FL OYD'S CORNER 

Hello again from Team Freedom Force. Hope everybody’s 2009 is started well. Our 2009 has started out interesting as usual.

Our first weekend of the season was Council Bluffs , Iowa . We went out with the excitement and anticipation of having a successful weekend, but that got changed rather quickly. We got there and tired the truck up outside, and after we tried to pull it in the building, we made it thru the outside door, but the inner door was to narrow, so we tired down, then tired back up again for the second time in an hour. That really sucks. Practice makes perfect as they say.

When we pulled in, we noticed a bracket that was cracked. We took it apart to fix it and get it welded. Jim was talking to the building about using their welder, and I went to the trailer to try to drill an angle iron to use if we couldn`t weld it. Well, a long story short, I broke a half inch drill bit off and into my hand and proceeded to nearly go all the way through. It was a mess. The EMT cleaned me up for the show and Jim took me to the hospital after. After spending 2 ½ hours at the hospital, they finally got me patched up. Seems everyone else had the fun idea of going to the emergency room too. 

We had some breakage with a tranny and a fluke axle shaft. That is about all I got to say about that. Special thanks to Dan Evans, Jimmy Creten, Ryan Rice, and all the RC car guys that jumped in to help when we were gone to the hospital. 

Next up was Cedar Rapids , Iowa . We got the truck all repaired from the last weekend. Found a transfer case mount that was cracked and that was putting pressure on the trannies, so that is why we were breaking bell housings. Friday night was plagued by yet another tranny problem. “Tranny” is almost a cuss word at our camp. Our brand new tranny dropped almost every drop of oil out of it on the way to the show. I feel sorry for the tranny guy. He`s gonna have an @$$ chewing coming! Had a good Saturday with good wheelies and went to the finals in racing against Bear Foot. Wish our lane hadn’t been covered in anti-freeze from the previous run by Bear Foot. We just spun out bad. Next up was freestyle. We had a good run, but the coil wire came off and shorted us a little at the end. Hope the little dude in the go-kart is fine. He had a bad wreck in practice. Go-karts don’t hold up to hitting a monster truck tire.

Then we were off to Fort Wayne , Indiana . The boss was gone to Florida , so we invited Scott Chisholm to come along and drive the truck. Things went well! Some say we had the winning wheelie on Friday night. We went to the finals in racing and lost to Bear Foot again. No anti-freeze this time, and it was real close race. I spent most of my night putting Bounty Hunter back together. It sure is nice working on someone else’s piece instead of ours. Saturday night had good wheelies, but we broke a yoke and missed the start of racing by 30 seconds. But we had a good freestyle, and finally broke a hydraulic fitting at the end on the steering cylinder.

Overall it was a good first quarter. The new undercarriage is awesome. Other than a few small things, and of course the cradle crack we discovered, it is looking like things are moving forward full steam ahead. The truck is running awesome and Jim is getting faster all the time off the line; he will hit about anything in freestyle too. It is hard for good reaction time when you get his age! 

Looking forward for a testing session coming in May where I am going to drive the damn thing for a change and see if Jim can fix it. Can’t wait! That is about all for now. I will keep you updated. We are going to video our testing session so keep a look out for that.

Take care.

 

I AM OUT!!!!!    

FLOYD'S CORNER

Hello Everyone; I am Floyd, Jim's nephew. I am the Crew Chief for Freedom Force Racing and all-around right hand man. I'll be keeping you guys posted on everything that goes on around here!

First quarter was a long and interesting season which saw Jim racing for the first time in his life and he was scared ___less! 

We went to Evansville, Indiana in January for Monster Jam and we were told before the show that it was one of the smallest venues they did, which is perfect for an aged rookie. He didn't do much but hang on! He really improved on Saturday, and we never broke a thing, even drove the pig on the trailer! Old Chicago was most certainly a fun establishment unless you were buying “wussy drinks”. Long story!

Minneapolis was our next stop. Jim wasn't going to drive this show, Chad Mathison was going to, but something came up so Jim jumped in. He got waxed in racing by Sudden Impact, but he did alright. Next came freestyle. He went out and had a couple nice hits and then he went for the big stuff. He had some huge air until he had a mishap and lost his helmet. His chin strap wasn't tight enough, but the good thing was, his head was not in it. You couldn`t hurt that head anyway. Colder than heck up there! (-15 degrees)

Fargo , North Dakota was our next stop, way up north. Chad Mathison came in to drive this weekend because he lives close and he had a lot of family coming in. He had a decent wheelie comp and he only lost to Grave Digger by about 3 truck lengths. Not bad for the old turd (truck that is!). Unfortunately, Chad tore the bottom of the housing and we were not able to freestyle. Way to go Chad . You ruined our party. Anyway, we welded and repaired on the turd till 3:00 AM and returned at 7:00 AM to finish in time for the Saturday show.

Chad had to leave for a family emergency, so Jim drove. He got hammered by Digger in racing, but finished respectfully 5^th in wheelie and 7^th in freestyle out of 8 trucks. Not bad!

Then our biggest nightmare so far began. We have come to decide that it is best we don't drive in our home state. In Peoria, Illinois we were struggling with full tread tires and mud! We broke 4 axle shafts, 1 ring & pinion, 1 heim joint, 1 transmission, 1 bent 4-link bar in three shows. And I separated my shoulder. No rest for the weary. That is about all I have to say about that; it was not fun!

Last we headed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Never been there before. We had a good night until Jim exploded the transmission during freestyle and blew pieces of the bellhousing everywhere. We had a long night fixing that, and he did the same darn thing on Saturday night on the last pass going to the other end to park. We shoved the turd in the semi trailer with a telehandler and headed for home. It is amazing what 2 missing tension springs can do to your tranny inventory. 3 transmissions in 2 weekends. Not good odds!

Since all this mess, we have given the old girl a new face lift. She is sporting 2 new custom F106 housings with pettibone planetaries, 8 new 30” nitrogen shocks, all new 4 link bars, new tie rods, new steering cylinders, new wheels, and most importantly, SHAVED TIRES! Thank the big man upstairs!

I hope 2009 goes better. I'll keep you posted! See ya around!!!!

-FLOYD