Hey all, check it. Will try to be able to have the Junior at the Alaska
Renewable Energy Fair August 1st, if possible.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Willmon [mailto:electrabishi@...]
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 1:17 AM
To: 'NEDRA@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Too much Racing

Alright all. I know I should be doing NEDRA business. But all this racing, and
partying and fishing is starting to get in the way.
I know there are a couple posts I should reply to and I thought Jim Husted would
come to my aid. But nooooo, he's too busy working
and building race motors (and EV's from what I hear), and probably fishing too
;-) to be bothered with motor noobs like us. That
or he doesn't care and I know that's not true so its probably all of the former.
How's that for a sharp stick in the eye Jim ;-P

Anyway, dudes and ladies, I got enough time to belt one out before my ride gets
here at 3am on our way to slay some Halibut and
Salmon. We had a pretty productive weekend, got the Pinto shaken down after
repairs and ready for the Wayland Invite and a new
Electric Powered Junior Dragster on the strip and some new EV grins, kids and
parents too :-D

Just wanted to preface by giving a short synopsis before I light you off on the
pics. The couple weeks we were down waiting for
parts we were able to get ahold of a Junior Dragster chassis with a blown up
motor. The owner's name is Morgan and is the grand
daughter of the owner of the IHRA track Alaska Raceway Park, Earl Lackey. She
comes from a racing family and was bummed she blew up
her ICE early in the year. No worries though I got support from the whole
family. Her uncle built the motor mounts, battery trays
and cover as well as the new improved chain guard for the 50 series roller
chain. Since the cars name is Munky's Ride I guess that
makes John Lackey a Munky's Uncle ;-)

So anyway, 2 weeks (not counting the motor cleanup job Jim Husted coached me
through) and the car is running on its own "Made in
America" electrons. Since this was a long 3 day racing weekend I dedicated the
Friday to shaking down the Jr and pitting for Morgan
after she took the yoke. I must say that I was quite disappointed with the
acceleration off the line. But I know it's because of a
combination of several things. 1) I geared it to high. 2) the motor is not the
optimum motor to use but I insist on using it
because its free and 3) I may have a contactor too small that is limiting some
of the power. Once I get 1 and 3 fixed it should do
better by me. Morgan on the other hand was way enthused. Since previously she
would only make it to 45 mph with the ICE she was
now getting zinged to 62 mph in the 1/8th mile. Biggest EV Grin I've ever seen,
next to my own :-D The safety guys at the end of
the track asked her mom (points leader in the open air class driving a snow
machine ;-) what they did to her. They said she had
this huge smile from ear to ear every time she made the turnout. She even won
in several rounds of eliminations. But finally the
luck gave out as she broke out with 12.24 dialing a 12.27. But the girl was
cutting .01 and .02 lights. She got the launch quick.
Now I just need to help her, mom and dad with the temperature curve the
batteries experience as they warm up. It wasn't as much as
I thought it would be, and the batteries didn't heat up as much as I thought
they would. So its going to be a pretty consistent
machine once they get it dialed in.

I fared less well with the Pinto in points on Sunday since a couple mishaps on
the track caused significant delay in my runs, my
battery temps never made it to operating levels. I had no idea what to dial and
lost by 0.2 seconds missing my dial by 0.5 seconds.
Oh well, there are some that were relieved I took it easy and the car is still
in one piece. It will stay this way until the
Wayland Invite since we are cutting off racing until the big EVent. 12 @ 12, I
like it John. Maybe T-Shirts are in order ;-)

OK without further adieu here are the pics of the Junior. All the kids made fun
of me because (no, not because it was electric -
they've seen the Pinto) I was an 'old man' and didn't have a license to drive a
Junior ;-) But hey I fit - just barely - and no one
told me they put arm restraints on you locking your hands inside the chassis so
you can't even reach the top of your helmet. Talk
about claustrophobia. I "HAD" to remove my coat.


http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03830a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03831a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03834a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03838a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03843a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03844a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03850a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03855a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/DSC03856a.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~saintbernard/Munkys_Ride/2009_07_04.JPG



Enjoy,

Mike