Bill, Mark, and Ryan complete final prep work on MJ Miata.
The team has rallied over the last couple of weeks and for the first time ever, we have finished the cars on time! There has even been providential help in the form of a medical miracle, which allowed Bill Fluhr to stay in Austin for the two weeks prior to the race, as well as the blessing of the team captain losing his job, which has allowed him to devote more time to the race effort. If our team continues to be this charmed over the race weekend, this will surely prove to be the greatest 24 Hours of LeMons ever!
New Theme
Jackie and Eric work on the 90's new 90's theme.
One of the remarkable things about finishing on time is that Jackie suggested a theme change for the Audi 90 at the 11th hour. I didn't think that it could be pulled-off properly in less than two weeks, but I also didn't want to discourage her participation and personal investment in the team. So, we let her go for it and thanks to her vision, leadership, and hard work...she has done it! The Audi is now the "I Love the 90's 90." Each body panel is devoted to a year of pop-culture from that decade and the dummy from the last theme will become a new character, which I will keep secret for now.
Speaking of secrets, we have a couple of surprises set for BS judging. If you can't join us for judging on Friday, we will try to have photos and video posted by Friday night.
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Click on the Facebook icon on our home page and become a fan of the team! The Facebook fan page is the center of our team communication. Any team updates made here on our blog site will be updated (linked) to the Facebook fan page, but all live updates made from the track will go to the Facebook page only. There will also be exclusive photo content on the Facebook fan page. For those of you who prefer to follow us on Twitter, we now have an account and all of our Facebook updates will push to Twitter.
The following is press release by Ryan English, originally published in the 24 Hours of LeMons forums (10.12.09). Original post is here.
Team Unintended Acceleration We're back, we're BAD, and we're in HD
Gone but not forgotten. Twas a sad day on Thursday, June 25, 2009 when the King of Pop, Michael Jackson died. Known for their compassionate driving, Team Unintended Acceleration will be bringing an encore of the Life, Love, and Victory of Michael Jackson to the 2009 YeeHaw It’s Texas Lemons race at MSR Houston. Co-Driven by the #1 Smooth Criminal himself, we will all get to re-live the good and bad times. The fashion fads and botched plastic surgery. Random exotic animals. Flaming Pepsi sponsorship. Lover not a Fighter. It’s Black or White….yeah yeah yeah. Saturday will start out in Jackson’s early years with our original black paint job, but the planned (and unplanned) plastic surgeries which occur through the initial hours of racing along with a dramatic, and secretive skin-whitening process you will see an entirely new side of Jackson mx-5 racing on Sunday.
Prepare to be amazed by Team Unintended Acceleration’s proven driving skills, glitter gloves, moonwalks, babies held precariously, random “heeeehe!” and crotch grabbing. Judges will even get to re-enact the contoversial trial as Michael pleads his case for the $500 Miata. Their Honors alongside chief prosecutor Jay Lamm will poke and prod, pick holes in our case, and analyze the evidence after which they will get to “brand” our car with a “CONVICTED” or ACQUITTED” verdict.
Two weeks. TWO weeks. Actually, some of us are leaving for the race in 13 days and the cage isn't done on the Miata. It also doesn't have a dash, gauges, a seat, harnesses, a fire extinguisher, or a steering wheel for that matter. The radio isn't installed, the camera isn't installed, and the theme isn't finished. What, me worry?
Smooth Criminal
Speaking of theme, though it isn't finished, the Michael Jackson tribute theme is coming along nicely. The dummy is almost done and looks better than I had even hoped. There is a red vinyl interpretation of the "Beat It" jacket on the hood of the car, and I have almost finished the phony vanity plates. We will affix new plates for each of the three days at the track: BEAT IT, THRILLR, and another that has yet to be decided.
Our documentary effort is looking good, too. Jim Shields has already filmed a Wednesday Work Night and has a teaser trailer almost ready to go. More good news is that my pal Charles Braden (a good photographer in his own right) will be at the track on Saturday and I will be lending him the new D90 so he can shoot B-roll footage. Also, we have a new HD video camera coming that should give us in-car footage for the entire race, something we haven't been able to do in the past.
New racing radios designed to keep us out of trouble.
