"The Song Remains the Same"
Final PKC Race of 2007
Technology Breakthough: The Loser Cam goes into production
ProKart Challenge Race 10 - Moran, September 8, 2007
"The Song Remains the Same"
Final PKC Race of 2007
Technology Breakthough: The Loser Cam goes into production
Okay, let's see, I'm about five months behind in updates.......which is just about longest hiatus from writing since this website was created back in 1995 or so. I have some excuses, but they are minor ones, stuff like trying to get taxes done, chasing kids around, Cheating Bastard Research and Development, etc. Plus PKC has their races every 3 to 4 weeks, so it seems as soon as we are done with a race, we barely have enough time to get a practice or two in and then we have to prep for the next race.
So I think I'll go backwards, and start with the story from the last PKC race in September, and then I'll try and do some minor updates about the other previous races at CalSpeedway, Willow Springs, Santa Maria, and Qualcomm in the chapter after this. So here's what happened after race 9 (Qualcomm) to the present.
First, a quick update on the F355 GTS, which everyone has been asking me about.
I finally got the car running great in late July. That's after I got the following work done on it:
1. 45,000 mile service from GMG
2. Fix tranny leak, oil leak, shifting problem. International Motorsports figured out how to fix this stuff
3. New parking brake shoes
4. New parking brake assembly (cable and actual hand lever)
5. New shock motor actuator (adjusts suspension from soft to sport mode)
6. New rear hatch struts
7. New rear wheel bearing
8. Detail from Premier Motorsports in Culver City
9. Rebuilt water pump
Special thanks to Martin at International Motorsports for being the one that eventually got the entire car back to excellent condition. If it wasn't for them, I'd have to set the car on fire and collect insurance money to pay for all the repair bills.
I'm going broke trying to maintain the F355!
Car runs great now! Only problem is that I charged $18,000 ffing dollars on my credit card to have all the above repairs done. Which is ridiculous. So now I'm faced with the dilemma: Should I sell it now since everything is working great? Or do I pound on it for another year with the chance that I might have to drop another $5000-$10,000 into it if something breaks? What if I blow up the motor and it cost me $30,000 to fix it? It seems a shame to sell it. But then again I've been running up my credit cards in an effort to get me to face reality that I need to sell this thing before it breaks me financially. Premier Motorsports puts me in contact with Richard Purcell, who is a Ferrari broker. I agree that I'll use his services to help sell the car.
This is the first car I ever sold in my life. I still have my 1986
Toyota MR2!
I priced the car at $79,000,which Richard said was too high. I got no offers whatsoever. Copy of my "for sale ad". So then I agreed to drop it to $75,000. Still nothing. Richard then said I should really price it at $69,000, and he can sell it for sure. Which I told him was ridiculous, as it is a 1999 GTS with F1 transmission, factory carbon fiber racing seats, red removable top, has custom five point harness installed for the driver, red brake calipers, etc. He said that is all good and dandy, but as soon as he tells people that it has 43,5000 miles on it, they hang up the phone on him. So I tell him that if I factor out all the repairs into the car, that means the car was worth $51,000 before I went into the rathole of fixing all this shit on it? Ridiculous. Plus factor in a few thousand for his commission, and suddenly it comes a $49,000 car prior to repairs. Absurd. If you look at the car up close, you would think it only has 10,000 miles on it, as the paint/body work looks real good. Leather is a bit worn on the driver's seat, but that is to be expected.
I paced back and forth for a few days over this. Seems a shame to sell it for that price. But then again I could pay off all my credit card bills, be debt free, and have some money left over to buy a new shifter kart. Heh. I start thinking.....brand new shifter kart chassis...never been crashed....frame will be tight and responsive....all new bearings so it rolls real good......plus Supernationals XI is coming up in 3 months, and it will be the biggest one ever. But if I kept the Ferrari, and I drove it like I usually did, and the tranny started leaking again, I'd be out another $4000-$5000. If I wanted to drive one of the kids around in the F355, I'd have to take it to the dealer and them install a "Ferrari factory passenger air bag disable switch", at a cost of about $2000+.
