Ramrod Racing

We finished!!

2010-08-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Roebling Road and it was a blast. Car ran strong all weekend finishing both days. How'd we place you ask? Not sure but I know it was at or near the back of the pack. We had many pit stops and they were long. That makes a huge difference. Doesn't matter though, because we were out there to have a good time. Here are some video and pictures for you.

ChumpCar at Roebling Road from Michael Chisek on Vimeo.

Full gallery here.

Teaser Photo

2010-08-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

So the Camaro is race ready and it is sitting in my garage right now (as opposed to Dad's where it usually stays). I love having my racecar with me! If ever you have a bad day or just need a pick-me-up, just open the garage door and look at your racecar. In the meantime I thought I would post a quick picture of how she looks now.

Why is the air cleaner sticking so high out of the engine bay?? Why does the alternator stick out of the engine bay?? What engine is that??? You shall see. Patience.

We're still here

2010-07-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't made a post here forever, but I wanted to assure all of my 2 followers than Ramrod Racing does in fact still exist. Since my last post the Camaro has run in two races, albeit not that well. Within the first few laps of Rockingham the thermostat jammed closed and I blew both head gaskets. We tore the motor down and replaced the gaskets to got the car back out on the track so that everyone got seat time. It was fun! Three weeks later was VIR. That was a disaster. The car was pouring smoke and we kept getting black flagged. After a couple of hours I managed to fix the smoking only to have the motor blow up a few laps later. So the Camaro has run 200 laps at Rockingham and 27 at VIR. Not very impressive.

Currently the car is getting a new engine AND transmission to make it ready for Roebling Road in August. The Camaro will also be making an appearance at Sebring in September. I'll post pictures soon.

She's ready to rock!!

2010-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, after months of driving back and forth to Raleigh, the Ramrod Racing Camaro is complete. I ran up to Raleigh this past weekend to finish the details on the car. Got everything wrapped up on Sunday morning. Behold the Camaro in all its glory!!!

I had been conerned about the transmission the past few weeks. It didn't have reverse and with no testing having been done, I wasn't sure if it shifted either. Well I drove it a bit on Staurday and it shifted through all the gears just fine, but still no reverse. I called ProBuilt Automatics in California and they helped identify the problem. Low on ATF. I'm a bonehead. I had only put 6 of the required 12 quarts in the tranny. I filled up the tranny with the rest of it's much needed fluid and now everything works great!

I say the car is complete, but it actually still needs it's exhaust installed. For that job Kevin will be towing the car down to Charlotte so that Jimmy at CMD automotive can install it for us. Oh and we need to put clear tape over our tail lights, and mount the rear view mirror, but these are small peanuts. The one thing that didn't get done that I was hoping to have was the windshield wipers. I tried to wire it up, but I think the old motor is seized. Plan A: hope for sunny weather. Plan B: lots of RainX!

So now we wait. Actually now we get together all of our supplies that we need to take to the race. I'm happy to be done with a little time to spare though, and no more trips to Raleigh! So you at Rockingham!

She runs!

2010-02-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

You may be thinking that the race is coming up pretty soon and you haven't even seen the Camaro run. Well we have fixed that problem! Behold the beauty that is small block Chevy power!

Yes, this past week, Kevin managed to get the engine installed into the car. Good job bro! I drove up for the weekend and worked with Kevin to hook everything up and continue to work on all the little things. There is so much to do and I feel like we are falling behind. But Saturday night we both felt a little better just to fire her up and hear her roar. And does she roar! There's nothing quite like the sound of a V8 open header.

Like I said we knocked off some other items as well while I was there. Gauges got installed, but they are not wired yet. Brake lights: complete. Battery box: complete. Tranny cooler: complete. And there were a few other little items as well.

So T minus 31 days and where do we stand? Uhhhh, we need tires, first of all. Then there is the list of other tasks that still need to be completed. Hood, bleed brakes (again), wire gauges, and a couple of other things. Like the exhaust, for which I need to tow the car down to Charlotte to have a friend install it for me. Nothing like the pressure of last minute work! I'll keep you posted.

A little work and a little.......work.

2010-01-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

So I went to Raleigh this weekend to help work a booth for ChumpCar at the Piedmont Racing Expo. I had a great time talking racing with people and even got in a little shopping for myself! Chris drove up from Charlotte as well and we met Lloyd Boggs there. Lloyd is one heck of a guy. I can't wait until our first race!

