Back to Blogg'n - Bigelow in the house

http://www.speedpartz.com/ace_1100.htm

I was pretty excited about the group that stopped in the shop last Saturday.  If you're slow on the take like me, you might not recognize the gentleman on the far left - he is famed midget, sprint and Indy car driver Tom Bigelow.  Tom and nephew Buddy Luebke came in to pick up a few wings and additional parts.  Buddy has pulled a couple of Sipple chassis out of the barn which he plans on runnng this season.  Buddy has been running midgets the last year and was interested in what the Midwest Mini Sprint Association has planned for this year regarding a few non-wing races.  When we were talking about the places that the MMSA runs, I brought up Kokomo.  Tom perked up and said 'Oh you guys run at Kokomo, I've been busted up a few times there'.  It was then that I realized that I remember a couple of years ago when Luebke and his uncle Bigelow were a team at the Chili Bowl.  I came pretty close to having a racing legend in our shop and not even knowing it.  I am glad he obliged us the photo next to our car.  I went online and discovered that Tom is a member of both the midget and sprint hall-of-fame.  Tom's a pretty humble guy and probably never would have said anything about it.  I asked him if he ever thinks about getting back in a car again--he said he thinks he will leave up to the youngsters in his family.  He did mention that he might try to get one of his grandsons into the mini sprints.  Tom and Buddy L. are more proof that you meet some of the nicest folks in racing.  I hope Buddy L. gets to come down and race with us a few times this year. 

You've probably heard me make mention of a really cool new battery that we are going to start carrying.  I recently had the chance to meet with the company's owner out in California.  A really nice guy with what we believe will be a really neat product for the mini sprint market.  Check out the story we put together after sitting down with Anti-Gravity Batteries, Scott Schafer.  Click here to read the story

Check it out.  A Yamaha R1 being positioned in a FOZ Race Car.  I am pretty excited about the upcoming season.  I recently counted up six drivers that will be driving FOZ Cars for the first time.  I won't name any names since everyone seems to like keeping their plans for the upcoming season under wraps.  I will say that I think that we will have several of the promising up and coming shoes in our cars this year.  Best of luck in 2011 to all of the FOZ Race Cars drivers.

We will be at the Indy Circle Track Expo this weekend showing off our new Viper Pipes products.  If you make it over to the show we will be in booth 509.  We'll also have along our new tachometer and battery.  They are really nice products that you will want to be sure to check out.  We have also added new products and video to our Viper Pipes website.  You can visit it at http://www.viperpipes.com/.

I was pretty excited to see the new Waynesfield schedule for this year.  Looks like there will be plenty of opportunity for the 1000cc mini sprints there this year.  This has always been one of my favorite tracks and Greg Shobe has been a supporter of the mini sprints since the very beginning.  Good news in my book.

I am looking for someone to help the site out with updates from DuQuoin since we will not be able to attend.  I have it set up so that it is very easy to do updates.  If you are interested, drop me an e-mail at sfasse-at-fozmarketing.com.

That's all for now.  Check back soon.

Viper Pipes T.V. Released

We recently released our first of what we hope will be many episodes of Viper Pipes T.V.  In this first episode we are showcasing our new Viper Pipes R1 right side exit headers. 



If you haven't checked out all the videos and photos from the Tulsa Shootout yet, go to Our Tulsa Shootout Blog

Promotion for Racing Down Under

I got this from our friends down in Australia.  It is a advertisement for an upcoming event - nice footage of the mini sprints.  It also shows some other pretty wild looking classes they run down there.  Would any of us be brave enough to run those motorcycle side cars on dirt?  I think the backdrop for this advertisement is that Australian mini sprint/lightning sprint champion Adam Raws is making a trip to New Zealand to compete against their best.  The guys down under all tell me that their hoping someday we see a truly international mini sprint/ lightning sprint championship race.

Midget Pay-per-View from DuQuoin this weekend

The midgets are up this weekend at DuQuoin.  Just a reminder that the mini sprints will be running just around the corner on January 29th.  Looks like they have Pay-Per-View for the weekends events.  Might be a great chance to get a look at the track.  Its been a few years since I've been there, but I really enjoyed the whole facility.

New Viper Pipes 10" Stubby Muffler



Here is the latest out of our Viper Pipes shop.  It is a 10" Stubby Muffler.  Although probably not as applicable to the upright crowd, the 10 inch mufflers are getting bigger with the modified midget crowd.  We are now able to offer mufflers in 10, 12, 14 inch models.  We can also build custom lengths upon request.  The new 10 inch model weighs in at just 2.9lbs.  We are also able to offer all of our mufflers with a ceramic coated core and canister.  The combination of the ceramic coated core and canister provides a significant performance enhancement over a straight stainless muffler.  Be sure to check out our complete line of mufflers and headers at http://www.viperpipes.com/.

Still working...making progress

Still trying to get our car ready for Tulsa.  Making progress.  Just waiting on wheels and hubs.

Headed West

Our 2010 G2 chassis is getting a fresh 2008 Yamaha R1 motor before heading
West to its new home. This motor was incredible. It literally looked
showroom new. Word was that it has less than100 miles on it.

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More progress

The motor went in today

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More progress

Today the engine went into the car.

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Slow but sure...

