We'll,

It finally here, What I have worked so hard to accomplish this year. The SCCA Runoffs. Many sacrifices to make this happen.

Here's what is going on. We arrived this morning and Chris and Mary were already here, along with Steve Limbert and Les Handly, and Tom Burdge.

We got the tent set up and the banners up, Thanks Sean! Got to work on my car and had alot to do, had help from the Greek (Pete) and others, and my friends Dmitry and Stuart showed up all the way from Providence. Cool! Got some great crew shirts from Dmitry that are the the balls.

Car is decaled and mostly set up, some minor problems with some wheel studs??? another post. Will need some help with this from anyone involved. But, 914 row IS set up and functioning, it's really cool. Tom Burdge had some small problems during testing but will be okay in the morning. Thats all for now, more tomorrow and pictures at the end of the week.

Erik Madsen

Good to hear that everyone's there that's supposed to be there.

I'm rolling in tomorrow, around 10... any room left under the tent? If not, I'll manage.

I did a compression check this weekend and found #1 to be at 100 psi, which explains why it drops out after it gets hot. I hope it holds together this week.

Do you know if Jim Blakewell is there? Great guy, excellent driver with a habit of making podium finishes a good lot of the time. He and his wife came to the 1st Mid-West Renegade Festival way back in '95.

Come on guys, post some freakin pictures, please.

Here's a schedule of the week's events.
It looks like the first qualifying session is tomorrow.

Good Luck Guys!

Guys,

We will have some photos by tomorrow. We have been working our asses off on the cars. Heres the run down.

Burdge: had some clutch actuation issues and then some cooling issues, both solved. ran a full session with his new MASSIVE RAT motor.

Foley: Some normal prep work, but had some brake bleeding issues that were finally worked out with Marys help. BTW, if any of you have met Mary (Chris's Wife) you know she gets her hands dirty and is right into it, Torquing wheels, leak checking the engine, Bleeding the brakes, swapping the wheels, etc.... Chris ran the entire session and was working the kinks out. He seemed to be driving very smooth.

Les Handley: Did not look like any prep going on, and he drove well during the practice I saw.

Steve Limbert, Did not see Steve drive today, he just got back from Germany where he drove a 910. he has donated a raffle prize for Saturday Night.

Kevin Groot: Kevin had to work today, but will be here in the morning. ready to go.

Erik Madsen: Where do I start. The kodiak wheels I got (borrowed) have thicker hubs than the cookies, so I needed longer studs. Ordered today (Thanks Rex at PP)

FInshed air dam, decal install, brake cooling ducts,engine lid mounts, EGT probes, clutch line leak (its hydraulic). Finished the car with help from Pete, Dmitry and Stuart, about 10 minutes before the practice,

Got out to practice, er ah break in new slicks, and a new motor, and a new alignment,and a new... well you get the picture. Practice went okay, but the session got black flagged and I also was directed to tech. It seems that I was protruding too far out if the cockpit while driving. So they wanted to measure my roll cage, which it passed but barely. Another problem to deal with, not to mention a high speed vibration. So bad, if I did'nt clench my teeth together, they would rattle. So back to the pit, change the sway bar, remount the seat, check the fuel, change the windscreen mount. etc... what a PTA. So tomorrow, new wheels, new studs, new plugs, I think you get the idea.

Tents look great, some people stopping by to see the cars, others to inquire about the club, which is really nice. More than a couple people have said I USED to own a 914. Response, with the 914 club around, you should again. More tomorrow.

Erik Madsen

Thanks for the update, good luck with the car.

could you post what classes you guys are running in

Erik and Chris: Ok guys, haul out the camera and give us some pictures. Please.

From the SCCA site qualifying sessions, at Tuesday's first qualifying session, Chris ran a 1:41:561, good enough for 18th, 4.692 sec off leader.

A little more info from the SCCA site:

Walter Handly 17th 1:41.48 4.61 sec back
Chris Foley 18th 1:41.56 4.69
Tom Burdge 32nd 1:44.57 7.7

in EP

Eric Madsen 24th 1:39.18 4.14 sec back
Kevin Groot 38th 1:43.55 8.51

Hopefully someone at the track will have some info......

At the second qualifying session, on Wednesday:

EP

Madsen 19th 1:37.250 2.425 back
Groot 39th 1:40.932 6.107

FP

Handly 8th 1:40.147 3.285 back
Foley 18th 1:41.495 4.633
Burdge 34th 1:45.762 8.9

Madsen Here!

