2006 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge

Well the 2006 GRM Challenge is in the books! We had a couple minor events during the tow to Florida, but nothing serious. We are all now well over any fears we had about flat towing long distance.

We arrived on Thursday for the kick off party. It was much fun. Its a great event with even cooler people. We were one of only 2 air cooled cars there. (first 2 in event history) the other one was a '69 beetle. It was a very pretty race car.

There was no actual party this year on Thursday night which was at first disappointing, but it gave us all time to walk around the parking lot and meet people and see what they brought. It turned out to be way cooler than a party would have been.

Friday was the Autocross/Show portion of the event:

We Concoursed in the AM and Autocrossed in the afternoon. We hit the concourse tent early to try to get to the judges before they burned out. They were all very receptive of the car. It went much better than we thought it would with our lack of prep.

In the afternoon we autocrossed. It was my first event on r's and only my second in the Ghia. Each team got 5 runs. There are also pro drivers available at the event if you wish to use them, but there runs in your car count toward your 5.

FTD was a 43.925, times ranged from 43.925 sec to 57.313 sec. We ran our 4 runs with a best of 50.993 slow but not last place. After our 4th run we were told we would get a rerun due to a timing problem. I ran the next run hard and picked up time until I hit 2 cones. After returning to grid we decided since we were given a rerun and I seemed to be stuck around a 51 that we would use a pro driver. Alan McCrispin jumped at the chance to drive the ghia for us. He loves to drive the odd cars we were told. He got in the car and ran a 49.5 first time out, but coned giving us a 51.5 making my 50.9 our best. The beetle ran a 53.294, so we beat that. Twisted Evil

Saturday was the drag portion of the event:

So we were dreading the drags. Our goal was not to finish last over all or in any event. If we were going to fall short this would be the event.

We arrived early and did the only thing we could think of to better our chances. We removed everything we could from the car to get it as light as we could. We figured the bug again would be the only car on our level. We are not sure what the weight of the Beetle was, but his was stripped, gutted, and cut up pretty good.

For our first pass of the day (my first drag race ever) we ran the kick off pass of the event against my good friend Andy Nelson (builder of the last 2 events winning drag cars. This year’s car was a missile. It set a new Challenge record of 10.57. We ran a 18.551 to his 10.64.

Our next pass was heads up against the Beetle. We slowed up a bit, , but beat him.

Our next run was again with the Beetle. I cut a .051 R/T, then blew the 1-2 shift, and watched him step 3 car lengths on me, but we ran him down and beat him again.

We ran a couple more passes for fun, but never improved on our 18.551.

By then the CV joints were getting noisy, so we pulled the axles and loaded the car up for the 900 mile pull back home.

The best part of the weekend was the Awards Dinner Saturday night. Each year they give out a Challengers Choice trophy. This is awarded by popular vote of all the entered teams. We were just floored as we listened to the MC talk about this intriguing and inspiring car only to hear our team name read. Placing well in the event would have been cool, but earning the respect of our competitors was just priceless!

In the end, we did not finish last in any event. We placed 63 out of 67, in an un prepaired mostly stock Ghia with r tires. We are sure we can do much better after a year of development. So now we have a base line to start from.

I will post pics and maybe a vid when we get settled in!

Thanks for all the kind words, support, and encouragement you’ve all given us. We look forward to running the event again next year, and being competitive!

Sean

MEMBER PHOTO: Sean's Ghia

Sean's ARR is a 1970 VW Karmann Ghia coupe running a 1600cc dual port motor, KYB shocks and 185/55/15 front and 205/55/15 rear tires. Sean has many mod's planned for the near future. He actively races in the Pennsylvania area.

MEMBER PHOTO: Greg's Ghia

SPECS: 1973 Super Beetle, stock motor, 7/8" front sway bar and 195/50/15" Hankook tires. Greg races autocross in the southeast region of the USA.

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VW Racing Heritage - 1954 Carrera Panamericana

MEMBER PHOTO - Ozzie's Ghia

ARR Journal - A day at the races..

Sunday. Good day. I couldn’t sleep the night before. After all the wrenching, bleeding, cussing…I just couldn’t wait for Sunday. I used to be that way at Christmas. I have a completely new suspension. I have no idea how it’s going to work. All I know, is that it’s going to be different than it ever has been before. Anyway, Saturday was spent tidying up. I went so far as to put some wax on the car. Even the rust spots. I staged the helmet, tool box, numbers & cigs in the car so it would be ready for the 7:30 AM trip to Hutcheson Island . Ended up not needing to do all that, I was out of bed by 5.

