Trevellin Motorsports News

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2010-04-28T21:00:00.001-04:00

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Happy Holidays!

2009-12-16T20:26:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post before the holidays finally arrive. We continue to work at securing a sponsor, even when the snow is falling (not much has fallen yet here in Windsor though). A few irons in the fire but nothing very interesting to report there. Kevin has the new clip welded onto the car we bent at Delaware and he's currently finishing up a few loose ends before it goes out for paint/powder coat, likely in the New Year.

Speaking of New Year, we're looking forward to securing some level of sponsorship so that we can compete in at least one series whether it be LOSC, NCATS, or ..... Cross your fingers!!!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Biz X Magazine

2009-10-05T23:23:00.003-04:00

We made the latest edition of Biz X Magazine. Check out page 18 at the following link. The picture is from the Numantis grand opening weekend.

As you can see, we strive to expose our marketing partners in as many arenas as possible. We're still looking for a partner for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series or even the ARCA RE/MAX Series. If you're interested in discussing these opportunities, drop us a line. You owe it to yourself to have a look.

On another note, those of you out there in Facebook land can look for Kevin there, just send him a request.

About 'Biz X Magazine':
Biz X magazine, publishing since 1998, is the only international border city publication for businesses and people in the Windsor, Ontario (Canada) and Detroit, Michigan (USA) border.

Each month Biz X Magazine delves into the issues, ideas, people, businesses and stories that make the border cities of Windsor and metro Detroit unique. We strive to provide our readers with a quality magazine that contains accurate information about the businesses and people that shape our communities. Biz X is dedicated to providing insightful, creative and exciting articles, with equally splendid graphics to illuminate the content of our publication, proving you can judge a book BY ITS COVER!

Higher res pics of the front end

2009-10-03T23:21:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note for all you loyal visitors, to post the pictures I said I would get of the front end of the car.

Since the time those pictures were taken, we've decided to re-clip the car. The rear mounts were not jiving with the jig at all so something else has moved/changed as well. Putting an entire clip on the car will allow us to put it back where it needs to be more accurately and allow Kevin to make changes to some of the fabricating (the previous clip was the first one he built and had approved by CASCAR).

Fall Out from Delaware

2009-09-24T10:52:00.003-04:00

In my Delaware summary a couple of weeks ago, I reported that the car took a big hit on the inside wall of the front stretch, ending the night for us. At the time it looked like the car would be OK from the spring pockets back but after striping the car and trying to re-jig it, it will need a little more work.

Kevin had to cut out the cross-member along with the front lower a-arm mounts. While it wasn't bent into a pretzel, the mounts were off enough that it would have been a different car. Had we more races to run, it may have worked the way it was, but since it's the off season for us we'll put it back to where it was and know what we have. Here's some pics from Kevin's phone camera, I'll try to get some higher res shots in the next couple days (I have to remember to bring the camera to the shop, LOL).

After a three event LOSC season, we need to thank the people that helped get us to the track. To Moes Mechanical (519-792-3734) for coming on board for some tires and shop use, L.A. Collision for car paint and related help and Leitch Performance Engines for helping us stay in the game. As well, we'd like to thank the Robblee's again for the good used tires they gave us for Delaware, much appreciated and you are a great representation of the teams out there.

Brad has also been a tremendous help to Kevin this year and just happens to be a great 'kid' (I can call him that because he's younger than me). Nic and Korey helped out when time permitted, Joey McColm also lent a hand as spotter when he could, which is appreciated, and Fleetham sports photography for taking some shots @ Mosport.

The results may not show it to everyone, but we feel it was an excellent year for this 'shoestring' operation. The car did what we wanted when adjustments were made and proved to be very competitive. With some additional resources, we're confident it's a top 5 car. Let's hope we can attend more races in the ???? series next year. ;)

Thanks for taking the time to read the Trevellin Motorsports Blog, we'll try to throw some tidbits of info in here during the off season so be sure to keep an eye on it. GO FAST, TURN LEFT!