I relent. Screw it. Sell the Ferrari. Maybe it will make me get off my ass and figure out a way to come up with some quick cash to buy another one sometime in the future. This is the first car that I have ever sold in my life. I still have my trusty 1986 Toyota MR2. That car is amazing, as it can sit outside the shop for two months, and all I have to do is turn the ignition on, and it fires right up. The only repair in the last five years on that car was one wheel bearing. And, it doesn't have a passenger side airbag, so I buzz one of the kids around in that if I don't want to drive the truck. It is truly a "reliable beater car".
So what it comes down to is I can race a 125cc shifter kart with PKC, or I can try to keep up with the maintenance on an F355. Hummmmm......since I'm married with two kids, I can't pick up hot young chicks, so I guess I'll sell the F355 and get my ya-ya's out with a shifter kart. I sell the F355 for the dirt cheap price of $69,000. Shoot me in the head. It was a sad day when the truck came to pick it up.
The next morning, I woke up, and felt kinda funny, like I was castrated. Oh yeah, makes sense....I no longer have an F-Car to buzz around the neighborhood in at 8500 rpms, engine shrieking like I'm on the streets of Monaco. I need to hurry up and get a practice day in the shifter kart.......
Click here for Video
Tribute to the F355 (10 meg Windows Media File)
Thursday night, August 24, 2007
I'm at the shop until about 1:00 a.m., trying to figure out how to securely
mount brackets for a Loser Camera that points backwards. I think I have
come up with the perfect solution!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Practice day at Moran. We haven't been here in quite some time. The
last PKC race at Moran was about 7 months ago. Wayne and I go out to practice, and
we are struggling a bit. Could be the track wasn't as fast as usual.
I'm running high 1:04's, Wayne gets down to low 1:04's on a new set of tires.
Bobby Legate slams down a 1:03.7x on sorta old tires. Damn. We have
some chassis setup issues and gearing changes to deal with.
The Henderson Crew - Photo by Elbert Thompson
Friday August 31, 2007
Practice makes perfect, right? I'm out here with Jeff, Wayne, Fernando,
Rob, etc. Track seems pretty fast today. Except at 3:00 p.m., there
is a huge thunderstorm and flash flood at the track. There is six inches
of water in the pit area. To make matters even worse, I left the driver's
side window of the truck open, so now I have a ton of water in the truck.
Damn! I wipe up what I can with towels. My stupid horn no longer
works, cruise control doesn't work, Valentine radar detector speaker doesn't work.
Crap!
I start the drive home. About 30 minutes down the road, the horn shorts out. Meaning that the horn is blaring full blast, and I'm on the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic. People are looking at me like I'm an asshole, as I can't turn the horn off. There is really no where to pull off on this section of the freeway with a 48 foot trailer. So now I'm trying to read the owner's manual to find the fuse box, and trying to take off the panel for the fuse box under the steering wheel to I can pull the fuse out for the horn. All while still driving in traffic. Luckily for me, after 30 minutes of this horn blaring, it suddenly stops. Whew! I was worried that I'd pull out the wrong fuse while driving on the freeway and then truck would lockup or stall.
Bonnier in deep thought. "I can't let those Pulp Guys beat me!"
Photo by Elbert Thompson
Friday, September 7, 2007
PKC Official Practice Day. Well, sorta. We got a track full of people here today, with
some of the SuperPro guys from Stars of Karting here also practicing for their
race next weekend.
