2022 Almost In The Rear View

[ron.brown11]

Nick, how I got involved with him wasn't easy. Living in Del Rio then, they were no circle track cars anywhere there. I can't remember the name of the guy (Umshied?), that was running the TAMs series then, but I found his email and asked him  about said driver, because he lived in Uvalde. He passed my email along, and I got called. That's only 75 miles from DR, and I know that he was running in San Antonio. That would knock 150 miles off a trip, by riding with him. The driver made it clear on the ride to SA, that he had a crew chief, and he made all the calls. OK, I'm good with that, I'm the outsider. The first night at the track, getting ready for hot laps, the crew chief told me to set the tires at 26psi (rights), and 22 on the left, and he was going trackside to clock lap times. Now I had never run a lap at SA, and thought ok they know what they're doing. But I kept thinking to my self, there's no way to make these tires work with those pressures. I took temps when he came off track, and to my surprise (not really), all the heat was in the center 3" of the tires. How do you run a 500+ hp mod on 3" of tires? You Can't! So when it came time to hot lap again, I set the rights at 19psi, and the lefts at 15. I'm so glad that the crew chief went to time laps, because he was 7/10 second a lap faster. I took temps again, and we were still giving away 2 unused inches of tire. The next session I dropped the rights to 17 & the lefts to 13psi. He went another 2/10s faster, and the temps finally were fairly even across all 4 tires. You should have heard the conversations between those 2. They just couldn't understand it. After listening to them trying to figure it out for 20 minutes, I'd heard enough of their guessing. I showed them the real numbers, and then I asked them why they were running the pressures so high. I was shocked when the driver said "that's what the tire trailer guys said to run". And he believed them!! But here was the strangest thing to come from that first night. The "crew chief" never went to the track with us again. 

The driver is a great guy. When I was about to have 4 vertebrae fused in my neck, he thought that a doctor in DR was going to perform it. This doctor had been practicing orthopedics in Uvalde for a few years, maimed several people, then moved to DR. Don't you just love small town doctors (not all of course), but DR seemed to attract the worst. This driver sat on the hospital board in Uvalde, and they were going to pull her privileges there, because of the complaints against her. He offered to take time off work to shuttle me back & forth from DR to SA, just to keep her from touching me. He was really happy when I told him that the surgery was going to happen at Wilford Hall in SA. And as you know Nick, he was licensed as a doctor & and dentist.  

He had more racing experience than me. But I had a lot more asphalt experience then he did. He struggled with seeing the difference between the 2 surfaces for setups. I assure you that I'm no Nick Holt, when it comes to chassis setup. Do you remember Nick, the time he hired you to come from SA to Uvalde, to do a pre season chassis set up? I went over to Uvalde, because he asked me to come that day. For whatever reason, you called him and told him you were going to be about 2 hours late. So I told him I'm going to get started on the basics like ride heights, caster/camber etc. Then I put the cars on the scales to start looking at numbers, and making some adjustments. He told me that I was wasting my time, because Nick had his own way. I told him no worries, because I planned on seeing what you did, and then try and understand why, and learn from it. When you got there, you spent about 20-30 minutes looking over a lot of pieces on the car, and taking measurements. Then you looked at the scale numbers, and scratched your head. Finally, you looked at the driver as asked "Why did he hire you? He responded "because I want a good baseline setup for opening day". You told him that almost everything was already pretty much where you would have set it. I think we made 3-4 minor changes that day, and they were for changing the scale number a little bit. This was the first time that he showed me something, that would take me 2 years to finally figure out. He only wanted to believe what someone was telling him, if he was paying them. 

Yeah, I too Nick will not forget that track rental day. When with only 2 cars on the track, almost a half track apart, they managed to nearly destroy both cars. I still remember my last radio call to "Stay high coming off track". That was bad, but it could have been so much worse. Then came the other car's owner losing his mind. I was certain there was going to be a brawl. I also remember his driver climbing from the car saying that he had looked down at the gauges when it happened. That car owner heard it too, but chose to ignore it. I don't think John wanted to fight about the crash, and John was never shy about wanting to fight. That told me a lot, but my driver didn't listen to his spotter to stay high, so I've always felt that we were at fault the most. 

