Nuckinfutz / Los Cerdos Voladores

I pulled the wounded engine from the ‘ol racecar yesterday. It was only 104 degrees in the home garage - why not? Rod #4 cracked the block and broke itself to pieces. One of the ARP rod bolts DIDN’T break! The head might be OK with some careful cleanup, if it isn’t warped. The cams & valvetrain look OK. Now looking for a 2002 PT short block.

We won two races in the Champcar Endurance Series (including a 24-hour) but the 6th place in 2011 at Buttonwillow is the best we ever did in The 24 Hours of LeMons. The driver team was David Cordier, Jim Waleke, Steve Baumbach and Greg Smith. I still fondly recall Steve’s amazing long stint in which he somehow achieved the best fuel economy we’ve ever seen in a race!

Nuckinfutz! Finished 5th overall (3rd in class) even though my 3-race-old 2.4L blowed up.

Team Nuckinfutz is racing at Willow Springs with Champcar Endurance Series. We are leading the race!

Prepping for next weekend’s Champcar race at Willow Springs, I found the right rear swaybar link bracket broken. This must have happened during the Lucky dog race at Thunderhill in November 2011. Fortunately, I have the parts needed to fix it.

We just submitted an entry for this deal. Stay tuned, sports fans!

12 years ago today, in Los Cerdos Voladores history: We were racing with LeMons at Sonoma. We had just debuted a Green Bay Packers theme on our new green/white/yellow neon coupe. At the request of Judge Phil, Judge Jonny asked us a question about a disappointing Packers draft pick: Tony Mandarich. We didn’t know the answer, because football sucks! That situation is one of the reasons why we quit racing with LeMons in 2012.

Here’s what failed at the Lucky Dog Racing League at Thunderhill: a clutch spring escaped its pocket on the disc center and jammed up the diaphragm spring. The grease on the pressure plate is from the release bearing, which was murdered.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen ZERO gap on a synchronizer baulk ring. 4th and 5th got like this after the clutch pressure plate failed at Thunderhill in 2019. We finished on the podium in class anyway!

When the transmission broke this past Sunday at Thunderhill, I said that fixing the racecar was not a priority. But I couldn’t help myself. I bought this 1995 neon transmission from an utterly packed local salvage yard. It was a core unit with a small hole in the case and 73k miles. They said they’ve had it since 2001! The VIN was from a 1995 DOHC Sport Coupe, so it’s the same trans as the ACR. The assembly part number is for a service replacement unit. It looks like water has been inside (it was stored outdoors) but I’m sure that the usable parts are worth more than the $100 that I paid.

Transmission and clutch are both broken. We are out. But! We had a good time and were competitive.

Greetings from Thunderhill! During the 2nd stint we ran into some trouble. We’ve lost 3rd and 5th gears. It’s popping out of 4th on braking. We will nurse it as long as we can. Andrew is driving now on the 3rd stint.

With 24 minutes to go on Day 1, we are leading class C! This championship race has a Parc Ferme at the end of the day - the car must be parked in the hot pit and no work may be performed on the car until the race re-starts tomorrow morning at 9 am Pacific time.

We are racing today in the Lucky Dog 1000 Miles of Thunderhill. Trying to win the Class C championship! The driver team is:

Greg Smith
Mike Mork
Andrew Smith
Kenny Martin

Headed for the Lucky Dog 1000 Miles of Thunderhill. The neon is being spoiled by Kenny Martin’s super fantastic trailer.