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Testing July 13th:

Our test site features a nice uphill climb following the long straight downhill section. This is a great test run with the steeper grade uphill portion aiding in the slowing of the cars. An important factor in the event of brake failure or brake fade. Without braking the cars will crest the top of the hill, but are slowed enough even if the brakes fail completely the car can be run off the road onto the shoulder and stopped.

Here's Chris MKV, and Jenny MKI at the end of the first run. This photo was taken from the bottom of the uphill shut down section.

We only had one slight mechanical malfunction during the entire day of testing. It happened during a tow back and resulted in a trailer back instead of a successful tow back. Jenny Burns did an awesome job of keeping the MKI out of the ditch! It was definitely a successful day of testing!

July 13th testing:

The MKV features brake calipers on both front wheels.

This setup designed and built by Chris Kouba resulted in excellent stopping power.

This is the steering system designed and built by Chris for the MKV. Due to the very limited cockpit space, the steering yoke operates on a horizontal push pull plane rather than the standard automobile type steering.

July 13th:

Mirror fairings designed by Jimmy Jones were installed on the MKII in time for the test session.

The mirror fairings were mage from small plastic funnels. Cost of this mod was $1.18....for the pair.

The brake upgrade on the MKII required some minor body modifications.

Test Session July 13th:

Jeff Burns designed and built rear tail section on the MKI.

Rear brake modifications on both the MKI and MKII feature motorcycle brake discs and Wilwood single puck mechanical calipers. The improvement in braking was awesome as reported by all drivers!

Chris Kouba not only designed and fabricated these new wheel covers, he built the vacuform table to manufacture them!

Scuderia Kouba had a great test session on Friday July 13th. The day started early at our normal meeting place, The Stagecoach Saloon. After Chris, Bethany, Jenny, Jeff, Jessy, Johnny, Dennis, Beau, and I had breakfast we all headed out on the long drive to our secrete (OK maybe not too secrete) testing site.

The MKI, MKII, and MKV all performed well. The speeds posted by the MKI were equal to or slightly better than the speeds posted during last year's testing. The MKII speeds were down but only by 1 mph. The big news for the MKI and MKII were the brakes. The new brake systems adapted to both cars vastly improved their braking ability, a welcomed improvement! But the star of the show was the new MKV! On its maiden run the MKV posted a speed 2 mph faster than anything previously posted by the MKI or MKII. That is impressive! The front braking system on the MKV also worked very well. There was only one minor incident throughout the day of testing. A slight equipment malfunction with one of the wheel pants on the MKI on the tow back from one of the test runs almost put Jenny into the ditch. Thankfully her lightning quick reactions kept the car on the tarmac and she got it stopped safely.

It was a hot day but we were blessed with a nice cool breeze for most of the day. We made over 6 runs throughout the day and recorded some good data. More car improvements were planned as well as a few minor repairs. That's why these test sessions are so important and one reason Scuderia Kouba performs well on race day! We test hard, we make adjustments during test and record the test data. We break stuff on test day hoping to eliminate breakage and poor performance on race day! And we have great team members helping out with the entire process! Without our awesome team members Scuderia Kouba would not exist. A great big thanks to Bethany, Jenny, Dennis, Beau, Jessy, and Johnny for all their help in making this test day a success! And of course, THANK YOU to Chris and Jeff for building us these awesome toys!

Unloading at the test site.

As a previous track owner and promoter of the NASTE Odd Thursday Night Races I scheduled the race rotation with input from the participating racers. The same goes for the classes raced in the NASTE Point Series Championship. Since I am currently absent from that role I post the schedule and class rotation according to directions I receive from Al. In my opinion it is up to whenever and whatever the racers and Al decides. Generally I would start the point series races in September. At this point in time I do not know what my level of involvement will be in the 2019 NASTE Point Series Championship. The one suggestion I have for the 2019 season would be to return to the series format we have used in the past that allow racers to throw out at least one of their worst finishes. For example if the series consists of 10 races a racer's 9 best finishes would be scored for points. In the event of a possible tie the 10th race would be used for the tie breaker.

In the meeting we held on February 15th it was decided Can Am and USRRC would become stand alone classes and as such raced separately. When I split the two I added USRRC as our 14th class. Other than that the rules for each class are unchanged.

Race results from July 5th race at Rippin' Ridin' Raceway:

Classic Sports Car 1
1 Jeff   65.1 Laps
2 Al    64.3
3 Daniel    63.8
4 Monte    63.5
5 Greg  63.3
6 Mitch    62.3
7 Gary  61.6
8 Rico  61.3
9 Stan   57.3
10 Jon  47.7

GT 3
1 Al    69.3 Laps
2 Rico    67.0
3 Jeff  65.9
4 Mitch  65.6
5 Gary  64.7
6 Greg  62.2
7 Monte  62.1
8 Stan  60.6 
9 Daniel  60.0
10 Jon  52.8

Open Class
1 Greg  79.0 Laps
2 Al 75.9
3 Mitch  74.4
4 Rico  73.7
5 Stan  72.3
6 Jeff  60.5
7 Jon  52.5

We'll be doin' the 4th thing here in the sac..........cul-de-sac that is. New neighbors are awesome! Always something going on, parties, BBQs, and just plain B.S.'n. Such is life in the sac!

Hey y'all,

I just received an email from the PASD organizers. Registration for volunteers will be open to the public in a week or so. Registration for volunteers who are volunteering for TEAMS is open now. Folks that volunteer for a team have the advantage of signing up for the more popular volunteer positions. If volunteers wait too long they get stuck with the less desirable positions! Our past experience in acquiring volunteers for our teams has been somewhat dismal. We have a few team members that step right up but I hate to burden the same folks every year. It would be nice to establish a bigger pool to draw from.  We need 1 volunteer for each car/team. In all Scuderia Kouba needs 3 volunteers again this year. We have had previous discussions regarding volunteers for this year's race, but I would like to get our volunteer registration completed and have responsible and dependable folks in place. Once we get this step officially completed I can worry about other things! If we come up short I can volunteer for the tow back crew again this year. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering so I can keep track of how many people are interested and or how many people have actually signed up. I can not sign people up they must complete the registration themselves. Also please keep in mind if you are volunteering, in addition to your position or duties on race day, volunteers must attend one of the volunteer meetings held before the day of the race.

Here is a portion of the email i received from the PASD organizers including the link to the website for volunteers to sign up:

So, that being said…volunteers.  The volunteer registration will be open to the public in a week or so.  We give the teams the first crack at sign-ups because some of the more desirable positions go quickly.  There are very few volunteer positions that are not on race day or during the actual race.  We need all the hands we can get on the mountain on race day.  I get numerous requests every year to find a team volunteer a position that is not during the actual race.  It would be awesome if we could do that but alas, the race must go on.  Below you will find the link to register your volunteer for their position.  Again, the sooner you register the more choices you have for your volunteer position.

https://fs19.formsite.com/mttaborsoapbo … index.html

Thank you all!

==========Bill

Here's Dick Gehrke our soapbox derby veteran from the 1946 race manning the Scuderia Kouba booth at Parkrose Hardware's annual BBQ held at Rossi Farms. We had a great time talking with folks about our team and the PDX Adult Soapbox Derby. Youngsters had an opportunity to try out the driver's seats, and the more senior youngsters had the opportunity to talk shop with Dick. A big thanks goes out to Mitch Brooks, Greg Dunbar, Jeff Jenny Lee Burns, and of course Dick Gehrke for all their help in making this event come together!