Johansson Brothers Racing

Rookies step up, veterans deliver... 16th of 162 @ Buttonwillow

2011-12-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we started out with several changes we thought would make the car faster... Putting in a repaired limited slip rear differential, a stiffer set of used shocks, beefier sway bars, wider tires (we had to roll the wheel fenders using a piece of pipe to stop the inner lip from cutting the tires. We also went with a 1 piece drive shaft, but that was just for ease of service - if it became neccessary! We also figured it was time to replace the original rubber bushings on the control arms... that turned out to be a nightmare!

We were very concerned after the last race at Infineon, that the car had this wierd delay set turn issue - where you would have to turn in, and wait a second before it stated to turn - then it would set, and you would adjust the turn based on that. Pretty disconcerting! We also burned through alot of oil at Infineon, and had an overheating issue. It also developed quite and understeer - you turn - and the car keeps going straight! We figured with all of those changes, we would have the delay and the oversteer worked out - figuring worn bushings most likely.

We also figure we must have finally blown the head gasket - compression readings seemed to confirm that... 165 - 180 on 4 cylinders, 90 on the other 2. So we had to deal with that. We only had 3 weeks to get ready, and Scott was stuck in Utah!

Pull the head - gasket is fine - have the head tested - one cylinder is down because the valve is too tight - and not shutting properly, machine shop adjusts that, the other - it looks like just a good old fashioned broken ring - no time to deal with that - put it back together - and off we go to Buttonwillow. The fastest track we run on - 4 - 5 mph average faster than any other.

We have Franz in tow for his first Lemons race, as well as our new friend we picked up at Infineon. Gunn just got started in Lemons, and we needed the help, and he needed the opportunity, so we brought him on board.

Scott starts out - we now have real time scoring on Iphones, so we can keep track of where we are at. We get boned on the flag, and are sitting at 91st out of 162 after the first 10 laps.

We can't see the flag station at the end of the long straight from the car, and don't want to pass on yellow - so we send a spotter down to watch the flag station and call the flags. Dad jumps into action.

Anyway back to our racing! Scott's whining about the understeer not going away - I have no idea why - it should be gone - so now we are talking about disconnecting the front sway bar to see if that helps. About 1hr 45 into it - Scott says something different is happening with the steering - you go into a corner - and the wheel clicks down, like a ratchet, and resets itself to the lower position as the new neutral. My first thought is that we botched the welding on the quick release - anyway - seeing as how his life is now in danger with a car that cannot steer - he decides it's time to come in. We check the welding job - no issues there, get some help from the guys pitting next to us - another Supra - we figured we could help each other out in the war against overwhelming odds - trying to defeat all of the 40 BMW E30s on the track!
Anyway we finally see that the whole steering rack is shifting left and right - 2 bolts were hanging there - one was gone, were were able to get it back on the track in 20 - 25 minutes, but with Gunn in the car. I was worried because he had overdriven the car and spun it during practice - but then again - that was with a loose steering rack! So he goes out and turns laps for an hour, and stays out of trouble.
We bring him in and put Franz in the car - he figures it out pretty quickly - stays out of trouble - and turns laps for an hour.
we bring him in , and I go out for the final 2.5 hours, we are 48th.

It takes me 2 or 3 laps to realize that this is a different car that we had before - all of the changes we did have made the car far better in the corners, and much more predictable! I am cornering on par with the cheater spec Miatas, and blowing them away down the straights, so I get fairly agrressive and start hunting guys down, at the end of the day we are sitting 30th! pretty good considering!

Day 2 I lead off for the first 2.5 hours, and am immediately surrounded by a bunch of overtestosteronated idiots - lap after lap. If the camera is working - we should have 3 seperate spins - everyone right in front of me - with me missing by 5 feet one - going 2 wheels off to avoid #2, and a 6 inch miss on number 3!
Anyway, I am turning some good laps - a look at last years event shows we are 5 seconds faster per lap with the same car!

So I hand off the car to Franz in 22nd place, he goes out for 1 hr 15, faster and smoother that the day before, holds his own, Gunn goes in, drives alot better, and holds his own as well. With the extra pit stops and rookie drivers we fall to 25th when Scott gets in.

Turns out he can drive alot faster when the steering wheel actually works! He gets after it, and starts hunting down the cars ahead of us - 1 at a time - we continue to move up with a combination of attrition, good driving, and no pit stop for the last 2.5 hours. we finally jump into 20th place with about 30 minutes remaining - then 2 cars ahead of us go down with mechanicals, one with a penalty, and Scott hunts down the biggest jerk drivers on the course - with their orange Porche 944 - he comes from 55 seconds back, taking of 10 seconds per lap, surprises them and buries them with 3 laps to go = putting us 16th over all - and 10th in class A.

Another top 10% finish - which is always our goal. We went into this race not really running for place - we knew - new drivers, shorter stints, changes to the car - we viewed this as a prep for the 2012 season, turns out we accomplished all of that - plus still got a good result.

http://www.mylaps.com/index.jsp

entered carl johansson (all lower case - with the space between names)
and jbr123 all lower case no spaces

JBR 15th out of 171 @ Infineon

2011-10-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

We ended up 15th out of 171 entries I think 165 actually started. , Scott fought off 2 challengers in the last 1/2 hour, running with a bad head gasket. Final results have not been posted on the Lemons website, but I think we are maybe 10th in our class as well.

