"Bubblewrap, it pop's when you pinch it!"

Eight drivers have have signed on to run in the Bubblewrap 500, to be held on Saturday, February 14th at Sequoia Speedway. The Valentine's Day event will be run in the morning to allow all of the men involved to participate in Valentine's Day evening activities. Among the entry list besides myself are Yoshi "Kamakazi" Nagura, John "Short Bus" Mears and John "Call me Mister" Champion of Bakersfield, "Little" Jim Hicks III, Paul "Pea Soup" Anderson and Brian "Master" Baater of Merced. Colin "Wildman" Wildwood will make the trip over from the 1/32nd scale ranks to round out the field.

The Clash Class cars will be posting extremely fast times on the newly resurfaced track, where CoT Class cars were running in the 0.90 second range during testing last week. In Clash practice Yoshi ran a 0.84 second with a 0.86 back up in his 10 lap session. John Champion showed up with a brand new A.J. Foyt Copenhagen '99 Monte Carlo and matched Yoshi's UPS Ford Taurus for time. I managed a respectible 0.88 in my Roush Racing #17 DeWalt Tools Taurus.

We'd like to thank the makers of Bubblewrap for sponsoring the event, and remember, "It's not just a toy, it's also packing material".

*We found a 20' roll of bubblewrap in the parking lot, it had fallen off of a truck and we spent most of the day popping it to the annoyance of the people in two restaurants, my boss at work, a large number of kids, my ex-wife and a handful of strangers. We were told to do something constructive with the rest of it so we wrapped Yoshi in it and threw him in the pool. He did not float and lost his sense of humor somewhere in the 45 degree water.

*We found a 20' roll of bubblewrap in the parking lot, it had fallen off of a truck and we spent most of the day popping it to the annoyance of the people in two restaurants, my boss at work, a large number of kids, my ex-wife and a handful of strangers. We were told to do something constructive with the rest of it so we wrapped Yoshi in it and threw him in the pool. He did not float and lost his sense of humor somewhere in the 45 degree water.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are!! LOL!!! :p No offense Yoshi-man!

Sounds like a fun race!! And plenty of racers, include a 1/32 recruit! Cool deal Pete!

Have lots of fun and Happy Valentine's Day!

PD2:thumbsup:

We sort of misjudged his CG a bit, when we rolled him into the water his head end sank like the Titantic. There is nothing more funny than to see a drowning Asian fight his way out of a bubblewrap straight jacket. It was only the 3' end so he kept pushing himself up off the bottom once he got one arm free.

HAHAHAHA!!!! LOL!! Now you be nice to your son-in-law....he may just make a decision of where you stay as you get older. LOL!!

The picture in my head keeps me laughing! HAHA!!

PD2:thumbsup:

Well we were going to hit him with a car at 10 mph, but he said no based on what one did to me at only 25 mph. Then we were going to wrap just his feet and drop him off my 2nd story balcony, again he said no. Baseball bat? No way. BB gun? No. When we said something about him floating then he said the swimming pool would be acceptable.

Oh, well, as long as you got permission, then I guess its all good. LOL!!! You guys are funny! :p
Have a great race today! And next time something like that happens, snap some pics!

At least snap some pics of the race too!

PD2:thumbsup:

It's rare when I get shut out, even more rare when it's on my own track. But there are rare days. But I finished 7th out of 8 racers, car handling and impatience were the biggest factors in my miserable showing.

Yoshi, John Mears, Mr. Champion and Colin Wildwood made the 500 lap final, nobody pitted and there were very few crashes. When it was all said and done Mr. Champion showed how he got his name by winning by more than 19 laps over Yoshi, who was 11 laps ahead of Colin. John Mears came in 4th but had dropped out at about the half way mark when his $120 Professor Motor controller overheated the braking circuit. The winner got a custom made trophy I had done, it was a recycled model car trophy that had a small mason jar one top filled with marbles. I had carefully drilled a hole in the bottom of the jar with my dremel and bolted it in place. The "For All the Marbles" trophy was first given out two years ago for a race I hosted on my Infineon road course for open wheel cars. I may have to make one more for future events.

Wow! Shut out at your own track Pete?!? Ouch! Sounds like the competition brought it to race! Wait, wait, wait.....were the Valentine's women around you? Impatient distractions like that can produce lap loss. LOL!

Great idea for a trophy bro! I like that! I'll have to remember that if I ever do up one of these.

Glad you boys had a good day at the races! Ready for today's round on T.V.? :woohoo:

PD2:thumbsup:

Nope, no women, not even the balloon smuggler was here. By the way Sarah is having a girl sometime around May 24th. She's already decided to name it after Yoshi's grandmother Yoki, or Yokohami, who was a Nakasaki Atomic bomb survivor. They were all off at some spa thing getting washed and waxed and painted up. I just had a bad day, the car was fine, the new track surface was fine and I ran good in qualifying, just didn't have it on race day.

The new surface was a thinned out layer of rubber cement applied from 3" before to 3" after the corners and all the way through them in the tire track lanes. I was worried it would peel up as it had in tests with it straight out of the bottle, but the lacquer thinner somehow bonded it better this time, and it didn't bubble my gray paint. When the racing was finished I was able to rub it completely off the track with a dry finger and some pressure. This was a one time deal, it won't be done again as the rules specifically say no traction compounds are allowed in regular racing.

