LEE Race Technology, Inc.

03/29/2025

my apologies for lack of updates and the radio silence.

The Late Model program is alive and well, just saving some cash for more tubing. just the harsh realities.

But this project has all my attention and brain power for the next few weeks. I am so close on this circuit board I can taste it. In fact, I have become so confident that I am adding features to the board I was going to save for the professionals to figure out.

This is a project that had stalled, and without it would still be stalled. So thank you Claude, whoever you are (haha), I really appreciate the help! Also to for the open-source program. There is a lot about electronics and printed circuit board design and manufacturing that I dont understand, but these two in particular (Claude AI and KiCad) as well as many others on university who give tutorials for free, are allowing me to move the ball forward.

Maybe i can combine all of this and get and my new, best friend Claude, and maybe and a few others to sponsor the late model program!

03/19/2025

No, it's not a late model part! This incomplete circuit board is for a project that I have been working on with my friend for at least four years now. The achilles heal of this project has always been the electronics. Not that the circuitry is so complex, but it has been outside my knowledge and skill sets to do. I have consulted with several companies and estimates have ranged from $10,000 to $40,000 to get us to the point of a few prototype PCB's. These have all been good companies with good people that deserve to be paid for their work, and I would gladly have paid someone to do this, but when the funds arent there, you have to get creative to continue.
i have done a lot of electronic work and testing on the project with evaluation boards and other off the shelf solutions, so I have had an idea of what components we need and the direction to go. I have even taught myself how to work on existing PCB's, desoldering and changing resistors and capacitors to get what I want.
In the back of my mind I kept thinking and saying to myself..."you are just going to have to dig in and figure out how to design the circuitry and the PCB and do it yourself."
So this is the path I am on, but I could not have done it without the recent advancements in AI. The board shown above, which is not finished yet, is a collaboration between me, Claude AI and
If it were not for Claude AI I probably would not have ventured down this road. A simple query to Claude about the project and designing a PCB for it has led me down this road and it has re-energized me to get this project out of the shadows and out to customers.
Still a long way to go, but I feel at this point it is something I can accomplish and finish now. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to show the 3D model of the completed board with all of the components in place. And, at some point in the near future, I will be able to reveal the product and the whole process I have been through and how AI has helped me. Stay tuned!

****ms

02/23/2025

Printing some seal installation tools for a customer. 25 of these for this batch. They are a part of a rebuild kit, as mentioned, to help install a small seal.

if you need any 3D printing done I have two Bambu Labs P1S printers. just DM me, or email a step file to [email protected] we can discuss material/filament or just tell me what you want it printed from, and i will work up a quote. the build envelope is 10" x 10 x 9.84" high.

Not shown here, but i am working on some 3D printed squares and angle stops for the weld table to see how they turn out and maybe offer them for sale on my website. a work in progress for now.

Speaking of the website, leeracetech.com will be getting an overhaul in the near future, by a professional that knows what he is doing, as opposed to the current version of the website which I did. i am very excited about having a website that is built by a pro. I have never had one, i have always hacked my way through wordpress or whatever and created something that was barely functional, but got the job done. I need something professionally done to move this business forward. Stay tuned

Late Model work is ongoing, waiting on some Cold Drawn Seamless tubing to bend the main hoop and roof bar, again. but more on thay later.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

02/07/2025

its a good day when the plasma cut holes line up with the laser cut holes in the tower. haha

02/07/2025

not bad for a few hours work. tomorrow when its a bit brighter over by the plasma table i will take a picture of the slag/debris from just these parts. all the material from the cuts is just blown into the water pan. good night

02/07/2025

i gotta say, I am pretty proud of the nesting work there. the hole on the left was from the earlier batch of these probably 2 months ago. it took a number of dry runs to get that close. The question is... is the time spent worth it? Cost of steel vs cost of labor? for me, for now, it was definetly worth it, as i think this is my last piece of 11 gauge. the 11 guage is not all that expensive but nevertheless i dont want to be wasteful so it was worth it. also something satisfying about getting it that close. Pressing on...
(note to self, order more 11 gauge)

02/05/2025

Second support tower standing for the left side A-pillar bar. I figured a way to measure the hieght of the main hoop accurately, which on the one hand showed that CAD and fixtures and main hoop hieght agree within 0.026" which is about .5 mm but on the other hand proved to me I do need to bend another main hoop. the legs of this one are about 1/8" short of touching the side rails. I would prefer not to bend another main hoop, its 117" of tubing i need other places. But thts okay, i need the practice on the bender, to get tuned up for 8 door bars with two bends each, and I will take the CAD/fixturing accuracy as a small win for the week!

02/04/2025

i just noticed in the video i just posted that it looked like a huge gap where the A-pillar bar meets the halo (roof bar) so i want to show that the notching is much closer, but will require more work as I get all the towers and brackets bolted in place. when the dash bar is in place it will also help support everything. once brackets and towers are secure i can final fit the tubes. I always want as close to zero gap as possible.

02/02/2025

01/20/2025

A bit of a struggle figuring out what Fusion wanted for these Front subframe/Bay bars and the X brace bars. There is some 3D sketching involved and Fusion handles it differently than Solid Edge and so i had to work through that. Finally figured it out which is a big relief. In the end i gave up on trimming/notching the X-brace tubes (from a CAD standpoint) where they meet the front roll bars( A-Pillar bars). I think its because it is an intersection of 4 tubes, and the two ends of the x-bracing were the last ones in (last to be modeled) and Fusion (or me) couldnt figure it out. One day if/when i get the roll cage tubes laser cut and bent, I will have to figure something out. But since I am bending and notching everything here, i dont have to worry. when I am finished drawing the cage I will import the whole thing into the software and it will give me paper templates to use for the notching.