We ended up winning the judges choice trophy, which Scott and Jenny will engage in a passive aggressive placement war for the next few years, think the Christmas Story leg lamp!

I ended up driving just over 8.5 hours, Scott put in 7.5 hours, thats alot of seat time, with the exception of my one hour stint - unfortunately shorted by the ignorance of the Heinz 57 car, the rest of our drives were between 2 hours and 2 hours 45 minutes.

This was the 11th straight finish for the supra including 5 out of the last 6 top 10% finishes.

We have a short turn around before the Bakersfield race - Dec 2 - 3rd - something like that. we are having the head gasket redone, I am putting on a new LSD rear end, assuminmg the one I have can be rebuilt - just needing bearings, if the clutch packs are gone - you chuck it and look for another one, we will upgrade the tires from 16 X 225, to 17 X 255, we can do that simply by adding Mustang wheels to give us the better grip. We burned up 2 sets of rear brakes, fronts are fine - maybe our brake bias is off, I really woukld like to put in a brake bias valve - but don't know how to do that, or how hard it is.

In the last hour of each day, on that uphill run, you were looking directly into the sun, for about 10 laps there - I ran it blind - I would go up the hill in 4th, let off - wait for the car to enter the "dip" when that happened I went to 3rd, and waited 1/2 a count, then turned right, completely blind - but so was everyone else, somehow we got through it. Second day Scott had to deal with it, but putting duct tape over the top 6 inches of the windshield worked pretty well.

Besides the Heinz 57 car coming down on me and smashing me (spun them out, I had to go in see the judges, claim it was my fault- which it was, I should have expected the unexpected, and pull the fender away from the wheel, ) I had a BMW hit me square in the rear - room on either side, no other traffic, not turn - just cruising a straightaway, and bam! Some other clown came all the way across the track trying to claim some sort of imaginary racing line - he ended up being spun out to, nobody bothered me about that one.

Some poor guy, through the fault of the ignoramouses in the Faust Racing Red Devil car (you should read Aholes when I say that) anyway we have run across them several times - you must understand - they are entilted - they require that any and all racing against them unquestionably yeild the line, slow down, and bow to them as they motor past). Anyway, they took out some poor guy, who ended up rolling 5 or 6 times in spectacular fashion, Utube it!

Don't know if anyone got cursed, but the biggest cheater car there - a race prepared custom painted 1996 BMW 525, with a spectacular motor, they disappeaerd in the last 2 hours, after running in the top 5 both days. I lobbied several other teams to vote for justice and crush the biggest cheater. I suspect if he did get cursed, he probably trailered his rig and ran like the sissy cheater that he was!

Tough running with 2 guys, hope some of you can make it as crew and or another driver for Bakersfield. (Race report submitted by Carl)

Another top 5 finish

2011-07-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Denver Day 2 was uneventful except for a misunderstanding of a rules interpretation by the race organizer, and a little metal meets metal incident for Carl. The car ran strong all day and we finished a respectable 5th.

Day One is Done - Sitting Third

2011-07-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

Day one is in the books. At days end we find ourselves right in the hunt. We are in third, one lap behind the leader. The car ran great all day, we just switched the brakes and topped off the fluids and are good to go for tomorrow. Highlights included Scott driving till he puked...almost, he would have, but didn't want to soil his helmet. Carl had a guy catch on fire right in front of him. And a fan appearance, I think for the first time in history, someone actually paid to watch JBR...Thanks Dwayne and Georgia. The race was shortened by a massive lightning storm. Which, fortunatly for all involved allowed me to shower in our neighbor's rv downspout. It's a racetrack, hardly anybody was offended. Lowlights were our friend John struggling to keep his car healthy and a really bad band which Scott says should be inspected by the USDA for the way they butcher songs.

JBR settles in @ Denver Lemons

2011-07-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

Thought you smelled sumthin'? You did, the funk 3 guys in a motorhome with water issues. We got here yesterday, got set up and ran som etrack time. I was able to get to know th 'vette a little more intimately...what a beast on the track. Then we tried out the used-to-be blue car. It ran great, but seemed to still have cooling issues. Luckily Carl had hauled the used-to-be red car all the way from CA. Old Faithful ran great. We will run her today.
There are some great themes here, can't load photos yet, but imagine skiing through the paddock on the back of a car, and a a pinata candy launcher...there was no lack of creativity spawned when the track closed for the day and the coolers opened for the night.

National Hound and Hare Series Results: Johanssons controlling the old guys division!

2011-02-25T06:29:00.000-08:00

2 events down
http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/asp/raceresults/narres.asp?s=41&cls=218&year=2011

2 johanssons in the top 5. Scott is legit. I DNFed the first race, but they have me as winning race #2. I know I cut the course somewhere, I had to, i informed the finish line judges, the 2 score keepers and the event manager, but apparently my score card and checkpoints were ok. That helps me out because you need to finish at least 5 out of the 10 events, and we are only planning on running 7 maybe 8 if necessary. So it gives me a margin of error if me or the bike quits in another race.