Video From Delaware

2009-09-08T23:27:00.003-04:00

The video is from a Sony Mini DV camcorder that does pretty poorly at night as you may well imagine. At any rate, here's about half the footage Brad shot (the rest is too repetitive for everyone). The Raabe/McGlynn incident is near the 4 minute mark and Kevin's pit lane interview is at the end. It's a smidgen over 6 minutes. Enjoy it for what it is.

Delaware Summary

2009-09-06T23:04:00.018-04:00

Well, the LOSC McColl Racing 100 is in the books and so is our season.

First off, thanks to the Robblee's for scrounging up some good used left sides for us, we only had enough to buy two new rights and our 'stockpile' of good used lefts were done.

Second, I've added an Email Subscription button to the right side column. It looks and does the same as this one:
Now you don't have to miss any of the trials and tribulations regarding the #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge.

Now that that's out of the way, we started the day by slapping on the Hoosiers and heading out for practice. After two sessions, we ended up moving the bar down a total of 3 turns. The car re-acted as expected to those changes, with Kevin reporting the car as racey and satisfied with what we had.

He then proceeded to qualify 16th. Blah!!! In his defence, qualifying turned into a hurry up due to the program being behind schedule and instead of rolling out 6th, he went out 2nd and he never really had a chance to get into a 'qualifying' mindset. No problem, we know the car is better than that. :)

The first 50 starts off great as Kevin and the crew realize the car works great in the high line of turns 1 and 2. He moves up a number of spots and around lap 10, drops the left side tires off the track in turn 3 and reports a problem as a result. The car ends up on pit road under green and we fix the problem and check out the car while we're there, losing a handful of laps. Returning to the fray, Kevin felt out the car to make sure it was OK and decide to save his stuff for the second 50. We finished 16th.

We moved the bar down another turn for the second 50 which starts out much better for us. A first lap caution puts us into 8th from a 16th place start. Kevin lost a few spots on the following re-start and was in the process of working back past those cars. After clearing the #68 of Tony Bawden coming off turn 2, the #11 of Cole Weber (fast qualifier) got into us going into turn 3. The resulting spin put us in the back of the pack, to be joined by the #11 before the re-start (we assume the NSCA sent him back). Cole came down and apologized after the race, which was appreciated.

Wait, the chaos isn't over yet. Some laps later, the #12 of Mark Patrick ends up in the wall in turn 3, and is upset at Kevin for a reason we have yet to figure out. I did not personally see the event, but Kevin assures me he came down on our car going into turn 3 and took himself out. He apparently felt differently about it and proceeded to tell Kevin he was number one, in sign language if you know what I mean.

The final moment occurred a short time later while making a pass on the #10 of Mitch Brown. I'd have to see a re-play to know for sure what happened but the left rear corner has lots of white paint transferred to it and it certainly LOOKED like he turned Kevin coming off turn 4. The ensuing fish tailing resulted in a typical Bristol style inside wall hit.

The suspension pick-up points appear to be good but forward of the springs may have a little bend, we'll have to jig the car to find out for sure. We spent the rest of the 50 getting the car to a loadable state but from all accounts, the boys continued to wreck without us and finished 12 or 13 cars.

I have some video to go through this week and hopefully will be able to post a clip by next week-end, keep an eye out for it.

We're done for the season but we'd like to thank Moe's Mechanical (519-792-3734), L.A. Collision, Leitch Performance Engines and Border City Stunts for your support!

Delaware LOSC Schedule

2009-08-31T20:07:00.012-04:00

Here's the schedule for the “McColl Racing 100” on Sept. 5, 2009. Spectator gates open at 6:00PM according to Delaware's site (scroll down to Saturday's info).

