Saturday Night Buidup, Dec. 2000: No Rest for the Weary

The Saturday Night Buildup...        read full caption The Saturday Night Buildup car is still one of the best-handling street stocks around. The car is very neutral and can be loosened up with a simple stab at the brake pedal.

Perris Auto Speedway uses...        read full caption Perris Auto Speedway uses a team of technical inspectors to go over every car prior to the race. The prerace inspection focuses entirely on safety issues.

One thing that’s nice...        read full caption One thing that’s nice about Perris is that you pit in the infield, so you don’t have to unload all your spares and tools unless you need them. Check out that K&N Flow Control filter. We’ve been using the same one for about five years.

This is the stock GM power-steering...        read full caption This is the stock GM power-steering pump that has given us so many headaches. We haven’t been able to get the belt to stay on for five consecutive races. We finally tossed the entire system in favor of an aftermarket pump from Speedway Motors.

After yet another night of...        read full caption After yet another night of power-steering problems (this time in the hot laps), we gave up and put the car on the trailer with the intention of going home. When fellow racer and friend, John Handzel, (he had just sold his car) stopped by to help, he refused to give up and fixed the car with the help of Karl Tollman. Johnny ended up driving the car in the race.

Pulley alignment remained...        read full caption Pulley alignment remained a problem throughout the night. We never did get it right.

Karl tries to pry the power-steering...        read full caption Karl tries to pry the power-steering bracket forward to get a better alignment. The bracket is a fairly tough cast piece.

After the heat race, there...        read full caption After the heat race, there were more rushed attempts to get the power steering to work. Many ideas were sparked and attempted.

“Johnny 5” Handzel...        read full caption “Johnny 5” Handzel marks a rare occasion at the end of a long, frustrating night. He’s the only other driver to race the Saturday Night Buildup car. He looked good and commented that the car handled extremely well.

Ouch! There was big-time crunching...        read full caption Ouch! There was big-time crunching going on during the races. This is a difficult spot to fix, too. Johnny and Kurt helped work on the car the next week to get it back into shape.

The fact that the nose...        read full caption The fact that the nose was beat up is a bit of evidence that Johnny was being aggressive and trying to take away spots on the track.

After trying to bang out the...        read full caption After trying to bang out the damage, we gave up and cut out a new piece from another car at Memory Lane Auto Dismantlers. Scott Talkington helped fit the new piece to the car and welded it all up.

We finally (finally!) gave...        read full caption We finally (finally!) gave up on the stock power steering pump and ordered an aftermarket Profile pump and remote reservoir kit from Speedway Motors.

The pump’s mount is so...        read full caption The pump’s mount is so simple, you can’t screw it up. We needed to space out the pump a bit because we used a long water pump, but all that was required was a flat piece of metal.

We put the remote reservoir...        read full caption We put the remote reservoir on the front hoop. We’re more than ecstatic to report that this system worked just fine on the racetrack. We should have come to our senses a long time ago before wasting so many race nights.

Since our power-steering problems...        read full caption Since our power-steering problems were behind us, it was time for something new. During hot laps, the engine let go with a loud kaboom! I instantly knew it was bad. Here, car owner/crew chief Earl Carpenter tries to wiggle the crank pulley to see if the crank is broken. We discovered later that a rod was sticking out the side of the block.

We don’t know why we...        read full caption We don’t know why we went all these years without a winch. This X3 model from Superwinch makes life a whole lot easier on bad nights. Now it’s back to the GM crate engine, because that’s the only engine we have in the garage. It will be interesting to see how that engine does against the high-dollar crowd at Perris.

This racing thing sure is an up-and-down deal. I guess it’s a lot like golf in that respect. You can have problems that convince you you’re going to quit right there and take up another sport, but it only takes one thing to go right, and you’re reminded why you love it so much and can’t imagine doing anything else.

Going into night five of racing at Perris Auto Speedway, we carried the burden of four DNFs (did not finish), all related to power steering problems. It was becoming demoralizing. My dad, Earl, tried a few more fixes before race number five, and we headed to the track with an underwhelming amount of confidence.

It’s a good thing we weren’t expecting much, because the power-steering belt came off on the second lap of practice. I simply drove the car back onto the trailer. I wasn’t going to spend another night thrashing around to try to fix something we hadn’t been able to repair at home.

Then John Handzel stopped by to see why the car was on the trailer. We told them our racing night was already over because we were suffering from the same problem for the fifth consecutive race. Handzel said, “Hey, if we (Handzel had brought his ace mechanic friend, Karl Tollman) can fix it, can I race it?”

Well, no one has ever raced the Saturday Night Buildup car before. Plenty have asked, that’s for sure. Some have asked more than once, and my dad has always said no. His explanation has been, “I don’t like fixing the damage my own son does to the car, so I really don’t want to fix things someone else does to it.” My dad was so disgusted this night, however, that he said, “I don’t give a damn what you do.” Then he walked away.

“Johnny 5” and his buddy jumped on the trailer and got to work. They tried to bend and shim out the power-steering bracket, but eventually they took off the bracket and beat on it. When they put it back together, it was better but still not right. Of course, Dad couldn’t just watch, so he helped too.

There was no time to continue working, however, as the heat race was lining up. Johnny borrowed a driving suit from buddy Kenny Mann, jumped in the car, and tore out onto the track in a cloud of dust.

He started at the back of the eight-car field (we never seem to draw a good number for starting position in the heats) and quickly moved up. He was one spot away from the fourth-place transfer spot after only five laps when the power-steering belt flew off. Since the power-steering belt usually knocks the water-pump belt off at the same time, the car got hot quickly, and Johnny (keeping a close eye on the gauges) brought her in. Of course, with the steering quickener on the car, it’s just about impossible to drive the car at speed without power steering.

Johnny and Karl jumped right back into the fray and beat on the power-steering bracket some more. They just barely finished in time to go out for the last-chance semi-main. Again, Johnny started from the back and was passing cars at a regular clip. He went under, around, and in-between enough cars to be about two spots away from the transfer spot for the main event with five laps left. It was a rough run, too. Cars turned down and drove into the side of him, turned right in the corners, and more. Now, I’ll be the first to say that Johnny sticks his nose into situations I’ve learned to stay away from; I thought he ran a pretty clean race but still returned with a staggering amount of damage to the car. In the end, it was for nothing as the belt came off with four laps remaining.

I’ll say this: What was going to be a boring night turned into a wild and woolly affair that got our pulses pumping. It was a bit odd to watch my race car go around the track. I was able to see that the car is definitely slow off the corners compared to the other cars, but the Saturday Night Buildup car handled beautifully in the turns and could run any line imaginable.

After repairing the damage to the car, we focused on the power steering. An aftermarket power-steering pump kit from Speedway Motors (using a Profile pump) was ordered and in our hands in just a few days. It was easy to install and really boosted our confidence for the next race.

The power-steering worked just fine, and the belts all stayed in place. There was just this one problem we hadn’t expected: The engine blew up!

In practice, the engine grenaded, and the night was once again over too soon. Now we will have to go back to our GM crate engine we started the project with. Of course, that will make for an interesting comparison. Stay tuned.