Look for Scott to finish top 5, maybe podium. I am hoping for top 10. We are getting ready for round 3 - going to be desert sand and silt and rocks and whoops, lots of whoops - exactly what I did not want to see. Also, it's a monster distance wise, 100 miles, first loop is 60 miles, second loop is 40.

Scott's battling a clutch issue to get ready, after having put in new badly needed rear bearings.

I am making way too many changes to my bike between rounds, but I want to get all the stuff on it so I can use it. So I have put on a left handed rear brake, so where you normally clutch, that's the rear brake, which frees up my feet (I also still have the rear brake if I want it). I have to adjust the autoclutch so it does not kill on steep downhills or stopping without the normal clutch, so I have to open up the engine cases.. I have retained the clutch and am currently working out a rube goldberg mount so it will sit under the left handed rear brake.
I took of about 4 lbs of the most Klusterkludged up electrics you could imagine, i was snipping and cutting, hoping like heck I didn't cut something I needed. That turned out OK, as the bike still runs after the electroectomy!

This next race is in the sandy desert east of san diego, a wrong turn turns into a tourist visit to Mexico, with the requisite trying to outrun the drug lords who want to use you and your motorcycle as their own personal live version of a video game.
the course is ideal for scotts 4 stroke 453, but it could kill my 2 stroke 300, all that sand and high rpm = i could end up burning up an engine pretty easily, because of that I also am rejetting the carb, which I know nothing about - like that matters! I just ask the best expert I can find and follow his recomendations.

We figured out at the last race that all of the clubs that are there will actually pit crew for you. You just take them your fuel, and when you come in - they fuel you up, fill up your camelback, clean your googles - whatever, they really help alot. So that has helped us out as we show up just the 2 of us, with no visible or invisible means of support!
Stay tuned for the gory details of the next race.
Carl

JBR rides again!

2011-01-23T16:10:00.000-08:00

Johnson Valley Family Enduro Jan 15, 2011.
Scott and I decided we needed to get in a bit of riding before we foolishly attempt what is officially and unanimously agreed upon as the toughest of the National Hound and Hare event. That will be next week, so you can probably expect a carnage report from that one!

So seeing as how we have never entered an enduro before we figured why not try it.

Endures are cross country off road races through desert and mountain trails, usually 50 – 100 miles long. They are usually 3 loops 15 – 40 miles long on each loop, so you come back through the pits every hour or 2. There are sections of the event where you have to maintain an exact speed, and other sections where you just have to get there before the designated start time of the next speed section!
Essentially several times in the race you will come across a start ”reset” line - from that line you will be timed and have to hit your exact designated average speed. You never know when the section will end - the timers hide in gully bottoms or behind bushes, then jump out and stop you, writing your time on your sheet mounted on your front fender. Early or late will cost you points.

Guys who are serious about this have computers and roll sheets and calculators and odometers and GPS, and stopwatches.

Guys like Scott and myself have a different strategy - Dumb And Stupid - what could possibly go wrong.
They wave you off 5 riders at a time, starting each minute. Our plan was simple - stay with the experienced guy with the fancy computer. We figured if we could do that – we would be OK, since most guys our age, act their age and stay home puttering in the garage and play golf, so there’s not much competition in the “old stupid slow” classes we run in!
So we end up in the minute 7 group, leaving the start line at 11:07. So we get to the line, meet the other guys we will be running with, and before we can ascertain which one of them is the experienced pro (promised by the race promoter – 1 per group), they start asking us which one of us knows what we are doing - great - a bunch of rank amateurs in the row.
No problem the guy says - if the guy in the minute behind you passes you - ride with him, and stay behind the guys in the minute in front of you.
So off we go! Right on time. We ride for a few miles and catch up to the group ahead of us. Probably because they have a bunch of kids they are teaching. I try to stay behind them, but those little yahoos are gassing it on top of each whoop - shooting me with gravel and rocks about 30 times a minute. We don’t want to spook the little guys, so Scott and I take the overland route to pass ‘em - we just go shooting out into the desert running over creosote bushes and flying along till we get in front of them.
That’s great - except now we get to the first times section. At this point we know nothing, so we decide to let the guys we just passed go ahead - they are keeping time – so they leave exactly on time - we wait one minute, and off we go! We ride faster now - pass those pesky kids again, head into a ravine - only to get surprised by the timers. At this point we know nothing - don’t know if we are on time, ahead or behind – we are just winging it. This continues through the first lap. Then we have a 10 minute free time till the next lap starts - kind of nice to dehydrate and rehydrate, and check the bikes over.
And off we go on lap # 2, this one we need to ride a bit faster averages, but we still have no idea what we are doing, other than just going a bit faster, and keying off of the group ahead of us. We keep running into this goofy guy on one of those glorified golf carts out there on the course. It finally dawns on me - this guy is going ahead of the minute 6 group - finding the timing stations - doubling back and warning the 6 group - so they are stopping and waiting until they are on perfect time before they head into the ‘surprise” time stop. What a bunch of yahoos - cheating in a family enduro - that is nothing more that fun and practice and learning for everyone!
Screw that - we just ride past em, go through our checkpoints and take our penalties like the men that we are!
Anyway 2 eventful things happen on the second loop!
1: Scott figures out what the times on the stop cards mean, so he can use that to compare to the times we get at the check station - so while it will not help us at the station - at least he now knows how many minutes he is fast or slow – so he can adjust his riding. He of course neglects to tell me that – so now he’s just putting along, and I figure he must have gotten knocked on the head and is in lala land. So being the good brother that I am - I just leave him behind!
Eventually he catches up at the reset stop – and we take off again - when all of a sudden
2: he loses his rear brake - not fades - looses - he has no rear brake. We limp back to the pits - still staying on time - or at least close!

