Tentative Track Calendar

ELBRacing and Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape are tentatively set to team up for the following 2010 events:

 

• June 25^th, Open Practice Day @ Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point WV

• July 16 – 18^th, VRG Historics @ Beaverun, Wampum, PA

• November 26-28^th, VRG Turkey Bowl @ Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point WV

 

Stay tuned as other track dates could possibly be announced. 

Speaking of the Vintage Racer Group (VRG), they have just launched a re-design of their website. Check it out http://www.vrgonline.org

 

Also, for a bit of east coast road racing history, take a look at the following video from the Library of Congress of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup race.

Rainy Weather Preparation

As mentioned in previous posts, operating a race car under an extremely low budget leads to some interesting challenges. Our open trailer is just large enough for our vintage race car, small enough to fit in our residential driveway, but doesn't provide any protection from the elements. Not that this is a problem during regular storage as the race car sits in a garage. But, towing in less than desirable weather conditions can lead to a soaken wet race car interior.

A little water doesn't bother us too much. But, the chance of the cars electronics being victim to the elements is something we would rather not deal with during a race weekend. To that end, we purchased some Plexiglass and decided to make removable windows.

At $53 a sheet, the Plexiglass isn't particularly cheap. But, it is fairly easy to work with. We were able to get fairly decent cuts with a jig saw. These windows aren't exactly pretty, but should do the job just fine.

The rear lexan window has holes drilled through it to allow air to escape the interior. A piece of plexiglass was fabricated to sit across this as well to keep as much water out as possible.

Competition Driving School

The Washington D.C. Region of the SCCA held a three day Double‐School for Club Racing competition licenses March 19‐21, 2010 at Summit Point MotorSports Park in Summit Point West Virginia. ELBRacing once again teamed up with Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape for this event. Jim Karamanis drove the ELBRacing 1972 Ford Pinto B-Sedan Vintage Racer while Krisjan Berzins burned up the school in the Kingstowne 1987 BMW 325is race car. Ralph Pagington again took on the duties of ELBRacing crew chief and Bruce Shelton of Automotive Enterprises again helped out the team as crew chief on the BMW. Various members of Bruce's regular pit crew (Bruce campaigns a GT Pinto in the SCCA Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series) pitched in for the over-all team throughout the weekend.

The first school began Thursday evening with an orientation and flag test and continued through mid-day Saturday ending with the students first race.

Video courtsey of Convenience Car Care

The second school begin mid-day Saturday ending with a race Sunday evening.
Video courtsey of Convenience Car Care

School participants received received three race weekends of track time condensed into three working days. Class time began at approximately 7:30am each day with activities continuing until around 6pm each evening with the SCCA hosting on-site dinner both Friday and Saturday. Students were either in the classroom, riding in an instructors car or driving their race cars continuously throughout the weekend. The SCCA instructors received high-praise from students. All of the instructors were MARRS series participants and instruction was clear, articulate and thorough. Some of the instructors had taught at the school for over thirty years. Instructors manned corners throughout the track during the school weekend, analyzing the line and race craft of the students. Feedback was immediate as each track session was followed by a debrief session. Students worked closely with individual instructors and were treated to laps around Summit Point Raceway in the instructors street cars where they were able to gain insight about the nuances of the track.

Overall, the SCCA put on one incredible school. Instructors, event organizers, stewards, workers and emergency personnel were extremely organized, professional and knowledgeable. The fact that an all-volunteer organization is able to put on an exceptional road race school is a testament to the SCCA and specifically the WDCR. At $550, this school is undoubtedly the best deal going for a professional racing school in the Mid-Atlantic region. Anyone considering getting into any type of club road racing should consider this school. It is absolutely a must for those who plan to campaign their car with SCCA as those who successfully graduate the double-school walk-away with an SCCA novice permit.