Yeah, I loved that day too Nick (a different day then the one from the above paragraph). But that was also the last time he ever let me get behind the wheel. I used to drive it to pre race tech every week before that. From that moment on, the relationship between he & I deteriorated, and it took me awhile to figure out. Prior to that day, we had talked about letting me race the car on some weekend. That was never uttered again, and I never asked either. I think he was a bit embarrassed that a guy that had never turned a lap in his car, at a track I had never turned a lap on, was running as good as him. Then, in the pits after I came off the track, I didn't ask what my lap times were, because I screwed up the entry to 3, every single time I entered it. I remember whining to you that I tried everything but just parking it on entry. You said "That's what you do here at THR". I think that was the last straw for him. The next 2 times he went on track that day, he tried to do things in his car that he had never done before. He was trying to drive it the way I did. He also nearly wadded it up a couple of times, 1 of which put him in the infield's dead grass. That plugged up the radiator, we found on the next trip out. I've never seen a radiator swell up like that before, and not split apart. I don't know if you heard him, but when we were getting ready to load the car, he said that he was going to set the car on fire. Now I still had my car sitting in my shop in Del Rio. I said that if he wanted to burn down a car, burn mine, and give me his. No kore talk about burning cars. He had way better equipment then what I ever raced. That's how I was able to get fairly quick, fairly quickly. His car rotated to the right rear really well, much better then I could get from my chassis. I would have loved to have raced that car, especially if I could have run it at Tucson Raceway Park where I had thousands of laps at. 

I worked nights at Laughlin AFB on ejection seats, and dealt with explosives everyday. That can be a bit stressful. I would get off at midnight on Fridays, and I'd go home and try and sleep a bit. But I never got more than 3 hours, because I had the to drive to Uvalde to get hooked up with Greg. I'd leave DR at 5am. After being at the track all day, I drove us back to Uvalde, then the last 75 miles home. He usually would be on call, or in the hospital on most Sundays, and needed any sleep he could get. I would usually get to bed about 5am on Sunday mornings. And of course, my wife didn't think I should sleep all day Sunday. Ah the things we do for racing. The only thing I regret is not being able to figure out why things went sideways. Hell, I was at the track 9 days after having my neck fused. Boy that pissed off my wife!. I would still do it again probably.

[ron.brown11]

Nick, one other thing happened the night I showed up after having my neck fused, and wearing a hard cervical collar. We were parked next to a guy named Bubba, and Bubba was running a street stock (like a bomber class). Apparently Bubba was pissed off at another driver for wrecking him. I went into our trailer to grab a tool that I wanted to have with me, when my driver went out for the main. Well, Bubba was apparently looking to fight someone over his crash, and because we had a generator, he thought it was too loud. So as I was walking out of the trailer, he said that I needed to turn it off or he was going to kick my ass. I told him I'd be waiting in the trailer, come on over. I don't know if someone talked him out of coming into the trailer, or he realized that his nuts hadn't quite dropped yet. But this I'm certain, not coming in that trailer really saved him a lot of pain. I had pulled the jack handle from the floor jack. And I would have used it too. The first shot would have been to his face. And as I had played baseball for over a decade, and fast pitch softball, I could still rip a good swing. My doctor had told me that if I got above those plates, I'd probably be a quadriplegic. Yeah, there's now way he would have gotten the first hit. Bubba finally shut his mouth, and I went about my business. But I did leave something behind. I plugged my cellphone in and turned on the video camera.That way, if he wanted to steal something, he'd go to jail. If he wanted to fight, he'd go to the hospital first, then on to jail. Or I could have ended up in the morgue, but I doubt that..

Merry Christmas!!!

[HiTech]

10 hours ago, ron.brown11 said:

Nick, one other thing happened the night I showed up after having my neck fused, and wearing a hard cervical collar. We were parked next to a guy named Bubba, and Bubba was running a street stock (like a bomber class). Apparently Bubba was pissed off at another driver for wrecking him. I went into our trailer to grab a tool that I wanted to have with me, when my driver went out for the main. Well, Bubba was apparently looking to fight someone over his crash, and because we had a generator, he thought it was too loud. So as I was walking out of the trailer, he said that I needed to turn it off or he was going to kick my ass. I told him I'd be waiting in the trailer, come on over. I don't know if someone talked him out of coming into the trailer, or he realized that his nuts hadn't quite dropped yet. But this I'm certain, not coming in that trailer really saved him a lot of pain. I had pulled the jack handle from the floor jack. And I would have used it too. The first shot would have been to his face. And as I had played baseball for over a decade, and fast pitch softball, I could still rip a good swing. My doctor had told me that if I got above those plates, I'd probably be a quadriplegic. Yeah, there's now way he would have gotten the first hit. Bubba finally shut his mouth, and I went about my business. But I did leave something behind. I plugged my cellphone in and turned on the video camera.That way, if he wanted to steal something, he'd go to jail. If he wanted to fight, he'd go to the hospital first, then on to jail. Or I could have ended up in the morgue, but I doubt that..