Pit gates open - 4:00PM
Rotating Practice with Delaware Trucks - 6:00 to 7:00
Mandatory Drivers Meeting - 7:05
Mandatory Spotters Meeting - 7:20
L.O.S.C. time trials - 7:30
Truck heats (2 x 10 laps) - 8:00
L.O.S.C. 1st 50 lap Feature
Truck Feature 25 laps
Chaos cars (15 - 18 min.)
L.O.S.C. 2nd 50 lap Feature
Chaos cars Final

Delaware also has practice listed fron 5:30 till 7:15 so I don't know what's up with that. It may be that we're limited to 6-7 and guys practicing for Sunday's show have the other slots, not sure at any rate.

Let's go RACING!!!

Added an Email Subscription Feature

2009-08-28T21:08:00.002-04:00

We've added an Email Subscription button to the right side column. It looks and does the same as this one:

If you've already received this post via email, there is no need to subscribe because we already have you on the blogs 'send to' list.

Now you don't have to miss any of the trials and tribulations regarding the #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge.

Thanks!

Getting ready for McColl Racing 100 at Delaware

2009-08-26T12:32:00.005-04:00

We loaded the car up last night and headed over to Moe's Mechanical to use his shop floor, seeing as the one at our shop looks like the lunar surface (borrowed that pic from Google Images). We spent about 3 hours scaling and squaring, particularly the front end after the hits we took at Flamboro, in preparation for the Lucas Oil sportsman Cup 'McColl Racing 100' September 5th at Delaware Speedway.

Beauchamp Motorsports was kind enough to let us use their spring rater while ours is on the fritz and Kevin discovered some interesting information about the springs we have in the car that may explain the corner apex handling characteristics that we've been trying to improve. Cross your fingers.

The brake fluid has had a complete flush and some rotor and ducting issues have been addressed. We'll be converting to Silicon brake fluid over the winter to help eliminate future brake issues but we're confident we should have brakes for the entire race at Delaware with the maintenance we've done recently.

And finally, Brad has been a great help to Kevin at the shop, but I think we may be working him too hard, he seems a little tired. LOL!

See you at Delaware!!!

Downtown Windsor Display

2009-08-20T00:05:00.005-04:00

The #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge will be on display in downtown Windsor this coming Saturday, August 22nd, to celebrate the new location of NuMantis Technology Solutions. The 'festivities' will be located on the corner of Riverside Drive West and Bruce Ave. Stop by and have a chat with the NuMantis guys and have a look at the car.

The next race the #19 Dodge will be attending will be the L.O.S.C. McColl Racing 100 at Delaware Speedway during Labour Day week-end. With any luck the car will be sporting 4 new sneakers for this event so come on out to cheer for Kevin.

Thanks to Moes Mechanical (519-792-3734), L.A. Collision, Border City Stunts and Leitch Performance Engines for helping us get to the track, we appreciate it!

On another note, here's some video of practice from the August Flamboro event, no crashes so don't get too excited. :)

Update: Kevin had a great time at the NuMantis show and chatted with a variety of people. The day included a car wash and fire engines as well. I only have one cell phone picture to share with you though so i guess we need to get Kevin into the habit of taking more.

Flamboro Proves Frustrating

2009-08-03T00:10:00.008-04:00

Arriving at Flamboro for the LOSC event took us 10 minutes longer than expected because the trailer peeled a tire some where near Brantford. In hindsight, we probably should have taken that as a sign of things to come for the #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge.

Kevin headed out for practice with two shiny new right sides and reported that the car was loose off. We made a change at each end to try and help that. We managed to get out for one more session before qualifying and came to the realization that the car was tight-loose. We backed up on the changes we made and went in another direction for qualifying. Kevin turned in a great qualifying lap of 17.06 that put us in 5th.

We started 6th with the inversion and on the 1st lap, in turn 4, we took a hit in the left front from the #5 (just a racing thing) while he and Kevin were trying to go high around a spinning car #27. The contact cut the left front down and bent the center link (think toe-in). We took another left front hit latter in the race and finished the center link off at that point, along with a tie rod sleeve. To add to the misery of the front end, the brakes went soft on Kevin at around lap 30. This brake issue was with us at Mosport but we found some stuff after that race and thought we had it cleared up. We apparently still have some work to do in that area. And if that wasn't enough, the left front we put on at the beginning came back to the pits with an audible air leak. Finished 13th.