We are divided into three run groups, and since the S3 guys are so fast, we are grouped with the G1 "I'm over 35 and need a built motor to go fast" drivers and the S1+Superpro "I got more HP and skill and cash than you" drivers. Under braking into the Bus Stop turns, I detect a wobble in on of my rear tires, kart won't turn, I try to slam on the brakes but go flying into the dirt. Apparently my right rear tire separated from the inside bead of the rim. Strange. I do a Walk of Shame to the pit area, get my kart stand, go back, get the kart on the kart stand, and do the Walk of Shame back to the pit. I check the tire and rim. Tire still seems good. So I reseat the tire on the rim. I check for leaks. Seems fine. Whatever. I wait 45 minutes for my next practice run group, and I go out, and after 3 laps, as I come into the Bus Stop, my tire separates from the inside bead AGAIN and I go flying into the dirt in the exact same spot as before, just like I was Bill Murray in the movie Ground Hog Day. $#%@#!$! I do the Walk of Shame again to the pit, get my kart stand, walk back to the Bus Stop, get my kart on the stand, and resume the Walk of Shame back to the pit area. Meanwhile, people are pointing at me saying, "That idiot has braking problems." I'm sure the SuperPro guys were thinking, "That amateur is in my run group?". I decide that instead of doing this a THIRD time, I'll just put a new tire and rim on the kart.....
Camera is held done by super-stick velcro. (note, usually also a tie wrap around
the camera)
I spend a lot of time today experimenting with the new Loser Cam setup. At the last race at Qualcomm, the camcorder that is connected to my helmet camera sorta got "ripped out" by all the g-forces/bumps, and went flying off the track and was destroyed. The chest pack I wear somehow started unzipping itself. All I got back was a couple of broken circuit boards. Wayne said I was cluttering up the track with electronics debris. I was having a real good race with Flemming Tranberg in the main before the camera jettison itself. Bob Legate came across the mini-DV tape that was in the camcorder, but gave it to Jeff, who put it in the pocket of his racing suit, and then Jeff's house cleaner washed his racing suit, so that was the end of that tape. Bummer, as that had some good video clips before the tape got washed.
Camcorder did not survive 2.5g turn unto the asphalt at the Qualcomm race
TheSony DV camcorder that was destroyed worked for the last seven years or so without any real problems. I had to pick up a new camcorder, and apparently all the cheap DV camcorders don't have a analog input for an external camera like a helmet/lipstick camera. I started doing some research, and with the help from the guys at www.helmetcamera.com, I ended up getting a Sony DCR-HC96, which is their cheapest mini-DV camcorder with support for an external camera. I ordered it from www.bhphotovideo.com. While looking at the helmetcamera.com website, they said that they have a new mini solid-state Digial Video Recorder (DVR) that they claim is used by the military in Iraq, and by motocross riders. Hummm....maybe that will work if I mount a camera pointing backwards as a Loser Cam?
Mini-DVR from Helmetcamera.com is put into Racing Electronics radio holder on
side of seat
So here's an update about what I know about helmet cameras:
1. Apparently not very many mini-DV camcorders come with analog inputs. Cheapest reliable one that I know of seems to be the Sony HC96.
2. If you record from your lipstick camera to a mini-DV type of camcorder, you will have the best possible picture, and if you mount it to your chest with a chest pack (I use a CamelBack water backpack that the bicycle guys use) it will soften the vibration enough so the camera won't fail.
3. For a Loser Cam pointing backwards, it seems you have to mount the lipstick camera to your kart, since there are times when you might have to jump out of your shifter kart to jump start it, you really can't have it plug into a camcorder that is connected to your body, as you'll rip out the wires when you forget that you are connected to the lipstick camera. It won't work to mount a Loser Cam to your helmet, since you are usually looking down at the track, so a rearward facing camera might just see the sky. So I think you have to mount the Loser Cam to kart, as well as all the wires, battery pack, and the recording device.
Seat bracket attaches to kart seat, triangulated with some aluminum from
hardware store
4. For a Loser Cam, the Oregon Scientific self-contained "action camera" can't handle the vibration of the shifter kart, it shuts off or fails. POS.
5. The Mustek A1 unit can't handle the vibration of the shifter kart, it shuts off or fails. POS.
6. This new gizmo from Helmetcamera.com seems to work great, but it only records at 320x240 and 30 frames a second, but if you are only looking backwards, it should be fine, or if you only view as small videos on your computer, it would be fine for a forward facing camera also. But, if you want it to look good on your big screen TV, you pretty much have to use a Mini-DV camcorder on a shifter kart to get good qualify video. The Helmetcam mini-DVR also has settings so you can turn off the LCD screen and lock the keys on the DVR, so you can save battery life and you it won't accidentally shut itself off during high vibration turns.