Wait, did I say something about radios? That's right, we secured a deal with Shawn Olsen to provide the team with very nice racing radio systems from Sampson Racing Communications. Each driver will get a helmet system with built-in microphone, there are two spotter systems with noise-canceling techmology, and each car gets a radio with an external antenna and a push-to-talk button for the driver. This a very nice piece of kit and we are grateful to Shawn. Our fans can thank Shawn by going to the website of his store, Skandinavia Contemporary Interiors, and buying some furniture.
As I write this, that relentless, unforgiving countdown clock at the top of the page reads 40 days until the 2009 Yee-Haw It's LeMons Texas endurance race. This year, our team will be returning with two cars, two driving teams, and a bigger crew than ever. From our entry form:
This veteran team of slow-learners returns with a plan that can only be described as (in the words of Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson) "ambitious, but rubbish." The team is bringing eight drivers (two of them new), crew (our families), a professional video producer to capture the whole glorious failure in HD, and two cars, one of which (against all grave warnings) is a Miata. The economic boon alone to the Angleton, Pearland, Lake Jackson metroplex should be reason enough to let our team grid, but we also promise to bring strong themes, clean racing, and a winning joie de vivre (even though we will lose).
We spent months searching for our second car. Ryan and I were pushing hard for a Ford Fiesta postal delivery vehicle that had been converted to be an electric vehicle. It would have been the first right-hand drive in LeMons as well as being the first EV. Plus, it was already a Ford Fiesta, which could practically qualify for LeMons, straight off the showroom floor. We would have easily won the Index of Effluency Award. But, our left-brained tech crew vetoed the idea. It looked like we were going with Mark Hergott's Audi Coupe GT, which had recently been damaged in a hail storm. That's when fate, providence, or disaster struck (we don't know which one, yet).
Back in May, a lady pulled-out in front of me and I plowed into the side of her car, which totaled my beloved 1997 Miata. The front was smashed and it had some frame damage, but it drove pretty good. So, we considered buying back the salvage to make our second race car. The problem was that there had been a backlash against using Miatas in LeMons. Cheating is rampant in LeMons, but the idea of a Spec Miata in the field is too much for even the most jaded competitor. In the Texas races, 100% of the People's Curse recipients have been Miatas. At best, we would risk automatic penalties, which would all but take us out of competition. At worst, Texas would collect another Miata soft-top to hang from its belt like a scalp and we would be out of the race altogether.
Luckily, except for a Jackson Racing air filter and some wheels, the car is completely stock. No suspension upgrades, brakes, or trick limited-slip differentials. I never even bothered to upgrade the plug wires and everyone does that.
So, we have decided to go for it.
The theme for the Miata will be - Michael Jackson tribute car. Among other details, we will have continuity between the two team cars by having a Michael Jackson dummy riding shotgun in the Miata, holding a dangling "Blanket" baby outside the car. We will also be repainting the car during the race weekend, so that the car races black on Saturday and white on Sunday. The car already comes with a botched nose job.
Except for the installation of a cage (which we ordered from Miatacage.com), the car is ready for a test and tune on the 25th at Harris Hill.
The Audi 90 is also mostly ready to go, but we have added some lightness, improved the cage (per new rules) and switched from a hydraulic brake booster to a vacuum booster for added reliability. This is particularly important to us, since we feel strongly that a simple broken belt kept us out of the Top 10 last time.
Some events deserve an epic narrative to tell the tale of heroism, the struggle of good vs. evil, and the search for ultimate spiritual truth. The 2009 Gator-O-Rama was not one of those events, at least not for Team Unintended Acceleration. In almost every way, this event was far easier for us, even though (and perhaps because) we had a much smaller team this time around. Also, almost everything went according to plan, which does not make for a very exciting tale. Still, we had mad fun. Here is what went down.
Friday
On Friday, Ryan and I arrived as part of the advance team and secured a covered space in the paddock. We arrived earlier than last time (and before the advertised gate opening time) and still, twenty minutes after we arrived, all the covered spaces were gone. That's cutting it close, so we might adjust our strategy next time, since we will probably have two cars. After we chatted with some of the other teams, we picked-up Kimberly from the hotel and went on a supply run. By the time we got back, the rest of the crew had arrived with the car. After we got everything unloaded, we worked on some last-minute details, like trying to apply the car numbers during wind gusts of 30 mph. Then we pushed the car through tech inspection and (ulp!) judging.
Kang and the dummy "wave" while the rest of the team applies number decals.