We dumped some fuel into it, borrowed a left side hockey puck from the #11 of Weber (Thanks Cole!), changed the center link and left tie rod sleeve(did a hurry up toe setting), bled the front brakes and tidied up some loose parts and pieces (think duct tape and rivets).

The second fifty saw us starting in 13th and we had moved into 8th at one point but the brakes came back to haunt us and we took yet another hit in the front end, relegating us to 16th.

On a positive note, the body is in one piece for the most part, but Kevin and the rest of the team are a little disappointed with our performance (aside from qualifying). We'll get the brakes figured out for the Delaware race at the least and go have some fun there. Thanks!

A special shout out to Moes Mechanical (519-792-3734) for coming on board for some tires, and lets not forget L.A. Collision, Border City Stunts and Leitch Performance Engines for helping us get to the track.

UPDATE: Added some pictures courtesy of Brad!

Some Good News

2009-07-26T10:11:00.016-04:00

Moes Mechanical has come on board for the Flamboro rain date (Aug 2nd). They provide Motorcyle, ATV and select Auto repair services in Essex County and can be reached at 519-723-4904.

Last weeks Cruisin' the Dub Mopar event at the Manning Road A&W location in Tecumseh was postponed to (July 29th) due to the weather forecast. We will be attending this re-scheduled event as well as a display for a new sponsor moving to downtown Windsor on Aug 1st, more info to follow regarding this display.

Follow this link to watch the finish of the July 18th second 50 lapper at Peterborough, courtesy of CHEX TV. The Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup coverage starts at 4:17 of the clip. We couldn't attend this event unfortunately, but it looks like the crowd was treated to a spectacular finish.

Make sure to thank L.A. Collision and Leitch Performance Engines for supporting Trevellin Motorsports. Check them out, both are great companies!

Peterborough Event

2009-07-08T20:37:00.003-04:00

It pains us to say that we won't be at Peterborough this week-end for the second LOSC event. A few too many factors have 'conspired' against us and we can't make the race. Good luck to the rest of the teams and hopefully we'll see you at the re-scheduled Flamboro event August 2nd to back up our 3rd place qualifying time.

Go Fast, Turn Left!

Cruisin' The Dub a Little Damp

2009-07-01T21:17:00.002-04:00

We rolled into the parking lot around 5:40, unloaded the car with ominous looking clouds on the horizon, and pulled up a parking spot. It rained for about 30 minutes while we were there and again on the ride back to the shop but we had a good time, had some Papa Combos and talked to some car nuts!
At least we have some time before the next event for the seat to dry out! The turnout was low (likely due to the weather threat) but there were a lot of cars coming and going over the 2 hours we were there. The picture down the aisle wasn't peak attendance, more like average over the 2 hours.

We were given a flyer about a Mopar show at that particular A&W location for July 22nd (I'll update the date later if I have the wrong one) that we will try to make, hopefully mother nature will play along for that event.

Cruisin' the Dub

2009-06-24T23:02:00.003-04:00

On July 1st, we'll be taking the #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge out to the A&W on Manning Road in Tecumseh, ON (weather permitting) for their A&W Cruisin' the Dub night. Look for us to arrive around 5pm and depart around 7pm. Come on out, shoot the breeze and see some great iron. Don't forget to grab a Root Beer for your walk around the lot!

We're still looking for funding to get to the next LOSC event at Peterborough Speedway July 11th. A mere $1500 dollars will put your Logo on the hood and TV panel(great location for visual impressions while we're towing down the highway) for the Peterborough race, and then move to a quarter panel location for the remainder of the events we can make this season. Give Kevin a call to discuss this further, his number is located at the bottom of our webpage.

