How many cars will finish the Chumpcar at Infineon?? (Page 2 of 3)

Steve,

It really depends on the track and how pit stops are handled.  At MSRH we have run a hot pit so it's pretty quick on and off track for fuel and driver changes with no driving through the Paddock.

Pit lane is slow but there aren't dogs, and kids walking all around and crap like that.  If you have to go into the paddock much, you are pretty much screwed.

So some of these things depend on the track.

If a track has a Hot Pit option, it is probably the safest way to handle these things.

Even without a Hot Pit in New Orleans, we fueled in a designated area near track entry and exit and changed driver's there.

If we fueled in our Paddock at MSRH and were way in the back, it would probably take well over 10 minutes.

The 2 minutes I am talking about is the time the car is stopped once in the Pit though.

Could it be that any attitude felt when reading the rules was inferred by the reader? It is meant humorously and is obviously no worse than the “Don’t like it? Get your own race.” mantra of Lemons. Same dry humor.

Other than being a new series, I think CC Infineon race turnout had the bad fortune of following so close to the holidays. Last thing I was thinking about was racing when I realized I forgot to buy my wife a new welding helmet for Christmas. Then there was the whole “Who is going to drive home?” argument for new years.

I went up for the weekend and had a GREAT time. People helped each other out, raced hard, partied hard, and I was greatly impressed. Krider had beer-pong championships on one end of the garages, Free range had beer infused auto repair on the other! There was lots of noise, smoke, loud backfires and even one embarrassing “I drove myself carsick” moment.

It was all about grass-roots racing. I believe they had 7 black flags all weekend, 3 occurring in one big “Oops” incident. Sure, there weren’t a hundred cars crammed onto the track, but they seemed to make judgment calls rather than just nuking everyone involved for every smallest incident. With a smaller group you get to have those luxuries.

Rather than crushing a car, the worse they will do IF they think you are a cheating-ass is Claim it, and auction it off to the crowd starting at a couple hundred dollars higher.  BTW, if your car is claimed YOU will be the only team at the track with that kind of money, cash in hand, and you get to bid on your own car. Eh. Plus the profits go to charity. So in reality IF you get caught swapping an M motor into your $500 2 door E series overnight, the worst that could happen is you get to donate to a good cause. Both auction and crushing versions are merely deterrents to keep the same people from trying to buy a dumb trophy.

Now, I love the carnival atmosphere of Lemons, yet as team captain I was not able to enjoy any of the show because I was too busy the whole weekend, even though we pitted right next to the penalty box at Fernley.  CC also had a huge fun atmosphere, just without as much duct tape and pigs feet. One team was walking around with women’s undergarments over their race suits because they wanted to, so it is not exactly a bunch of stuffy old grumpy racers.

You spin once, they say “Hey, he learned the limits of adhesion in his car.” You Spin Twice, they start to watch you. You spin 3~4 times they bring you in and have a talk. Is this much different than most any other racing?

Speaking of which, I love Lemons. But that don’t mean I’m knocking/boycotting NASCAR, Indy cars, AutoX, Historic racing or even soapbox derbies. If you have the money and a free weekend just GO TO THE TRACK.

This US-vs-them B.S. is for loosers.

True story:

An engineering sailor from the USS Midway walks into a bar in Thailand and get’s into an argument with another Engineering sailor from a different work center. Their buddies back them up and soon it’s a brawl. More Midway sailors see what’s going on and try to break it up before someone gets busted  and soon it’s a fight between different departments.

Sailors from the USS Curtis try to intervene and it turns into Midway –vs- Curtis carnage.

The MarDet group in the back say “That’s enough” and BOOM! Sailors –vs- Marines.

Then off duty Thai military get pissed we are messing up their bar and BANG, U.S. vs Thailand.  Those little bastards kicked the crap out of the drunk sailors and marines by the way, and kicked them out of the bar into the hands of local waiting police.

You know who won the fight?

