Orbits Near Uranus Racing

You can crush our car but not our spirits. Uranus, like the Phoenix will rise again.

It did not end well Saturday. We had a "four wheel off" spin and had to report to the paddock officials. After getting the requisite wrist slap, the car refused to restart. With no success diagnosing the problem, we cut our losses and retired to the bar to drown our sorrows.
No regrets though, we ran a good race, had a lot of fun. I think we were around 20th place when we retired.

The requisite driver photo Joe Drumheller, Bill Magruder, Bruce Burnett, Scott Harrison. Crew chief Katherine Lindsay took the photo.

Some of our strange competitors. This is team Citroën "SM"

22nd place after 4 hours and 1 black flag for contact with another car

Track map...

The view from our paddock spot...it pays to get here early.

Uranus passing on the front straight. We're 37 out of ~100 cars after 2 hours. Only 12 hours to go.

Prepping Uranus for Lemons at Thompson speedway in Ct.

Arguably the coolest car at Katies Cara and Coffee this week. ;-)

A ten dollar connector was all that was needed to fix the rev limiter problem. Whoop!

Brakes bled, engine broken in, now all we need is to fix the rev limiter issue. Waiting on electrical connector.

WTF...Saturn won't rev over 4000 rpm. Hits a rev limiter built into the PCM software. Spent the better part of today trying to figure it out. No joy!

Done....

Quick release steering wheel going in....

Its' alive.....Started up and running smooth. Breaking in the rings now....

And so it begins...rebuilt engine going in this week. New clutch, removable steering wheel, accusump etc.

Team Uranus is going to Thompson Speedway for the August Lemons race.

Performance Racing Industry

http://www.performanceracing.com/magazine/online_bonus_feature/photo_gallery_24_hours_of_lemo.html

Performance Racing Industry Performance Racing Industry produces a motorsports industry monthly business magazine for motorsports industry entrepreneurs and professional race teams, as well as a professional trade show exhibiting new auto racing products and motorsport engineering.

Here's a recent article in PRI magazine with Jay Lamm describing the 24 Hours of LeMons. If you're not familiar with this race series, this is a good summary....

Well, our weekend was a bit of a challenge and ended rather abruptly. Practice went well on Friday, and our novice driver came up to speed. On Saturday morning, as we install the new wheel/tire combo, we discover our spanky new wheels don't fit the hubs. The wheel centers are too small, necessitating some "field mods" to the centering ring on the wheel spacers. After a slow start we are 60 out of 112 cars. But all drivers are doing spectacularly and the new engine seems stronger than the old one. By 3 pm we have worked up to ~20th despite one black flag for car contact and an unscheduled pit stop for loose lug nuts.

Around 3:30 with 3 hours to go for the Saturday segment, and Joe at the wheel, we lose sight of the car. Then we finally spot it being towed around the track to the paddock. apparently an unintended down shift from 4 to 1 (instead of 4 to 3) resulted in a serious over rev which caused the oil pressure to drop. Smartly, Joe killed the engine immediately and pulled off track.

Apparently the oil pressure must have spiked which blew something out of the front of the engine. Upon examination, the entire front of the engine firewall, hood etc was coated with oil and the crankcase was only 1/2 filled. The engine still sounded fine with no unusual noises, but the oil pressure falls off after restarting. Further examination was not possible at the track. Consequently we retired for the weekend.

It's alive again... 3 days of work and the new engine is ready for the upcoming 24 Hours of Lemons race this weekend.

LeMons South Fall - 2014 - 24 Hours of LeMons

Spent three days swapping out the engine/trans in the Saturn. Hopefully we'll get it running in time for CMP
http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events-results/2014/article/134-lemons-south-fall

LeMons South Fall - 2014 - 24 Hours of LeMons Endurance circuit for cars costing $500 or less. Schedule and locations, rules and FAQ, results and photos from previous races.

Team Uranus is ready for NJMP this weekend. With the Drumheller-Harrison-Magruder-Burnett drinking, er driving team, how bad can that be?

While prepping the car for NJMP in two weeks, we brilliantly ran the lift up into the garage door opener and totaled the windshield!
DOH!

Untitled album

First event for the season is coming in March.

SUMMIT POINT CAPITOL OFFENSE: We finished! Our team placed 28th overall / 8th in class on laps with 291 laps completed (44 behind the leader). A great job by co-drivers Ben, Herb and Doug!!!

End of day one at Summit Point: roughly 33rd place out of over a hundred cars.. Car's still running, on to DAY 2!!!

Racing season starts soon! We'll be at Carolina Motorsports Park in March.

Ya never know what weird crap will show up on Google Street View.

2012 season has started!!! First event: 3-4 March 2012 - Southern Discomfort, Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw SC

Dennis Olthoff

Dennis Olthoff of Olthoff Racing will be joining us as a driver for 24 Hours of Lemons at Charlotte Motor Speedway!

Dennis Olthoff