So after the show I needed to try and get some more work done on the Camaro. It needed to be painted and the weather was beautiful so I seized the opportunity and spray bombed her! Nice color, poor paint job (I'm no body man). Oh well, she's getting stickers anyway.

With the paint still drying there really wasn't anything else I could do. So back home I go! Kevin had better start knocking some of those tasks off the list during the week.....

I cut the grille out...

Getting close...

2009-12-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Raleigh and a long weekend of Camaro work. The family was out of town for the holidays so I was alone. That meant 12 hour days, three of them to be exact. I got quite a bit done. Brakes are complete, roof is on, window net installed, windshield is fitted, holes in firewall are plugged and the wiring harness has been installed. If I had a battery I could have lit up the lights and brakes. We're getting pretty close to paint-job time. Of course, somewhere in here I'm going to have to fire up the car and test it out! Check out the pictures:

More to come, 10 weeks until Rockingham!

There's a place to sit now

2009-11-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

So Thanksgiving is not just for eating. It's also for fabricating a seat mount! It's been over a month since I was last up in Raleigh working on the Camaro. Kevin hasn't done a blasted thing with the car either, despite the fact that he lives up there. By the time I get there Wednesday night, I find the poor Camaro sitting outside, flooded with water. Nice. After drilling some drain holes and pushing her back into the barn, it was time to get to work.

We need a place to sit. More accurately, a driver's seat. I bought a shiny new Kirkey aluminum seat and cover for just that reason. I also picked up a seat mount kit from Roll Cage Components. I figured I'd set it all in, weld it up and we'd be done. Not so much. Two days later all is well, but not after some serious work. At this point I'm thankful I'm done with the heavy fabricating. Have a look:

Words to live by....

Looks comfy, doesn't it?

Like it? Who cares, Lloyd does and his opinion is all that matters! Anyway, that's pretty much all I got done in two days. Which leaves, well, plenty to do yet. The car has to be wired from scratch, all brakes need to be replaced, paint, and well some "other" stuff. It's going to be a busy Christmas in the Ramrod garage! Stay tuned.

We're still here

2009-11-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since my last post, but what did you expect? With the car in Raleigh I can't get any work done. I still haven't got any work done, but that's not the purpose of this post. I just saw the new promotional video for ChumpCar and it is awesome! Check it out below!

I've watched this a couple of times now, and everytime I get all hyper and pumped to race! March can't come fast enough, and yet there is still a lot of work to do on the Camaro.

Just this past weekend Chris and I took a trip to Rockingham Speedway to scope out the facility and assist ChumpCar in the preparations for the race. What a track. The facilities are great and the banked turns are hard to even walk up. It is going to be such a rush to be pushing the Camaro to its limit on a 26 degree bank at 100+ mph! Check out some photos below.

So next week is Thanksgiving and I'll be up in Raleigh. I plan on getting the seat installed in the car and I'll probably get started on the wiring. Knowing me I'm going to wind up rushing around at the last minute to get this car done. Whatever.

Day ???: Whatever

2009-10-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the day thing didn't really work. I've had a hard time getting to a computer while I was out of town and I didn't make as much picture worthy progress as I thought. Don't get me wrong, I got all I wanted done over the week. It just didn't offer that many photo op's. Plus it's hard to take a picture of yourself working! But now that I'm home and the Camaro is back outside sitting under a tarp, I can say that the cage is complete, the fuel tank is clean and re-installed, the rear springs have been cut down and the interior has been painted. Check it out:

It helps to have a lift!

So now what am I going to do? Well, nothing for now. I'm not planning on going back up to Raleigh for a few weeks. Then there is the issue of money. These roll cages and racing seats cost money. I'd love to skip the mortgage and finish the car, but my little girls probably like having a warm roof over their head! So I need to acquire a seat and install it, wire up the car, replace the brakes and paint it. Yes there are some more details, but that is the general gist. I'm still hoping to have her complete by New Year's eve. Wishful thinking? Probably, but a guy's got to have goals right? I'll keep you posted!

Day 4: The cage

2009-10-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Wait, what happened to days 2&3?? Well not a whole lot got accomplished the last two days. It seems that the roll cage I bought was smarter than me. Actually, I just had to do a lot more body hacking than I anticipated. But in the end it did get done. The cage is in the car and half of the welds are complete. I will finish the rest of the welds tomorrow morning as well as add the rear down bars. My brother, and Ramrod teammate, Kevin has been a great help this week. With any luck we'll have the interior painted tomorrow afternoon. More to come!