Been an okly dokly day. Raby and len Hoffman showed up today and worked on The Burdgemobile, and Chris got along with his suspension changes (minor) His time got better by couple tenths and he was not that impressed with it. The session was shite and cars were blowing up all over. Tom Burdges throttle pushrod fell off, but he was able to get it reattached while at a corner worker station. Now, I am not bagging on Tom, but he is a big guy , and it is kinda funny watching him get swallowed up head first by his little 914 while working inside the cockpit. A couple times, i had to offer some assistance, just could'nt watch him struggle. I am a scrawny little shit, so it's easy for me, he (and Chris) are big guys, Tall not fat. Well, a little fat. LOL but both great guys. Anyway.

My day was a pretty good one, I dropped two seconds, and think there might be another 1- 1.5 seconds in the car. But maybe not. We'll see Got out into the session and and ran some really good laps, but saw an oil pressure flux , and decided to pull in , found the oil level low by 4 quarts. Motor okay.

Thats all for now. I do apologize about the pics, we are somewhat "blog limited" due to time, and the lack of a floppy drive in my computer, I may go and buy a cd in the morning, so I can download some photos. Sorry guys.

Kevin Groot, got out today, but is having some cylinder sealing issues, Raby and the crew had the head off and Len Hoffman was going to perform a field valve job, to help him out. Cool.

It may be finished as of this writing, but I am unsure.

Thats really all for now, Shut up I write like this cause of Pete's A D D.

Erik Madsen

QUOTE (9146986 @ Sep 19 2005, 02:00 PM)

Do you know if Jim Blakewell is there?

Not running this year or I would have invited him to be with our group.

QUOTE (MJHanna @ Sep 20 2005, 07:46 AM)

could you post what classes you guys are running in

EP: Madsen, Groot
FP: Foley, Burdge, Handley, Hotchkis, Anderson
GT2: Limbert

What is this... Flintstones era shit?

If you're not going to post pictures of the action, could one of you Neanderthals at least take a flat piece of rock and carve out something that resembles a 914 kicking ass on the track?

bump

We need pictures, we need pictures!!! I did not spend hours on the phone with the track folks to set up the paddock space and not have pictures of the 914 race teams assembled there. For Christ's sake guys, get a crayon and draw the paddock and cars.

DAMN!!!!

Len and I finally got a break from the action and I finally found a hot spot that the laptop would get a decent signal from..

Pictures are coming!! I took some and sent them to Charles to upload to my site.. we'll get some links as soon as he is finished and post them.

It has been busy here.. Both my engines are running well in Foley and Burdge's cars. We have done a few maintenance procedures and checks and they are both holding up very well. Of course there are a few bugs to work out, especially with Tom's car because he has never had this much power before and we had no idea where his gearing needed to be, etc. etc...

Kevin Groot will of course be running RAT powerin 2006 in E Production but he and I both felt that he needed this 2005 season with marginal power to get used to the car, get the suspension and brakes worked out and also to learn how to tune by EGT, etc.

Kevin's engine is marginal, but it got him to the runoffs and thats no small feat at all, especially with its tuning! When Len and I got here Kevin was complaining about progression into the top end of the powerband and as soon as it fired up the problem was apparent that he had only 2 firing cylinders at idle...and at low speed operation and that was really effecting his transitions coming off of the turns on the throttle..

Checked spark= good
Checked fuel= good
Spritzed it with Ether= cylinder began to fire, with reversion... Gotta come apart!

Noted alot of reversion out the 1-2 carb... Made the call that his lower compression he had tested on those cylinders was the culprit....Then we decided to tear the head off to do a field valve job since Len had his cutters..

Ripped the head off, borrowed tools from some MGB guys and Len cut the seats....Put it all back together and voila! All 4 cylinders smooth as glass!
He just went out for his final qualifying and ended up with a stuck needle valve and had to come in early.... Engins patch up is still holding great! (miracle considering how worn some things are in those heads)

He'll be racing Saturday afternoon with a practice in the morning and hopefully I got those carbs squared away. Kevin is REALLY driving his car and with his marginal power of this interim engine I am AMAZED at the lap times he is turning- I'll be proud to badge him with MassIVe in 2006 for sure!

we are all having fun and all staying busy.. It felt really good to tear into Kevins engine and get him patched up again! Brought back old memories of doing things with the wrong tools and getting a positive result, and thats what its all about!