Mosport Summary

2009-06-14T10:37:00.011-04:00

We had a fun day at the Mosport Oval! Led some laps, used up the tires and brakes but the car is very racey and responded well to any changes we threw at it. The tires we have been using are now TOAST! (not really surprising to anyone, right?!?! LOL!)

The car unloaded from the trailer and felt the same to Kevin as it did in Flamboro which gave us some confidence as to the setup we're using. Tried some adjustments in two practice sessions to see what we had and came away happy with the car considering the tires we had on it. We only hit two of three practices to save on tires and fuel.

For those of you who don't know, the LOSC format consists of time trials and two 50 lap features. A number of cars are inverted for the first 50 from qualifying results, and the same number are inverted in the second 50 from the first 50 results. We went out for qualifying 16th of 18 cars and our fast time was good for 9th. We'll post our thoughts on the times when we get a chance to look over the qualifying sheet from LOSC officials. With a 10 car inversion for both 50's in effect, we started on the outside pole in the first 50. After a great start, the #19 Trevellin Motorsports Dodge led the field for about a half dozen laps when some of the faster qualifiers caught the car and we started slowly giving up positions. Some cautions kept us in the hunt, until the right rear tire finally started to give up on us. After the brakes went soft around lap 45, we drifted back to a 10th place finish.

We worked on the car during intermission to tighten it up some more for the second free for all. A cracked pad on the LF seemed to point to our brake problem and after changing them and bleeding the front brakes, we dumped some fuel into the hot rod and headed back out to start the second 50 from the pole. Now in hind sight, we should have changed the RR tire and started at the back because the turn 2 synchronized spin with the #81 car relegated us to the back for the second attempt to start the second 50. Kevin drove the car forward a couple positions but the RR was holding us back until a caution on lap 15 gave us a chance to come down pit road and change that tire out for a less used version! This combined with the changes we made allowed Kevin to drive the car back into a 6th place position, even with the brake issue coming back to haunt us by the end.

The car came home in one piece with some tire rubs and only a couple fiberglass cracks, a great day of racing! We've also found some other problems with the brakes so we can get that issue cleaned up.

Special thanks goes out to Joey McColm of the NCATS #50 ATTO Dodge for spotting, he did a stellar job! Joey also brought along some of his gang and we know they all had fun watching us yahoo's run around in circles for the night. A tip of the hat to Leitch Performance Engines and L.A. Collision as well, hopefully we can get to the next event to showcase your support!

And finally, thanks to Lucas Oil, Benson Auto Parts and Grand Prix Kartways for supporting the series!

Mosport Bound

2009-06-11T13:55:00.002-04:00

It's official, we'll be loading up and heading to the Mosport Oval for Saturday's LOSC race. The car is already full of fuel so there's no point in staying home for the cost of tow money and admission.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series cars will be next door on the Mosport Road Course for practice on Saturday, racing on Sunday. Hopefully those guys will stick around to watch the 'chaos'!

As of now, the next event we hope to make after Mosport is Delaware on Labour Day unless we find some funding.

Hope to see you there!

Delaware NCTS

2009-06-07T09:52:00.002-04:00

Trevellin Motorsports was present at the inaugural event, unfortunately, I was on the turn 4 hill and Kevin was busy spotting for the #50 ATTO Dodge of Joey McColm (finished 6th). Oh well, we both had a fun day at the track! Delaware looks great and is really moving the right direction once again. The number of people that file into this facility is always a sight to see. And the racing even had it's share of drama that should edit up very nice for the TSN crew, I would recommend you set your PVR now.

A couple of pics from the day, enjoy! And No, Kevin didn't spot from the grass, he was there during qualifying.

Flamboro qualifying update

2009-06-06T06:36:00.003-04:00

I just received an email from the Operations Director that listed official times, and it's actually GOOD news. We officially posted 16.96 and 17.08 according to LOSC officials and that put us in at third fastest. Previously I was using the track announcers information so this is GREAT news. The email lists 21 cars, 20 of which took times. Can you see us jumping up and down at this end.

Thanks to our supporters, L.A. Collision, Leitch Performance Engines and Border City Stunts, we appreciate the help!

