Come Racing With Us, In Texas Or Virginia

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

It’s hard to believe that, about four and a half months since I broke nine bones and lost my favorite spleen, I’ve already run one wheel-to-wheel race, with several more to come in the next sixty days. Wouldn’t you like to come race with me and become famous? Maybe even win something? Would you like to compete at Texas World Speedway before it becomes a so-called community of so-called upscale homes? Or challenge the famous “Climbing Esses” at night in a BMW? Or be part of a Guinness World Record?

Sure you would.


Although June will mark the utterly unimportant long-awaited of your humble author to NASA racing in his own car, I’m still making time in the next 90 days to race with other people. I’d like you to come race with me.

First opportunity: to run with Property Devaluation Racing and their brace of five-liter-Ford-powered Fox-bodies at Texas World Speedway June 14 and 15. This is a maiden voyage for the new “World Racing League”; it’s also sayonara for Texas World Speedway. Some of you will remember TWS as the venue of the fabled Firehawk 600, which led to the equally fabled shorthand for CART:

Cowards Aren’t Racing Today

But in either the T-bird or the Granada, you can test your personal mettle. Ever wanted to do 150mph nose-to-tail in Fox-bodies? Of course you did.

Next opportunity: driving with Crapcan at the Chump race at VIR, Aug 8-9. They’re fielding three cars — the BMW that Bark M. and I drove at CMP, a Nissan NX2000, and a biodiesel Golf. The bio-Golf will be part of an effort to set a Guinness World Record for distance over time in a biodiesel car. As in, Guinness has been notified and is participating in the monitoring of the event. You can drive in some or all of the cars.

If you want to race heads-up for real with great people, you couldn’t go wrong with either team. The Texas race will be epic (and dangerous, I’d suspect) the VIR race will be historic and hugely fun. Prices for seats on request to either team, but I’ll tell you this: you can’t even think about racing a single day in Spec Miata for what it would cost. What are you waiting for?

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Wmba Wmba on May 28, 2014

    Gee, thanks for the invite to injure myself. Thought the new TTAC pledge was to avoid racing and stories. But I suppose Sundays don't count.

    • Brenschluss Brenschluss on May 29, 2014

      I thought that policy was recalled when a majority said it was a stupid idea.

  • Hogie roll Hogie roll on May 29, 2014

    Omlets?

  • HotRod Not me personally, but yes - lower prices will dramatically increase the EV's appeal.
  • Slavuta "the price isn’t terrible by current EV standards, starting at $47,200"Not terrible for a new Toyota model. But for a Vietnamese no-name, this is terrible.
  • Slavuta This is catch22 for me. I would take RAV4 for the powertrain alone. And I wouldn't take it for the same thing. Engines have history of issues and transmission shifts like glass. So, the advantage over hard-working 1.5 is lost.My answer is simple - CX5. This is Japan built, excellent car which has only one shortage - the trunk space.
  • Slavuta "Toyota engineers have told us that they intentionally build their powertrains with longevity in mind"Engine is exactly the area where Toyota 4cyl engines had big issues even recently. There was no longevity of any kind. They didn't break, they just consumed so much oil that it was like fueling gasoline and feeding oil every time
  • Wjtinfwb Very fortunate so far; the fleet ranges from 2002 to 2023, the most expensive car to maintain we have is our 2020 Acura MDX. One significant issue was taken care of under warranty, otherwise, 6 oil changes at the Acura dealer at $89.95 for full-synthetic and a new set of Michelin Defenders and 4-wheel alignment for 1300. No complaints. a '16 Subaru Crosstrek and '16 Focus ST have each required a new battery, the Ford's was covered under warranty, Subaru's was just under $200. 2 sets of tires on the Focus, 1 set on the Subie. That's it. The Focus has 80k on it and gets synthetic ever 5k at about $90, the Crosstrek is almost identical except I'll run it to 7500 since it's not turbocharged. My '02 V10 Excursion gets one oil change a year, I do it myself for about $30 bucks with Synthetic oil and Motorcraft filter from Wal-Mart for less than $40 bucks. Otherwise it asks for nothing and never has. My new Bronco is still under warranty and has no issues. The local Ford dealer sucks so I do it myself. 6 qts. of full syn, a Motorcraft cartridge filter from Amazon. Total cost about $55 bucks. Takes me 45 minutes. All in I spend about $400/yr. maintaining cars not including tires. The Excursion will likely need some front end work this year, I've set aside a thousand bucks for that. A lot less expensive than when our fleet was smaller but all German.
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