Red Fox Racing

2010 Philadelphia FJC Champion!!

2010-11-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

Yes you read that right, Logan is the 2010 Philadelphia FJC Champion in only his first year of competition!!! We are so proud of him and can't wait to see what the future brings. He's continued to improve and has shown some great speed.

2010 Philaldephia SCCA Region results

Can't wait for the 2011 season! He'll be competiting in the FJC class again with the SCCA as well as competing at NJMP's F1 kart track and Englishtown Raceway's kart track as well in several different sprint racing classes.

NJMP F1 Avenger kart track 11-14-10 practice

2010-11-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

Logan and I made our first trip to NJMP's F1 kart track, the Avenger configuration, on November 14th for a practice day. We got a TON of seat time for a nominal amount and was worth every penny!

Logan was first out during practice and was having a blast. Passing other karts on the inside and had a good line for his first ever dedicated kart track. I worked with him throughout the day and he continued to impress me with his speed but, also his understanding of the racing line.

I also ran my Italkart as well with a few other of my buddies and had a blast as well. I was setting very respectable times throughout the day, which I was really happy with considering it was my first time ever on a dedicated kart track.

Logan and I really looking forward to the 2011 season as we both plan to do kart sprint racing at NJMP as well as Englishtown's kart track. We also hope to compete a few races with the World Karting Association to see how we stack up against the best in the business.

2010-11-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

The 2010 season was a very exciting but, somewhat disappointing season for myself. I campaigned the LeGrand throughout the season, both regional and nationally but, I never really had a good chance to exploit the performance of the car as it was constantly breaking or giving me issues. Of course, after buying the Italkart I ran the LeGrand one last time and it performed flawlessly but, it had rained so the track was slippery. The last few events I ran the Italkart and had a blast! I had more fun in those last few races in the kart than I did all year in the LeGrand. I honestly wish I never sold my Top Kart....

Logan on the other had had an awesome year! He improved immensely throughout the season and was going much, much faster from when he began. He really is starting to understand the correct racing line and how to read a course as well as to set him self up for elements on course. He's shown a tremendous interest in racing and absolutely can't wait for race day to come!

For 2011, both Logan and I will be campaigning our karts - Logan in FJC and myself in F125 with SCCA's Solo program. Logan will be competition regionally and I will be competing both regionally and nationally. There is no national FJC class unfortunately otherwise he'd be competing nationally as well. We also plan to do some sprint racing with the karts as well at NJMP and Englishtown's dedicated kart tracks. We both are really excited to get into wheel-to-wheel racing!!

Italkart

2010-10-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to my new toy - Italkart:-) Its a 2008 Italkart Supersonic V chassis with a TM ICC K9B engine. The chassis is very, very adjustable and has been meticulously maintained by the seller (Bill Isaacson) as well as Cameron Karting out of Sonoma, CA. It is a great package with an unbelievable amount of spares.

I am really looking forward to getting back into karting! In all honesty I wish I never left....

Moving on....

2010-10-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

So I decided to sell the LeGrand. I have a lot of mixed emotions about the whole thing and have thought long and hard as well as talk with friend and Angela (plus my sons) the best decision at this point in my life is to sell the beast. As much as it kills me to do so, deep down I know its the best thing to do for myself and my family.

The LeGrand has been sold to Howard Sharf of West Palm Beach, FL. Howard is a National level Solo competitor, which makes it a little easy to sell since I know the car will stay in BMod and will be in some good hands. Plus it seems like the car will be developed like I would have liked - the car is headed to SFRE for the differential conversion that seems to be a must for the class (although I still feel its not entirely needed to be competitive in the class).

Check out my Facebook page for a ton of cool pictures and video me in action in LeGrand.

I am going back to karts and F125! I've recently purchased a 2008 Italkart Supersonic V with a ICC motor and can't wait to start campaigning the kart!! I should have it next week sometime and hope to debut it at an AI event in Waldorf, MD.

Paradigm Motorsports air shifter

2010-08-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Man this is one cool ass piece of equipment. Thanks to Dave Cook and his hard work, I have made the switch back to an air shifter system with steering wheel mounted paddles. I had tried running what the Haddocks gave me but, never could get their system working properly.

Paradigm's system is an entirely different world. It sports an innovative paddle system that incorporates a hand clutch with the downshift paddle. The initial tug on the paddle initiates the clutch than I pull it further and it initiates a downshift! Really cool. I haven't hooked the clutch feature up yet as I have to convert the trans back to a cable clutch from its current hydraulic system so that the clutch can be activated using a solenoid.

