Bad Cat Racing

I laughed.

http://www.sfurbanmoto.com/

So Simbin has released GTR Evolution for multiple platforms. Mikkel with Simbin hooked us up so we could get to testing on the GTR Evolution platform with our newly built F1 sidecar simulator. To say GTR Evolution is a giant leap forward in racing/physics simulators would be putting it mildy.

Just take a look at the demo video, this is in-sim play, not a cutscene movie.

One thing we found as we were poking around in the new software is that Sarah and I were available as drivers for a couple of the different cars and racing classes. My jaw dropped the first time I saw this. I booted up GTR Evolution on a couple different machines just to make sure it wasn’t something I’d tweaked by accident inside the base configuration. So now you too can go out and purchase your own copy of GTR Evolution on the Steam network and get your butt kicked by the AI version of myself or Sarah herself.

Sarah wasn’t exactly as excited as I was to be in a worldwide distributed video game. She just shook her head and sighed knowing that she was now nerd famous. Given that I’m a professional geek, her sexy points just ratcheted up that much more for me. A mutual friend asked if they’d made Sarah’s driver model in the game ‘anatomically correct’, and if you’ve met Sarah, you know what he’s talking about =D

I thought it was quite a nod from the Simbin team and Mikkel given that the Dodge Viper SRT10 holds the fastest lap around the Nurburgring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordschleife_fastest_lap_times

Thanks for the honor guys it’s very cool, sponsors like you rule.

Well, we finished 2008 with enough points to slap a big shiny #3 on the front of our brand new Becker Motor Works F1 Sidecar.  That’s nice, but it would be even nicer to swap out that #3 with a nice big #1.  We’ll see if we can make that happen for 2009.

The start of the season is just six weeks away, and we’re happy to say many of our sponsors for the last two seasons who have helped us so much in the past are right back with us again for this season.  But we could always use more help so we’re actively seeking sponsorship to assist us with the goal of becoming the Formula 1 Superside America Champions for the 2009 season.

We’d like to thank the following companies for their past and continuing support:

Repsol	Motion Pro	Simbin Studios

	Blanco Basura	VholdR Wearable Cameras	Scorpion Sports

Drews Used Tools	Yoyodyne	We All Ride

Eastwood Co.	Helimot

 Welcome to 2009 for those that survived the holidays intact.

Let’s start with a quick wrap-up of 2008 before we crack open the new season.

As you know we wrapped up the shoot with Jesse James on his new show, “Jesse James is a Dead Man” for the Spike TV Network.  It will debut in May, we don’t have the exact details yet on when our episode will air, but it’s up high in the roster.

I thought my job was stressful… but of all the jobs on the planet I know I do not want, “Television Production Crew” now ranks high on the list.  They were going nuts in the wee hours of the morning when we arrived, and they were still running around like lunatics when we were pulling out of the pits in the dark.

Jesse James was amazingly cool.  If he was sitting down at the porch with the rest of the Vampires talking shit and drinking coffee you wouldn’t be able to tell him from the rest of us assholes wearing leathers.  Most of the time during the day when someone with a headset on wasn’t in his face telling him to stand somewhere look at something or do something he was just standing around with us with the same, “I have no idea what’s going on.” expression and shooting shit with us.

Here’s a few photos from the shoot.  Jesse’s rig might look familiar, he’s driving our old CSR.  We were out in our new 2008 Becker for the first time.  We’re going to look sloooooow on TV.

The 2008 Cycle World International Motorcycle Show

So I got a e-mail from a representative at the IMS stating, “If you can get your sidecar and display gear here we have a 10×20 booth for you, gratis.”  I’ve always wanted to have a sidecar racing booth at the IMS since it’s a huge event drawing a massive crowd, but even a 10×10 booth starts at over $1000 bucks.  So when I got the e-mail I jumped at the chance.

Barret and his father came over Thursday evening and lended a hand while I fabricated some body lifts for the new Becker rig.  When I display our sidecar I always like to lift the body about 14 inches above the chassis on risers for viewing purposes.  Given that the Becker body is a on piece unit like a Windle and not a three piece unit like a LCR I had to fabricate four risers total to get the body up in the air and rock-solid steady once it was up.  The last thing you want is someone at the show bumping the body and the whole display crashing down.

About 2AM I got wrapped up and finished packing.  Dimitry was able to meet me up at the show in San Mateo (around an 80 mile drive for me one way from Santa Cruz) to help unload the Becker, get it up on the jackstands, and then go through the process of popping the rims off and detailing every inch of the chassis with WD-40 and Windex.

For the show I had bought a large LCD monitor, my laptop with it’s Verizon wireless card, and a set of speakers.  I tucked the laptop and speakers into the cockpit and put the monitor up on the engine cowl behind the cockpit.  I cued up several of the full-length Supeside broadcast races from the 2006/2007 FIM series on Google Video and let those play at random during the three day event.  It was so much easier to have the races running with live footage and on board camera action going then trying to explain over and over what sidecar racing was, how it worked, and what the job of the person on the back was.

Attendees at the show loved the display.  Kids were wide-eyed at the sidecar, old guys stared at every weld and machined component, and everybody crowded around the monitor to watch the races.  I ended up giving away 250 business cards, every single sponsorship sticker and bit of schwag I had.  I’d also brought 50 printed color photos of Sarah and I on the track at Willow Springs just to give away but I ended up autographing every single one by request.  I’ve never autographed anything in my life, it was surreal.

I had a great time at the show, the staff at the IMS was great, and I hope they invite us back next year.  Here’s some photos.