I took a weekend off to visit my college buddies in Los Angeles to compete in the Chumpcar Desert Dysfunction 24-hour race at Buttonwillow Raceway.  It was probably the most awesome experience I've ever had!  It was great seeing some of my old FSAE buddies, and we had a blast.  I didn't sleep much, but what can be more fun than wrenching on a shitty old half-assed racecar in the desert sun?  Nothing.

First things first: In'n'Out burger as soon as we left the airport.

This sticker about sums it up lol.

Billy making some adjustments to the headlights, which are required to run through the night.

Am I the only one that welds while on vacation?  Maybe.  I fabbed up the headlight brackets. 

The beast

Team Red Rocket is ready to go!

We decided to rent an RV so we could sleep in the paddock.  This is probably the best decision we made all week!  Neel and Jimmy got to drive this beast.

It's about a 3 hour drive from my Billy's house to Buttonwillow.  It's even longer if your transmission overheats.

The fearless pilots.  Nicole looks worried.

Here is some of our competition.  Other than the E46 M3 (which was in the Exception class), it was a bunch of junk.  But nicer than our junk lol.

This E30 had 15,000 race miles on it!  These guys set the fastest lap of the race.... in the dark.

Sunset

An electrical problem had us in the pits through some of the night.  We got back on track just after sunrise.

At 11:00am on Sunday, we took the checkered flag!  We finished 19th out of 29 entries, and were one of only 14 to finish the race.

Celebration!

Me, Tom, Neel, Jimmy, and Billy share a smelly, sweaty photo

Back in the 'Burgh, Jimmy and I stopped to give Jason a play-by-play of the weekend.  Work kept him back at home, so he couldn't make the Cali trip this time :(

Back to work. 

I said the engine bay was ready for primer, but I'm still not happy with the wheel tubs. 

I fashioned this curved round block out of a piece of hose, and that's working a little better.

It's getting closer, but it's still not perfect.  Now that spring is almost here, I can spray primer outside again.