Another cool feature is that the upshift/downshift intervals are adjustable! Haven't played with that but, as is it shifts retarded fast :-) Dave has also come up with a control box that has even more features such as flat-foot shifting (no-lift-to-shift) among some other top secret things!

2010 Northeast Divisional - DC

2010-06-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

The weekend of May 28th - 30th I competed in the Northeast Divisional in the Washington, DC region at FedEx Stadium. The WDCR recently lost 2 of their large lots and have been moved to one smaller lot but, the lot actually has a ton of useable space and turned out to be pretty grippy, although is bumpy in spots. I was really excited to be finally competing against another BMod as Joe Gonzales made the trek down from upstate New York with his early 1979 LeGrand:

Friday was practice and I bought 8 practice runs. On my 2nd run though the engine started bogging. As I pulled into paddock the car stalled out :-( I pulled off the fuel cell filler neck flange and shook the pump feed line as well as the wiring. Once I did this the pump started moving fuel again!!! I got through practice ok and seemed to be setting decent times.

On Day 1 the car was a handful. I was nearly 6 seconds off of Joe with Justin a few tenths behind me. The car was bouncing all over the course like a pogo stick and bottoming the chassis out on the asphalt. The motor was bogging out as well near the end of the runs. Not a good first day.

After the day's competition I took the body off to address the fueling issue where Joe and I noticed the front control arms where sitting at an inclined angle from horizontal. The rear control arms where found to be the same way. This isn't good for the suspension geometry and expains why the car was handling the way it was (and has been so far) also explains why the chassis was bottoming out. As for the fueling issue, I found that the cell bladder had begun to deteriorate but, I didn't realize how bad until a few nights ago.... More on that in the next blog.

So I got the cell situated and raised the ride height. Day 2 came and went and man what a difference!!! My goal entering day 2 was to get within 4 seconds of Joe... I ended up within a second!!! I was ecstatic to say the least. The rest of the time was in gearing. I had switched to a 13 tooth front gear, down from a 16 (with a 44 rear) but, still was able to do the entire course in first gear, which was killing me time wise. I just ordered a 12 gear and am looking forward to feeling the difference.

Here are a few videos from the event:

Here are a few pictures from the event as well:

Ciro Design's wing setup

2010-06-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

After the original wing basically destroyed itself at the final TnT, I worked with Rick Jung of Ciro Design to come up with a pretty kick ass dual rear wing setup and end plates:

Anyone looking for a great, functional wing setup give Rick a call. He does awesome work and is a good guy to boot. Oh and he's not to shabby behind the wheel of his STU Evo. He took 2nd at the 2009 Solo Nationals, while his co-driver took home the championship.

04-25-10 Citizens Bank Park

2010-04-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well I debuted the LeGrand at Warminster Community Park during a Philly SCCA TnT on April 18th, 2010. Everything went well with nothing major breaking. Only a few rivets and the rear body support. I've since fixed the few things that broke and rear made the rear body support out of 4130 chrome-moly. That sucker is ready for some serious downforce now!! I literally stood on the support and it didn't budge.

Here are a few videos from the TnT:

Adam -

Justin -

The first official event in the LeGrand was this past weekend at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA. Weather conditions were pretty miserable in the morning (rain) but, started to dry out in the afternoon. Unfortunately I accidentally erased all our afternoon footage but, have my run from the morning in the wet.

Adam -

The car is an absolute blast but, I still have a lot of work left to get the car up to National level competition. I haven't even corner balanced the car and haven't played with really anything yet suspension tuning wise. I also need to switch out the gearing since its setup for road racing. I was able to do a airstrip course in first gear!!! I also want to add a proper wing and end plates among other things.

Logan's racing debut!!

2010-04-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

The day finally came - March 28th, 2010 Citizens Bank Park - Logan finally made his racing debut!! We had bought him a 2008 Coyote Kid Kart last summer, which is powered by a Comer C50 (50cc) and he his competing in SCCA's Formula Junior C (FJC) class. All summer and fall I have taken him out to empty parking lots and setup small Solo courses for him to get used to the kart and also to teach him the basic of autocross. He seems to really, really enjoy it and loves driving the kart.

He had been dying to start racing... He kept asking when his would race for real. Finally the day came and he was beyond excited, even at 5:30 Sunday morning when I woke him up to get him ready to head out to CBP.