This is where I should take a moment to explain our new theme. Last time around, our theme wasn't much more than a clever team name that referred back to an unusual and unfortunate period of Audi history. We had originally planned a bit more involvement by having the team wear lab coats and having one of us play a 60 Minutes reporter with some scripted banter, but it was all we could do to finish the car and get it to the track, so our car ended-up being rather bland. In fact, someone from another team accused us of being too serious. By the end of the race, our theme was moot, since our last penalty was the Obama - Change We Can Believe In penalty, which required us to change our theme on the spot. We turned the car into a hippy Love Machine that espoused peace, joy and love.
For this race, we considered several different new themes, but in the end, we waited so long to put the theme to a vote that I decided it was too late to debate, and I showed-up to a team meeting one night and just said, "This is what we are doing." Luckily, everyone liked the idea!
The idea was birthed when Ken showed-up one Wednesday with a front grille from a new Audi to fit to the race car. It actually looked pretty cool. Then somebody suggested we put it on the back instead and from there, we ran with the idea. The idea is that we spun so much in our first race, we would make the back of the car look like the front of the car in order to disguise our spinning. The fake front would include a new front grille, side mirrors, and a fake driver, complete with a working steering wheel and authentic driver attitude™. We also added German flag livery on the car to give it some color. We made sure that all of the decals on the car, including our number 44, were symmetrical front to back.
We loved the result, but we could not believe how well this theme was received by everyone, especially the competitors and spectators. While we were prepping the car on Friday, a steady stream of people would come by and take pictures of the car, laughing the whole time. In his race report, my friend, Paul Costas, called it the best car in the race and said he laughed every time that he came upon it on the track. That was quite an honor. We were thrilled that everyone liked it, especially considering that it only came together in the last two weeks before the race.
The happy team. Obviously, nothing has gone wrong, yet.
So, to stay thematically correct, we pushed the car through tech and judging - backwards. The best part was that the tech inspectors kept walking to the wrong part of the car to check stuff! Then we pushed the car to the judging area and there he was - our old nemesis, cloaked in his robe of justice with the full weight of the law on his side and his name carried along the bitter winds of judgment - Judge Lieberman. The entire encounter was captured on the following video. I will warn you that because of the gale-force winds that day, the video is almost impossible to understand.
So, armed with a good car, a popular theme, happy judges, a focused team, and no penalty laps, we were ready to race. We secured our gear and headed to the local Red Lobster for dinner, before catching some anxious sleep in anticipation of the first race day.
Team UA vs. Da Judge, The Rematch. Judge Lieberman considers the case of Team UA using his likeness on their team t-shirts. He would eventually let them off with no penalties.
Saturday
The next morning was windy and bitterly cold. So, I bundled-up in my racing suit and wore it all day long. The suit is bulky and hot, which is usually a bad thing, but not on that day. Besides, we had to be in our suits to be on hot pit lane. For the last race, they had a system where the cars would come all the way off of the track and go to a designated fueling area in the paddock, which caused a dangerous traffic problem between cars and people. Somebody must have remembered that the reason hot pit lane was invented was to prevent problems like that, so we went back to the traditional pit model, which was much, much better.
Mrs. Pribble tries to keep warm on Saturday.
Just before the race began, we gathered for a team prayer and then strapped Eric into the car for the first stint of the day. We randomly began the race in 35th place out of 96 cars. Eric was very quick and climbed all the way to 8th, before our first pit stop dropped us to 36th! Despite our pit stop practice (okay, not Audi Sport levels of practice, but practice nonetheless), everything took much longer than we had anticipated, especially with regard to our radio and video equipment. I was very frustrated and swore that we would not race again without appropriate hardware. I also just plain swore. A lot.
Kang straps Ryan into the car, while Eric and Jimmy refuel.
More pit action!
Ryan got in the car and after some heroic driving, took us back up to 18th or so. Kang took us to 15th, and I ended the day in 24th. Our pitstops got better, but we were still having a hard time making any progress. Still, we were very pleased that the car had performed flawlessly and everyone had driven well, with no penalties. We secured our site and went to Chili's, where I sat through my dehydration in silent misery and had one of the worst steaks I have ever had in my life.
Sunday
Sunday started very well, with Eric absolutely blazing around the track. Here he is chasing a BMW 1600-02, which was in 2nd place at the time (we would have been in about 18th).
