Foxey Bobs Racing

Brainerd International Raceway.  The Foxey Bob’s team recently loaded up, and headed to Brainerd Minnesota – the famous home of Babe, the Blue Ox.  While the Foxey Bob’s team didn’t have time to see the sights, a lot of good track time was had, and with minimal issues.  All in all a great weekend for the team, and another notch on the belt in competitive driving.

Preparation for BIR was minimal.  New oil and a brake fluid flush were about all that was in order.  New tire’s were ordered and it was decided to go with the newer Bridgestone RE-11’s.  We can’t be any more positive about this tire – it worked flawlessly, keeping the Foxey Bob’s Sti on track with some cars running R-Comps.

BIR was about an eight hour drive from the Foxey Bob’s Garage in Coralville.  After a half day of work on Friday, the Foxey Bobs’ crew ducked their 9-5 and were on the road.  They pulled in around dusk, unloaded the trailer, and the decision was made to forgo the hotel room and camp in the trailer.  What seemed like a great money saving idea, turned into a bit of a nightmare as that warm day turned into a freezing night.  Well, it’s good the crew is a close and very secure bunch, as there was some close proximity sleeping done that night as no one thought it was going to get that cold!  Needless to say, Saturday night a trip to walmart was made for some new sleeping bags to better handle that extreme Minnesota summer cold.

Saturday started very well, the track was quick, and mostly uneventful.  Then the rain came, and it was bad, bad.  The winds were up enough that a grandstand blew over onto the pace car (which was a rental vehicle to boot)!  At this point I don’t know if it was the mix of being hot, and getting wet, but another exhaust gasket blew out.  This time it was the drivers side manifold to head.  It was lucky we stopped as it was blowing hot gases all over the place, and even melted a hole in our timing belt cover.  With only a NAPA available, a trip was made for some gasket material, and once again they were less than friendly and helpful. They sold us a sheet of gasket maker, which was a steel impregnated cork or something – with their only help being “it says in the description that’s what to use it for.”  With such overwhelming confidence, a tube of Permatex Ultra Copper was also purchased, and it was back to the track.

The gasket material was ruled out, and the ultra copper was used instead. The manifold was put back on, and it was back to the track after missing only one session.

The rest of the day was wet, but the Bridgestone’s performed up to expectations, and the lines of the sti were getting better and better.  Brian reported that he was still having a few driving issues he needed to improve on.  One of them being drifting away from the outside of the track in the brake zones, and the other big one was being able to look ahead.  While he knows he needs to be looking toward the next obstacle, instead of the immediate one – he feels he needs to pay attention to what is at hand to make sure he is hitting his proper marks – such as the proper turn in point, apex, etc.  When looking ahead, issues such as drifting away from the turn in point and not hitting the correct apex begins.  He realizes his errors, and looks forward to improving upon them over the year.