So now we have about 12 minutes of free time to fix the brake issue. While Scott works on that I fuel up the bikes and get us ready for loop #3. He finally slips up and shares the secret of the timing setup!
He gets it fixed - but now we are 4 minutes late. We charge to the start line and take off – riding like our hair’s on fire, we are passing people left and right, taking a beating - but we are making up time. We get to stop #2, and we are now 2 minute late. We blast out of there determined to catch back up. By the time we get to stop 3 - when the guys jump out - I flash to Mexico – figure I am being hijacked and gas it through the timing line, almost taking the timer with me (turns out I have developed a bad habit of blowing past the timing stations). So I have to turn around - but low and behold – we are now on perfect time!
So now we finish Loop 3 - staying pretty close to time.
Now we – in our class are only supposed to do 3 loops, but – we came along way - and we still want to ride – so we sneak back out there - loop 4 is the shortest, but far more technical and faster speeds. So away we go. Turns out only about 8 riders wanted anything to do with loop 4 - a bunch of 18 – 24 hotshots, and a couple of old dumb guys.
They of course blow past me - but I get my revenge. Turns out there is a nasty 2 part hill climb, with 2 & 3 foot ledges and a bunch of boulders and loose stuff, and it is pretty rutted up. I get passed by the hotshots just as we get to the hill section – Scotts about ½ way up , working his way through it, and making it work - these guys take off and start bouncing and bucking everywhere, they need to momentum to make it to the top, but that means a distinct lack of control, 2 of ‘em go down, another 3 end up off course.
Now it’s my turn. Turns out I have a secret weapon, my bike has an autoclutch that makes climbing hills easy – a real cheaters tools, I don’t need momentum, I just sit there - and nonchalantly ride my way up the hill, picking my line - just tooling along – waving at the downed riders as I go by! Turns out if you’re not much of a rider - like me, best thing you can do is get yourself a 300 with a cheater clutch - makes you look like you can ride!
A few more miles of nasty downhills and we blow through the finish line. We ended up sucking. They only had our classes go 3 loops, so we ended up 19th and 22nd - as far as I can tell - hard to figure out how it was scored. Had we entered into the big boys classes - we would have been 6th or 7th, because we went the whole 4 loops, and only a few guys did that one
I am so sore and stiff I can barely walk – someone quick remind me why we think this is fun?! Oh yeah - wish us luck next week - I am terrified of this race based on what people are saying about how difficult it is!

Lucky 13..

2010-12-05T18:12:00.001-08:00

Batman and Robin, Lone Ranger and Tonto, Beavis and Butthead? They got nothing on the Dynamic Duo of Carl and Scott who took the Lemons season ender by storm at Buttonwillow in So Cal. The rebadged maroon car once again was a workhorse. Scott figures it has over 4000 racing miles on it. A few quarts of oil and a new set of tires was all it needed to handle the latest abuse thrown at it. They finished a more than respectable 13th out of over 175 entries! More details and pix should be available before too long at jalopnik.com or 24hoursof lemons.com.

First Last - JBR Dogma brings home hardware

2010-08-31T19:49:00.001-07:00

L-R Back - Bill, Mark, John, Chris, Doug, Arnold, Jeremy

L-R Front - Jack, Scott, Carl, Mattias, Steve, Jake (Not Pictured - Mike)

As Ricky Bobby says, "2nd is just the first last!" JBR says that's our best finish ever, so we'll take it. We wouldn't have wanted to lug $1500 in nickels home anyway. The Blue car ended up 22 of 28; The Red, car thanks to a large fuel tank, lightning quick pit stop, and excellent driving by Doug and Carl, was 1st in it's class and 2nd overall.

We had a great time meeting new friends and getting reacquainted with old ones, and having more fun than we should have. In the end, after 17 hours of racing we finished with the same number of laps as Short Bus, but about 87 seconds behind.

Check www.Jalopnik.com for excellent coverage and pictures.

Ready to Race

2010-08-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

The top 10 places are set in order on the grid. We are lined up just behind "Team Short Bus" and "Free Candy". A certain uncle offered a 10 year old boy and roll of duct tape to Free Candy in exchange for 10 laps. Their response..."Let me see the boy".

Back to racing. The organizers were allowing teams a chance to buy their way out of their first penalty for a $100 donation to charity. The 2nd picture shows Scott's idea of insurance should we been wrongfully acused of a momentary indescretion. Fortunately, we drove clean all day and Scott was able to keep his Benny.

Jake's Business Acumen

2010-08-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

As we bid adieu to the Settle Inn, Jake proclaims his innocence after bringing the rooms plumbing to it's knees..."All I'm sayin' is that If I owned a hotel across the parking lot from the Golden Corral, I would have a plunger in every room!"

