News - Trouble Racing Motorsports

Some Things Never Change For Us

Trouble Racing Corvette Pro Mod with Camp Stanley at the NitrOlimpx 2011
By Camp Stanley: Post Date: 8/19/2011
Photos Courtesy Of Ivan Sansom & Patrik Jacobsson

As I wrote in the last ongoing saga of Stanley & Weiss racing I was to be off to Hockenheim, Germany for the next to the last round of the European FIA drag racing Championships last weekend. And what a weekend it was! And no one out there in cyberspace will probably believe this bit, BUT IT RAINED!!!! And, yes I am beginning to think that maybe it is me or it may be the fact that I am not supposed to ever be able to get Marcus Hilt’s Pro Mod down a race track in good fashion. Because that didn’t happen AGAIN, either!

When I arrived Thursday it was a beau tiful day and we set about changing the suspension on th e car to eliminate the gradual left turns under power we experienced at Santa Pod and made a few more little changes in readiness for Friday’s qualifying. And that is where the rain came into the picture. Friday morning dawned a bit overcast but it looked as if it would pass us o ver. NOT!!! Rain in buckets came and then slowed down till it finally stopped after abo ut two hours. That was the good part, it didn’t stay around and would not return until Sunday late enough to halt the finals due to the curfew!

And the Trouble Racing Pro Mod from Switzerland had another one of those weekends from Hades. I am ready to concede that I am never supposed to get this car this car down a race track from one end to the other under power! And this I know is not me! This team has to be the most star crossed Pro Mod team in the world. If anything dumb or stupid is going to happen it will happen to them. On the first hit the car went about twenty measly feet and spun the tires instantly. Marcus recovered well and hustled the car down the track but not even close to where it should have been because of the issues on the starting line. It was a complete surprise to one and all because on the very last hit in Santa Pod the car went .979 in the sixty foot! Because of several issues, we never made the second qualifier on the Friday. Another wasted opportunity…  So relegated to Saturday’s first round we were and at the hit the car did the same thing as the day before. Then it flipped a sprag in the transmission we thought so that ended that run. Marcus said the car was vibrating from something and when we got into the internals of the race car we found the rear main out of the motor which had created all the drama on both runs! And that ended our racing weekend once again!

Does It Ever Not Rain ON The Main Event?

Trouble Racing Corvette Pro Mod With Camp Stanley At Santa Pod
By Camp Stanley: Post Date: 6/26/2011 
Photos By Ivan Samson and Camp Stanley

Memorial Day weekend saw me once again winging my way across the Atlantic Ocean one more time bound for England to help my Swiss friend Marcus Hilt with his Corvette.
  I just knew it wasn’t going to rain n me this time…. But was I mistaken! I have been to Santa Pod Raceway in England FOUR times and I have been rained on FOUR times!  
 And this trip was no different. There was a test day scheduled for Thursday that we were to participate in but of course that was a complete washout! And as Friday was a day for the Sportsman classes only to qualify there was nothing on for me except for visiting with people. And that I do love to do!   
Saturday dawned COLD and WINDY and just a little bit of rain intermittently. We got our two qualifiers in all the while having race car 101 schooling. After weighing the car at the end of the run I realized the TMRC Corvette was 150 pounds OVERWEIGHT for the class.

So Saturday evening was spent removing all 327 weight bars Marcus had bolted in the car and replacing them with two pucks. This worked well as we went across the scales on Sunday at 27 pounds over. You haven’t lived till you weigh lead weights at a race track with a kilogram fish scale and a back that up with a borrowed set of kilogram bathroom scales (thanks Urban Johansson) and convert kilograms to pounds with a cell phone calculator!
Sunday was just as COLD and WINDY with same intermittent rain drops but we got both qualifiers in. The second qualifier enabled us to just make the field with a shut off 7.30 pass. But that pass did show the potential of the car by producing a .979 60 foot before Marcus had to lift before he crossed the centerline.
That was the best 60 foot pass out of any car on the grounds with the exception of Micke Gullqvist’s .960’s. And we were going to be able to race on race day! So we thought!.

Monday was to be the day of eliminations and to the staging lanes we went as Pro Mod was to be first out! That was a great plan till about 20 minutes after we were in the lanes it started to sprinkle which eventually became the steady downpour I have become way to familiar with! And that as they say, ended that! The rain never stopped and the event was canceled!  
So now it will be on to Hockenheim, Germany for the Trouble Racing Team for their next go at that magic six second pass…

European FIA Round With Trouble Racing's Marcus Hilt

Hockenheim, Germany:
Racing Pro Mods In Europe
By Camp Stanley: Post Date: 9/4/2010

The European drag racing scene consists of FIA rounds all over Europe and to become the FIA champion you must be committed to traveling very long distances to race. For some to spend 30 plus hours on a ferry is not uncommon! And the costs are astronomical at any exchange rate or any currency.

I had committed to travel to the FIA round at the famous racing facility in Hochenheim, Germany with Marcus Hilt's Trouble Racing team, again. Our goal was to see about getting the car, the driver and the crew all dialed in and on the same page. Marcus has a great, dedicated crew and the team just needed some outside help in putting all the pieces in their correct places. It does take all three, part and parcel to make an operation work and work well. Marcus had fitted a late model Lenco between the frame rails of his TM 63 Split window to replace the 35 year old one that he had destroyed at the Santa Pod round in June. And JanCen Engines in Buffalo, NY had repaired the leftover head damages from Marcus' blowup at Hockenheim in 2009.