During this stint, Eric set our fastest time of the weekend (1:16:274). It turns out, this was the third fastest time of the race, from any car! Only a Miata and an Integra were faster. If the Fastest German (2008) award hadn't been renamed to Highest Finishing German (2009), we would have won a trophy! Success had eluded us again.
Unfortunately, just as he was about to pit, the PS belt broke and Eric lost all power steering and brakes. Eric brought the car in and Mark started pulling it apart. Some grim realities began to dawn on us. Not only had we not replaced a misaligned harmonic balancer, which is certainly what caused the broken belt in the first place, but we hadn't brought any spare belts! We always bring spare belts. We had brought spares to the last race and we even bring spares to regular driving events. Mark buttoned-up the car enough for Ryan to limp the car around the track, while Eric and Kang drove into town to get a belt.
Mark works the problem. The broken belt is on the ground.
When they returned, we called-in Ryan and began the repair. Thanks to classic German over-engineering, a simple belt replacement took over an hour. All told, we lost two hours behind the wall. We would never really recover. Ryan went back out in 40th place and we would only gain back six positions by the end of the race.
We all drove well for the rest of the race, but there was one more incident. About two laps from the end, I was approaching the carousel, when suddenly the car just died. No cough or sputter, it just died. I coasted around the carousel and pulled off track. I tried to restart the car, but the starter just cranked away. Had I run the car out of gas? I should have had plenty left, but we weren't sure the gauge was accurate. So, I just sat in the car. I could hear Ryan on the radio telling me to stay calm, but I was fine. At that point in the race, the failure didn't amount to anything. They finally threw the checkered flag and on the last lap, I waved and everyone honked back in reply. When the track was clear, they towed me off. And that was how we ended our race.
Jimmy takes the checkered flag (sort of).
Jimmy waves at thousands of invisible, imaginary fans.
Ryan celebrates a penalty free race, while the crew helps Jimmy out of the car.
There is a theory that says a race car should expire the instant it crosses the finish line. So, our car was just a little early. Except for the belt failure (which was fully our own fault), the car had performed brilliantly. It was faster than ever, had seemingly limitless grip, and composed manners. Even the last failure wasn't a failure at all. It was, if I dare say it...a miracle? Weeks before the race, we had accidentally disconnected the fuel pump wiring, which was bundled in a mass of other wires in the back of the car. Somehow, in that mass of wiring, the fuel pump wires had fallen so that the two connectors rested against each other and allowed the fuel pump to operate. Despite the jostling and vibration, the connectors had rested together for street driving, a test day at Harris Hill, and for 99% of the 24 Hours of LeMons, before finally separating and causing the car to stop. It's mind blowing to think of how it could have lasted as long as it did.
Jay with our sponsored trophy.
At the award ceremony, Jay Lamm awarded our very own Unintended Acceleration Uber-Recidivist Trophy, which the team had put together. The trophy was a starter motor, mounted to a wooden base, in memory of the Lexus Starter Motor Challenge. Ken had welded it, Eric assembled it, and Angela and Kimberly made the label for it, using a luggage tag that I had bought. Jay awarded it to the team with the most number of penalties (and who didn't quit), so it went to the Los Diablos, who drove an old '74 Camaro. They seemed like a great bunch of guys and I used to have a '75 Camaro like theirs, so I was happy the award went to them.
Then we got a surprise of our own. The judges got up and gave us a special Judges Choice Award for being the most improved team, having gone from one of the most penalized team in LeMons history to having zero penalties. The award? In the spirit of all cash awards being in nickels, Jonny handed us - one nickel. It was quite an honor.
A shiny new nickel!
The Future
The next race is the weekend of October 24,25 and we can't wait. The doomsday...I mean, countdown clock has been reset. The next race will see the full Unintended Acceleration team brought to bear with two cars, eight drivers and a full support crew. Late braking news is that the second car will be an Audi Coupe GT. Stay tuned for build news.
Editorial note: I have incorporated photos and videos into this report, from earlier posts and have deleted the earlier, redundant posts. I also reserve the right to ninja-edit the following list, if new stuff gets posted to the Internets, or if it otherwise comes to my attention.
Bill, Mark, and Ryan complete final prep work on MJ Miata.
Jackie and Eric work on the 90's new 90's theme.
