Bad Cat Racing

So Mike picked up an industrial electrical convection oven off of Craigslist a bit back from a guy who worked at Stanford Labs.  The price was right at 90 bucks as Mike had been pricing out powdercoating ovens and even the cheap knock off units with a decent amount of space inside were starting at under 400 bucks.

The biggest problem was the guy from Stanford Labs was no EE.  The wiring was Jerry-rigged to put it lightly.  Mike made a trip down to the electrical supply store and bought a few inexpensive components and a couple hours later he had a fully functional shop oven in the garage.  Which means he can quit using the oven in the kitchen for shop work or I’m going to kick his ass.

This goes with the Eastwood ‘Elite’ powdercoating kit we picked up.  Mike hates to paint.  Of all the things Mike can do, weld, fabricate, machine, lay up fiberglass, CAD and Solidworks, paint is his blind spot.  It is a black art to him and he’s never been able to master it properly.  He says it’s mostly because he hates the chemicals and all the mess, I have to side with him because I hate the way he smells for the next several days after he’s been working with the chemicals.  In comes the powdercoating kit.  Mike did a couple months of research and determined that he had enough aptitude to prep parts and lay powder without issue, and that with the addition of an oven of some sort and the powdercoating rig we could at least get started.  Mike’s trying to convince me he needs a sandblasting cabinet, I think he’s lazy.

We pulled the main body mounts, gas tank strap, battery box, and brake pedal off the F1 to use as our starter parts.  Mike stripped these down with paint remover then carefully cleaned every surface of the components with various types of wire wheels and cups chocked up in the drill press.  The parts were then pre-heated in the oven, allowed to cool, and then wiped down with PRE and wired to the oven rack.

Then we just hooked up the HotCoat gun to the compressor, plugged it in, and started puff, puff, puffing the powder on the parts.  Here’s a couple shots of the fresh powder on the parts before we popped them in the oven to bake.

Then the parts baked in the oven for about 30 minutes till the powder ‘flowed’ out.  Once that happened Mike gave the parts another 20 minutes of bake to cure the powdercoat and shut off the oven.  Here’s a shot of the cooling parts a couple hours after the 20 minute cure.

And this morning we mounted up the components after we cleaned up all the fasteners on the wire wheel in the drill press.  For our first parts for the F1 rig out of the HotCoat system I have to say I’m really impressed.  Mike is blown away with the quality and swears he will never ever paint another metal component again.  He’s already ordered some high-temp powder so he can shoot our exhaust and some low-temp powder so he can shoot our aluminum structural components.

If you were able to handle using the EZ-Bake oven when you were five years old and turn out those little cornbread muffins, you could easily turn out professional grade powdercoated parts in about three hours from ‘unbolt’ to ‘bolt it back on’ with a little practice.  Now if you could only powdercoat fiberglass.

~Sarah

A box showed up on the doorstep today, so I took it in the garage and cut it open.

The box was extremely light, so we thought maybe I’d been sent a box of styrofoam peanuts as a joke.

But no, there was paperwork tucked in on the side. Paperwork that clearly stated maybe if I dug around I would find something that would rock my socks off.

And sure enough, there was something under those peanuts, despite the fact that the box felt featherweight and threatened to float off the table at any second.

And the lettering on the red box under those peanuts explained why. It was full of Yoyodyne CBR100RR Slipper Clutch Unobtanium. Which as any seasoned racer knows is the lightest alloy substance known to Mankind.

It’s even anodized a sexy red and black. And yes, that’s a huge stack of used F1 slicks behind me.

How could you not instantly fall in love something this amazingly perfect.

Next update, I install it. Thank you so much Fred!!! You Rule!!!

Check out our newest sponsor, Yoyodyne Titanium for the ultimate in hardware for your racebike and street ride.

~Sarah

Thunderhill was a blast. We arrived on Friday afternoon and got our pit set up as things were starting to cool down in Willows. After the open track day for the motorcycles was finished we were able to get out on the track and walk the 3.2 mile course. Mike has experience at Thunderhill racing 250 GP bikes so he was able to explain the tougher parts of the track like turn 5, 9, and 11 to me and help me pick reference points and brake markers.

We got three short practice sessions in on Saturday morning and then our race was called a little before 4PM. After a fast warm up lap we gridded and it seemed like they dropped the green flag instantly. We all flew WFO into turn one and it was a sprint to the finish from there. Wade and Christine (Subculture) went out with a mechanical, as did Matt and Rhondah (Intellisense). Doug and Theo (Dawg Pound) spun off of 5 trying to go three wide up into the Cyclone on the brakes but were able to get back on (and finish behind us =D). Congrats to Frank and Dennis for taking another checkered flag! (Excalibur)
It was a good weekend of racing in front of a huge crowd despite the 100+ degree heat. Next stop is Reno, August 17th.

Thanks to Dito with www.gotbluemilk.com and Joe from www.4theriders.com for the great photos of the weekend.

~Sarah

Just in from the photographer… Click the images for full size versions.

These shots were donated to us by Brian of caliphotography.com.  He and his crew shoot high end photographs at lots of tracks in the SoCal and surrounding areas, and they can hook you up with photo sets and prints of your race days or track events for ane excellent price.