Okay, Foley and Burdge are getting ready to go out for final qualification, so I'll go charge this laptop and let you know how it went for them.. FP has been plagued with less than favorable qualifying sessions due to crashes and oiled down track conditions so if these guys get a clean run we could see some big improvements in their starting positions for Sunday's race...

Pics are almost loaded....Damn that race fuel smells good..

Raby, damn it man I can feel the excitement in your post and really wish I was there. Tell Chris that I expect great things from him and I am very proud of the small role I played in making this happen for the 914 racers!!! Carry the flag boys and unleash Massive Type IV power on the unsuspecting masses!

Hey... I'm home until very early Saturday. Going to work tomorrow, since there's no racing for me on Friday.

I need to let you all know... Jake and Len are the shizzle. I know I had low compression on #1 and #2...100 psi and 115 psi respectively... after my recent rebuild and I figured it was valve sealing issues, but I'm not one to tear down an engine at the track. I save that for the garage. But, Jake and Len's enthusiam was contageous. We pulled the head off is about an hour in the waning sunlight last night, including several trips around the paddock looking for tools we'd need to do some valve work. Popped the valves out in the morning and Len worked his magic to breath what life he could in my tired ol' backup engine. By noon the car was ready to roll out to the track, but.....

I was very excited to go out and improve my qualifying spot, but a stuck needle valve filled up #2 intake passage with fuel. It's tough to bring in the car when it's running on only 2 cylinders... wondering what went wrong. A few minutes later Jake was inspecting the carb and found some foreign particles which (hopefully) were causing all the trouble.

I'm starting 42nd in a field of 50 EP cars, which isn't great, but I'm glad to be there. If the power is there I should be able to pick off a few in the race, but don't expect any miracles............. stop by for the party!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait until Saturday

Guys,

News from the Runoffs here. Chris had an unfortunate incident with another competitor, I will not spoil it, but the car is banged up a bit. he was going through the stewards action this evening, and will be involved again in the morning. Tom Burdge had a spark plug nipple twist off, and his car was on three cylinders.

Hotchkiss did not improve his times as the track was oily, from an X19 (the 914 brother) who dumped its oil all over the track. handley was the same, although I think Ray Anderson ran a little faster.

As for me, We changed the rear shocks to the Ohlins shocks and made some small alignment changes. I was a little quicker in the qualifying session, although I did not move up in position. Still 19th. I was hoping to get into the top 12 for the start, but hopefully no one will try to "WIN" the race in the first few corners. The car was okay, but number 5 cylinder has started to lose its ring seal, and fill the puke bottle with oil. Not good. During the race I hope to run clean and quick, but have to keep the revs lower than I did in Qualifying.

Erik Madsen

Post Script: Pics have been hard to come by, as I don't have my d drive floppy. This is why a blogger was asked for. More news at 6:00. Chris has some video of his impact with a Miata, his car is crunched, but we think we can fix it by Sunday.

The tent that the 914club rented is awesome. I don't have this much space and luxury at regular races, but the club really came together and got a great tent. The tent is very distinctive (in a Barnum and Bailey kind of way), too, which helps one locate it in the sea of white canopies. Many thanks to all who donated or helped out in this deal. We all really appreciate it.

Pitting with the other 914 guys is great, too. Everyone working together to make the cars faster. Eric and Chris both have great setups and are willing to help out all the time. It really makes the whole event that much better.

It's tough being at work today. But, I still get to strap on the helmet and do some limit handling work, which I wouldn't be able to do at the track (EP cars don't run today).

A maintenance day today, oh and a protest day for Chris, he had to deal with his incident and the other competitor that hit him. We got the right hadn quarter banged out, the door repaired and the door sill straightened, Chris and I (and others, Like Pete and a guy from Forida) have the front end about 60% straightened, it's crazy, what you can do with a tow strap ,and some hammers and dollies. We'll get it finished in the Afternoon in time for Chris to watch me and kevin race.

Found out that number 5 cylinder on my car is slightly ill, with good compression numbers, but not very good leak down numbers, we will run it, but be a little down on power for the race. Thats racing!

Please log onto SCCA.org and go to Runoffs and live timing at 4:20 tomorrow to see the race via lap times. should be good.

Thanks for everyones support,

Erik Madsen

Good luck tomorrow guys

kick ass and take names guys!

does anyone know when speedchannel plans to air the runoffs?

k