Two brackets to triangulate, then a third small piece for the lipstick camera to
mount to
7. I used an old Racing Radio plastic holder with a piece of foam to hold the helmetcam PVR and battery pack on the side of my seat.
8. I did check into the possibilty of using an HDTV camcorder, but there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced HDTV lipstick cameras than can plug into an HDTV camcorder. Maybe in a couple of years there will be some better options.
Friday Night, September 7, 2007
Jeff and I are staying at the Morongo Casino. After dinner, he heads out
to the poker tables, and I head out to the blackjack tables. I get a
couple of good runs going at their 8 deck shoes, and I go to bed up $300.
I had it up to $650, and was trying to get to $1000, but I got slapped back on a
couple of big hands. That'll make up for the $300 I lost at Barona at last
month's Qualcomm race.
Jeff wants this kart to end up 2nd in overall points for the season
Photo by Elbert Thompson
Saturday Morning, September 8, 2007
Two quick practices and then off to qualifying. In qualifying, I run
a decently fast 1:03.7x, which puts me in 4th on Row 2. I had a bobble or
two on my hot lap, so if I coulda had a shot at pole if I didn't screw up. The drama in our
class today is that Jeff is about 30 points behind Legate for 2nd place in the
series. Jeff needs to take pole (10 points), and beat Bobby by a total of
3 places in Heat 1, Heat 2, and the main. Bobby take pole by 5/100ths over
Jeff. Bummer. We got six people in our class that break into the
1:03's today. If you can run a 1:03.xx at Moran in a shifter, you can
officially label yourself to be a "Pretty damn fast shifter kart driver".
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14 year old Connor DePhillippi has already clinched 1st place in our S3 Stock Honda class before this race, so he and his dad decided to move up to the S1 class, which is the ICC/Built Moto class in ProKart Challenge. S1 is PKC's fastest shifter class, and today there are also various SuperPro guys racing with us today to prepare for the Stars race next week. Big guns like Halen, Mandarino, Leesmann, Yop, and Duerson, who are all in the top 11 in points in the Stars of Karting - West ICC class (with the exception of Mandarino, who did win the Supernats SuperPro class a couple of years ago) Connor throws down the gauntlet, and takes pole by a tenth of a second over all the visiting SuperPro drivers, and only needs two qualifying laps to do it. Damn.....no wonder he was kicking our ass in our lowly S3 Stock Honda class all year long.
With Connor moving up to the S1/ICC class, will Bobby Legate become the new S3
King?
Photo by Elbert Thompson
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Heat Race 1
I feel like I have my starts dialed in now. I haven't really bogged a start
in probably 8 races.
I think I have discovered what my problem was in all those races on video tape
where I got killed on the start. Ha! Red lights go off, and I get a jump on Clinton who is in P3. Jeff gets the
jump on Legate and goes into the lead. Bonnier Moulton is all over my
butt, and Wayne and Clinton are right behind him.
Bonnier waves to the camera on lap 1, going 68 mph before braking into the
Corkscrew
On about lap 5, Bonnier bobbles the two turns before coming onto the straight, and Wayne passes him at high speed going into Turn 1! Hey, the Pulp guys are now running 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the Fastest Stock Honda Racing Class in the World. We are looking good....for about two turns, and then Bonnier passes Wayne back. I run 7 of the best laps that I have ever run in a race at Moran, but on lap 8 I make a mistake and Bonnier blows by me going into Turn 3 like I was standing still. I've been screwing up Turn 2 all day long, and he got a great run on me. I am able to hold off Clinton for a couple of laps, and I end up 4th. Legate gets by Jeff on the last lap for first place, thus making it even tougher for Jeff to take 2nd overall in the series.