When the time came he couldn't wait to hop in the kart. After getting him suited up, helmet and gloves on off he went. He was a little hesitant his first run but, improved with each run. He improved 20 seconds from his 1st run to his 4th run!!! In fact he even recognized that he went off course and asked to help him figure it out :-) Turned out he was only going off course at one turn, which is very impressive given the size of the course.

Anyway, here are his runs from the event:

Carbon fiber air scoop

2010-04-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to try and fab something out of carbon fiber and I finally had a chance. I needed to come up with a good way to feed the engine cold, clean air as the stock Suzuki intake ducts for the airbox are blocked by the firewall in the LeGrand chassis. I used residential foam insulation as a mold and shaped the the foam to the shape I wanted.

From there I covered the shape in packing tape to act as a mold release. I than laid up sheets of carbon fiber using epoxy resin. For my first try I am pretty happy with the results. I also added an panel air filter originally designed for a '09 STi to the air box for filtration purposes.

The suction nose from the 4 individual throttle bodies is out of this world and your head feels like it will be sucked into the engine since the intake is just above and to the left of the driver's head :-)

Radiator/oil cool/diffuser

2010-04-06T17:23:00.001-07:00

Aero is a big part of BMod, which is one of the reasons I wanted to jump into this class so bad. Because of that I made a front diffuser that also serves as a mounting place for the front mounted radiator and oil cooler.

As is the case with everything else on the LeGrand chassis, I made everything from scratch (other than the radiator and cooler). I think it turned out very well and the diffuser should add some front end grip as well. Eventually I am going to play with mounting a small wing element on the diffuser with uprights but, for now the diffuser will do just fine.

Rilltech Racing wet sump oil pan

2010-04-06T17:17:00.001-07:00

Now this sucker is a work of art!! I recently got hooked up with Rilltech Racing and scored one of their newly redesigned wet sump oil pan (). This should keep the sump plenty happy with oil under all conditions.

Header + exhaust system

2010-04-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

I've finished the header and exhaust including the muffler. Using 1.5" primary tubes that lead into (2) 2 to 1 merge collectors, which than lead to one more 2 to 1 merge collector using 2" piping. From here the exhaust heads out a Erion Racing carbon fiber muffler.

I spot welded everything and had Jim of JM Fabrications finish weld all the seams.

I am very happy with the system and it sounds BAD ASS!!!!

Body continued

2010-04-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

After a week and a half I FINALLY got the body mounted and Jeremy Grafton of JC Customs in Lansdale, PA (215-802-0092) did a phenomenal job on the paint work. I'll post some pictures of the body mounted with its new paint job once I've run my first race (to keep the paint scheme under wraps for now).

I also constructed a front splitter for the car out of 1/2 ash plywood, which I coated in epoxy to seal it and paint it black. Came out pretty nice and I've since mounted the radiator and oil cooler. Check it out:

Body

2010-03-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

Currently I am busting my butt to get the Decker body mounted. Chip Haddock made me a new front body as the previous owner had an off and destroyed the front body to the point where it was easier to just make a new one. While he was at it I also had Chip make me a set of his side pod covers that he made to match the Decker body work.

I've mounted the side pod covers using aircraft grade machine screws and rivet nuts as well as aluminum sheets. I extended the mounting sheets outward from the side pod covers 1". I'm hoping that this will grab some clean air from the side and provide additional downforce to the sides of the chassis. It may not look like it but, it took me nearly 6 hours to mount the covers and fabricate the mounting sheets!

I am currently working on mounting the front body work. So far I've got the side portions of the front body work mounted. I used (4) dzus fasteners per side. These are really cool as I went with a 7/16" big head oval fasteners that are anodized black, which should look killer with the paint scheme I have planned. You can just see the fasteners on the side of the panel (the 4 black circles). I fabricated a mounting plate for each fastener using a 1.25"x1.25" aluminum right angle bar. The fasteners grab a small spring that I riveted to the angle bar and holds the body nice and tight.

Here are some overall photos of the front body along with the beginnings of the front diffuser that I am frabricating out of 1/4" birch plywood:

I've finally decided on a livery for the body as well. I'm going with the McLaren M20 from 1976 of orange and black, which Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren campaigned during the 1976 Cam Am series. I'm putting my own spin on the livery (don't plan on using the Sunoco blue) put the colors are identical to what McLaren used to paint his cars.

