2-7-10
The Race
The first car started up at five thirty. I got up and was outside by five thirty five. How can a dog sleep with that much horsepower pawing the ground and rumbling across the desert? Not this dezert dog.
It was pitch black but those lights on the cars really can singe the hair off of ya at a hundred yards. More and more cars showed up just above camp and the race guys were getting them lined out in order of their start. The time trials were for the fast cars to jockey for position. The fastest in the time trials were first to go off the line. They started turning them loose at seven thirty and they let them go every thirty seconds. I had a really great place not too far from the pits near where they had the time trials the other day. It was nice because they had the track somewhat wetted down to keep the dust down. I got so excited about the race that I forgot the camera, so I guess you will just all have to come down next year to see, hear, and feel for yourself the event. Those really high end cars with six, seven?, eight ? or nine? hundred horsepower are totally amazing when they either howl or scream past. The suspension systems in blur speed, the smell of high-test race fuel on the breeze and the vibrations running through your body. Did I mention the sound? Even with no hearing aids, they were loud. Some of the roads have what they call whoopers. They are a series of bumps and dips sort of like washboard only on a really huge scale. The bumps may be two feet high (or more) and spaced twenty to a hundred feet apart. They are like big waves and to go over them in anything but one of these racecars is like riding in a little boat on the ocean. These racecars on the other hand just hit them at maybe a hundred miles an hour. The car just glides along smooth while the undercarriage takes the hits. This is why the intricate welding on those suspension parts is so important. You might imagine how much shock they must take when doing that at a hundred. One guy I talked with was telling me that of the top fastest racecars, maybe only half of them would finish the race. They push them so hard and fast that something breaks. I guess the winner is the guy that can push his rig the fastest without breaking it. The guy also said that the new cars almost never finish the race. They need at least one race to find the weak spots that can be strengthened so they can hold up to the stress. A lot of these cars are one offs. He said that they build one of these trophy trucks that really have no parts from a ‘real’ truck, but they will get a vin number off an old truck and put it on this new truck. That way they can get by the smog restrictions somehow. Oh, yeah, the environmental destruction and the energy waste involved in this race and others, sure is terrible…BUT….. Wow!!!…..it is good for enhanced testosterone levels.
This must be the girl puppy that owns the pickup down below. It came with the group of folks that were on hand to welcome and congratulate the winner. A tough little gal for sure and all dressed in pink and with a hood like a lot of the bad ass dudes wear down here. I have never understood the hood thing especially when it isn’t cold. The young Latinos and blacks sure do like that style.
The winner coming through the finish line.
During the race it started to rain a little bit. I talked with a guy that came in 11th and he said out further it rained a lot more and all the dips were full of water. He said he was soaked by the time he got finished. He had several problems he said. Not too far from the pits he broke his distributor cap and limped in where they fixed it with duct tape. Then he had a flat and something else where he was towed. He still came in 11th even after all that. He said they finally had to stop the race because it was getting to dangerous. I was listening to a guy and he said that this winner was clocked at 140MPH somewhere along the route. It is hard to believe that these things can take that kind of abuse.
Looks like a Chick truck, don’t ya think? She must swing a big dick though.
Air ride springs with some major extended swing arms.
I was really taken with the paint job.
Then I looked a little closer…..
It just gotta belong to that little puppy don’t ya think?
It sure is a long legged truck. Those little shocks sure look wimpy after seeing those big ones on the racecars. I guess those big shocks get so hot during a race that they will burn the flesh off your hand if you touch them. My motorcycle has shocks much like these with the remote fluid reservoir. They are supposed to keep the fluid in the shock cool but I have never thought to touch one to see what effect some bumpy road has on the heat of the shock.
The Rio Grande jewelry supply company has what they call “Catalog in Motion” every year during the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I went again this year out to the Hilton East in Tucson to see it again this year. They have the most complete selection of high quality tools and marketing products in the business. I have purchased quite a bit of my supplies from them and it is always nice to get them, as they are just wonderful products. Most of the show is centered on tools that they sell with experts in that field demonstrating them. They always seem to have some fantastic artist showing off his stuff just as you enter the area. This year was no exception. I almost fell on my knees when I saw what this guy had made. He is a European educated chase and repose artist from the old school of masters. This is the ‘type’ of work that I do on my hairclips but WOW, was it nice to see what the ‘Real’ guys are capable of doing. This plate and other things in the case are made of sterling silver which is really hard compared with the pure (fine) silver that I work with.
Fantastic intricate detail.
He had a little piece of copper that he was pounding on as a demonstration. He already had it made but would take little taps on it for effect and then talk with you. I had a chance to visit with him must a few minutes as there always seemed to be a crowd around him. He is working on red pitch set in a cast iron bowl. I guess you can get really fine detail using this method. I have never used it and have been content to use just a piece of scrap leather I got from T-Bone my saddle maker friend. After seeing what he was able to do with it, I decided to buy a hunk and give it a try.
His tools.
Inside the main building there are several places set up with different tools for you to experiment with as well as just pickup and hold in your hand. What a difference then looking at the tool in the catalog. They have it all set up to mark in your little catalog which tool or material you want and then go over to the order desk and get them sent to you when you get home. There were metal working tools which I am mostly interested in as well as wax for molds, ceramic supplies, diamond setting, polishing, casting, engraving and almost anything jewelry related on display and demonstrated.
These were on display in the plating section. Several years ago I bought some cyanide gold plating solution when I was here, but never have used it. I got to talk with an expert on the subject and finally got the real lowdown on how I can do it ‘cowboy’ style or maybe more dezertdog style. They want you to buy an expensive power supply to use the plating solutions but I just wanted to use a battery for my poswer supply. The guy finally said that I might be able to get even better results with a battery than I could get with their power supply as it would give a more stable current. Cool eh? I have to give it a try when I get home. It is always a little scary using cyanide but he assured me I would be OK as long as I didn’t get any acid in the solution. Oh, he said I shouldn’t drink it either.
How the other guys do their plating. I will probably use an old peanut butter jar or something similar.
This was the Bonny Doon hydraulic press display. This is a precision press and they sure can do some nifty things with it.
Seeing all the tools, and I might add, seeing all the fancy ladies that come to these events, was worth it as usual. The only thing I bought was the red pitch but I sure did pick up some good info along the way. If you are ever in Tucson during the Gem and Mineral show, go check it out. It only runs five days I think so timing is critical.