Posts by Fireballs

My latest article in NASA‘s Speed News magazine is once again the featured subject on the cover! This article describes the basics of air dams, splitters, spoilers, and rear wings. Those are all practical and inexpensive additions with a good performance payoff in terms of lap time, and in terms of performance gain per dollar spent. It is an honor and a priviledge to be able to share my knowledge and experience with NASA’s racing membership. Many thanks to the staff and management of Speed News, and I look forward to future opportunities to contribute. Check out the article starting on page 34 by clicking...

Think Fast – The Racer’s Why-To Guide to Winning has been selected as one of Popular Mechanics “10 Racing Books to Channel Your Inner Speed Demon”! Here is what Phil Berg of Popular Mechanics has to say about Think Fast: If you could tap the mind of a racer and engineer, you’d have a shortcut to learning all the different disciplines required to put together a well-rounded team from one point of view. Author Neil Roberts was an SCCA formula car road racer and an engineer for the Swift Indy car company. In addition to these accomplishments, in Think Fast Roberts translates engineer-speak to language the rest of us can relate to and apply to more of life’s tasks than just racing a car. Mega thanks to Popular Mechanics for...

The March 2013 issue of NASA‘s Speed News e-zine features my article titled “Not Fade Away” as the cover subject for the issue. Many thanks to NASA and the Speed News staff for this honor. This article describes how and why air cooling of race car brakes makes a car with marginal brake cooling faster, safer, and less expensive to operate. It also describes how to add a brake cooling system to your racer. Click this link to read the issue, and stay tuned for more of my articles in future issues. I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to Speed News, and I look forward to each new...

Paul Costas has done it again. Two more Whelen US Time Trial Championship days at Texas World Speedway, two more wins, two more track records. He makes it look easy, especially considering that Scratcher is actually a simple, conservative, low budget track day car that is up against much more modern, sophisticated, and expensive machines. A big part of Scratcher’s performance is Paul’s driving skill and experience at TWS. The rest is a result of spending money on only the high-payoff performance items, clear thinking, and logical development. Paul and I have been educating each other for decades on our respective specialties, so it is especially gratifying to see him perform well on the race track. This achievement has extended Paul’s...

The February 2013 issue of NASA‘s Speed News e-zine includes my article entitled “Big Goals, Thin Wallet“. As you might imagine, it’s about how to economize your racing program where you can, but it’s also about selecting the few key items that you should splurge on. I have spent a lot of years and a lot of nickels and dimes shredding rubber into dust, and my results have taught me a thing or two about turning pennies into performance. I would like to thank Speed News for the opportunity to share what I have learned along the way, and I look forward to future opportunities to contribute. Click and read! You just might like...