Re: "Aveo at Buttonwillow catching BMW's? Godda be cheatin' hard core."
racerxr wrote:With well over 100 cars on the track at any given time and 16+ hours of racing in a weekend, flagging a Lemons race accurately and fairly is impossible. So, we learned to consider black flags as yet another seemingly random occurrence that you only have marginal control over. It's been our experience that black flag karma evens out in the long run. We've been black flagged for contact when another car backfired as it passed my driver mid-turn, and I've watched video from my car and seen my drivers accidentally pass under yellow and not get a flag.
We have a very similar situation as your team. We have a 2700 lbs 110hp FWD car (300 lbs and 7 hp more than your car) with stock tank and filler tube. Our car begins to fuel starve after burning just 7-9 gallons of fuel. We have one hot-shoe and 3 solid drivers. The delta in lap times is something like 5-10 seconds. The difference in session duration before fuel starve is 15 to 30 minutes depending on the track. I've created a spreadsheet and analyzed a few of our races and it turns out that the extra session time gained by the more conservative drivers usually saves us a fuel stop per day and more than makes up for the lap time delta. It turns out endurance racing is a resource management game, not a foot race.
Fuel isn't the only thing we can manage with lap times. Other things like tires, brakes, wheel bearings, and even black flags can be mitigated with a little more conservative driving. With all the cars on the track, flaggers rarely have a perfect view of on-track incidents. So it often comes down to perception. A car that is often passing deep in braking zones or mid-turn is gonna be considered the aggressor by the flaggers and assumed to be involved in anything questionable. This is were the much higher horsepower class A cars have an advantage dicing through traffic passing less frequently in braking zones or mid-turn.
We do have one difference though. We have somehow landed in Class A. I suspect it's the reasonably fresh RockAuto closeout struts I made room in the budget to buy. At first, I was frustrated because we've never turned enough laps in a weekend to win Class B. But, I eventually realized it was a good thing for our overall enjoyment and the team performance. We no longer have any chance to win. So black flags, earned or not, don't bother me. Mechanical failures are simply team building exercises. These things no longer "lose the race" for us. It's a more laid back weekend and somehow fewer things seem to go wrong. We still haven't "won" Class B, but we have several top 10 finishes now, that's top 10% of the field here in the gulf coast region.
BTW If you haven't done so already, you should consider getting another set of rear hubs with a fresh set of bearings installed and replace the hubs preemptively Saturday evening.
Nicely written and delivered. My only hesitation is, much of our fun is based upon the desire to compete and do well. All of us are either track club members or pros, so lapping in a Chevy Aveo just for the sake of track time, is just not satisfactory. We have all the track time we want and more! However, if we actually pilot this POS to a win, now that would be quite a fantastic day!
I really do like how you label a black flag as a "seemingly random occurrence". Now that just clicks with me, primarily because I have certainly gotten away with more than I have been accused...as I am sure we all have. Again, thanks for the kind words!
Oh, we still track our standing all weekend, and at the end of the day Sunday we are planning pit stops and driver changes to optimize our finishing place. Also, notice that I know we have never lapped enough to win class B despite being in class A. It's still a competition for us and not a open track day. But, letting go of those "it just cost us the race" thoughts and simply making the best of the cards dealt really turned it around for me. I'm a much more pleasant person if I have to visit the penalty box now as a driver or car owner :-)
BTW, when I compared our cars and team make up, I didn't claim to have the mad driving skillz you guys have demonstrated. The gulf coast region doesn't have near the depth of competitive cars as California.
If life gives you Lemons, install racing brakes!
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