Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Overview - April 2011




As is customary around here now I'll wrap up my latest flurry of posts with the latest track overviews. Spring is here and track work will subside quite a bit for the summer, but the racing will go on! Have a great summer Northern Hemisphere, I'll post up some more when its Spring time in the Southern Hemi!


Lets see a back to back champ with Vettel driving his Kinky Kylie in F1 2011.


And finally a small quote that I saw at my friend Dons house and it resonates quite a lot with me.


"Whatever you do... be the best"

-Abraham Lincoln


If thats not what racing and life is all about I don't know what is.

-James


Discovery Channel Visits WLF1R

I imagine most of my friends and aquaintances have seen this but I thought I should post up the clip on my blog. Discovery Channel Canada was out for a day to film me and some friends racing on the circuit. It was a fantastic day with lots of HD cameras and audio. It finally culminated in a really cool piece Ben Schaub and his crew from Discovery put together that aired on their show Daily Planet. Thanks again to Don, Brad, Jimmy and Bryan for particiapting on that exciting day! Enjoy! http://watch.ctv.ca/clip417745#clip417745

Weather Station and Subterranean Garage





The cars keep piling in so it was time for another garage expansion. This time 4 additional floors. That should keep plenty of space for the next couple years, or maybe months (I wish)!


On my daily commute I pass the White Lake / Oakland County Weather Station and it has this cool spherical Doppler Radar dome. That got me to thinking that a weather station would be cool to have and so I've built one on top of the garage. I searched toy shops and sporting goods stores for a small soccer ball that I thought would be a perfect geodesic pattern for the dome. I finally found a nice foam one with a good coating that would accept oil / laquer paint (without eating the foam). From there it was the domes support structure and two story building made from gator board, popsicle type sticks and sintra sheet. It's dressed in corresponding blue / gray to go with the garage look. So how's the weather? Partly cloudy or sunny depending on your preference and it never changes...

Race Control Comm Tower



This new tower has been installed recently to help disguise a cord cover that goes up to the tracks new perimeter lights. Same style construction as the other towers primarily dowell rods and styrene. Back to the lights though, my friend/neighbor spent many hours with me helping me put up the light fixtures around the circuit installing dimmers and the like. The lights actually are pretty cool for night racing in that they have a set of blue leds in the center that remain on even when dimmed which gives a cool night look to the track. Thanks Smitty!