Need More Zoomba

Our main focus before the second Bark River was to try and figure out why we were continually wreck transaxles. We thought we could do well with the rest of the pack but it was difficult when we were continually loosing either a single gear or the whole thing all together. We made a significant change to the transaxle, for the past 10 years we had been running the “new” style transaxle and we decided to switch to the “old” style. There are several differences between the two and after talking to many people the consensus was that neither of them was made for racing but the older one was a little better.

I dug through the pile I have in the shed and found one of the older transaxles that had over 30 years of grease and road grim on it and who knows how many miles, 100,000 or more, your guess is as good as mine but the fact that it had never been raced made it a prime candidate for the car. I grabbed it and asked my father, Jim Lemke if he would be able to run it down to Curt Gerald so he could go through it and make sure it was good ta go. We got it back from Curt installed it in the car and took it for a test run, after a slight linkage adjustment I would definitely say it is the best shifting one I have ever had.

With hopes that we would not have any more problems getting the power from the motor to the tires we loaded up and headed off to Bark River once again. During Friday’s practice I was extremely critical of how the car was shifting. After running through a few corners going between 3rd and 2nd and back to 3rd gear again I was very happy with the performance. It shifted so smoothly that I did not even realize I was shifting, it just slide in and out of the gears.

Friday night it rained and rained and rained, we woke up Saturday to a completely saturated track. After attending the drivers meeting the plan was to cancel practice and push the start of racing back one hour to allow the ground to soak up some of the water. We watched as the first few classes went out and wondered if the track was going to dry out before the start of our race which was the 4th on the schedule. We pondered again and again if we should change tires and finally decided we should go with a little taller, wider and slightly more aggressively grooved tire.

It was our turn and it appeared that we were going to have a good track but most likely it was going to be one lane of racing. A dry groove had formed but outside that groove it was thick, heavy and wet mud. We lined up on the starting grid and as I looked down the track, sitting on the pole, I saw that a grader had pushed two lanes of mud about half way down the hill headed for the first corner. I knew this would not be good for at least the first 5 cars, and it wasn’t.

The green flag flew and I got a great jump on the rest of the field, I could see nothing to my left until I hit the mud lanes and then everyone, well it seemed, was to my left. I came out of the start pretty good and was running 5th where I stayed until the competition yellow, I hate that thing. On the restart I was spun coming into the finish line corner by Bill Kortens in the 114 car and went from 5th to 14th position just like that. I battled back 4 more spots and finished in 10th which was one spot behind the V-man, which is still the only guy I really want to beat. Oh well, that is racing but it was the second time in two races that there has been an incident with me and the 114 car, and he “was” behind me.

Sunday it was dry and looked like we were going to have a beautiful track, I was once again on the pole and hoped to get the hole shot. As I lined up on the starting line I noticed another pile of mud in front of me in the same spot as the previous day. I radioed to my spotter, Mark Hockers, and asked him to let me know if I was clear to move left to avoid the mud. The green flag flew and before I even was close to the mud I heard on the radio, “clear, clear, clear!” I moved a little to the left and avoided the mud, came out of the start in 3rd position and was feeling confident.

As the race went on I was having some problems on the exit of the corners. I would have a good slide going and all of a sudden the rear tires would grab and instantly the front would start to push causing me to make a quick correction and loose time. My brother Nick said immediately after the race, “I think we had too much side bite in the rears”. Then it all made sense but I was also losing a lot of drag races. When I was either beside someone on a straight or directly behind them I would come out on the “slow” end of the stick. It seemed I was a little under powered compared to the rest. After a 3rd place hole shot and the competition yellow I raced my way to a 8th place finish. Was it the tires, the motor or was it just me?

Since I knew it was obviously not me , the team talked about why I raced backwards and decided we should get the motor freshened up to eliminate one of the other variables. The last time it was touched was before the World Championship Race at Crandon International in 2008. We did not do a single thing to the motor over the winter and it was time. I talked to Curt Gerald, who has been building my motors for several years, and he agreed it was time for a looky. Since I was on furcation immediately after the Bark River weekend, a term used at work when you are forced to take a week off without pay due to the great economy but you are not laid off. Furlough is what it is called but not being at work is like vacation, get it furcation. I pulled the motor immediately on Monday and delivered it to Curt so he could go through it and hopefully find some more zooba for us.

I would like to thank the Bark River Crew for doing a great job on a track that looked like it was going to be nothing but a mud run all day long. After only a few races the track was in pristine race condition which I don’t think anyone thought was possible. Thank you to everyone that continues to support us, make sure you check out the videos on either DirtNewz.com or TORCseries.com for my in car camera of Saturday’s start. Also you will see a little footage of Jeff Hosking of HEC changing one of my rear tires with an antique jack.

- Todd Lemke

Name: Todd Lemke
Sport: 1600 Light Buggy
City, State you reside in: Sobieski, WI (20 miles North of Green Bay)
Single/Married: Married to Cori Lemke
Kids: Jadin and Laci
Age: 7 and 4
Age When First Started Competing: 30
Favorite Spot: Any place quiet and outside
Favorite Vacation Spot: Any place where I am away from the normal every day routine.
Inspiration: My family and a drive to suceed.
Career Honors, Awards and Highlights: 1st place finish my first year racing in an old 2 seater.
Took 3rd in the year end points in 2003. (I need to verify the year)
When I’m not competing I like to: Spend time with my family, hunt, fish and snowmobile.
Other interesting Info : My first off road race I rolled my car and broke my wrist but still finished the race. Served in the United States Air Force (1988-1991). I can't dance!
Quote: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail " - unkown