We are off to the track, overnight, John and his pit crew scavenged the best parts off the blue car in hopes of keeping the red together and giving it a little extra boost heading into the 2nd day. We are 3 laps behind 1st, but only 2 and 3 up on third and fourth. All three other teams have faster cars, so our sucess will depend on keeping the car on the track and out of trouble.

Which hurts more?

2010-08-28T20:50:00.001-07:00

Blowing an engine, or finding your waistband on the business end of a crane hook (That's life at the bottom of the food chain 'Tias). Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the blue car's engine was not any more useful than Mattias' Fruit of the Looms. The good news is with good driving by Jeremy and Scott as well good quick driver changes and excellent fuel strategy by John, the red car is sitting in 2nd after 10 hours racing.

Karma catches up

2010-08-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Carl was catching up to the field stretching the end of his stint when karma caught up to him. He got bumped off course into a spin. Punishment befitting the crime, we were assigned to the sherriff Joe Arpayo chain gang. We had to don pink underwear and parade around the grandstand apologizing for our "terrible" driving. All told, we were out for about 20 minutes which cost the blue car several places. After 6 hours we are sitting in 4th and 10th places.

All Hands on Deck

2010-08-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Everybody lends a hand in getting drivers switched and the car checked out. Notice the red headlights? At tech. inspection, Judge Phil got tired of us not having a theme and demanded that we show up with a new paint job next time, he got us started.

Ready for Racing

2010-08-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Carl gets ready to run. We replaced the temperature guage in the blue car with a mechanical unit. Seemed to do the trick. Scott started in the blue car. After an hour we are sitting 4th and 7th. Three hours in, we are running 2nd and 4th, then the blue goes down with a blown fuse. between the wait for a tow and the fix, we are sidelined for about 45 minutes.

JBR invaded Council Bluffs

2010-08-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

There goes the neighborhood. The all you can eat buffets may never recover. Steve, Jake, Jack, Mattias, & Bill drove through the night to join Scott & Carl at the racetrack for a shakout/practice day. Without a doubt, the best driving of the day was Jake's avoidance of a semi truck that jackknifed to 90 degrees right in front of us. This race is the smallest we have done with only about 40 entries. The competition will be tough as there are several experienced drivers and former Lemons champions in the field. We are entering 2 cars again. They ran very well, but we are hoping to avoid the overheating and brake issues that plagued us in Denver. We are all bedded down and feeling the effect of that buffet... Let's just say that bed bugs are the least of our worries, this hotel room may never be the same.

Denver BFE Lemons

2010-08-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

What better place than the desert to overheat? Carl, Bill, & Scott over came the overheating of the blue car, including a 4 hour round trip to Denver and back to get a new radiator and fan, to finish in the top half of the standings at 24th. The red car ran a little better for John's guys, but they had brake troubles (John was fabricating calipers on the spot) that kept them out of the top 10 with a respectable 15th place.

Best LeMons Finish Yet

2009-10-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Not many details, but a skeleton crew of Carl, Scott, and John S. bring home 4th out of 130+ at Lemons Houston. Slowest car in top 10 by far, but long stints and good communication thanks to John's new radio kept them out of trouble and kept turning laps.
Congrats guys!

Sand Hills Open Road Challenge - Bill & Scott bring home some hardware.

2009-08-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

With Carl getting rich on the government's teet, chasing bats and trying not to asphyxiate himself in Death Valley; and Chris and John sidelined with a broken car (happened in the shootout), Scott and Bill were the last men standing with a chance to bring less dishonor to JBR. They didn't disappoint and brought home the "Ricky Bobby - Second is Just the First Last" trophy.

Scott started the week out strong by winning the King of the Hill competition at Hastings. All drivers were given the same car to drive (Chevy Cobalt) and he was able to turn the fastest lap time out of about 25 drivers. He celebrated by carving his accomplishment into the wooden table...don't worry mom, it was allowed, they even gave him tool to do it.

The 115 mph class ( you have to average 115 mph over a 54 mile back country road while not going over 140 or under 95 - except the turns) more resembled a Lemons Race than a typical SORC race. Of the original 10 entries, one dropped to a slower class, two were mechanical no shows, two crashed, and two had mechanical problems and did not finish.

We were not on our game on the North run and ended up about 19 seconds slow of our target time. We briefly contemplated dropping down to a slower speed for the South run. I seriously considered telling Scott we were right on, fearing that a "Scott-with-20 seconds-to-make-up" might not be a safe Scott, but valor being the better part of wisdom chose to man up and recalculate. We really got after it and ended up making back those 19 seconds plus three. We ended up about 3.7 seconds off, would have been closer, but had some communication issues at the end ("Slow" sounds a lot like "Go" @ 140mph with the windows open!). That is a big gap in a competetive road race like this, most races have the top three within 1 second.

We picked up a passenger on the way up, John J.Audobon style. We were a fortunate that our little buddy ended up plastered to the intake rather than in our face. The guy behind us took one in the face, still had bird blood and guts on his glasses when we stopped after the North run.

A big thanks to dad for helping us out by letting us knnow where the speed traps were, and keeping Matt and Will entertained and fed while we were away. Also thanks to John and Chris for sticking around to help out after a bummer of a week.