Merry Christmas!!!

UR  one bad man ..lol.........ONE DRIVER came  to our shop one night  had a couple to much to  drink  normal . he felt ten foot tall and bullet  proof . he mouthed off  enough  that i told him to go home we do not allow drinking  at the shop and u already had to many .... well that made him mad  so he picks up a 4 pound sledge  and thought i was going to run away or back off  he was wrong almost dead wrong i came around the 70 chevelle  so fast his eyes looked like apples being drunk and afraid i suppose    i shoved my left hand up under his neck lifted him up where he had no control and headed for the 4 foot open fan with a 2 horse belt drive motor  turned on  we were  about two feet away from him  loosing his head  in the open blades when my brother and another driver grabbed him away from me ..they realized just what i was going to do near the last seconds ... they saved him  .he kept his mouth going till my brother told him  get out or die dont go back inside  ..i was very  serious .... i never gave it a second thought about taking his life ..u pull a weapon better get me fast . not going to run and get hit in the back of the head .so  i figure  may aswell help them out  least  i will see it coming .. ill fight u hand to hand and i do not like to fight  at all most stuff isnt worth it  .but pull a weapon   i have no rules but one and he found out what that rule was ..

[ron.brown11]

Mike, I'm 6' tall, and used to power weight lift. But I don't like fighting. I won't run from one, but I prefer not to if possible. But I assure you that that guy's head would have been reshaped had he entered the trailer. I have 8 plates, 10 screws & a block, all made of titanium, in my neck. But I really shouldn't have been at the track anyway. My body wasn't ready after that surgery. I just didn't want to let the driver down. Knowing all that I found out over the next few months, I wouldn't have gone.

 

[HiTech]

4 hours ago, ron.brown11 said:

Mike, I'm 6' tall, and used to power weight lift. But I don't like fighting. I won't run from one, but I prefer not to if possible. But I assure you that that guy's head would have been reshaped had he entered the trailer. I have 8 plates, 10 screws & a block, all made of titanium, in my neck. But I really shouldn't have been at the track anyway. My body wasn't ready after that surgery. I just didn't want to let the driver down. Knowing all that I found out over the next few months, I wouldn't have gone.

 

yep i never like to fight but push come to shove .. i never eally got into power weight lifting . i did do some weight lifting but nothing like you .. but what i did do was work on the old 70s style drilling rigs .. i was always lead  ..i ducked  few lose chains when  the chain man let go to soon  and missed some that hurt  ..i used that hammer a bunch on valves and anything else that had to be done .. i spent three years with my fed ex ground contract  .about 4 thousand pounds a day min .. strong enough to make some weight lifting  prisoners at three rivers federal correctional facilities  humble...  i did not look very strong to them and they mouth off  in good fun .i ask the guard if i can show them a thing or two .they said yes .. i made four of them stand at the back door / i had 28 boxes of wire  that every single box was 80 pounds  .. one after one bending  over i never stood up i chunked those boxes out the door and not one could catch the boxes and not one could lift one cleanly .some took two to get  em up... the guards laughed and laughed . and the prisoners never mouth off again ....i said never under estimate anyone ..  now i went soft and  picking up 20 pounds is heavy .. those were the days 

[ron.brown11]

Ah the drilling rigs. I had my first knee surgery do to a careless co-worker, on a 26,000 foot natural gas rig near Ft Stockton. My oldest brother-in-law's best friend lost his life on 1, a few months after I got hurt. We all worked on the same crew. His death too was caused by a careless worker. His was so bad, that they had to have a closed casket funeral. His wife was my wife's best friend growing up. They lived across the street from each other, almost the entire time they attended school. Working in the oil fields always pays well, but there's not a lot of room for errors. I can't tell you how many guys that I saw that were missing fingers, or limbs that didn't heal back correctly. It's a brutal business.