We drunks who were just out for some cold beer and loose women.

I’m here for the racing. Yeah, I’m a slut. But sluts have more fun. I want track time, and CC delivers. I’m now sleeping in both beds. Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. 

(I’m also only 80% sure it was actually Thailand)

We just ran 14 hours at arguably the most dangerous course on the West Coast and had a whopping 11 black flags all weekend.  I think a whopping 2 cars brushed a wall, and only one of them was beyond repair.  People who flock to this event are not idiots, and neither are the organizers who put them on.  Ron Cortez (AIM Tires AT Infineon Raceway) personally gave a speech to the whole group about why some parts of the track were closed, and some parts of the track had been modified.  In my opinion, this track configuration gave us newbies a chance to drive a world-class track and an extremely safe speed (I only hit 4th 3 times per lap on Sunday)... but wow the racing was amazing.

I'm also with Pete here... I'm a track slut, and I've been bit HARD.  More racing is more racing and now I'm kicking myself for not canceling my previous plans and running the Lemons Infineon as well.

please don't get me wrong here, i never said Chump Car wasn't safe.  and i certainly never mentioned the word idiot.  but they are a West Coast organization and i have run at speed on South Course many times.  granted it is a HPDE setting, but i wasn't playing and most of the folks i run with don't either.

if the VIR event draws 25 cars then sure it will go well.  if it draws 50 cars there is going to be some contact.  and this is a short technical course.  no way to cordone off the twitchy sections.  here too you would only hit 4th three or four times a lap.

and to say that the people that flock to these events are not idiots is irrelevant.  anyone can compete in Lemons, will CC be weeding out un-desirables?  and if so, on what basis?

the more difficult the track the less likely complete newbies are not going to F-up.

maybe that is my ultimate issue with Chump Car.  they have picked some truly awesome, fast tracks.  i know i'm able to hang my ass out and turn laps; but who might be behind me, or worse yet, spinning in front of me?

I wonder what kind of track inspection Chump and Lemons do to insure a safe event.

Our safety in all of these events revolves around the judgement of the organizers.

Then there's the whole desire to go fast.  After running a couple of full courses with no chicanes and less contact and issues than with the chicanes.  I would prefer not to go back to training wheels.

Very true.  The chicane at the first CMP event was the worst idea EVER.  It caused more wrecks than it prevented.

BTW, for you guys who have never run at VIR...guess how many parts of it are flat on the South Course?  Answer...none!  Even the long straight in up a big hill.  Hell even the paddock is sloped.  T1-2 (called the Bitch) is off camber on exit and I can see lots of cars into that jersey barrier on the left.  The spiral?  OMG, imagine turning 90 degrees left over a blind crest then dropping about 10 feet to a hard right, then immediately into a hard left.  When you make that left to go down the hill if there are cars stopped at the bottom you will most likely hit one, or two, or three.  Then there is T10 (blind crest left hander) called South Bend.  At our speeds there probably won't be a problem, but again the exit is off camber and if you go off track there is a huge drop inlet for you to possibly hit.  After you consider all that...turn out the lights and see what happens!

Like 'soldmystang' said, we have tons of  experience (HPDE) at VIR (it's our home track) so we are all quite comfortable there.  However put 50 newbies out there at once and that comfort goes away.

All that said...I can't wait!

VIR is good, VERY, VERY good

http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r221 … RSouth.flv

We can't talk about VIR without somebody posting the greatest VIR video ever.  For those who haven't seen it, it's titled "I WAS 7th!".  So how long do you think Johnny and Phil would make him sit in the penalty box after this move??? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyr6VDaaWJE

That is undoubtedly the funny video EVAR!!!  I haven't seen it in awhile.

I think Jay would duct tape him to a port-a-john for a few hours for that move.  that is a funny video.  I think he was going to cry.

I've driven VIR in races... not HPDE.  I understand the course in detail.  CC will have a great, safe and competitive race.