Post Script, a nice shot of Scott running in the shootout about a minute into the clip http://www.knopnews2.com/videoplaylist.php?playid=10769

2009-08-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end. Steve woke up this morning with his rapid heart rate acting up again. He tried jumping into the lake, and a cold shower to reset it, but it wouldn't get back to normal. We vetoed Steve's suggestion that we hit the trail for a bit before heading home and quickly loaded the bikes up and headed for home. Tracey ordered us straight to Troy Beaumont and she met us there. After a week of battling northern Michigan hardwood, Steve looked like he had been in a gang fight with a bunch of midgets. The nurse took a look at the damage and suggested that next year he try a 4 wheeler. The doc gave him some meds to stop and then restart his heart and he was home in a few hours. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Day 5

2009-08-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

We only did 45 miles today, we got out a little late and dealt with some midday rain, we are getting closer to I-75 and heading south. We got off the trail early and hustled home for some more maintenance on the bikes, the Husky started running a little rough at top end.

Day 4

2009-07-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

It is a good day when the most serious injury is treated with Desitin, holy road rash, or "monkey butt" as Carl calls it. Finally a day when a bike broke down before we did. The trail opened up quite a bit today, there were several stretches of backroads. Steve, Troy, and Bill took advantage and rode 100 miles today. (Editors note...I know you are thinking that Rick does 100 miles, 4 days in a row, without a motor, but hey we are not all Superman).
The KTM quit running 100 yds. from our stop point. This was a good thing because we would have ridden right past the pick up point. We are hoping that it is just another fouled plug, we'll take a look at it in the morning. We made it far enough to make a run for Jen and Rick's cabin. Thanks Jen and Rick for your generosity. I enjoyed quite possibly the best shower of my life while the sun was setting over the lake!
The trail did not go down without a fight, the trees landed a few viscious body blows on Steve. He is about equal parts purple and pasty white. Bill got bucked off the back of the KTM, and donked in the head by a tree when uprighting the bike, but we are on the board.
MCCCT 3 JBR 1.

Day 3

2009-07-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

Some of the toughest riding yet. Up and downs, narrow single tracks, raspberrry bushes clawing at us from either side of the 8" trail. Carl, Bill and Troy rode for 7 hours and made it about 50 miles before surrendering. We never got out of first gear and probably never got over 15 mph! Carl took an elbow to the ribs (his own). He says he will be fine (did you expect anything less?) Steve doesn't know how it is possible that he is more sore after a day in the support van.
We decided to treat our battle weary bodies to a steak dinner (Ponderosa), a hot tub, a shower and a bed at the Super 8. In other TMI news, Troy's groin is swollen and purple, size of a dinner plate. He doesn't seem too upset by it!
MCCCT 3- JBR O

Day 2

2009-07-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

“Dog Gone It!” It is time to wake up. With some SERIOUS soreness, we broke camp and hit the trail by 10:30. Steve, Carl, and Troy rode as I ran support. A beautiful day, I saw several deer, Troy raced one through the woods, sandhill cranes, a golden eagle, and a little snake that snuck up and scared the crap out of me as I was waiting for the group at a road crossing.
Carl had a good look at Troy’s “Superman” flight over the handlebars slowed only by his groinal region dragging on the handlebars. Probably our most spectacular crash to date. Carl’s bike ran out of gas shortly before the riders did. We pulled into Carrieville State Campground around 5:00 and had the place to ourselves. 59 empty campsites. We used the time to perform some much needed maintenance on the bikes, make a run to the closest Walmart (25 miles), and tuck in early hopefully early to rise tomorrow. Sorry no pictures until I get home, I left my download cord at home.
Score after day one: MCCT 2-JBR 0

JBR (Johansson Brothers Riding) vs. MCCCT (Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail)

2009-07-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - We started the tour after getting a nice sendoff from Grandma Marge’s. The cousins had a blast catching turtles, swimming to the sandbar, playing cards, shooting, fishing, smores, and chasing fireflies. Then we left the women (except for Caj) and children behind and hit the trail.
We started slowly getting used to the bikes and the trail, things were speeding up when a tree jumped from the right side of the trail and smashed up Steve’s (aka “The Lumberjack”) left hand pretty good. He shook it up and jumped back on against the orders of the team doctor, taped a little ibuprofen on it and kept going. The Lumberjack stated simply “It’s not like it is my throttle hand.”
We were cruising along nicely until we stopped for lunch, the plug on Carl’s new bike fouled out and we had to remove the gas tank and seat to replace it. Started up first kick and we were treated to a flock of wild turkeys (insert your own joke here) crossing the road.
Jack “Sandy Pants” drew the short straw and was driving Steve’s DR with racing slicks and spent more time in the sand than a hermit crab. . This worked to our advantage though when the group, minus Carl (who had the wisdom to listen to a few locals) took a 20 mile detour loop. I was able to track them, just when I thought I had lost them, I would come across another Sandy Pants print in the sand.
Jack jumped into a support role as he 4 wheeled Steve’s truck and trailer on some “roads” (2 track bushwhacking) as Caj improved minute by minute, maybe he can give Quinn some off road lessons.
Considering the aforementioned delays, plus some unmentioned moron putting the wrong gas into Troy’s bike (we had to drain the whole tank), and the Lumberjack being stung near the eye by a bee, we feel good about riding about 60 miles on the trail. It was getting dark so we took the road shoulders to our campsite which we shared with a bunch of Girl Scouts on a cross state bicycle ride, and were the only diners brave enough to dine at the Baldwin bar this evening.
We were so exhausted we fell asleep the minute our heads hit the pillow only to be awakened by the Lumberjack sawing some serious logs! At one point Troy was driven to the pick up for a bit of peace and quiet. He’ll try earplugs tonight.
Score after day one: MCCT 1-JBR 0

