What’s in a name?

We already explained what ELBRacing stands for in our introductory post. But, where did it come from? Well, throw in one kid growing up in the 70’s / 80’s with a passion for motorsports, a few bucks, and what do you get? Well, you get a mix of Duke’s of Hazzard and low buck remote control racing!

ELB crew member Kermit Burroughs came up with the name along with his child hood friends who all dreamed of big time racing. Having little money, they settled for remote control cars and the dream of ‘ELB’ was born… Kermit is all grown up now, but the need for speed hasn’t escaped him. This is his relatively low buck super car, a Detomaso Pantera. This may not sound like a ‘low buck’ ride, but compared to other Italian Super Cars (think Ferrari and Lambo), this is about as low buck as it gets.

Speaking of Extremely Low Budget, check out the ELB Racing rig.

This 1992 Ford F-150 sports the baseline XL package with a 5.0 liter engine and AOD automatic transmission. 3.55 gears and a towing package make it a capable towing vehicle for the light (under 2000 lb) Pinto and even lighter (1050lb) trailer. At only 12’, this is about the smallest trailer you could possibly get a Pinto onto. Hey, we aren’t kidding when we say low budget around here!

So what has the ELB crew been up to since the last track day? The race car has been stored near Summit Point Raceway at crew chief Ralph Pagington’s house. Bruce Shelton of Automotive Enterprises (who is a very serious SCCA GTP Pinto racer with 14 championships to his name) modified the Pinto’s racing net to be SCCA legal (in preparation for spring competition school). Bruce also sold the ELB crew a set of used (yes, low budget) Diamond Racing Wheels to mount our wet weather tires on.

All that is left to be done is tighten down every nut and bolt on the race car and mount & balance the new wet and dry weather tires, in preparation for the spring competition school. For one more example of Extremely Low Budget, we’ll take these wheels & tires to our good friends at Kingstowne Lawn & Landscaping who are generous enough to let us borrow their shop equipment for the mounting & balancing. See previous post to view Kingstowne’s own Krisjan Berzins on track in his BMW race car.

To pass the time and further learn the line on Summit Point main, ELB Pinto Driver Jim Karamanis has signed up and has begun practicing laps on iRacing.com. Anyone who is looking for an Extremely Low Budget way to get into racing, look no further!

Summit Point Friday @ The Track!

On November 6^th at Summit Point Raceway, ELB Racing successfully shook down the 1972 Pinto Vintage Racer. This was not only ELB's first outing in the Pinto, it was also driver Jim Karamanis' first day running in an advanced group.

Photo of ELB Racing's Ralph Pagington checking & adjusting tire pressures.

In typical beginner / medium groups, passing is only allowed by point by on straightaways. In the advanced group, passing can take place anywhere, but only by point by. The experience of riding side-by-side through the carousel and other tight corners at Summit Point raceway, with 26 other cars on track, was invaluable. Right now the car is still much more capable than the driver. But, it was a very productive and safe showing for the vintage Pinto and the driver received high marks and showed great improvement throughout the day.

The ELB crew also shook down this 1987 BMW 325is for the first time. Driver Krisjan Berzins was clearly one of the smoothest drivers in the beginners group and received exceptional marks from his instructor throughout the day. Both driver and car performed at a high-level. Expect to see much more of this pair in the future. This is one fast BMW!