Flamboro Report

2009-05-31T01:06:00.005-04:00

Promising afternoon gets rained out!

After a leisurely 3.5 hour haul, we now know we're heading in the right direction with our home built car. We missed first practice and after the 10 lap second practice, we were unsure as to how well the car was going to be. We simply didn't get enough practice on a track that Kevin has never been at.

We went out for qualifying (with tires from the Delaware race in 2008) with the intent of only using it as a test session after making a few minor tweaks to loosen the car up getting into the corners. Kevin pulled off two great lap times of 17.10 and 17.03 while working to keep the car under control. Little did we know that 17.03 would put us 5th fastest of 21 cars, and there was still considerable speed to be squeezed out of it.

The game plan was to now run the first 50 and keep our noses clean for the second 50. This is where Mother Nature intervened and ended the program for the night. Some of Flamboro's regular classes managed to get some heats in, but it was not meant to be for the rest of us.

So here we sit, excited about how fast the car ran and bummed about not getting the opportunity to see all that it had. Maybe we will manage to make the next event! HMMMMMMMM.........

Ready for Flamboro

2009-05-24T13:59:00.005-04:00

The car is, for the most part, ready for the season opener for the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup at Flamboro May 30th. It's our first trip to Flamboro so it should be fun!

L.A. Collision is back with us this year and we appreciate the support. Still looking for a marketing partner to get us to all the LOSC races, back into NCATS or even up to ARCA. If you know someone who may be interested, drop us a line or have them get in touch with us.

This car is for sale as you see it for $12,500 CAN.....Get your start in the LOSC with a turn key ride, powered by Leitch Performance Engines. Kevin has the details at 519-818-4708. Also have a roller available for $3500.

Easter 2009

2009-04-14T10:01:00.004-04:00

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Things have been bumping along at Trevellin Motorsports for the past month. Nothing of notice to report but we are still diligently trying to land a sponsor for racing south of the border. At the bare minimum, if the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup cars don't sell, we'll be attending a few of those events just to keep Kevin from rusting up.

We've had a few nibbles on the marketing front and a few tire kickers on the OSS cars so with a little luck and a lot of effort, we'll nail something down for the 2009 and/or 2010 seasons. We are aware of the difficulties other organizations are having in obtaining marketing partners but we believe the leanness of our team will attract companies looking to maximize their advertising dollars on the track, and not covering large overhead costs back at the 'shop'.

Of note is Delaware Speedway's recent commencement of track upgrades. We really enjoy racing at Delaware and it's great to see the management updating the facility! Keep up the good work.

Until next time, keep the rubber side down!

Future Plans

2009-03-11T14:38:00.001-04:00

Well, it’s been a long winter for Kevin and after some reflection he (and I agree) has decided to move in a new direction going forward. As I reported last summer, Kevin had a GREAT time practicing and qualifying Mike Harmon’s ARCA RE/MAX car at Cayuga. He qualified the car on time in 27th after only being in the car for that day, no practice at another track, no time to go over the car to get familiar with it. Mike went on to finish 10th the next day.

As a result of the experience with ARCA, we've decided we are going to take that route if possible. Hence, the OSS/NCATS stuff is for sale as we look to break into the US market. Windsor offers us a close border location and easy access to the US for competition. Full or part time, NASCAR Camping World Trucks with Mr. Hooson or ARCA Remax Series, it does not matter as we feel this is the most viable way to go racing while still having fun doing it.
Wish us luck!

New Link Added to Links Page

2008-10-22T12:16:00.003-04:00

Been doing some tweaking here and there and added a link to Hooson Motorsports. Mr. Hooson is working hard at putting a NASCAR Craftsman Truck team together and just recently launched this new website. Still at the 'new' stage but looks good so far!

Update: Mr. Hooson has had a health set back and has asked us to continue moving forward with his vision. The above link is no longer viable but we hope that it's just temporary. In the meantime, we'll keep knocking on doors.