First Class Finish

2009-03-02T05:45:00.000-08:00

Steve held it together and even gained a few more places. We finished in 8th place, about 25 laps down from the leader. If not for my brain fart on Saturday, we would have been top 5. Staying out of the penalty box, and smooth transitions & fueling were key as all the teams in the top 10 had fastest lap times between 4 and 7 seconds faster than us.

As luck would have it, I ended up in first class for the flight home. Turns out them rich folk have glass glasses, real silverware, and wine and cheese. In hindsight I probably should have given the seat up to Steve, but I felt that I owed it to the fat cats who paid big bucks not to have to sit near Steve after a day of racing and track food.

The 1 degree weather hit me like a swift kick to the .....breadbasket when I stepped into the jetway, fortunately a weekend in JC's meat locker er...living room prepared me for the climate change.

There is much better writing, pictures, and coverage on this website if you are interested.

http://jalopnik.com/tag/24-hours-of-lemons/

Post script....Tracey's bid to join the team was cut short on the way home from the airport as Officer Perez of the Wayne County Sherriff's department didn't share her enthusiasm for speed.

Finally

2009-03-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

We finally cracked the top ten, now the challenge is to stay there. With about an hour to go we are in tenth. Nothing eventful, just keeping it steady. We each drove about the same fastest lap time. John S. is in the car now, we will make the switch to Steve to finish things up.

Staying out of the penalty box has it's benefits. This guy is serving the Habitat for Dogmanity penalty. The other is preaching to the Condemned from the 1977 Pinto Repair Manual. One guy got "tar" and feathered. Particularly disturbing was the Brokeback Mountain. The guy had to take his shirt off and mimic cowboy photos found in the Studs 'n Spurs calandar.

A Little of the Competition

2009-03-01T09:02:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly 3 of the 4 SAABs are still running. Also here are a few art cars, here for show, not racing, but they did lead a parade through pit row being followed by several cars being punished. The fish car has every bass and lobster wired, it ia s Volvo underneath and the guy has been blasting ABBA, all of the lobsters and fish light up and move to the music.

Worst Goes First

2009-03-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

Captain Carl decided to punish Bill for yesterday's transgressions by throwing him to the wolves driving first (Most sane captains drive their best driver first where there is most likely to be congestion). Crazy like a fox....Bill's lack of skill was not so evident today (best lap 1:25) as he kept out of trouble, other than the tendinitis in the elbow from waving guys past. Also factoring into our early success might be Jay Lamm's birthday bash which included a giant pinata filled with tiny liquor bottles and all of the alcohol used to bribe the judges. This kept some of our competetion up a little later than they probably should have been.

We moved up from 23rd to 19th and even gained 4 laps on the leaders. We are now 21 laps off the lead. John R. is in the car. He might drive a little longer today as I saw him fiddling around in the car last night. I suspect that he was reconnecting the cigarette lighter and fabricating an ash tray.

If you are interested in the race, but not interested in waiting for me to get a connection and blog again, you can get instantaneous up to the second place and lap time info by texting 41411 and enter Lemons 86 as a message.

Good news...Bad News

2009-02-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry for those of you that are sitting at your computer holding your breath awaiting the next post. I am doing serious battle with the internet connection.
The good news is that John ran our fastest laps of the day until his back tightened up, he mumbled something about "having to carry the (whole gosh darn) team" that did his back in. The bad news is that the other teams were staying out of trouble. We moved up only one spot.

My other brother John then took over.....Sandbagger, or maybe just a really quick study. He was turning 2:05 laps yesterday. Today he ran consistent 1:35's in traffic, then threw in a 1:29 just to show us that he could. He said the hardest thing was trying to light his cigarette and smoke it inside his helmet, he had to settle for smoking the competition.

End of the day we are sitting 23rd, 25 laps out of the lead, 10 laps out of cracking the top ten. A lot of racing tomorrow, we hope to move up in the standings.

Carl hands off to Steve, then Bill

2009-02-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Carl passed the torch to Steve in 34th place, but only 3 laps out of the lead. Good move, Steve drove a marathon session pushing us all the way up to 11th, 5 laps out of the lead. After a refuel that would made Nascar crew chiefs envious, (John's new fuel delivery system had us gassed up before I could get my helmet buckled!) we switched drivers.

Steve hands off to Bill, not so good of an idea. I was driving OK, even made a few sweet passes, problem was, the last 2 passes happened to be during a yellow flag. I came in, no penalty...but we had to switch drivers. We weren't ready to switch quite so soon, so it turned into a 20 minute penalty. We are back out now with John Stricker at the wheel. John inherited 26th place, 20 laps behind. I am sure it won't take him long to get us headed in the right direction.

