appears to be totally destroyed. The session is black flagged and the rest of the cars pull in.

When the tow trucks finally bring in both cars, Ken and Steve's crew immediately get to work stripping down the front clips of both cars. Tim pitches in to help and within two hours, the front sections of both ASC cars are ready to be rebuilt. Fortunately, a stockcar chassis manufacturer is located in nearby Bakersfield and have the parts needed to reconstruct the front end. The sheet metal breaks, welders and pop rivet guns begin working full time. Meanwhile, Tim and I spend the rest of the day working on our list of To Do's which includes an oil change, wiring up the emergency kill switch and transmission oil change.

Saturday October 12th: I wake up staring at the ceiling of the motel room unable to move. My underarms are completely bruised from the side bolsters of the seat pinching them off, my legs are bruised from banging around the cockpit, my forearms are sore from turning the steering wheel and my neck muscles are sore from holding my head upright in the corners. After breakfast at Denny's with Justin, Amanda and Sean, Tim and I get gas for the race car. Another ingenius idea behind ASC is that the cars run on pump gas (91 Octane) which keeps the fuel bill down. When we arrive at the track, our pits have grown to include Justin's ASC car and Evan's Mazda RX7. Our first session is at mid morning which comes too quickly. The first few laps show no revelations, just the same loose condition. Then as I exit one of the slower corners, the clutch slips really badly. Tim tells me to finish the session limping the car along.

While Tim and Sean remove the transmission and clutch, I make calls to local shops looking for a replacement clutch. Unlike the Porsches and Mazdas that we've run in the past, finding a clutch for a Chevy proves to be fairly easy. Within an hour, I'm on my way to nearby Bakersfield to pick up a new clutch at Paul Williams Specialties. Paul runs a small hotrod shop in an industrial part of town and is quite knowledgeable about domestic engines. While waiting for his parts supplier to arrive, I get to drool over his collection of hotrods which include a restored 1969 Camaro with big block, a few Boss Mustangs, and some Chargers. Meanwhile, Paul's son who turns out to be a huge fan of "Dean and Darcy In The Mornings" begs him to go to the track instead of the Pumpkin Patch Bakeoff.

It takes Tim and Sean less than two hours to replace the clutch but I still miss qualifying and have to start the race second last (Ken missed morning practice so he was relegated to last). Based on the way my car was handling, it was a better starting position than if I'd tried to qualify the car anyway! As they call the cars out onto the grid, Tim is still under the car adjusting the shift linkeage as I'm unable to get any gear. Finally, I roll out to pregrid right before they let the cars out onto the track. As we take our warmup lap, I notice that the car won't go into third very easily. Steve and Ken's cars are both lined up, a credit to their crews' hard work.

With Robert Davis on the pole,we slowly rumble onto the back straight, snaking left and right, trying to scrub the tires clean. For the past few years, I've raced in packs consisting of smaller sportscars, but the sight of a pack of ASC Stock Cars is quite awe inspiring. As a spectator at previous ASC races, I recall the sensation of the ground vibrating under my feet as the pack approaches the start and finish line. From the driver's seat, this sensation takes on a new definition for intimidating. It's not just the extremely low profiles of the rooflines, nor the extremely wide fender flanks, nor the tires that appear to measure two feet wide. Perhaps it's my heart pounding like a bass drum, perhaps it's the constant concussion of sound from the exhaust pipes. Or the occassional gouts of flame shooting out of Justin's exhaust when he lifts off the throttle. Or the sudden burst of acceleration from the cars as they try to heat up their tires. For a split second, I find myself thinking "These are really fast cars, I'm not sure if I belong here!".

As we come out of the last corner, Robert picks up the pace anticipating a green flag. I notice that Dave Arnheiter is staying in line and drop back a car length further, hoping to get a run on him. By the time we cross the starting line, everybody is at full throttle and my entire world seems to be filled with screaming V8's. I move to the outside and before I know it, I've made a clean pass on Dave. As we brake into turn one, I downshift into third, get back on the throttle and hear the engine rev... but the car is coasting! Hard on the brakes... but it's too late! Realizing that Dave is probably just off my rear bumper, and Ken is next to him, I make a quick decision to drive off the inside to avoid causing a pileup. Fortunately, this works and they get around me cleanly, but now I'm stuck in a dirt cloud and the American Iron pack is coming up behind me quickly. I spend a few seconds yelling at my own stupidity while the dust cloud clears... then a quick check in the mirrors confirms that I still have time, so I stomp the throttle and get back onto the track.