The goal is to have the car ready for the SCCA Philadelphia region's first Solo summer event on March 28th. Still a bunch of work to get done....

Wheels

2010-03-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

The wheels that came with the LeGrand are original magnesium cast wheels, 13x7 and 13x9. They are very light and will serve great until I can get a set of Keizer cast aluminum wheels.

Unfortunately they came with the car painted pink :-o Apparently the previous owner (the owner Casey bought the car from) had a thing for pink wheels and made it sort of a trade mark of his. To each his own I guess. Any way, I recently had the wheels media blasted by Atlas Media Blasting in Lansdale, PA. They came out extremely well!! So much so the owner of Atlas was even taken back by how well they've held up to all the years of abuse since they were first made in the late 1970s.

Once they were blasted, I took the wheels to my buddy, Jeremy Grafton. Jeremy has his on shop were he builds choppers, the occasional hot rod and body and paint work. He's done a superb job on a few Evos that I have worked on and seeing some of his past projects is damn impressive. Anyway, he put some elbow grease into these babies and it sure shows:

The orange and black is from a McLaren M20 form Denny Hulme's 1976 M20 that McLaren Race Cars campaigned during the awesome Can Am series of the '60s and '70s. My livery for the body of the car will also be this black and orange....

Control arms

2010-03-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

While I was aligning the car I found that the rear upper control rod on the right side was bent. It wasn't noticeable to the eye until I took some toe measurements at the right rear and found a deflection of about 1/4".

So I made (with some help of Jim again at JMF who handled the welding duties) new control rods out of 4130 chrome-moly steel and 4130 weld nut adapters. These should be significantly stronger than the original stainless steel rods. I made a new one for the left and right upper side. They are the black rods in the photos. I also used new 4130 chrome-moly heim joints and cadium plated mil spec bolts/nuts/washers.

Eventually I'd like to make new lower ones as well.

Right rear

Left rear

Dash

2010-03-08T20:18:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking a bit on this whole blog thing but, been buys as all hell with getting the LeGrand ready to race.

I've gotten the dash done, which includes Auto Meter Sport Comp oil pressure and temperature as well as water temperature gauges plus a gear indicator display, an Auto Meter electrical tachometer with shift light plus a Longacre ignition/momentary starter switch. The dash also includes wiring for the steering wheel mount shift paddles.

I also had Jim at JM Fabrications make me a spacer for the steering wheel. Before I could just barely fit my fingers between the steering wheel and shift paddles put, now I had Jim make me a 3/4" spacer. I can fit my fingers perfectly between the steering wheel and shift paddles. Thanks Jim!!

Air scoop fabrication

2010-02-07T23:01:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take a stab at a custom air intake scoop for the motor. I plan on grabbing some nice, cold air just to the left of my head between the roll bar tubes, which should provide the engine with gobs of air.

The first step is making a mold from which I can use to make the piece out of fiberglass. To do this I picked up a 4'x8' sheet of polystyrene foam form Lowes (basically the foam insulation used on houses) in 3/4" size. From there I figured out how tall, wide and deep I need the scoop to be and built a brick out of the foam:

From this I will shape the brick down to what I'm after, which will be similar to this:

I plan (or at least am going to try) to make a mold of the top of the intake box as well and mold the new scoop into that as well so that I will have a completely new top section of the intake box made of fiberglass that will have an integrated air scoop.

The LeGrand is finally home!!!

2010-02-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

After 34 hours and 2600 miles the LeGrand is finally home!!! This is such a cool car.... I've been going over the car trying to wrap my head around what the previous owner has done so far to the car as well as just soaking in the chassis construction including the suspension setup as well as all the other ins and outs of the car and its so cool to see how this sucker was designed and put together. I've never owned a "real", dedicated, tube frame race car and its just as cool as I expected.

Currently I am sorting through the electronics and finishing up were the previous owner left off, which includes wiring up the fuel pump, starter, gear position sensor, master kill switch as well as wiring in all the gauges, shift light, air shifter system and ignition interrupter. I've also still have to build a front diffuser that will also house the radiator and oil cooler. Also on the to do list is mount the body work and paint the body work, refinish the wheels and mount the used rubber (thanks Per!!) as well as build the header and exhaust system. I'm also looking into building a custom air scoop for the airbox. Lastly I need to fabricate a firewall as well as a belly pan for the engine bay. Once that is all done she will be ready to rock (hopefully for the March test and tune).

