What I do for fun...Back 40 Racing

Hey y'all. I know I allude to this outrageously fun activity that we do from time to time and have posted stuff before. I'm pretty sure you all won't get tired of it soon, though, so here's the latest video from our fun last weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOpGdAXJ8OQ&list=UUkQCyoKqfLkieBjkxMMvpjw&index=1&feature=plcp

The background. Friends of mine have 50 acres outside of town. The "Back 40" is just that...a pasture that is used pretty much exclusively for horsing around in cars, 4x4s, dirtbikes, etc. We do this several times a year.

Several grm forum members partake in the fun as well. Psteav, Gen, SingleSlammer, N Sperlo...and more will in the future, I'm sure.

The camera on the front of the car was an Emerson video camera I bought at Menards for ~$40 last fall. The camera on the back is point and shoot rugged still digital camera by Olympus or something (it belongs to the girlfriend..."Fleabag" on the board here).

The cameras were mounted VERY simply: I bought 1/4-20 bolts, nuts, and washers at the hardware store, drilled holes (or found existing holes) in opportune places on the car, and bolted the camera on. Works pretty well.

I'll have more video from that day (run 2) sometime soon...after I've had some time to edit out the extra-boring parts. I've also got lots of other, older back 40 stuff I can post (or can be found on youtube).

Anyway...that's all for now. enjoy.

Very cool.

I'm gonna have to come out for this one of these days.

Perfect song choice, by the way.

Takes me back to when my club oned 20+ acres of wooded land.

We had a road/track through the woods. All events were one car, there wasn't enough room for side by side. First, we would buy a junk yard car and drive it until it died or was killed. Then we bought an old mini-stock without a body andrun that . It was much fun.

Wish i was there!

I have three words for you guys: "left foot braking."

And what bounced out of the Tracker at 0:44? A loose helmet? And what's with the hood flying open? How could that car possibly have passed tech?

Seriously, though, that looks like LOTS and lots of fun. Kind of a more sane version of the stuff that goes on at Dave's farm, except you guys turn left AND right.

And what bounced out of the Tracker at 0:44? A loose helmet? And what's with the hood flying open? How could that car possibly have passed tech?

No worries. Pretty sure it was just a baby at 0:44.

Coolness. Get some insurance and a couple of port-o-johns and rent it out to the local SCCA for rallyX.

That was a helmet falling out of the geozuki. As far as I know, there was no head in it.

There is no local SCCA. We're the only game in town.

Left foot braking? I was driving a momentum line. Brakes hardly work. 3TC is a bit underpowered. While I fancy myself a better driver than most (present GRM company excluded), I have zero formal training. Any instructors want to come give lessons, we're game!

Clem

Looks like a blast! I just spotted a mid 80's Subaru 4wd wagon that would be perfect for that.

Bitchin. I need more land.

I love that the hood flies up on the tracker, every body stops, the chase guy flips it back down and the race resumes.

Looks like a great time,wish this happened more often but lawyers and judges awarding huge settlements have ruined it.I personally wouldn't even think of having buddies over for that kind of fun for the reasons stated,you'll find out how good a friend they actually were after they get hurt and you lose your home.

Great stuff. Run what'cha brung!

I see a new race series forming. 50 tracks in 50 states. I'll start working on SC.

That looks like an absolute blast.

Off to craigslist.

kevlarcorolla wrote: Looks like a great time,wish this happened more often but lawyers and judges awarding huge settlements have ruined it.I personally wouldn't even think of having buddies over for that kind of fun for the reasons stated,you'll find out how good a friend they actually were after they get hurt and you lose your home.

Not likely to happen up here. In some states maybe.

That's real grassroots racing. We used to have a dirt oval on the property. It was great fun for the kids, and taught them a lot of good lessons early.

jimbob_racing wrote: Looks like a blast! I just spotted a mid 80's Subaru 4wd wagon that would be perfect for that.

Where??

That's how I and most of the kids in my neighborhood learned how to drive. Except that it was just one car (1952 Plymouth) on the track and one driver at a time.

It looks like you've kept it away from anything that could cause a sudden unplanned stop. Just a word of warning though. I knew a guy who was doing something similar and hit a dirt bank causing him to submarine out of his 4 pt. harness resulting in breaking his neck. He died about 10 days later. Needless to day the fun never resumed.

Having said that, I'd be right there with you if possible.

Yeah...we've had our close calls (I caused a car to roll by using the P.I.T. maneuver). It's a sobering experience. I, for one, now know that things can take a turn for the worse in a hurry.

Clem

In reply to ClemSparks:

Very cool. again great choice of music...

Y'all might just be a Redneck when....

In reply to NOHOME:

I, sir, am no red neck. If you had access to something like this I believe that you would do it too. With that said. Most of the racers are a little red neck. Ha ha

Lets cut out the boring stuff.

In reply to N Sperlo:

that tracker jumps really well!

I finally got around to editing together some of the footage from our second run (the second run I recorded) from March 4th.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXb0EmDMhOg&list=UUkQCyoKqfLkieBjkxMMvpjw&index=1&feature=plcp

It's very similar to the video in the first post...so don't get your hopes up if you didn't care for that one. It's kind of a "you had to be there" type of experience, I suppose

Clem