Now I'm chasing the pack in No-Man's Land, between the ASC and AI packs. I push a little harder than normal hoping to gain some ground on the AI cars, but the car is way too loose. The only ASC car that I manage to catch up to is Ken's car but it's because he's having an overheating problem and pulls into the pits just as I come up to him. The rest of the time, the car is fighting me. Like a bucking bronco, the car simply doesn't want to react to any of my input. I start dropping wheels in the dirt trying to maintain pace. Realizing that this might get dangerous, I decide to reduce the pace. After all, we're really here to shake down the car, not win our first ASC race. With a slower pace, the front running AI cars soon catch me. Guy Cunningham in a white Mustang is the first, followed by Ryan Flaherty and a couple of other Mustangs. I point most of them by trying to stay out of their way. Surprisingly, I manage to hold off the rest of the AI pack including several AI Extreme cars. But it seems like everybody else is spinning off the track and every corner is dusty from cars rentering the track with dirty tires. By mid race, my Lexan windshield has a thick film of dust and I'm having trouble seeing out. It begins to get dangerous when I can't see and drive off the track a few times. Justin is experiencing the same problem and with a lap to go, both of us pull in when we just can't see out anymore. When I pull into the pits, it's a relief as the cockpit now seems to be over 150 degrees. Robert takes the win with Steve Carvajal taking second, Dave Arnheiter finishes third.

Meanwhile, the gearbox in Evan's RX7 blows up in practice. He has a custom racing dogring gearbox that is designed for sprint racing and needs a rebuild every few weekends. Being a hardcore racer, he rents a Spec Miata from Andrew Fernandez of San Dimas Racing and without qualifying or practice, manages to finish second overall!

Since we've never actually weighed the car, Tim and I decide to take the car to Steve Carvajal's scales after the race. Surprisingly, we weigh in a 2814lbs with me in the car and the remaining fuel in the cell. ASC rules mandate 2800lbs with driver post race and with the extra 14lbs and less fuel (we also ran a morning session before the race), we're well within the weight requirements. Corner weights also reveal pretty impressive number while Tim estimates that the weight balance is 49/51% front to rear... not bad for some backyard engineering! Additionally, we discover that the brake bias adjustment is completely non-operational and I've been driving with hardly any front brakes.... no wonder the car loved to spin under braking! Since it's getting late, we decide to attempt the brake bias adjustment in the morning.

Sunday October 13th: Remember when Denny's used to serve free meals on your birthday? Well, I discovered that they no longer do this. Grumpier than usual, I spend the morning helping Tim with the brake adjustment. At first, he thinks that the adjustment cable is frozen. But then it's possible clogged brake fluid crossover tubes in the front calipers. Finally, Tim suspects that the brake master cylinder sizing is mismatched. Either way, we don't have enough front brakes. Tim tells me to "adjust my driving style this weekend" which is another way of saying "live with it!". This means lift early, brake early and forget about any trail braking. This partially explains why the car has been handling so evil. He also swaps the master cylinders so that I'm running a huge front master cylinder. This means that the pedal effort required to slow the car down is significantly increased. To make matters worse, when we engineered the car, the throttle pedal ended up too close to the brake pedal, making it really difficult to brake without accidently stepping on the throttle. Stab the brakes as hard as possible... but make sure you hit it right on, or else, you'll mash down on the throttle pdeal instead!

As I'm inside the car pumping the brake pedal (and accidently on the throttle pedal occassionally) while Tim bleeds the brake lines underneath, I notice that Justin, Amanda and Sean are circled around the back of the van rather distracted. They call Tim over, then finally, they call me. As I walk over, they all turn around with a small birthday cake which is made up of a donut with candles. Then they present me with a gift, apparently my comments about the heat in the cockpit hadn't gone unnoticed and they decided to present me with a NACA duct for cockpit ventilation. I now have Air Conditioning... Woo Hoo!

