Track Day and Work Day

Track day at Thunderhill Raceway, Willows, same racecourse as the Lemon's race will be held. Six 20 minutes sessions with an instructor in the passenger seat teaching you the course. This first pic is our first session in the morning, just learning the course. I am in the blue FX at the front of this line, Rye is in the Porsche 911 just at the top of the hill. Great corner, blind as you enter this hard left turn and then drop into the right hand turn.

Here is another shot of Turn 5 and 5a, also call the Cyclone, I am at the back of this line. Waiting my turn to pass the slower cars. During the sessions you are only allowed to pass on certain straight aways and only if the car in front of you signals for you to pass them. Safety for us novice drivers. But what a blast to be on the race course!!!

OK, here I am at the last sessions of the day, no instructor with me. So much fun to be out there by yourself working on the correct line, the braking and turn in, how much speed can I carry out of the corners! Gotta do more of this! I had a BMW 635 in front of me and we were evenly paced, I chased him for the entire 20 minutes, nose to tail, what a blast! Now, can you image 149 other cars I can chase at the same time!! The mind boggles!

End of the last session, Rye is signaling that he will enter the pit lane, hand out with a fist. The end of the day, so sad!

Here is the newly trained high speed driver, boy it was warm in there. Just image what it will be in the racing suit! The FX35 ran like a top, and the brakes were so hot and smelly at the end of each session. Pretty hard on a street vehicle.

Rye after his last run, looking good.

The two race drivers at the end of the day, what a day!

Went to Nancy's Airport Cafe, "The only place to stop on the way in or out of Thunderhill", the perfect old style cafe, the waitresses have the required aprons, note pad and everyone is "honey"! Picture of Paul and I outside the cafe after dinner, notice the Lemons sticker on Pauls car. Paul was our assistant the entire day, took all our pictures and for two rides was my instructor. More seat time for Paul too. He got some hot laps in my instructors Lexus sport coupe, it was SO fast! Surprised everyone.

OK, now Wednesday, July 14th. Paul at my place to work on the Magic Rabbit. Here is a pic with the selected color scheme for the door numbers.

First thing was to find and fix the exhaust leaks, make this car sound like a car and not a rattle trap. We found it, all four exhaust gaskets were leaking, nuts were loose, things didn't fit right. Installed a different exhaust header gasket, perfect fit after some special carving.

Got it all installed, tightened up with new lock washers, nice fit. Now the moment of truth. Start it up....and listen...you tell me:

What a perfect sound, it works, itlives, the Magic Rabbit is now right! Horray. OK, next we worked on the transmission linkage to the shifter to try to find 5th gear. Victory number 2, we found 5th gear, all right!

Next on our list was rigging up cooling duct for the brakes, bring lots of fresh air from the front of the car and dump it right on the brakes. Now don't tell me it looks like run of the mill laundry dryer hose, that is FULL RACE aluminum racing ductwork! Well, maybe it was found at the hardware store near the dryer vent stuff. But we are set up now to cool off those scorching brakes!

Also ordered tires from Tirerack, Dunlop Star Specs and racing brakes from Carbotect in North Carolina, home of the NASCAR team garages.

Also put in the passenger seat and started thinking of a new Magic Rabbit gimmick, maybe a full human sized rabbit sitting in the passenger seat for the entire race! Now with two seats was able to take Paul for a ride, and he got to drive too. Then picked up Rye, buzzed around Redwood Estates and guess who we saw. For the first time since I moved here, 5 years, as we rounded the corner in the Magic Rabbit there sits the Santa Clara County Sheriff!! Rye and I both held our breath as we passed the sheriff. Looking in the Wink Mirror to see if he was going to turn around and follow me, I shifted into neutral and coasted quickly down the hill, no noise, in hope of not getting stopped. Apparently our stealth maneuvers worked, no sheriff on your rabbit tail! Phew!!

Worked on locating the oil cooler up on the passenger side of the car, got it located, now it's up to Paul and Darrell to mount and pump it. As you can see below, we got the fenders on, looking like a real car again, dropped the hood and the the grill just for this photo op! Looks great.

Well, that's it, a two big days. Lots accomplished, car is getting very close. Next is up to Sacto for roll cage mods and oil cooler, tires mounted and new brake pads. Only three weeks before the race day. Time is ticking away. The Magic Rabbit is soon to race!