Here's the Official Debut of the Loser Cam
160 meg Windows Media file located at www.nsxfiles.com/pkc_sep_07_heat1_r2.wmv
Do a "right click save target as." Caution: It's like your
first hit of crack cocaine or high grade heroin. You could be ruined for
life.....and you'll enter the rathole that all us kart racers are in right now.
But you'll have the best time of your life....
Picture from reverse view Loser Cam. Bonnier inches from my bumper!
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Heat Race 2:
So I'm feeling pretty cocky now, since I finished only 2.6 seconds behind the
winner in the last race. I feel like I can make a run at the podium.
I'm thinking that since the air temp is about 13 degrees warmer now, that
I'll drop the tire pressures about 1.5 lbs to compensate for it, as I think the
track and tires are going to get real hot. Before
coming onto the grid, I realize that I left my small bungie cord for my chest
pack in the trailer. The trailer is about 900 feet away from the hot pit.
Damn! The bungie cord secures the bottom of the chest back around the back
of my waist so the chest back doesn't move around while I'm driving. I ask
Jason to grab it for me. Unfortunately for me, about 30 seconds later, the
starter signals that she wants us to fire up the karts and get on the track.
Damn. I don't want the chest pack to flop around, and lose ANOTHER
camcorder this race. I look around, and see that Clinton has a 10 foot tie
down strap on his kart stand. I ask to borrow it, and I start putting it
around my waist. I ask Wayne to help, and we put it through one of the
loops of the chest pack, but before we can tie it in a secure knot, the starter
is sending out karts on the track. Ack! We don't want to lose our
grid spots, so I just quickly wrap the tie wrap around me, and hop in my kart
and get started. As soon as I get on the track for the warmup lap, the
ffing strap come loose, and I'm dragging it 8 feet behind my kart, with the
strap flapping in the wind.
Darcy checking to make sure his customers are running fast with his motors
Photo by Elbert Thompson
I pull up to the grid, and one of the track workers grabs the strap and gives it to me, and then I start to wrap it around my waist so I can re-tie it again. But then the starter gives the signal that he is about to give control to the starting lights, so I just wrap it around my leg and get ready for the lights to go out. Lights go out, and I get a decent start, but Wayne snakes by me into Turn 1. By turn 3, I realize that dropping the tire pressures 1.5 lbs was a big mistake, as the kart feels too grippy and too sticky in turns, and I'm jerking the wheel back and forth trying to get the kart to go where I want it to. Clinton's all over my bumper, and I'm forced to let him to get by, as I'm gonna cause an accident the way I'm driving. Then on lap 7, the ffing strap comes loose, starts flapping behind the kart. Track workers think the strap will get caught in my axle and rip my body in half, so I get black flagged, and am a DNF for this race. So much for all that prep work for this race.....I shoulda coulda woulda finished around 5th or 6th if it wasn't for stupidity.
Jeff and Bonnier have various spins in this heat race, Legate takes 1st again, and Mr. Mello takes 2nd, and is gridded on Row 1 for the main race, with his chance for his first podium this year.
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So I gather what is left of my wits, and prepare for the main race. I'm gridded last. Nice. Red lights go out, and I get a great start, and I blow by six guys going into Turn 1. Yeah, I think I've overcome my crappy starts! Wayne blows the start, and drops to 4th place. It take me a few laps to get by the next few guys, and then I realize that I'm in 6th, with Wayne in front of me, and Jeff in front of him, with about 13 laps left in the race. Hee hee! I figure Wayne will choke, and I can get by him, and then I got 13 laps to chase Jeff and Bonnier down. Wayne is about 20 kart lengths in front of me, but I feel like I'm gaining a little bit each lap. On lap 11, my kart starts feeling funny, like a tire is starting to go flat. I look back at the tires as I'm going down the straightaway, but they seem okay. I'm paranoid that I'm going to have another tire unseat itself off the rim. This continues for the rest of the race, and Wayne's lead starts to get bigger and bigger. Damn! I'm able to hold onto 6th place and I finish the race. After looking at the kart back in our pit area, apparently the rear brake caliper wasn't releasing the piston, so the brakes were constantly dragging, which explains why I thought I had a flat tire. $%###!&!@!
