Flaming A-Holes Racing

12/01/2021

09/29/2021

In Sept 2021 we ran Buttonwillow again with the x-type. I'm making progress with the Duratec/RX7 but drivetrain swaps are just big time sucks and time is something I don't have tons of. Anyway by virtue of winning C, we were now in class B. For this race we had Fireman Bill (owner of the LeMons Yugo) and Q (owner of the diesel Porsche 924 and former owner of the Borgward) and myself. Race started off normally with Bill making consistent laps. As we prepared for the first fuel/driver change stop the car stopped circulating and had to be flatbedded in. Just like last year at Buttonwillow we snapped a hub. We got the axle/hub changed and sent the car back out. Unfortunately a water leak developed and the car overheated, blowing a head gasket and appearing to damage the engine.

A quick search for a replacement ensued and we found one at a DIY yard and hour away. 3 hours of wrenching and the complete drivetrain was on the ground. We needed to strip off the trans and accessories we didn't need but just then they told us they were closed. We dragged that pig up to the cashier and were going back and forth as to taking the whole thing and returning the stuff we didn't need the next day. Some staff said we could and others said we couldn't. A supervisor walked over to the engine and said "you're not taking anything, the engine still has catalytic converters on it, we can't sell those and we're not waiting for you to take them off". So we had to drop the thing right there.

We went back Sunday morning and stripped it all down. By the time we got done with that and back to the track, there wasn't enough racing time left to do the swap so we threw the engine in the Jag's trunk and loaded up for home.

Don't know when/where our next race will be. It won't be Lucky Dog/Chuckwalla as we're out of town that weekend.

09/28/2021

I guess I've been a bit behind on keeping up on this page. We ran the Jag x-type in April 2021. We were placed in Class C. We had British Jon, Junior and myself. The plan was to just make long steady runs. Jon had never run Sonoma before and had some early difficulty so I took over a bit early. By the end of the first day it was a 3 car race for the class win between ourselves, the cyber truck and the jackalope VW Rabbit. Day 2 saw the lead change hands during pit stops with the Rabbit fading and the cybertruck having carb and starter problems. We ran off and won our class.

12/02/2020

FB reminded me that 9 years ago today we were at ArseFreezeApalooza. Pic on the bottom shows where we're at with the RX7 now. Test fitting a piston engine into the car. Rotary parts are just getting too expensive so we're finally giving up on them.

09/28/2020

We're #2 !!! When we last left off our heros finished the day in the lead. The next day was shorter and our competition only needed one fuel stop and we needed 2, maybe 3. We stayed somewhat even until the first stop. 2nd stop came early and unannounced so we weren't ready and was slow. I figured our goose was cooked then. However our competition had some on track transgression which resulted in a penalty so we were 1min 55secs behind with 2hrs to go. I cut that to 8 seconds with 45 minutes to go but had beat the hell out of the car doing so with the end result being hub failure. We still came in 2nd in class and 17th out of 85. It was a ton of fun.

09/27/2020

Ben Franklin and King George are currently 1st in class and 12th overall after day 1

09/25/2020

Revolutionary War about to be fought again. The Brits say if the Jag wins, we have to give back the colonies

09/23/2020

So, we did the Lucky Dog race at Chuckwalla last weekend in my teammates E46. It was a nice 109 out. But its a dry heat ya know. We had to make an early unscheduled stop to rectify a fuel leak. We had overfill the car prior to the race. We worked our way up to 9th/10th overall and 2nd in class. Car ran cool the whole time. Then with 30 minutes to go the left rear wheel sheared its bolts on the banking of 13 and rocketed off across the desert. Appears to have been material failure from heavy loading as the wheels had been torqued that morning. The track had no flatbed and didn't want to unbury if from the sand with a tractor so they left it until after the race. Track staff came and got us asking us to help retrieve the car. We brought drill and punches to knock out a few studs so we could put another wheel on. Meanwhile I wandered around in the desert looking for the wheel. The track surrounds an airstrip so at one point I was on the runway when I hear the moan of an engine in the distance. I look down the runway and there was a guy taking off so I beat feet off the runway as he took off. Eventually found the wheel behind turn 16. When the wheel came off it jacked up the hub and we didn't have parts to fix it so we were done for the weekend. I'm standing next to the wheel in the picture below and in the distance you can see the track where it broke off. In between is the runway. I bet that would have been exciting for some pilot to see that shooting scross in front of them. The other pic shows the inside of a wheel. They had replaced the track a week prior and all 4 wheels had asphalt packed inside of them. Strangest thing, cant figure out how it all got in there, I would have figured it would all end up in the wheel wells instead.

This weekend the Jaaag debuts at Buttonwillow LeMons..

09/06/2020

Haven't had a lot to report lately, life ya know. A few years back I bought this Jag X-type from the gent in the picture for the 1 dollar pictured. The car had been improperly towed which destroyed the transmission. There was a 3 way lawsuit/pissing contest between the owner, repair shop and tow company with no one wanting anything to do with the car. So in stepped your hero to save the little cat. I fixed it and daily drove it for a few years but its been sitting lately. An ex-pat Brit had posted on the LeMons forum that he wanted to join a team. Due to Covid, he's had time on his hands. I gladly handed over the car and he stripped the interior and changed the fluids. Chris Buckman Fabrication in Brentwood
caged it for me and we will be at Buttonwillow to add some class to the proceedings.

Other cars -
RX7 has been sitting at S***k's farm for a few years now, The thought is that now that the Jag is done, it will be brought home for its long delayed engine swap.

The Imp has had an engine swap and runs/drives but still has details to sort out. Undecided if it will race again or be a LeMons rally car.

08/08/2019

Slowly getting somewhere with an engine swap in the Imp

09/25/2018

All set to blow....er..go this weekend. RX7 and E46 are racing Buttonwillow. Last hurrah for the rotary before something else goes in there.