Paul if you do use a rounded carbide cutter at low speed with a lot of lubricating oil. The higher speeds match the frequency of the glass and I broke one trying to rush through it. In any event tape the entire outside of the jar and it helps with the vibrations as well as saving your hand if it breaks. Yoshi also said if I had filled the jar with sand it would have helped a lot more, and he's the machinist. It takes 10-15 minutes of easy pressure to get through the bottom, then I epoxied a washer to the bottom to distribute the load of the retaining bolt. The marbles covered up the washer so it can't be seen. I used "Shooters", the milky white ones with red and blue colors I got at WalMart for $2.50 a bag and it took 2 bags for a 12 oz jar. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it but I will of the next one I do.

i'd be curious to know how many wobbly pops you guys found wrapped in the 20 feet of bubble wrap!lol...glad the race went well by the way!

What the heck is a wobbly pop?

a.k.a. beer.just kidding around,pete,sorry.:rolleyes::p

Pete,
What, no video of floating/sinking Yoshi? :devil: rr

Paul if you do use a rounded carbide cutter at low speed with a lot of lubricating oil. The higher speeds match the frequency of the glass and I broke one trying to rush through it. In any event tape the entire outside of the jar and it helps with the vibrations as well as saving your hand if it breaks. Yoshi also said if I had filled the jar with sand it would have helped a lot more, and he's the machinist. It takes 10-15 minutes of easy pressure to get through the bottom, then I epoxied a washer to the bottom to distribute the load of the retaining bolt. The marbles covered up the washer so it can't be seen. I used "Shooters", the milky white ones with red and blue colors I got at WalMart for $2.50 a bag and it took 2 bags for a 12 oz jar. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it but I will of the next one I do.

Bro, thanks for the explanation! I think that is such a cool idea and a creative DIY trophy idea! I love it! Make me want to host a race just to build the trophy! LOL!! I know, that's crazy, but still that is too cool! Thanks for sharing bro!

As for the race, there will be those days. Look at how Jr.'s little temper flair up affected Kyle Busch's day - I'd been flamin mad, but then again, that's racin.

PD2:thumbsup:

LOL, wobbly pop, OK that makes sense. No, we're just that insane totally sober, which is frightening if you think about it.

Now Paul, surely you saw Vickers run Jr. down to the grass, run him below the line, OK, but don't keep running him down til he crashes. Jr. saved his car, he did what he had to. I'm not a Jr. fan, it should be well known that I AM A KENSETH FAN!!!!! But I watched that replay many times, Vickers caused that IMHO. And it's not the first time he's done this type of thing.

I'm going to buy the stuff to do another one soon, when I do I'll take some video of getting it done. Right now my camera is once again in the hands of my daughter who is documenting the last few months of her pregnancy. I may get it back shortly after the birth.

Now Paul, surely you saw Vickers run Jr. down to the grass, run him below the line, OK, but don't keep running him down til he crashes. Jr. saved his car, he did what he had to. I'm not a Jr. fan, it should be well known that I AM A KENSETH FAN!!!!! But I watched that replay many times, Vickers caused that IMHO. And it's not the first time he's done this type of thing.

I'm going to buy the stuff to do another one soon, when I do I'll take some video of getting it done. Right now my camera is once again in the hands of my daughter who is documenting the last few months of her pregnancy. I may get it back shortly after the birth.

I did, and even Vickers dipped below the yellow line and then came back up the track. And yes, you are right that Vickers has pulled these sorts of things before. I guess to me, it looked like Jr. had a wide open bottom field to ease off and drift back into....just seemed like he kept in the gas and gave Vickers a little send off to the wall. And no, Jr. nor Vickers are my favorite racers and no, Jr. is not known for pulling things like this, but it sure seemed like Jr. was telling Vickers he wasn't too pleased on that move. Oh yeah, and that was a nice win by Mr. DeWalt! I'm sure you were grinning from ear to ear! LOL! Old Smoke didn't do too bad for his first race in his new company ride either - 7th is nothing to sneeze about with everything new! I don't even think Jr. placed that high last year with his new company and ride.

Wow! Are we in the last few months of the Slot Car Princess' time to for delivery? I'm sure she is ready for the baby to come now. I'll definitely appreciate a video on the trophy making when you get the camera back - thanks bro!

PD2:thumbsup:

Down to the last 3 months. She's showing really well, has gained some good weight and is in great shape. She is scheduled to have a late term Amniocentesis in 10 days to make sure everything is fine, she had a bad flu a week ago and ran a very high fever for a couple of days. We were thinking she was going to have twins but we're looking at one big girl.

Down to the last 3 months. She's showing really well, has gained some good weight and is in great shape. She is scheduled to have a late term Amniocentesis in 10 days to make sure everything is fine, she had a bad flu a week ago and ran a very high fever for a couple of days. We were thinking she was going to have twins but we're looking at one big girl.

Glad to hear she is doing well! When my wife was pregnant with our daughter the first ultrasound came around and the nurse was telling us that it was possible we were having twins. If my wife wasn't holding my hand I think I would have hit the floor. LOL!! The next ultrasound revealed it was just one. LOL! Tell her we will be praying for her and the baby.

PD2:thumbsup: