Foxey Bobs Racing

Lately the Foxey Bob’s crew took a trip over to South Beloit, Il to run at the fantastic Blackhawk Farms.  How did the event turn out?  Well, click ‘Read More’ to find out!

I love going to tracks where the GPS quits working miles away from the track!  That’s exactly what BHF was – about 3 miles off the beaten path, down in a converted swamp.  Other than the mutant mosquitoes, the facilities at the track were great!  Fuel always open on site, instead of having to wait for 10 min intervals ever hour like at some tracks, and brand new shower and restroom facilites.

This event was a little more challenging as I was all alone, with no support or crew.  Once again I pulled in after dark, got my waivers signed and started looking for a spot to park and unload.  Fortunately I found Jason B, Ryan and Peg already settled in for the night, and there was a spot right next to them.  So I unloaded quick, got things lined up for the morning, and promptly went to bed.

Saturday I woke up to great weather, and was ready to get to it for the day!  Had my drivers meeting first thing, and right after took a few slow (35mph) laps around the track just to get a feel for the layout, as it was my first time there. I really liked the layout of the track, and it was in pretty good shape – besides turn 1 and turn x.  Those two turns were terribly wash boarded, with the ruts right in the middle of the track, so they were more or less impossible to avoid.

The first few sessions were great, and I was getting faster and faster.  With the addition of the more aggressive new pads, I was hoping the rotors would essentially be resurfaced but unfortunately they didn’t change much, and I still had a pretty bad shimmy from the front right.  Other than that, everything else was working out quite well – until another gasket blew on me!  This time I was prepared, and had new gaskets available, as well as the (obviously completely under rated) ultra copper.  I got under the car and just assumed it was the passenger side manifold to head gasket (as it was the drivers side that had gone out last time) and quickly dropped the manifold, applied the ultra copper and thought I was ready to go.  At that point I saw it was actually the manifold to up pipe gasket, which thankfully I had a replacement for.  I got everything all back together, and while I was under I redid a little routing of the brake ducts, and was ready to be back in action.  I finished in enough time to enjoy a leisurely lunch and was back on track for the first afternoon session.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, thought I was still having some issue with turn XX.  I just couldn’t seem to get it quite right to get the best line through.

I really developed a rhythm through the carousel and the turns leading up to turn XX.  I liked going through the carousel because I could keep my steering input consistent and control turn XX entry completely with the throttle.  It was great feeling everything just sort of come together right there, then blasting through turn XX.

All in all, what  a great track, and I had a blast.  The weekend ended a little early for me, as we were met with torrential rain mid afternoon Sunday  With standing water on the track, the Sti was all over the place, and while I was getting the wet line down, the car just wasn’t set up for tsuch extreme wet.   So I packed her up, tried to dry myself off as best as possible, and it was back on the road to get home to Iowa.