We miss morning warmup while working on the brakes, but for qualifying Tim tells me to just take it easy as the car is really not ready. Besides, he reminds me one last time of our mission, to shake down the car for it's first event, not win the race. With that last message floating in one ear and out the other, I pull out onto the track and put the hammer down. I can just imagine what Tim is thinking as he see's me leave two black strips of tire on the pavement. The first thing I notice is that the brakes are much stiffer than usual. I try slowing down for the first corner and the car keeps coasting forward, nearly causing me to drive straight off the track. I gather it up and lift earlier entering the next corner, then using both my feet on the brake pedal, I manage to slow the car down. For the next few laps, I continue with this wild ride: Lift early, both feet on the brake pedal, off the brakes to turn in, crank the steering wheel and back on the throttle, countersteer into the slide, back on the throttle and launch down the next straightaway! I start to get used to driving like this and begin diving a bit deeper each lap. Then just as I think I've got it right, I enter the final corner before the front straightaway, both feet on the brake pedal... but the car continues lunging forward... oops! Out of road... Quick... off the brake pedal and on the throttle... Damn, feet are stuck between the pedals! Uh oh... we're going for a RIDE! I spin off the track for what seems like minutes, swallowing in buckets of dirt. From the sidelines, Andrew Fernandez later tells me that my car doesn't even appear to dive under braking while the engine seems to rev up at the same time. Tim notes that all four wheels left the ground, followed by a 360 in the dirt, followed by another 180. Luckily nothing is broken, but I do miss a telephone junction box by a couple of feet.

Tim makes me clean the car as punishment for getting it dirty. But he also notes that the back tires are pretty worn down to the cords, so he throws on our spares. Because the spares are a slightly smaller circumference (26.5" vs 27") and have a slightly narrower track, he warns me to REALLY take it easy for the race. Narrowing the rear track on a car that is already loose merely exasperates the problem, but we're faced with few options. But Tim hopes that the smaller circumference will lower the back end a bit more and help the balance. Meanwhile, Justin has qualified second for the feature race with Ken Stinnet on the pole. Robert who's been racing gokarts between practice sessions, qualifies third.

For the final race, I start dead last. Determined not to look like an idiot on the start like the last time, I remind myself on the warmup lap to take it easy. As Ken picks up the pace as we exit the final esses before the main straightaway, I roll onto the throttle... and feel nothing... A brief scan reveals that the pedal is stuck on the floor with the engine staying at idle. I coast into the pits and stop right in front of Andrew Fernandez (who is still recovering from a broken sternum from a Pro Miata wreck at Laguna Seca). He sees me motion to push and with the help of several other guys, they get me behind the wall (Thanks Guys!). It only takes Tim a few minutes to get the throttle linkeage reconnected but I lose a few laps, pretty soon I'm back out. If the car was loose before, now it's REALLY loose. My lap times really suffer and pretty soon, I'm just trying to stay out of the other competitors' way. As discouraging as it seems, Tim's voice keeps repeating in my head: "Every lap we turn is another lap learned". Meanwhile, Ken has walked away from the field and Justin is having a tough battle with Robert for second place. For most of the race, Justin is ahead and seems to have it clinched, until he brain fades (which is pretty easy when you sit in over 140 degrees for long periods of time) and spins off at the esses. Robert gets by but Justin manages to hold on to third with Steve Carvajal finishing right behind him.

All in all, the weekend is a complete success. It was my birthday wish to race the car and though it was still in it's early primitive stages, nothing fell off and all the mechanical parts worked as they were designed. As a driver, it's easy to get discouraged because your car isn't running as well as your competitors, but for a car competitive right out of the box is very rare. But based on how things went this weekend, the car shows a lot of potential to be a winner, a credit to Tim's engineering. Our primary goal was to shake down the car at this event and making the race on Sunday is just the "Icing On The Cake". On the tow back to the shop, Tim and I come up with a game plan for developing the car. We decide that the first order of business is working on the brake balance. Whether it's a more equal sizing match on the master cylinders or a brake balance bar, we'll be addressing this. A stiffer front swaybar would be next to correct the oversteer. One thing for sure, we'll likely be spending the rest of the year testing and developing the car in preparation for next season. In fact, we are looking into campaigning yet another ASC car sometime in the future and have put up the #46 Mazda RX7 for sale on EBay. Next year should be very exciting for this series as it continues to grow. We noticed several people milling about the pits looking into running ASC as well.

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