Brian Reynolds
www.caliphotography.com
brian@caliphotography.com
Tollfree: 866-515-2112
Local: 951-992-2488
Thanks Brian!

A few random shots from last weekend.

The mighty Subaru Outback 2.5 Legacy Limited, our tow vehicle.  Can you believe that?  The trailer is bigger than the Subaru!  And it’s filled with about 500 pounds of tools, gear, and crap.  Yet somehow it just goes and never complains at all.  It manages to happily chug up the grapevine at 55 to Willow and the temp gauge never bothers to get above 1/2 way.

We stopped by We All Ride on our way out of town to pick up some Repsol chain lube and other stuff from Jocelyn.  She’s helped us out a bunch, and used to race AMA 125gp.  She talked me into bringing the rig to the WaR Motofest and talking to people about sidecar racing.

Our modest pits at Willow.  Doesn’t take much actually since Mike does 99.9% of the prep work before we load the bike on the trailer.  Some day we’ll have that 40 foot RV with a workshop in the back, but for now this will do just fine.

Relaxing in the morning before first practice is called. (and the wind kicks up)

And after the first 30 minute practice session.  The racers grin.

~Sarah

We pulled a 7th place finish at Willow Springs this weekend. Picked up speed in several spots on the track as I lined up some reference points through the Omega and turn 9. We’re going to skip out on Road America and concentrate on getting ready for Thunderhill in early July. The rig is doing great, and we got the Penske dialed in. The body needs to be stripped and rebuilt in spots where the kevlar is starting to crack, we have enough time between now and Thunderhill to get that done finally.

Mike mounted a lipstick cam and DVR on his spare helmet and shot a couple practice laps on Saturday and put it together.

Here’s the video on YouTube ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEGh4hCpguQ

I was going to wait till we had some better shots of on-track action from last weekend at Willow, but the photographer is lagging. We pulled two fifth place finishes at the AHRMA Corsa Motoclassica event at Willow Springs last weekend.

Willow springs is a fun track, it looks simple, but it gets technical when you start picking up the pace. The Omega is tricky, it’s almost like a roller coaster. I know I was losing time there the first day because it took some time to train myself to stay on the power all the way through and over the top to keep my momentum. If I got off the power the tires would bite instead of drift, and the rig would just fall to it’s knees because the top of the Omega is deceptively steep.

You can’t actually get off the power and drop a gear till you’re clear of it, 100% flying downhill and ready to flick into six. Tricky but fun. Reminded me quite a bit of 3a/3 4 at Sears Point.

The rig gets light over 7, but not much. There’s so much downforce and ground effect that it just sticks to the track. I was drawing a straight line right through 7, and Mike was sitting in about the middle of the rig tucked in behind the intake for aerodynamics before he’d pop over the right hand side to set up for 8. Even the fast guys were sticking to the track like glue through there.

We had a good weekend, the rig ran perfectly, and we’ll be back down at Willow in two weeks to run another two day event hosted by the WSMC. Then it’s off to Wisconsin for Road America at Elkhart Lake. My only complaint about Willow was the heat, it was 100 in the shade, and my all black leathers, black helmet, and associated gear were not helping me stay cool on the grid.

No woman looks good in race leathers. It was hot. But we had fun, and can’t wait to get back out on the track.

I set up a PayPal merchant account to help fund some of the expenses of running a full Superside season. We’re coming up short on funds for making the trip out to Wisconsion for Road America to run at the AMA Superbike event. We have a spot for the CSR secured in an enclosed trailer that’s headed out to Elkhart Lake, WI but plane tickets are over 1000 bucks for a pair, even in the cattle seats. Help a girl out and get us to Road America to kick ass on the big four mile circuit.

Joaquin w/Repsol dropped off the cases of oil today for the rig. Pouring the oil in the engine was the very last thing that needed to be done to finish the prep of the CSR. Thanks Joaquin, THANK YOU REPSOL! And thank you Jocelyn and the crew at We All Ride! All of you make my season possible.

Mike got the rig up to operating temprature after that to cycle in the new plugs and oil. He checked the coolant levels with the engine hot, bupred the extra air out of the system, and then safety wired the radiator cap shut. Stick a fork in it, it’s done. Blanco Basura stopped by and finished up the decals, and now the F1 looks professional, almost like we actually know what we’re doing. Blanco worked their asses off into the night getting the vinyl cut for the rig, and we can never thank them enough. I hope I pull a good finish Saturday and Sunday to make you proud!

~Sarah

Shoes finally showed up today via UPS for Mike at the last possible minute.  We were suprised to learn that they did in fact fit and would not be repackaged and sent off into the inner-working of Generic Delivery Service to some how get exchanged.  They even came in a very intimidating box, inside of a big box.

But what came out of this box of organic death was something almost clown like.

And those are the simple little shoes Moike’s going to trust his ankles and feet to this season.  They fit him like they were made for him, and they do come from Oakley’s racing division.  So they’re waterproof, flame resistant, puncture proof, abrasion resistant, and meet all the high end standards like FIA 8856 and 2000.  As far as Mike knows that could mean the boots will fend off custard stains.  He just thinks they look snazzy and will be much easier to use on the platform than his bulky Daytona Winners.  Willow Springs will tell.