Oh yeah, Sunday. The sun was up & bright early. They were still setting up cones when I got there. After signing the waver & finding my paddock stall, I was informed that I would be Safety Steward for the event. Cool, I’m Sheriff. I unloaded the car and signed in. Paid my dues & tried to relax. Once they cranked up tech inspection, I rolled through it. Backwards. On purpose. It keeps them from getting confused. Walking the course is a necessary bit of schooling. I try to imagine what line I’m going to take, where to brake, where to floor it. Of course, that’s all out the window once you’re looking at it through a windshield. I walked the course three times. Thinking that maybe if I walk it enough, the god’s of cone will smile & reveal to me some sacred protected secret. Nah, they just laughed.

Don chaired the driver’s meeting & announced that because the crowd was so big, that we would run two groups of 6 runs. We usually run 3, swap, 3, lunch, 3, swap, 3. The 6-lunch-6 way we don’t have to break to swap out. For half the group, 6 runs in the cool of the morning. The other half, 6 runs in the heat of the afternoon. Guess where the air cooled VW with the black interior fell. So, morning was spent checking to make sure everybody had arm bands. See how the first group runs. Make sure everybody is behaving on grid. See how the first group runs. Check on the cone workers. See how the first group runs. Keep the kids out of the grid. See how the first group runs. You get the picture. Lunch break, my turn.

I hand my sheriff’s badge off & hit grid. Man it got hot. What happened to the breeze? O.K. 6 runs. The first one is always for the driver. The rest are for the car. I had been watching the times of the first run group. I had an idea of what I needed to do. Simple, straight forward course. Not overly technical or tight. I went through faster than I usually do on the first run. I felt the car get light on the inside rear. I felt the car plow in a wide sweeper. 2 sections of slalom. One at midway, the other at the end. One of the benefits inherent with a rear engined car is that the front “hood” is short. Good for viewing cones as they go by. I’m especially partial to the slaloms because of the way the cones look as they alternately disappear over the tops of the fenders. Wicked cool. The view must be grand, the only time I hit a cone is when I’m out of control. Does that mean I’m not close enough? Run 1,2,3,4,….trying to relax, think, learn. The rear gets light on a regular basis now. The front is only plowing on a wide left sweeper. Do I cram on brakes to load up the front & scrub off speed, or do I drag the plow through it and let the front skate? I’m on course. Which way is faster? Run 5. I know the course. I still want to try something else. Maybe if I …Run 5 goes smooth. I feel good. The run feels good. I’m kicking this thing right in the…somewhere between the lefts and rights, there at the end, OH no! I’m going crossways, fix it, fix it, OH! Too much. I used to sail for Clemson University . I was never a “great” sailor. To be a truly great sailor, you have to know how to not over-compensate. Great, we’re sailing again. Wiped out the reflector side of the timing light. Along with several cones. Not the 2 second cones, the DNF cones. One would have been enough. Best run just got tubed. Calm down. Run 6. Pressure. Last run. You’ve got it in you. The car’s got it in it. Put it together & do it. A full second slower. But, how?

24th of 62 entrants. The best % yet. I usually run in the top 50 to 45%. I’ve made it to 39%. New car. I just need to learn the equipment. The official results haven’t been posted yet. When they are, I’ll show you what I’m up against.

The suspension work did what I wanted it to. It feels very solid, but without being harsh. I do still have a little bit more roll than I want, but the sways are on the light settings. I’ve got room. This is the first event that I didn’t finish with a call to the parts house ordering up new parts. I like what I have. I just need to learn to drive it.

Oz

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Around the world there are a handful of people who are devoted to the heritage and drama of vintage racing. Within that group there is a small group of crazy pirates who go to battle in some very unorthodox rides. These devoted few put their blood, sweat and tears into restoring and racing vintage AIRCOOLED cars. Beetles, Ghia's, Tubs and Spyders all have one thing in common, AIRCOOLED power. These quirky little cars have always been the underdog and it takes quite a bit of devotion to make one a competitive race car. The members of Aircooled Road Racers are from around the world and actively campaign their AIRCOOLED steeds!