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Here we are beginning to prepare for 2012. My car was at the big race, but it did not run, and was not finished to my satisfaction, so I began to rethink a few things today. I am using oak for some of the parts which I should have done for the original design. When I powered the motor up for the first of only two test runs that I had time for this last year I nearly twisted the rear end off of the vehicle. Some things you just can’t know until you try them out. I mentioned to those interested in our event that it is important to come out and rub shoulders with other people involved in building vehicles because you never know what you might see that could inspire a new way of thinking in your own mind and end with a solution to some of your design problems. My problem was that my engine was either on or off, either a great amount of torque or nothing. How do I control it? As I inspected the Markovich vehicle, which by the way was an example of fine craftsmanship, an idea came to mind to harness my torque and control it for a more practical application of power. Thanks, Joe and team.
 Grandfather's tools My grandfather gave me this set of K&E drafting tools in 1962, when I was 13, he made me promise to learn how to use them…… and I did until the advent of Computer Aided Drafting in about 1985 (I used the compass just yesterday to layout a circle for an engine part). His father purchased the set for him in 1915; it works as well today as it did then. Here is a thought on technology, is it always better because it has more power and is new? As I write this I can hear my neighbor struggling to start his gas lawnmower, no amount of cursing and kicking can coax it into life. In the city our lot sizes are a standard 25’ across x 180’ in depth. Most people in town own one lot with a house in the middle of it and many with a garage on the alley. This does not leave much grass to cut, yet almost everyone in town owns a very powerful, expensive and often finicky power mower. I own two lots, as does my neighbor, that give us each quite a bit more to mow. I am still using my old reel type, human powered mower, trust me it starts every time that I push it. I just give it a springtime oiling and a bit of sharpening and it is as good as it was 50 years ago. With less time and energy expended than my neighbor, who is still pulling and cursing. I can have my lawn cut and get some good exercise as well. And I will not add to global pollution. Who is it that talks people into using all of this questionable new technology? As I prepare to post this blog on Tuesday morning, my neighbor is still cursing and kicking his still silent machine………. Should I offer to lend him a real (reel) lawn mower?
 A few new parts...
The Race for the Future is over and it was great fun and an unqualified success. The reason for this is the team behind the story and I want to take a minute before we begin planning for 2012 to thank all of those who have given us their support for these last two years.
First of course is Joseph Stahura, Mayor of Whiting. He believed in our race from the beginning, even while it was no more than an idea. With his support and the backing of the city of Whiting, the police department and so many others in town the race became a reality.
I must also thank our advisory board, who are the real brains behind our yearly event. The board is made up of engineers, designers, inventors and idea people who contribute to the rules and objectives of the race each year.
The Whiting/Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce, graciously , let us use their beautiful new office as the head quarters for our race and Carol Jacobson, President of the Chamber, could not have been kinder in her support of our event.
No event, in Whiting, could succeed without the expert help of Norb Dudzik. He is a “go-getter”, If something needs to done Norb is your man. Norb made sure that all was arranged with the city so that our day went off very smoothly.
My son, Bill, a fine artist, produced an original poster for our event (he is already working on a new design for next year).
Carrie Gallagher, my dear daughter, is our event planner. She ordered the food, made the inventor certificates, and took care of all of the many details that made the event so pleasant. Carrie is expecting her second child (my third grandson) any day now and could not make it to our race so Val my daughter-in-law, stepped in and pulled the day off to rave reviews. Janet Coyer lent a hand and finished off our inventor plaques as well as assisting Val.
Before we began the day, Paul Vail, Pastor of the New Life Christian church in Whiting asked for a blessing on our event.
My brother, Mark, was my right hand during the race and picked up and handled anything that I missed.
John Frett and David Branch inspected the race vehicles to ensure the safety of their drivers and their compliance to our rules. John must be thanked especially for his attention to detail and his concern for the safety of all who attended the race in his rigorous questioning and testing of each vehicle especially one that proved to be most challenging……… thanks John.
My wife, Yo, although recovering from a bout with pneumonia, interviewed each contestant so that we can put a newsletter together recounting our race.
Ed Bach was our Master of ceremonies and we could not have chosen a better spokesman for our cause, he stirred the crowd’s excitement and kept them informed of the progress of the race.
Allicia Patten took care of the prize money for us, she wrote checks and spearheaded the voting for the most popular vehicle to enter the race. Everyone who received the correct prize money for their performance in the race can thank Allicia for her work.