Day 1: The work begins

2009-10-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted for a while, because I haven't done anything with the Camaro. You see, the car is not with me in Charlotte. I have no place for it, nor do I have all the tools required to complete it, so I left it at my parents house in Raleigh. Since I'm not about to drive three hours each way just to go screw with it once and a while, nothing's happened, until now. I'm off next week, so I am now in Raleigh and have 10 days to focus on the Camaro. Today I got things started.

The first item of business is to strip the car down. Anything that is not not directly involved in making the car go around the track is extra weight that slows you down. For a given amount of horsepower, the lower the weight the faster the car will be. After 9 hours of digging through that car, it is finally close to it's race weight. There was a ridiculous amount of useless junk in there that was getting carried around. The other interesting thing is that the car was last registered in 2002. Sitting for 6 years? This should be interesting. Check out the photos.

So tomorrow I need to start fitting the cage in the car. By myself, it should be real fun. Stay tuned!

Welcome to the team!

2009-08-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, so what's going on here? Don't I already have a team and a car? Indeed, I am team captain for Lab Rats Motorsports, racers of the Colt E. So how can I be posting about another team? I have not left LRM. As a matter of fact, our next race, Lemons South Fall is less than two weeks away. That team continues on and I will continue to write about it's successes and failures. But that's just it, LRM is a team. We built that car together and race it together, so I don't believe in injecting new and additional members to it. Which brings me to Ramrod Racing. My wife Andrea has expressed interest in racing as has my brother Kevin and his wife Nikki. I decided that the best way for all of them to race would be on their own team. No pressure from outside members who are in it to "win". No one (other than family) to criticize and make fun of their driving. And perhaps most importantly, this would give us all a chance to spend time together.

So where do we start? We need a car. And where does one look for a car? Craigslist of course! After having screwed around with the Colt E for quite some time now, I decided to go with something a little more common, cheaper, easier to work on, sporty and American. Translation: Camaro. Take a look on Craigslist any day and you're sure to find plenty of cheap old Camaros. Missing parts, wrecked, worn out and almost definitely sans title. Along those lines I'd like you to meet our new race car.

What do you mean she doesn't look like much? She's perfect! Here's the details; 1987 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, 305 4bbl V8, 700R4 automatic (more on that later), never been wrecked, no title and most importantly $500 or best offer. Keep in mind that she had no keys and hadn't run in at least a year. Nobody knew what problems, if any the car had. After doing a quick inspection on it, I decided that this was going to be our new race car. Now to get it for less. Turns out the car was a repo and had been sitting in an impound lot for a year. Perfect! The owner wanted it gone in a hurry so after a quick $250 offer, Team Ramrod had a car.

Backup a little here. There may be some of you asking why I was looking at such cheap cars. Both the Colt E and Camaro race in what we call "crap can" series. The primary rule here is that the car must be no more than $500, which includes everything except for safety gear. Repair parts, mods and decoration must fit under that $500 limit. Go over and there will be penalty laps. For complete rules see The 24 Hours of Lemons and ChumpCar.

Alright, so back to our new Camaro. What do you think? Yes it's an automatic. Personally, I would have chosen a manual, but I had other "less experienced" drivers to consider. I assumed that the girls would back out at the last minute once faced with the reality of shifting a car in traffic at high speed. Therefore I decided I'd deal with the auto so that the girls could join us. I've actually come to grips with it and believe that it will be fine. I'll want to dig up a tranny cooler from the junk yard though.

So we've got the usual work to do here. Strip the car bare, weld in a cage, get the seat and belts installed, and a few other required safety items. Obviously I have to go over the engine and bring it back to life, but it's a small block Chevy. No problem! I'm really excited about this car and I can't wait to get it out on the track.

This should also be a great way to teach everyone on the team a little bit about working on cars. Andrea has always expressed an interest on learning, but there just hasn't been the right opportunity. Team Ramrod's first race is in March so we've got plenty of time. By the way, the rules require the car to have six drivers and we only have four. So if you're looking to get a chance behind the wheel, drop me a line!

Stay tuned for updates on Ramrod Racing's progress with our Camaro. In the meantime, if you've got any good ideas on a team theme / paint scheme, let me know!