I have spent a little more time working on the new 'used' car we plan on running in the indoor races this year.  Hope to drop the engine in this week.  The old bodywork that I am using is pretty rough, so I am getting a chance to practice my skills at using wrap and the bodywork repair kit I posted in the latest issue of Mini Sprint Racer Magazine.  My plan is to have this car be entirely wrapped.  No paint at all.  Below you can see the white wrap I used on the hood and armguard.



 

Here is the armguard prior to being wrapped.  If you're interested in having your wing, entire car, trailer or even individual numbers and logos made up, we are now able to do it in-house.  We even have our own installer.  If we can help you out, leave us a message at 513.549.7048 - We usually check for messages several times throughout the day and will have someone get back with you fairly quickly.  We like doing graphics, they are really fun.

Here is a set of headers that Viper Pipes just finished ceramic coating.  This is a set with 2 seasons of racing on them.  Viper Pipes will be running a special on ceramic coating through the end of the year.  Just $89.95 to coat a new set of Viper Pipes headers.  Additional charge will apply to previously run headers since additional blasting, cleaning and etching is required.  If you're interested, give Viper Pipes a call at 513.204.9036

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's hard to believe that the holiday season is already upon us.  We are almost a month away from the Tulsa Shootout.  We recently sold my car from last year and now we are scrambling to get a car done for Tulsa.  I actually just started on another one a few days ago.  I am using an old FOZ chassis that came in on trade on a new G2.  The good Lord willing, I am hoping to run it at Tulsa and DuQuion before turning it into our rental car for the 2011 season. 

I have had the week off of work which has given me time to at get started on it.  So far we have put the floor pan and motor plate in, bolted the seat in and assembled most of the front and rear axles.  Now we are waiting for additional parts to come in before going back to work.


Here is the start of the car I plan on running out in Tulsa.  Plenty to get done!

Activity has started to pick back up at the shop and we've got plenty of used cars in stock to choose from.  We've got everything from a race ready 1999 Henchcraft that can be purchased for $3,800 to a pristine FOZ Race Car with only seven races on it with a fresh Yamaha R1 on board for around $12,000.  All in all we've got six really nice used cars in stock.  If you're considering getting started a trip to the shop is probably worthwhile.  It is probably one of the few places where you can get a good look at cars from several different manufacturers at several different price ranges.

We have a shop full of used racing cars.  We have cars from most of the different manufacturers and cars that should meet most budgets.  If you are interested in stopping by to look, call 513.874.2034.



My time off has also provided the opportunity to make some changes to the website.  We are working hard to make the site a tool to develop the mini sprint / lightning sprint community.  Our most recent changes include the creation of a message board/forum and changes to our News and Results section.  I've had several people ask if I know anybody with room in their trailer for another car to make the trip to Tulsa.  I thought the message board might provide a good opportunity to match folks up.  The News and Results sections have actually been setup to make it quicker and easier for the owners of the associations and tracks that support mini sprint / lightning sprint racing to post their news and results.  I am hoping that this new tool will reduce the time required to post significantly.  Posting is basically as easy as sending an e-mail.  I would encourage the owner / managers of any of the tracks or organizations to contact me if they are interested.  

I took time off yesterday to take my girls down to Earlywine's near Maysville Kentucky to do a little motorcycle riding.  Its a pretty neat place.  It is a great big tent/building that houses an indoor motorcross track.  I am sure it is an expensive building, but it would be really neat to have a place like that were you could run mini sprints locally during the winter.  The girls had a great time chasing around the track--eventhough it was cold and miserable outside.

One of the big news items coming out of the recent Midwest Mini Sprint banquet was an announcement that the series would be hosting at least five non winged mini sprint events during the 2011 season.  So far all of the events will take place at Brownstown Speedway.  I ran at the track once this season and really like it a lot.  I think having these non winged events should really help the sport continue to grow.  I know that there are several people who have indicated they would be more inclined to get involved if they had the option of running non-winged. 

We've opened back up the Motor Mart.  The Motor Mart allows an e-mail to be sent to several shops at once regarding requests for engines.  It is another service that we hope will make http://www.minisprintracer.com/ a stop on every racers web search.  CLICK HERE to visit the Motor Mart.

I recently ran into mini sprint racer, Jeremy Perdue during my lunch hour.  Jeremy just opened a new Jimmy Johns sandwich shop.  It is located in the Bridgewater Falls shopping complex about half way between Cincinnati and Dayton.  From the looks of things that day things are going extremely well.  Jeremy is building a new car for the 2011 season and says that he is working hard to get the new location running well so he'll have time to race.  If you're in the area stop by and see Jeremy--they make a great sandwich.

We're going live from Tulsa.  We have been working hard to lay in the infrastructure on the website so that we can go live from the Tulsa Shootout.  If all goes well (and we have decent Internet access) we hope to provide reports from the event.  We are actually hoping to set several people up so that they can provide reports from the event.  We'll keep you posted as we get closer.

I'll try to keep posting photos as we put the car together that we are planning on running at Tulsa.  I am also working on a couple of really cool new products that should be unveiled in the next month.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

More SEMA

More SEMA

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2010 SEMA Show Random Stuff

Videos and photos shot with my cell phone so they are not the greatest quality, but some pretty neat stuff out here at the SEMA show.