To progress the race we employed a lead car and a chase car. The lead car drivers had to know the route and lead the race cars through the course. Lead cars (and in this case motor scooter) was Fred Behrens and Mark Halliar II, my son Bill and brother Mark also acted a chase drivers.
We decided to test out our idea of a speed race this year (in the event that two or more vehicles can negotiate our five mile course a 1/8 mile speed race will determine the winner or the contest). Don Kroesch headed up the speed trial and set up the course for the day, he was assisted by John Simmons, Mark Harbin and David Branch.
I have to thank the brave and audacious drivers, and inventors, who competed in our contest this year; Joe Markovich (and his entire family), Robert Evans, and Tom Kimmel, after all there is no race without contestants.
My friends, thank you all for making the Race for the Future 2011 a success, now let’s get busy planning for 2012!!
Bill
 Race Day 2011
After dodging rain drops all day I finally put brakes on my car, it is odd that I would save that all important feature until last. I have spent a lot of time dreaming either while awake or asleep about how to put this machine together. As you can imagine all of my many maintenance projects around the house have been set aside and ignored for almost a year. My wife has been very supportive of this obsession, the summer has flown by almost un-noticed and unappreciated while I cut and sanded and sweat over odd shaped pieces of wood and steel.
As the sun came out this afternoon I came to my senses and I invited Yo to take a nice long bicycle ride along our lake shore. It was rejuvenating and we both needed a little time away from the house.
I will pause here for a moment, before we begin the countdown to the final few frenzied weeks before our race, to remind all of you who are working on vehicles to remember what is truly important in life; family and friends. Take a moment to stop and enjoy the day and thank those you love for standing by you in your work.
I look forward to seeing all of you in a few weeks, bring your families along and we will celebrate creativity, invention and automobiles together, and enjoy a day of fun and a bit of friendly competition. It doesn’t get any better than that.
TO LIFE!!!
Bill
During the week end of July 29, 30 & 31 the city of Whiting hosted its famous Pierogi Fest. For any of you who do not know what a Pierogi is:
NOUN:
pl. pierogi, also pirogi or pi·ro·gies
A semicircular dumpling with any of various fillings, such as finely chopped meat or vegetables, that is often sautéed after being boiled.
For the last 17 years this festival has been growing until it is has become one of the biggest food festivals in the nation, playing host last year, to over 250,000 people. Sixty five food vendors lined the main street, this year and there was music (plenty of polkas) and dancing in the streets.
I built my car for just such events!! It was an opportunity to meet people, talk about our race and encourage those with creative ideas to think about alternate power for vehicles. I talked to hundreds during the three day fest, many just stopped by because they were curious about the unusual vehicle and a great number asked if they could sit in it and have their pictures taken (That was odd, but whatever worked!!) The car survived without incident and I made many friends for the initiative and our race.
 Here is the lovely Miss Paczki; she was kind enough to pose at our tent.
NOUN:
pl. paczki
A round Polish pastry similar to a doughnut, usually filled with fruit and topped with sugar or icing.
 John Toleikis discussing his ideas on alternate power  Here is my Mom resting in the car  A quiet moment  The Main entrance to the 2011 Pierogi Fest
If you couldn’t make the fest this year you should definitely try to attend next year. You won’t leave hungry.
We have just a few weeks left until our race and we are all busy getting our last minute plans together. Please join us on August 27 at 10:00a.m.for our second annual Race for the Future.
Wednesday evening, July 20, was cruise night in Whiting Indiana, and what a grand time we had!!! It was the first time for a public showing of my basement project and the reaction, from most folks, was quite positive (all of the young boys liked it, in particular……it looks like a soap box derby car). I did not drive the vehicle into town but rather pushed it and it handled surprisingly well and was quite light on its feet for all of the wood and heavy hardware that is in it.
 Cruise Night Allicia Patten, our newest Advisory Board member was there and helped to pass out flyers advertising the August 27th race. She handed out over three hundred flyers and we met many folks who were filled with questions about the race and about the car. My wife, Yo, very kindly drove by every now and then with a cool drink to keep me hydrated, since the weather was so terribly hot. When the evening ended at 9:00 she even brought me a beer to clear the dust of the day. After all was said and done I pushed the car back home and parked it under its protective canopy in the back yard.