PCH Motorsports Big Boy Rig supporting Gary Carlton, Nick Halen, and Jacob Neal
Photo by Elbert Thompson
Legate cements his 2nd place overall in the class with a win in this race. Bonnier Moulton makes his first appearance on the podium this year in our class, with Clinton taking 3rd. Jeff and Wayne take 4th and 5th. In S3 Heavy, Ron Barcimo takes the win, barely beating Rob Whitley and Phil Conte by about half a second. Conner has a mechanic failure in the S1 main, so he's a DNF in his first S1 race. Bummer for him, but he's got a bright future in front of him....unlike some old, washed-up, wannabe racers that write self-aggrandizing web stories.....
Here's parts of Heat 2 and the Main from the Helmet Camera and Loser Cam
100 meg Windows Media File, do a right click save target as to a fast PC:
www.nsxfiles.com/pkc_sep_07_main_final_r1.wmv
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Bonnier Moulton (2nd), Bobby Legate (1st), and Clinton Schoombee(3rd) on the podium
Picture by Clinton's GF
So my season ends as it began, with some stupid ass Raceaflais mechanical problems and mental problems. But it was a good season. I feel like we got faster, and we learned a lot. I think I've had just about every possible mechanical problem that can happen on a kart this season, so at least I know what to look for and how to hopefully prevent it next season. Jeff ended up in 3rd overall in points, Wayne 5th, and me 6th. The only disappointing thing about the season is that we had ten races this season, and in the main events, Wayne and I went an incredible 0-20 against Jeff. That's embarrassing. 0-20? How is that even possible? You mean to tell me that Jeff never even had a single mechanical problem or mental mistake in 10 main events that put him behind us? Even Connor and Legate had one bad race where Wayne and I beat them. We'll hear about this for the rest of the year from Jeff....
Mike "The
Haymaker" McClaran makes an impromptu appearance in S4 light
Photo by Elbert Thompson
Housing Rant
Let's see....last story posted was 4 months, ago, let's see what's happened
since then.
1. The Housing Bubble officially popped. The mainstream media is finally starting to cover it.
2. Remember that article from Chapter 135, about the Pig Men, and how it seemed that everyone was propping up everyone else's stock? All those blogger dorks had it right from the beginning.
3. Remember that link from Chapter 134, about, "Who is heck is holding all that bad paper?" Full article here. Well....it's coming out in bits and pieces of who has the bad paper. And it looks like all the big guys and a lot of hedge funds are holding some bad paper that they are trying to dump.
4. Four months ago, 67 Mortgage Lenders bit the dust. Since then, another 93 have imploded, making a total of 161 as of September 26, 2007.
5. Here's a brutal way to buy a house, considering that Buyers are totally in the driver's seat now.
Checkout these links daily for the latest info on the housing crisis:
http://ml-implode.com/
http://www.patrick.net/housing/crash.html
http://bubbletracking.blogspot.com/
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/index.html
http://flippersintrouble.blogspot.com/
I just wished I put my money where my mouth was 8 months ago, and shorted those housing stocks. I'd be driving an F430 today!
And there are still people in denial that there is a housing bubble in
Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. My landlord and his real estate agent
were going to list the house we are renting for a price like it was back at the
top of the bubble. This would have been a pain in the ass to move, but
when the agent told me what he was going to list it for, I had to laugh. I
bet him $500 that he couldn't sell it for $200,000 less than his asking price,
but he wouldn't take the bet. A week later, they decided to take the
house off the market after they realized what houses are going for in the
neighborhood. People keep asking me why don't I buy instead of renting,
and I've been telling them it would be idiotic to try to "Catch a falling
knife". If I had time and didn't mind my
fellow neighbors throwing tomatoes at my car/truck when I'm driving around, I'd
create a blog like this
or this for HB.
Instead, I'll just post this
HB spreadsheet that the wife created the other day from data on Redfin.com.