Anyway here are a few pictures that I took once I got her in my garage, enjoy:

24 hrs of Daytona

2010-02-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

Well finally got the LeGrand home in the garage :-) Man what a trip it was though. Justin Stone and myself set out to pick the car up in Orlando, FL on January 28th and after 17 hours and 1300 miles we were in Orlando. After a few hours of chit chatting with the Haddocks and going over the car (man this thing is awesome!!! So cool to finally own a REAL race car), we had the car loaded up and headed off to Ormond Beach to hook up with Per Schroeder of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine to check out his Mk18. We made a quick stop for dinner at an awesome BBQ joint than headed to Per's.

Per's LeGrand was really cool to see especially with the new ZX10 motor installed. It was also nice to see another LeGrand for some ideas and pointers on how these cars are put together.

From there we headed to Justin's Dad's and crashed after JR Fisher finally got to the house. We woke up Saturday around 7:30 and headed for Daytona International Raceway to check out the 24hrs of Daytona!!! Man what a race! I always watch it on TV but, what a difference in person. Not event the rain or cold temperatures cold dampen the fun. We were at the track until 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning than headed back to Justin's Dad's for a few hours of rest before heading back to the track for the rest of the race.

The RX8s were an awesome sight and sound to behold!!! The #70 Speedsource won this year (having also won in 2008). The Dempsey Racing entries also showed some really good pace. Man those 3-Rotors kick some serious ass:

The new Camaros were really impressive as was the new Turner Motorsports M6. Both these cars sounds REALLY mean, nothing like the high pitch scream of the RX8s though:

The Daytona Prototypes were also really cool to see live, in person. The eventual winner was a new privateer team on the block running a v8 from a Caynenne. I'm sure the powers to be at Porsche had a few things to say to the works team running the flat sixes:

We headed home after the race and after another 17 hours and 1300 miles were were back safe and sound and with a really cool new race car!!!

Check out my Facebook album for more pictures.

Updated pictures

2010-01-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Less than a week to go before I depart on my trip to Orlando, FL to pick up my new race car!!! Man I can't wait. Casey has been teasing me some pictures of the car:

Engine compartment pictures:

Here are some pictures of the chassis prior to and after the front suspension has been hung:

Left front:

Front left control arms:

Front left with suspension hung:

Front right:

Front right with suspension hung:

The Haddocks are finishing up the front body work and man it looks GREAT!!!

Front body plug that Chip made based off of his Decker front body work:

Fiberglass laid up to form my new Decker/Haddock front body work:

Teaser pictures of the LeGrand

2010-01-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of updated photos as Casey and his Dad have worked on the chassis to get it to a rolling state for me for when I pick it up next week. I'll post up some more in a few days.

Rear body work (yes I plan on repainting it):

OEM Suzuki ECU and battery:

Left front prior to hanging suspension bits:

Right rear engine view:

Virgin Blog :-)

2010-01-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

So I decided to set up a Blog for my family's racing activities.

For those that don't know my oldest son, Logan and I compete within the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Solo (autocross) program with the Philadelphia Region.

I'm moving from STU (Street Touring Ultra) to B Modified this year with the purchase of a fully restored 1979 LeGrand MK25-D that I'm picking up from Casey and Chip Haddock in Florida. The Haddock's are pretty well known within the DSR community for restoring LeGrand's so I'm really excited and can't wait to get the car. I'm heading down to Florida with an enclosed trailer at the end of the month with a buddy of mine, Justin Stone and hopefully JR Fisher (who may be in CO for work though).

BMod is the second fastest class within the Solo program and I am REALLY looking forward to the challenge of campaigning this year and beyond. This year and hopefully the coming years, Justin will be co-driving the car with me, which will really help me develop the car that much faster.

To start things off here is a link to Casey's Flickr page with a butt load of photos of the car. Just for some eye candy until I post up some more recent pictures of mine, here is Chip's MK18:

Mine will essentially look the same as mine will also run a Decker body based off of Chip's molds.

My oldest son, Logan, will be entering his first season of racing in SCCA's Formula Junior C (FJC) class this year. We bought him a 2008 Coyote Kid Kart with a Comer C50 motor - check out this link for some info.

Here's a photo of Logan the first day he got to run the kart:

We've since added class and number decals to the bodywork and it looks great!!

Logan is dying to race the kart and we're hoping to get him out in March either the last Philly Winter Series event or at the first Test and Tune at the end of March.