Next up: Whiting’s Pierogie Fest, which begins this Friday and runs through the weekend. Many thousands of people turn out for this annual event, so I expect to have quite a bit of exposure for our project. Norb has promised me a tent on the main street in town for the three days. I am sure that we will meet many interesting people during that time and hopefully we will interest more creative individuals in our challenge.
I asked Allicia if she would know an inventor if she saw one……. “Sure”, she said,”they would look weird!” I guess that I will have to trade my Hawaiian shirt in for something a little less exotic. All of you who follow this blog, please come out and say hello this week end at the fest……… and bring something cool to drink along with you (one for you and one for me), it will be hot out there!!!! I look forward to seeing you all!!!!!
 Here is a picture of Yo in the driver’s seat, isn’t she beautiful (Yo, I mean, not the car!!!!).
Well, finally, with much sweat, I was able to get the car out of the basement and into the sunlight. Wednesday is cruise night and we must be ready for our big debut!!
 Engine compartment My wife’s garden looks fine in the background. It sure is nice to get out of that basement and work outside for a change.
 Hard at Work  Now where does that bolt go?  The underframe  Finally, it's coming together  More pieces of the puzzle
Yesterday was the 4th of July, it is one of my favorite holidays of the year, especially when celebrated here in Whiting Indiana. Whiting is a 4th of July kind of town. It is a time of family and picnics and fireworks, a day when patriotism abounds.
Almost the whole family gathered at our house and from there made their way to the big parade that passes just one block away. There were bands and floats and tumblers and clowns. Beautiful women passed by in Spanish attire accompanied by a man with sheepish look on his face wielding a poop shovel (this was my 3 year old grandson’s favorite part of the parade).
Of course the most fun was watching the expression on my grandbabies faces as the spectacle passed by and the great joy which they had collecting all of the candy that was tossed from the passing floats.
After the parade everyone stopped by for burgers brats and all the fixin’s a fine meal which my wife had prepared. All the while my vehicle slept in the cold damp basement……
I did share the car with my daughter, Carrie, because she has helped me so much over the years…… I am not sure what she thought but I think that she believes that it is possible for it to work.
My Mother has heard so much about it that she insisted on seeing the car also. When I proudly spun the wheels and operated the power system a mouse trap popped out of the mechanism…….. she was nonplussed (confused and surprised beyond speech), a mouse trap was laying at her feet.
All of us who make things understand that you sometimes have to improvise when inventing and paper clips, rubber bands and even mouse traps come in handy every once in a while………… but my mother now doubts whether I c an build a vehicle of worth using such common items …………. We will see how it all turns out.
It seems that I have been inundated by many projects lately, not the least of which is the car which is growing in my basement. My plan was to have as much together as I could by last Wednesday and display it at as “a work in progress” at our June cruise night in Whiting; in fact I took the day off to get it out of the basement and reassembled outside. As it turned out the day was very rainy and in fact in the late afternoon I heard tornado warning horns in the distance. Needless to say Cruise Night was cancelled.
The car is beginning to look really impressive, if that counts for anything…… will it actually run any distance? Well that is the question that haunts me. Good luck to all of you who are brave enough to tackle our challenge……. I anxiously await our meeting in August!!
My progress continues and for the most part everything is fitting together as expected, although everything takes longer than expected. The motor mounting area is a bit bulkier than I had pictured it. I am still working in the basement and must consider that I have to disassemble the whole thing and get it back together outside. I made another trip to the hardware store this week end for material and I am always shocked at the price of wood and hardware. I know that all of you who are building vehicles are up against the same problem. We will try to craft a prize structure that will allow most entrants this year to take a bit of money home with them so that they can continue their work.
I am working against a deadline of June 15 which is our next Cruise Night in Whiting. Norb has promised that a local radio station will be out and I would like to have a presence there that day to promote our competition.
I want to thank Joe Markovich, who keeps us updated on his project. He and his family are working together and seem to be very excited about their work.
We talked to several people while running the car who asked what the heck that thing was. They seemed interested and asked when the competition was. Good PR run this morning. Another individual also thought we were nuts for spending that much time building the vehicle……They don’t understand, it’s hard to explain.
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Geffert Hardware
A Whiting original since 1949
Supplier of components
for the inventive mind
1843 Calumet Ave.
Whiting, Indiana 46394
(219)659-4371
and
TREASURES-R-US
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