Its hard to explain, how important the CAD is for me to get right. it will save tons of work, time and money when it is finished and finished correctly. it is the modern work flow. The CAD model is so important for a number of reasons. Namely, 1) i dont have anything existing physically to copy, it is a clean sheet design. 2) the creation (fabrication or machining) of most of the parts involve either plasma cutting, laser cutting, cnc machining or bending of sheet metal or some other computerized process and the only way to convey that information to the machines is with various files generated from the CAD Model. 3) while i could do a very basic analysis of the suspension geometry on paper, the best way to do it is to model the suspension components in CAD and take the 3D position (X, Y, and Z coordinates) of each suspension pivot point and enter it into one or more computer programs for a more comprehensive analysis. The two programs I will be using are SUSPROG and ChassisSim. I will expand on those in future posts and videos when it is time. That is actually one of the really cool parts i am looking forward to, designing the suspension, and making the choices on all the parameters.

Anyway, still in the fight, and wont quit. On track in 2025

01/15/2025

i was working out in the shop tonight and was filming and talking to myself about what i was doing and i thought "why dont i just do a live reel" or whatever you call it. so i did, I started it and went back in the house for a minute and when i came back out was on/in the live stream! i was so honored to have Mike as my first guest/customer/participant! Mike is without a doubt the best welder i have seen. His MIG welds look like stacked dime TIG welds and his TIG welds are perfect! so much skill and talent. it was a pleasure chatting with you for a few minutes. I will do more of these in the future and hope we get to extend the conversation.

i did not save it to a reel but probably will do that in the future so people can watch it later rhat couldnt join the live.

01/12/2025

First and most importantly, i am thinking of, worrying about, and praying for all those who have been affected by the fires out in LA. Two of my boys and their families live out in LA, both in safe locations. and sadly one person I know lost his house to the fires. please stay safe and I am so so sorry for all those that have lost homes or worse, loved ones.

i have finally got the 3d printed Fixture adaptor finished. I am printing the LH side now and will plasma cut the brackets tomorrow. creating the CaD model was a little bit difficult and my thought was there was no way this would print. but thanks to the wizardry of the P1S, it sliced and printed just fine.

i will probably draw up some dash bar support brackets tonight and cut those out tomorrow as well. Then early this coming week get the towers assembled and in place and get some tubes tacked together.

last year i had set a specific goal (finish date/on track) and that goal came and went, but it was a real motivator amd I went hard after it.. i have lost a bit of momemtum since then and i need to set another date. i am going to give that some serious thought in the next day or so and set a new finish date, so stay tuned. Looking forward to getting this car finished and on track at and weekly series races this summer

stay safe everyone

01/09/2025

there ya go, 12 of em. 3/4" x .065 wall mild steel tubing, 180 degree bends, with the bender. works great, not exactly production speed but for short runs, "gotta have it now" kind of parts, or a late model stock car roll cage, it is fantastic.

Do you need a roll cage? need some tubing bent and notched, i have the equipment and sofware to do the job. for bend parameters and notching layout, CAD tubing bender, and tube notcher (from )



i think i got everybody haha!

01/09/2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. LRT is off to a great start. Shop is chaotic and a mess, stuff everywhere and barely room to walk around, but thats a good thing because there is some really good equipment in this little space! Can anyone spot the new addition? tonight I am bending some 3/4" x 065 wall DOM for an outside project. 180 degree bends, bender is doing a great job. Anyway, there has been a lot going on with the holidays and I havent made much progress on the late model. I have some CAD work to catch up on for the A pillar (or front roll bar) bar fixturing then I can get those in place. Slow and steady, but I do get anxious about finishing this car. I just need to keep my head down and focus on the things I can do and control and believe and have faith that the Lord is working things out ahead of me, which is the way it should be.
I can tell you that I am going to be using on the and late model stock car!! Nothing formal, no free shocks yet!!( maybe one day wink wink) they have been kind enough to help in the design stage and I will honor that throughout as long as they make shocks (dampers for some, I am bilingual haha) for late model stock cars I will run them and my drivers and cars will win with them! My relationship with and Penske goes back a long way and is deeply personal and there is a great amount of loyalty to him, and thats about as far as I will go with that, just know it is deeper than just running the shocks!! Anyway, got to get back to bending these 180's, I have 12 of them to do.

12/07/2024

A couple of quick snaps. Finally got the roof bar in place.It looks pretty good and notches are close, but I still need finish the clamp for the saddles. The bar sits pretty evenly in the saddles. a slight twist in the bar, but the clamps should hold it in place.

11/21/2024

When i started this Late Model program almost a year ago, i had this shot in mind as I built and positioned the chassis fixture. And a few months ago as I was deciding how far apart these roll cage fixture towers would be, I had this shot framed in my mind and positioned them accordingly...haha, not really, I just stumbled into it as I was walking around the chassis fixture taking some pictures of the day's work.
Everything with the cage fixture towers is coming out really well. I am very happy with the measurments and accuracy to the CAD model. the main hoop is about .025" high. CAD says 46.125" from the top of the fixture table to top of the main hoop and real life is 46.150 with my calitape measurment tool!!

11/16/2024

beautiful day outside. Both of the side x braces in place. next up, two cross braces and the towers will be set. then some roof bar brackets and (for the most part) the center roll cage fixture will be complete.