24 Hours of Houston

2009-02-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

We came down and had a good day of practice yesterday. We had John Stricker handle the check in and judge schmoozing as Carl was unavoidably detained in the trailer.... who knew it locked from the outside? When the judges told us they had lingering negative feelings about the car, we did what any good brother would do and threw Scott under the bus. We told them that our lipstick wearing member of last year was not coming back this year.

The race has started, and Carl has gone almost an hour with no penalties. There are 97 cars, my best guess is that we are in the middle of the pack. Carl has driven extremely courteously and if we avoid the sin bin, we are shooting for a top ten finish. My camera has been on the fritz, but I'll try to get some pix as soon as I can. We see a lot of the same teams from last year, and a lot of fast cars.

Some of our competition

2008-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Darth Bimmer

Swedish Slaab, Then after Obama Penalty (Change theme in 15 minutes) the Swedish Chef becomes Capt. Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez - they were losing 2.5 quarts every 15 minutes.
Mustank

Wild Will goes Fishing

Puff, puff, pass!

We finally Crack the Top 20

2008-10-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well, things finally began to turn our way. Scott came in again for another yellow flag infraction, but his spin of the wheel of misfortune produced OJ, the 1st trial....We go free with no penalties. Carl then gets yanked in on a case of mistaken identity, the offender was car 9, not 09. Carl wisely bit his tongue, and the judges felt good about themselves by ordering us to switch drivers, then let us go. We kept plugging away with Steve and I and Scott, Carl brought us home, he sputtered in out of fuel with 15 minutes to go, but we fueled him up and had him on the track again in less than 3 minutes. John x 2. really built a nice car, it ran flawlessly. We had a plane to catch so didn't stick around for the awards, but I think we ended up about 18th out of 77, an improvement from 22nd at Willows last year. Factor in at least 1:45 in penalties, and talking to's, we would have run in the top 5 easy had we run clean....In fairness to other teams, there were a lot of penalties for them as well. Fortunately we avoided: Sands of time - metal shaving dumped into your engine, Al Gore - plant a tree while being pelted with tofu, and Pickled Pigs Feet - Driver had to eat a jar before being let go, and Pinto Preacher - Standing on your hood and preaching to the crowd from the '77 Pinto Repair manual. We all had a great time, thanks Carl, John, and John for maiking it happen.

Another Day, Another Penalty

2008-10-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

With a renewed resolve to drive courteously and cautiously, we were able to go almost 45 minutes before incurring our first penalty of the day. Steve missed a yellow flag and passed someone again. No theatrics this time, just 30 minutes in the sin bin. We dropped to 28th. I got in and kept it clear and clean. I am hoping that I will earn the Lady Bing trophy for the most courteous driver. My arm is sore from all the pass by's I gave. I did pass one guy on a golf cart, but that was in the pits. We are sitting in 21st. Scott is turning our fastest laps in two days, and hopefully we'll be able to stay out of trouble and crack the top 15. We escaped the crusher, they trashed the cow Miata that was in the top 5. Word has it that he is a local guy without many friends.

Arc Angel welds a Pig to our roof

2008-10-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

John and I finished up the day without incident. We are sitting in 27th out of 77 entries after day one. Not bad considering we accrued 75+ minutes of penalties. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts every day would be Christmas. But our mathmetician JC has figured that if we would have run clean, we would be in first by about 4 laps! We sit 46 behind the leader. Scott is worried that we cheezed off enough people that we may end up getting crushed at high noon today. The good news is that we were not among the 10 teams that were held after the driver's meeting this morning for a little extra tongue lashing from Jay.

Scott, or is it Sarah? Goin' Huntin'

2008-10-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Scott started us out great, we were sitting in first for about the first hour of the race, until.....he accidentally passed on a yellow. He has to come in and spin the wheel of misfortune. It landed on Palin's Penalty. He had to put on lipstick, spray himself with racoon urine, grab a gun and a baby and go hunting for a teddy bear. 15 minutes, and a gun barrel fishing around the porta potty later, he went back on the track. Steve took over and drove very well, moving us from 45th to 20th. We refueled and Carl got in. He was also driving well until someone bumped him from the rear and spun him out. They pulled us in and weren't so kind this time. They welded a pig on our roof, put us on double secret probation and our 30 minute penalty turned into a 60 minute penalty because the judge wanted to spend more quality time with Carl. I am headed in next, I hope I don't screw things up. We were sitting in 20th after 20 minutes of impound.

2008-10-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

We arrived without incident. Ran a few practice laps. Car is running great. We were able to schmooze the judges into not docking us any laps, they were just dying to take a sledge to our pristine exterior, but let us off. We heard that one team got docked 77 laps, another over an hour. Cheating seems to be rampant, the judges bribe jars were overflowing. Carl, Scott, and John x 2 headed back to Angelton to work on a few things and have dinner. Will, Steve and I headed back to Houston and experienced some Friday Night Lights. JC took us to see 10,000+ rednecks cheering on their local heroes...quite a spectacle! We will get to racing tomorrow morning. We are now bedded down in his swanky digs.