You don't have to be fast to win Lemons... or do you? (Page 2 of 3)

if you really want to "win"....you have to be VERY serious and LUCKY too...you need 4 solid drivers and a dedicated pit crew + crew chief (not the other drivers)...at least one crew member + the crew chief....its also a good idea to have a couple spotters with radios looking for yellow flags...so that is 2 more people and 2 more radios.....don't forget a driving suit for the dedicated crew member who handles fuel too.....    all these people need food-lodging-etc...so it quickly adds up...& thats if they work for FREE?

Are you serious?  The only way we can get anyone to the track is if they are driving the race car!  We have 4 people on the team they happen to also be the 4 drivers.

When we pit, the driver gets out of the car and picks up the fire bottle to watch while the next driver, all ready, in Nomex, fuels.  The new driver sets down the fuel jugs then jumps in the car, and the third guy gets him strapped and plugged.  While that's going on, the previous driver buttons up the fuel lid and cleans up.  The fourth guy checks for leaks and damage and lubes the chain. 

See?  Simple.  You regular drivetrain guys can skip that last step.

& you WON with only two guys total right?  So having 4 must be a luxury for you?  :>) 

Want to see a serious endurance racing team in action...go to the 25 hour of Thunderhill.....where there might be 10+ crew members on a team, not counting drivers

I disagree.  They WERE that fast from point A to B.  We have a very powerful car.  When traffic allowed us to get down into 2nd gear going around turn 6 (I think) heading into the long straight we would FLY passed just about everyone..... except Lightning McQueen.  They out handled us and beat us in a drag race.  Never got tangled up with White Lightning but you can tell they went balls to the wall from the second the green flag dropped.  Both were complete teams:  Skillful, consistient, safe, lucky, and yes, very fast.

No disrespect meant.  As the winners of CMP Spring '09 you guys are definitely a team we fear and will keep our eyes on.  You were in the paddock next to us during the race you won and I can say from seeing it first hand that your team is top notch.  We were also very entertained by the new car on your team (Magnum PU.)  Every time they drove by that damn tune would be in my head for awhile.

I guess I am doing a poor job of getting my point across.  I'm not saying we are obsessed with winning and if we don't we won't be having fun, what I'm say is What I'm saying is:  a 90 hp (fill in the blank) may have been enough at some of the other races but at CMP last fall, they would not have been in the top two (probably not in the top 5) no matter how fantastic they drove.  Too many teams are lucky, consistent, clean, skillful, AND fast.

Same with us.  We have several people that want to join the team as drivers but none that just want to work.  We would rather in be just the 4 of us and have more seat time.

If that is the only way to win, we will have to proudly take our 4th place and continue taking the abuse from the judges for again failing to win in a worthless Z.

i must admit BlackSheep1, we also noticed the caliber of teams at Fall 09 did seem to  be cranked up a notch or two.  apparently the top five have it turned up to "11". 

the bar at CMP gets raised every time...but i donh't understand why they don't just make "10" better. 

CMP is definitely a track where a lack of power can hurt, esp if you can't maintain your momentum around the turns b/c of traffic or (in my case) lack of talent.

As soon as it's dark my friend.  I'll hire an extra man with an electrician's union card to flip that switch if that's what it takes.

We essentially do the same thing, except the driver getting out of the car is the one to fill, and the driver getting in the car has the extinguisher. That way, if any fuel spills, it's on the driver who's about to take off their racing suit instead of the driver who is getting in the car (and will have do deal with fuel fumes and potential fire danger).

The issue for us at CMP this fall was the cool suit.  We were explicitly told we could not add ice during a stop in the hot pits...driver change and fuel only.  We REALLY liked having the cool suit and opted to go back to our pits just so we could recharge it.  It shouldn't be an issue in February since we don't plan on needing any additional driver cooling.

Ok.... this post has brought out the Ross Perot in me.
Please find the attached chart for your viewing pleasure. 

CMP Finsh vs Best Lap

It's a simple plot of CMP Fall finish position vs. best lap time (data courtesy of Mylaps.com).  In theory, the best lap time should show each car's "raciness quotient"", since everyone gets at least one clean traffic-free lap in during the weekend.

My observations:
1.   McQueen and White Lightning were smoking fast.  Only 3 other cars were on par with them. (Kudos to you guys... motivates our team to try harder!)

2.  Finish positions #3 & #4 weren't too shabby either!

3.  43 cars had lap times equal to or better than the #5 finisher... Lots of contenders that just need luck/pitstops/reliability/gooddrivers/noblackflags to crack the top 5.

4.  I'm thinking about this way too hard.

See yall in February!

Great job and thanks for the graph.  I had come up with several excel sheets on different data to analyze at each race we do but never thought to do that.  Guess I missed a car when I was looking at fastest lap.  We had the 6th fastest lap(maybe even 7th) of the event, not 5th like I had stated earlier.

Found this interesting:  Look at the two upwards spikes around 30th place.  Those two cars are obviously a couple of the slowest cars out there yet finished in very respectable positions.  I'm guessing they drove a very clean, penalty/accident/breakdown free race.

I'm also guessing that one of the downward spikes near the back of the pack was the Police Brutality car.  That car was blazing fast but was not on the track the entire race.  If they work out their reliablity issues, they will be very hard to beat also.

The car has well over 2,000 Lemons laps, plus miles and miles of dirt track on it. There aren't "reliability issues," it was just worn out.