So all that was left to do was to fit the bigger fuel pump to the car and then see if the car could go from one end to the other under power.

The first qualifying round on Friday proved that gremlins still abounded in the car. Marcus depressed the clutch to arm the two step and it did not come on when a relay decided to stop working. With that issue being diagnosed and repaired the Punisher was ready yet again to try and make a full pass.

With a decent 60 foot for a Littlefield blower at 20 over amongst all the DMPE pieces the Vette set sail till 3.6 seconds when the burst panel did it' s job! ONE more anomaly had shown up! The clip that holds the fuel shutoff cable broke and allowed the fuel shutoff to slowly go closed. All air and no fuel does not a happy combination make, so the burst panel ended that run as well.

Saturday dawned a beautiful day and the entire team was ready to finally show the true potential of the Swiss Pro Mod! The car left the line well and appeared to be doing a fairly good job of making its' way down the track until it nosed over and gave up an 8 second time slip. This was starting to really get to all of us! How many things can go wrong was heard from one and all!

When the crew tore into the car they quickly found the reason why the engine had stopped running 3 seconds in! A broken timing belt was the first sign of things not being happy internally. And after further diagnosis Marcus and the crew discovered not one but TWO broken connecting rods! And that ended yet another run at that elusive 6 second pass all were looking for! Although they were all dejected as is to be expected, the long faces did not stay long! They had all done their part and mechanical gremlins had been the cause of their demise, not any people failures.

So then there was nothing left to do but have another great meal in The Punisher pits! That is the one and only bad thing about working with this team. I would weigh 200 pounds if I ate with them all the time. They really, really eat well and I have enjoyed some great dishes that have names I can't pronounce. It is great to see and great to be a part of the camaraderie on this team. As I said earlier people are ALWAYS the key to success. So it will all have to be done again in 2011. There are no tracks for a Pro Mod in Switzerland so it looks like England again in the spring.

It Has Been Confirmed!
28.May 2010 Stanley and Weiss Racing Ventures To Santa Pod Raceway With Trouble Motorsports Racing Pro Mod
By Camp Stanley

The confirmation is that YES, I do have the world's greatest "job". I have just returned from my trip to Santa Pod Raceway in Merry Ole England. This trip was a return to a race track where my friend Brian Wood and I had ventured off to several years ago and observed 40 days and 40 nights of rain over a six day time span. To say that it rained hard would be a gross understatement of major proportions

So when I arrived at the track Wednesday afternoon after a visit to Andy Robinson's race car emporium and it started to sprinkle I had a massive case of deja vu! Not this again was all I could think! But after meeting all the crew on Marcus Hilt's "Punisher" Pro Mod Corvette we got straight into the suspension setup of the car. The harder we worked and the faster we worked, the harder it rained and the little rivers of water running through the pits was enough for us to just give up on it for the night. We had no recourse but to delve into the premixed stash of that margarita stuff manufactured by the infamous mixologist (I am not a bartender!) himself, Me! And it was received well by one and all! The WORLDWIDE reputation enjoyed by this drink has now been carried to the European side of the world.

Until we ran out of mix, they had been sampled by people from Texas, Sweden, England, Switzerland, France and Denmark. And it received its' just due in the compliment department.

But by Thursday afternoon it was wonderful t shirt weather! The first test hit with the Vette gave us reason for optimism as things went exactly as planned. Even though it was setup really weak the car went quicker by .04 in the 60 foot than ever and even more tenths in the eighth mile even though it was a planned shutoff. After some between rounds maintenance we went back for our shot of the day. The result should have forewarned us that we were not going to be very happy with our results on the weekend. The reverser broke on the burnout and then it was into the take two transmissions and try and make one mode.

Then Mother Nature intervened and gave us rain and lots of it all by the bucketloads!!! The entire qualifying Saturday session was washed away down the storm drains. So we went into the Sunday qualifying with the expectations of three shots to gather some data. This was not to be as well since the track was plagued by a myriad of happenings that stopped the racing dead in its tracks! Everything from the Christmas tree being run over and destroyed to a massive power outage to the ENTIRE facility. Both of our runs were ruined by nagging little issues that the testing and the first couple of qualifiers were going to show us. NOT!!! On the first run the two step malfunctioned and his borrowed transmission broke when the large Swiss fellow plugged it into second gear. And that ended our racing adventures for the weekend!

I spent a lot of time on Sunday watching some racing and talking with people. Roger Burgess had flown his Camaro along with Mr and Mrs Al Billes, Mr and Mrs Darren Mayer, several of the crew and Ms Melanie Troxel to enter the race. The Camaro qualified for the field but lost its first round race. But the tuning people on the team came back and showed why they are at the top of their game in the US. The Camaro logged a 5.93 at over 242mph on an exhibition pass. Never sell Al Billes short! He was just one run shy of my prediction to the track announcer…… And how about that pair of young brothers in the Rockstar Energy Drink sponsored ex-John Russo Firebird! A true honest to goodness 6.0 bracket car that just never ceased to amaze everyone on the grounds and they won the event with those kinds of numbers!

What can be said for Urs Urbachers' 4.70 Top Fuel dragster? 4.70s at will when he needed them and a new European speed record as well at almost 315 mph.

All in all it was an enjoyable experience and one that I hope to experience again. Thank you to Santa Pod Raceway, Marcus Hilt along with his entire crew, all the many people who took the time to stop and speak with me and especially to all the fans who persevered to witness a GREAT drag race .

Well done one and all!