Tunachuckers 2009

Whaling on the same old dilapidated crap can.

January 25, 2010 - New and Shiney! The Tunachuckers Blog! Kevin here (again), letting you know of the existence of the new Tunachuckers Blog! That's right, just in time for the 24 Hours of LeMons Southern Discomfort race - February 5-7, 2010. Now you can get your daily (hopefully) updates on everything Tunachuckers in-between your more substantial updates on the website. Click on the link to the left to access the blog.
Do it. Do it NOW!

August 27, 2009 - Wow! I guess it has been a while since anyone has posted an update! Well, hopefully that will change. Kevin here, illustrious brother of Tunachuckers Team Captain Mike, with an important announcement. The Tunachuckers website has changed servers. What does this mean for you, the viewer? Basically, nothing. You should see no visible changes. However, the site is coming to you from a different host. But doesn't it make you happy to know what's going on behind the scenes? It's like you have VIP access to the Tunachuckers saga. Well, hopefully more updates to come and maybe a super-secret surprise as well! Stay tuned...

April twenty-something- I'm not terribly motivated, but there's a new link over there <--- with links to various sites containing our race pictures.  And, hopefully soon, video!

March 27th- One week to go before the April Race!  Click on the "Fire it Up" link on the left for perpetual updates on the car (and our sanity) as crunch time closes in.

UPDATE: T- shirts are in!   Get your official* Tunachucker merchandise!  Impress your friends!  Annoy your enemies!  Click on "T-Shirts" on the left menu bar for details.

 
Welcome to the new but not very much improved for 2009 web page for the Tunachuckers 24 Hours of LeMons Race Team. The first thing you may notice about the site is the new URL. That's right, we will no longer be mooching the free website services of googlepages. Also, they have converted their web sites to some weird wiki-type thing which pretty much sucks. Well, wouldn't you know it, _nobody_ had yet claimed "www.tunachuckers.com" in the great URL wars! Well, now we have, putting some of our effluent nickels to good use. Now relax, if you wish to review the storied past (ie last season) of this soon-to-be-legendary squadron of racers, click here, or on the link which I will put somewhere convenient on this page.

Now that we've gotten the administrative crap out of the way, let's get down to racing! We have an especially ambitious schedule this year; instead of just one 24 Hours of LeMons race at Carolina Motorsports Park, we have two- one in April and one in September. When I first heard of this (back in November when Jay Lamm published the 2009 schedule) my first thought was that perhaps we might have to find some new team members, as I feared some of us might not be able to make the time and financial commitments necessary to compete in two LeMons races in one season. Apparently, however, I had grossly misjudged the severity of this disease which has now been inflicted upon all of us. Everyone was "all in", and as exuberant in their enthusiasm as I was. Our team, though, does have one small change. Jamie, the steady hand at the tiller who brought the beaten and battered and brake-less Volvo across the finish line last July, decided he'd prefer to limit his engagement this year to wrenching and helping to document our endeavors on film and video. Luckily, the ambitious Anthony, who contributed immensely towards our success in fielding a serviceable racer last year, was all to eager to drive, so our quintet of loose nuts behind the wheel remains intact.

The other thing that remains intact is our magnificent steed. Despite a 3 hour deficit in getting out of the gates, we still managed a 47th-place finish at the July '08 race, and, well, dang, we finished- which was more than one could say of a lot of cars. Not only that, but the sturdy Volvo Amazon seemed every bit as willing, capable, and speedy as it did at the beginning of its great adventure. Granted, the effectiveness of the brakes had been mostly lost due to a burst caliper seal, so we had to make due with engine braking and some lap times on the second day that weren't our best, but there wasn't a soul on the team at the end of the race who harbored a single notion of replacing the car. Indeed, post-race Jay Lamm, the twisted soul who puts on this event, gave us a $200 residual value on our Volvo 122, leaving us with $300 to fix her up- NOT including the money to be spent on brakes, tires, wheels, and other safety equipment. There's a lot of work to be done by April 4th!

The new format is somewhat similar to the old. Click on the links to the left to read our progress, in more-or-less chronological order top to bottom, newest at the bottom.