ELBRacing wishes to formally thank the unbelievable crew that kept the vintage Pinto on track all-weekend. There was a tremendous amount of track time and their diligence kept one of the oldest cars in the field running throughout the school, allowing both drivers to graduate from the school and receive their SCCA Novice Permits. In the early part of the school, the Pinto kept blowing the sound limit. The skilled crew was able to modify the exhaust system by adding an additional muffler and side-pipe which allowed the Pinto to drop underneath the minimum threshold for exhaust noise. ELB would also like to thank the incredible folks at WDCR for an unbelievable school. You have given us the skills needed to begin our vintage racing campaign.

ELB racing not so elb?

ELB racing has replaced the vintage 1992 Ford F-150 tow vehicle with a 2008 of the same make and model. The new tow vehicle is an XLT 4x4 and more importantly, features the 5.4 liter engine with gobs of torque. The old truck struggled to pull the race car and trailer over the mountains near Summit Point WV. The ELB crew will have no problem pulling their rig anywhere on the east coast with the newest addition to the ELB stable. And, given the new tow vehicles crew cab, they’ll have no problem bringing a full crew along.

 

 Speaking of vintage, check out this photo of the original ELB race car. Kermit Burroughs dug this drag racer photo out during the latest Mid-Atlantic blizzard.

 

History of a Race Car

Given the recent purchase of the Pinto Race car, we are trying to learn about its past racing history. We know for sure that the car was originally built for the Trans-Am 2.5 series. However, the car was not completed in time (Alfa Romeo and BMW quit the series after getting thrashed by the BRE Datsuns, ending the 2.5 series after 1972) and thus ran in alternate events, such as regional SCCA. According to the log books that we have, the car was raced at many SCCA events, and perhaps even an IMSA event, though it is hard to tell. Many of the Trans-Am 2.5 series cars ended up in IMSA, so this would make good sense. The SCCA log book that we currently have goes back to 1979 and the actual history of the car from 1972 - 1979 is currently unknown. The following pictures of the car are attached to the log book:

The car was mostly raced in Texas and Colorado, but apparently was also raced in solo racing by a previous owner and won an SCCA championship. The races we have in the SCCA log book, showing three different drivers, are as follows:

1.Adios to Summer 8/18/79
2.Greater Southwest National Championship Road Races 9/15/79
3.Indian Summer IV 10/5/80
4.Whopper School + Regional 11/16/80
5.COV(best guess, hard to read) 9/4/82
6.Lake Afton GP 8/11/83
7.La Junta DSR 4/1/86
8.1st Chance At 2nd Creek 6/28/86
9.Hayatt Riot 7/19/86
10.DS/R 8/2/86
11.La Junta School Regional 10/1/88
12.Enduro 12/23/88
13.La Junta, Co 6/4/89
14.Double National (Colorado Region) 7/8/89
15.Double National (Colorado Region) 8/19/89
16.SCR School Region 4/4/92
17.Double Regional 9/19/92
18.Mead S/R 10/11/92
19.MARRS 6 (Washington DC Region) 8/10/96

The car was then purchased by the most recent owners in 1996. At this point, it was a worn out old race car, but the body (and even the original paint) were still in good shape. So they restored and updated the drive-train in order to take the car vintage racing. Here is what the car looked like when they purchased it:

 

They ran the following events with SVRA (including some IMSA reunion events):

1.Pocono 7/97
2.All Grahan (best guess, hard to read) 8/15/97
3.Summit Point Blue Gray 97
4.AVGP 10/16/97
5.Pocono 7/30/98
6.Summit Point Blue Gray 10/1/98
7.Roebling Road Easter In Savannah 4/1/99
8.Mid-Ohio 6/25/99
9.Pocono 7/29/99
10.Watkins Glen Zippo US GP 9/8/99
11.Summit Point Blue Gray 9/30/99
12.Moroso Spookfest 10/28/99
13.Summit Point Blue Gray 9/29/2000
14.VIR Inaugural 10/12/2000
15.Summit Point Blue Gray 10/9/2001
16.Mid Ohio SVRA 2002
17.Pittsburgh Vintage GP 07/2006

We will continue to share more about the history of this race car as we learn it. But for now, we're thrilled to own a race car with great history and patina!

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!