Wednesday, May 2, 2007

we are up and running

Well it's up and running still have some tweaking to do but all in all it's going well. We will be working on three of the Speed Zone shows. They are buying and selling race cars on line, race school, and drag racing the family car.I finally got a phone call from my mail man that the package was found. After three weeks in transit but I knew it would show up because they were insured; the post office isn't going to loose that kind of money. Now the new camera's have arrived. They are easier to use than the beta's but the beta's still have a great picture but these have a unbelievable picture. Of course it was raining, electronics and rain what a combination.. At 2:30 in the morning Wayne is about wiped out but hanging in there. We are now playing catch up with all the work that needs to be done. Long days ahead.
Jason at the healm. debugging the system will take as long as building the computer.
The editing room (suite) is now functional and running. Quadcore processor tera bits it's all here and I don't have a clue about it but thankfully we have Jason.

Friday, April 27, 2007

buying and selling race cars on line has benifits


While doing the segment I was watching a number of cars sell on line. Then I saw it a Formula Continental no reserve, pictures looked great. I had been looking for a Formula Mazda but did not have the money to buy one. This car is a few classes above the Mazda and it was at less than half the price of a cheap Formula Mazda. All kinds of things raced through my thoughts. I though that there had to be somethings wrong here somewhere. I got the winning bid. The car was mine but 20 hours away in Pennslvania. I called a guy that does towing for the car lot in New Orleans. He happened to be in New York and said he would be in New Orleans by the end of the week. He did it as a favor to me and he brought the car down. Well, the car looked better than the pictures. Usually it's the other way around. When the car got to New Orleans I took it for a spin and i did not have the front wing on. That was a mistake. At sixty the car hopped all over the road to the point of being scary. I decided to try to find some track time before I hurt something like me. I took the car out at the NPR track during a race school thanks to the driving instructor Judy Fass. The car had some serious handling problems. I think the car had been sitting for several years and the tires developed some flat spots. So the car danced at times on the road. After several laps at low to moderate speed the car started to settle down but still kept it under 130. The car has a few problems none of which were not expected. The biggest being the fuel cell has seepage not a big deal but expensive. We will be looking for a fuel cell. Other problems were just run of the mill things and we seriously need new tires. The engine seems strong. It doesn't seem to have much time since last rebuild. It looks like the car sat for years. The log books have not been entered into in 12 years. Who ever had the car really took care of it, Thanks Al. Next season I should be ready to be in the hunt for 1st in the Grand Bayou Series. I think I will do a few schools to get use to this beast of a car. It looks great and was another unbelievable deal. This has to be the fastest thing I've ever driven.


Judy Fass and one of her students. Judy was a Formula Ford driver until a big crash several years ago.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

A weekend of Racing

Well, I finally got to take a day off and go racing. No filming, kids or distractions it was great. The formula class was competitive and after 18 minutes of racing only 1.009 seconds separated the Vees. The lead was swapped twice by two mistakes but in the end I held off the challengers and drove to my fastest time at NPR in a Vee. Hugh dropped 6 seconds off his previous times. He turned one lap faster than my fastest time but came in second. I love the close racing. Hugh don't get too fast I'll loose.This is a picture of John and his formula MazdaHugh let a little guy sit in his Vee. He had a smile form ear to ear.
Hugh's Vee under the tarp.The end of the season party at the track. Hugh beat me in points he made 3 more races than I did but I beat him in heads up. Next year hopefully we will have our own category, Formula Vee.


Hugh and another racer in between heats

It's gone!

The Ferrari at Dr. Maury's as we sold it.Well the Ferrari is gone we sold it to Dr. Maury. We went to north Louisiana at about 7 o'clock and drove for about an hour and a half. Dr. Maury is currently working on restoring an MGB. He was very relaxed in front of the camera which is always a good thing when were taping the show.

During the test drive the unthinkable happened the car started to have problems. As Dr. Maury drove the headlights started going off and on but only in fourth gear. As he accelerated the lights would go off then when he slowed the lights would come back on. I was thinking well here goes this deal, now I'll never sell the car. I turned to Dr. Maury and told him that I never had any problems with the lights. I am sure he wasn't buying it when I saw the problem. We knew that someone 6'5' could drive the car because Tom Sellack drove the 308 on Magnum PI. Dr. Maury was 6'5'' however his knee was just touching the light switch so every time he accelerated they would go off. I am just Lucky that I was paying attention when it was happening. Remember the Ferrari is meant for short Italians.




















It's true the producer does work. Wayne behind the camera filming the selling of the Ferrari for buying and selling on line. Easton must of had too much mountain dew because many of the pictures were not clear.

Easton experimenting with Black and white what do you think about part of the show in black and white?

Easton experimenting with the camera.
Well now the Ferrari is gone; we shall really miss it. Well we'll keep you posted about anything new that happens to the Speedzone crew.

Friday, March 23, 2007

LCN TV Station

Well this is the parent company to Speed Zone. Even though these two companies are not linked they are in a parent off spring relationship. We want to thank LCN TV for giving us the opportunity to have the TV show. The lobby of LCN.
The heart and sole behind the station. Wayne White and Jamie Johnson.
In production Kipp (one of the best cameramen in the business, he is also one of our camera guy's) and Debra (a worker bee that never seems to stop, she must have a dura cell battery) editing a music video for the concert series.

Jason the tech guy, working on a commercial of John Deere. Jason is also one of our camera guy's.
A studio with green screen where we can make anything happen. Green screen is what is used when you want to put people in different places you just replace the green with the footage you want.



Like our camera's this is their back up beta SP. Still the industry standard for TV.

The new hi def camera's hope ours will be in soon. We'll have one, they have 8.


The satellite room this is where the signal starts it's journey to outer space and ends up at your TV set.


Another set this one is set up for Accent LA.


This says it all for the amount of work that they have to produce enough programing to make a 24/ 7 TV station.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Sad Time Has Come


Please remember I haven't had time to clean the interior I just got back.
































































We'll it's time to sell the Ferrari 328 GTS. We need money to produce Speedzone so the Ferrari or one of the 3 Race cars will be sold. Here is some pictures of the Ferrari.

































Here is the only dent in the Ferrari. Easton went to get me a wrench to work on my f500 and dropped it on the door leaving a small dent. I think it could be rolled out with the Paintless touch up but will need to be done by a professional don't want to repaint the door.