I think I finally got the picture posting thing figured out. Oval track racing at its finest. This pic is after the first race, it was a rough one. But out of the 2 cars that got into me, the mighty pinto came out with the least amount of damage, a lot of people came up to me after the heat race and said they never would have thought a pinto was that tough.
Here is a closer look at the damage, It looks a little better now. We applied some good old fashioned hillbilly engineering called "back-hoe luvin" and the frame rails are almost straight again. The bumper wouldnt straighten but what do you expect, it came off of a gm product. lol.
;D, This is about the only decent pic that came out, that I have before it got all beat up. The photographer at the track didnt get a grandstand shot before the big bang. The color is like a really pale mint green, it was supposed to be darker but we werent supposed to use that kind of paint in a spray gun. Was trying to go for a scoobydoo mystery machine theme but it came out looking more like an easter egg.
Cool..................... ;D
Thank you. If it had a title it wouldn't have become a dirt track car.
Well I finally got my pinto to the track again this weekend, we were supposed to have 2 day event. I got 2nd place in the heat race the first night, was supposed to start the feature on the outside pole, but then it rained.
Night #2 warm ups went very well, then started 4th in the heat race, 1 lap went by I was up to 3rd tried to pass the 1st and 2nd cars in one shot and BANG CRUNCH! BOOM head on into the wall. Got the car straightened out enough to run the feature, but thanks to the rain again we all went home. So now we have 2 features to try and make up.
Maybe you should be the demo derby demon???? ;D
uuhh huh. ssshhhhhh. I don't need anymore bad luck. :-X :-[
Hey DTD:
I checked out the webpage of your favorite race place (HVS), pretty cool speedway. Do you
race in the 4cyl mini stock category?
Good luck on your next race (derby?)! ;D
77pintocw
No im in the 6 cyl strictly stock class. Thank you for the good luck im gonna need it. Got my tires fixed today and made a trip to a boneyard for a heavier duty front bumper ;)
Cool! ;D
Well, after a day of wrenching and hammering and bending. The mighty pinto lives again to race another day.
Heavier duty bumper : installed
Bent frame rails : straightened
Squashed tire cutting fenders : straightened and no sharp edges
Bent tie rod : fixed
Caster and camber : realigned
Flat tire : new tube
Ruined paint job : Tomorrow ;D
 New slogan across the back hatch
                   MY GIVE A DAMN IS BROKEN
are you not allowed to have a front loop? do you have the car "tied togehter" I race pinto ministock here in missouri... we run a full cage front loops rear X uni-body tied togehter weight jacks ...
Ok, ok, ok. We are not mini stocks, or thunder cars, or whatever else they may call the class.
Not allowed to add weight, not allowed a roll cage, not allowed to tie anything together except our shoelaces, no front hoops, loops or anything of the sort. No fuel cells, either. nothing wider than a 60 series street tire. no weight jacks no racing springs, shocks, sliders, offsets, panhard bars, etc. etc. etc.
You kick the windows out, strip the interior, bolt a piece of gaurdrail to the drivers door, and go racing or wrecking whichever you are better at!!!!!!!!!
They did finally concede to letting us put our batteries in the back seat area though. so I immediately went and bought a 130 lb D-9 Caterpillar battery! ;D.
Well all, the season is over and it is time for a recap. My season sucked. The number 73 thunder car pinto won the points championship for his class, though. A big way to go for Dave Ricker at Hill valley Speedway!!!!!!!! 8) 8) 8)
Our racing days at Hillvalley are over though, after some very poor decision making on the part of track officials we will never go back.
What happened was; the youngest member of our team decided to let his girlfriend drive his old 4 cyl car. Something went wrong with the car and she was trying to make it into the pits, she was running as close to the wall as she could to stay out of everyones way. But the kamikaze idiot that was winning the race rear ended her at full throttle. He hit her hard enough that it launched her car completely over the wall without touching the wall. the car amazingly stayed on its wheels. They stopped the race to see if the race leader(related to the owner) was okay, meanwhile this 16 yr old kid is sitting in her car with broken ribs and her shoulder dislocated from its socket. They never made any attempt to check on her. My friend jumped the fence to go to her aid, he helped get her out of the car and carried her to the ambulance, where he was physically pushed and told to get away that they shouldn't be there. At this point things got very loud. the only doctoring being done on the guy who hit her was a couple band-aids on some cuts. After much screaming and arguing my friend told them where they could put their genitals, and said he would unhook the race car hauler and take her to the hospital himself, and was in the process of doing just that when the track officials and ambulance crew finally realized that they had screwed up horribly and finally put the poor girl in the ambulance and rushed her to the hospital.
Due to this, we are no longer taking ANY of our cars to this track ever again. we will not even go to watch. Would you want to race somewhere where they leave you to sit in the dark and die????
Yes Hill Valley Speedway you screwed up. the #8, #88, #8jr, #80(me), #5, #23, #7, and #7x. will never be back.
Tom if you are reading this, we will be racing at your competition next year. For a pinto lover you sure are an a$$.
Hey Spencer,
I think you made a WISE decision.
Maybe the girl who got hurt will re-open the track next year?$$$$$
that would be cool, but we all sign a waiver before we are allowed to race.
Its a shame for the track, when this whole strictly stock thing started it was turning into a very nice place to go racing, but in the last 2 years it has just gotten out of control. I have seen a race already that a lapped car won because people werent paying attention. No adherances to the rules at all. Plus at first there were some pretty cool people to race with, but this year we have a bunch of people who are acting like it is some kind of division of nascar and are getiing in fights and screaming and crying like their cars are worth a million dollars, when in fact most of us only paid between 50 an 500 dollars for our rides. That was part of the fun, if you smashed your car, you saved the good parts and pulled another one out of the junkyard and started over. One overly enthusiastic parent I know spent 3000 at a car lot for a car and kicked the windows out, only to discover after one race that the car wasn't as tough as the wall. everyone has lost sight of what this class was intended for. oh well. Ill just have to make my million driving truck and start my own track. But i'll have a popular opinion rule at mine. If the crowd votes a majority that someone is a jerk and should be booted. intermission will be watching their car get cut in half by some godzilla looking car cruncher, with fire coming out of its nose. ::)
You may have signed a waiver.
BUT not against the track's "neglegance" to run and provide safety and medical help.
Besides that waiver doesn't mean ZOOP!
Find a TV lawyer. and get all your buddies to testify.
Things will come back in a circle, people will quit coming, it will gather dust, til someone else decides to try it. Seems to be the curse of small town dirt tracks, at least around here anyway. I think they've all taken a turn at being closed for some reason or another. This one just reopened a few years ago, took off like fire, and now seems to be burning out again.