My informal analysis is this:
1. The housing crisis starts in areas away from the beach, like
Corona/Riverside/etc. These people bought houses farther away from the
beach and commute 60-90 minutes a day to work, since they can save a boat load
on their housing costs. But these people have less cash reserves in case
something goes wrong.
2. The housing crisis moves inland towards the beach, as people that live closer to the beach have more cash reserves before they start panicking. So the next area subject to panic are places like Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Anaheim, etc.
3. Last, it creeps in and hits the cities on the coast, like Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, etc. These people probably have the most cash reserves, and are betting they can ride out the "abnormality in the real estate market". But sooner or later, they are going to want to sell their house and be the cheapest one on the market, so they can get out before the others do. Right now, I think HB homeowners are just starting to realize that the Day of Reckoning is coming. Remember that ugly Mortgage Reset Chart:
We are in month 9 of the chart. You figure it takes another 90-120 days for foreclosures that happen TODAY to actually hit the market and sell, which is going to kill the housing comps in all the various cities. In early 2008, there is going to be some serious panic in the market when these comps hit, and Bernake's half percent rate decrease ain't gonna help all these unfortunate folks who are under water or can't refinance due to the tightened credit standards. Why the Dow is hovering around 13,800 is beyond me, as I see no good economic news ANYWHERE. I guess it is the Pig Men doing their market manipulation for one last gasp at profits before they head for the hills and their clients pull out their pistols and go searching for their "financial planners".
Best Restaurant in Orange County?
Izakaya Zero in Huntington Beach. Japanese bar food, but uh...high end bar
food. The shrimp eggplant, seafood cevichi, Zero roll, sashimi combo
plate, etc, are ffing fantastic. I'm not a foodie, but dammit, I know good
food when I taste it.
Review here. The are located one block from the Huntington Beach Pier
on 412 Walnut. Dinner for two is probably $100 without drinks. The
guy who opened this place (Chef Abe) is the same guy who opened
BlueFin in Crystal Cove, which is quite possibly the best sushi restaurant
in Orange County. Go there before the word gets out. They
haven't started advertising yet, they are still trying to iron out all the kinks
in a new restaurant. It is one of the few restaurants that no matter what
you order, the dish is a 10+. Shaun the Sushi Chef is actually a part time
umpire for H.B. Coed Softball! He has studied the art of sushi making in
Japan and other places before ending up here. Ask for the Zero roll, or
the tempura salmon handroll.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
We are four games into the Huntington Beach Fall Coed C3 Softball season.
Holy shit, we are 4-0, and crushing the other teams. Today we win
16-1. The 2nd place
team is 2-2, so we have a two game lead with 6 games to go. We are playing
great, solid softball, with no weakness at any position. Can we
continue playing like we are from another planet and win our division? If
we win the division, they will bump us up to the C-2 Division next season, where
we can take a shot at being the top Coed Team out of 60 teams that play in Huntingon Beach. The last time I had a team that could proclaim itself to
be the top Coed Team in Huntington Beach was probably back in 1992. Can we
turn back the clock? That was 15 years ago, meaning 45 seasons(three
seasons per year in our league). It could be our destiny.....
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Chalk up another win, now 5-0. We turn two ground ball double plays, enabling
us to crush the other team by 10 runs. Next thing you know, the
Commissioner of H.B. Softball is going to run a random steroid check on our
entire team!
Next up for us is the SKUSA Supernationals XI on November 14-18, 2007. This race will be one louder, faster, and better than 10. We'll gear up to see if we can win a "National Title", with Jeff returning to defend his S4 Stock Honda Heavy Championship. We've been dreaming up Cheating Bastard plans the last six months for the Supernationals. Will we execute these plans successfully, or will we shoot ourselves in the foot? Stay tuned...the countdown to Vegas begins....we will be sacrificing small animals to appease Raceaflais, the Greek God of Racing Chaos.
Me, Bonnier, Wayne, Clinton, Jonathan Wright battling for 3rd
Picture by Clinton's GF
