It's Starting To Look Like A Car!

Dennis bought the 88 Monte Carlo body on 3/19/10. There was a problem getting quarter panels from 5-Star Stock Car Bodies. Their coming on a slow boat from China. So Shawn and Kevin bought a junker from the junk yard and (along with other various parts) cut off the quarter-panels. Good move guys! Dennis and Shawn paid a guy (Jim from 5-Star) to hang the body. We didn't like the look of the front end (too high), so we removed front clip and re-postioned the nose piece. Here is our Monte!

Before We Go Any Further

I forgot to explain were we decided to set up the race shop. Shawn has a work shop for his concrete business that would have worked out as a race shop. But to keep various parties happy, we decided to work on the car @ Shawn's house, in his "back" garage. Well that was ok by everyone, but first we had to "fix-up" the garage as a race shop. So before work ever got started on the car, insulation, and installing a heater and tank were the order of day. (hey, when I say this race team started from the ground floor, I mean it!!!...lol)

In Case you Were Wondering?

This is what a Sportsman looks like.

And this is what our car colors will be. (it will also depend on a sponsor)

UMAD - UDOG? Which is it???

The name of the race team has been changed the last few weeks. We originally wanted to incorporate "Utphall" & "Maddog" (hince; UDOG, UMAD?) But now due to a potential sponsor,
I guess we have settled on MADDOG MOTORSPORTS.
Purchase no. 3 came on 2/7/10 when we bought a set of 3.86 gears.
Purchase no. 4 came on 2/15/10 when we bought a seat, rotors, suspension parts and some general items. We are now working on the car on a daily basis. It's starting to take shape.
Pedals, steering shaft, safety harness, brakes, fire system, fuel cell, tach are now installed. Oh,,,and the seat has been installed, taken out, re-installed (you get the picture...lol) And FINALLY installed.

WE BUY TWO CHASSIS

On 1/23/10 Shawn found a guy on Racing On Line in the classified section that had a pretty new chassis. No suspension parts but a real good/straight chassis. So it was off to Rockford to make our first purchase for the race team.

Then on 1/26/10 Shawn found another guy in Lake Geneva that was selling a wrecked chassis, but it had most of the of suspension parts we needed, ect. and extra wheels. So it was off to make purchase no. 2 The following week we started taking parts off the wreck and cleaning 'em for installation on the new chassis. It was also around this time I down loaded and made copies of our race schedule.

How This All Started

So anyway, on Jan 16th 2010 after our annual bowling tournament from Norine's On Oakwood, Oak Creek, Wi. I'm sitting at the bar minding my own business, (drinking adult beverages) when my friend Shawn Utphall comes up to me and says; "when are we going to do this"? and I say; "what"? and he says; "go racing, we've been talking about it for 2 years!" We then proceeded to discuss how much money it would take, and how much each of us had to put into this project. We decided to go into a new racing series the ASA Midwest Tour was starting for the Sportsman series. It's a traveling series here in the midwest. Racing in Wisc, Minn, Iowa. It's a 10 race schedule which is just enough for us since we decided we didn't want to race every weekend. The following Thursday got even better when my good buddy Dennis Koss stopped by Norine's (for adult beverages), and since he loved auto racing too, we talked him into throwing in with us! He agreed to buy the body. (Hence the Grim Reaper). He calls himself "Darkside". They call me "Maddog". We haven't figured out a nickname for Shawn yet. (LOL)
Did I mention Shawn is the driver? Shawn started racing @ the old Hales Corners Speedway (dirt) in the hobby stock division, then moved up to the Sportsman class. He decided after a few years of eating dirt, asphalt racing was the way to go. He raced Mid-American Series for a few years but for various reasons got out of it. He's been out of racing the past few years but now has his buddy's Darkside & Maddog & uncle Kevin to help out. And there you have it, that's how Maddog Motorsports was formed. Stay tuned for future posts.