Topic: My First Experience with that *other* Crapcan Racing Series
Recently, Team Junk Male (some guys I used to work with down in SC) asked me to be their 5th driver at the Chump Car race in Road Atlanta this past weekend. This was the "Santa in Atlanta" race. I've never done Chump before, and figured I'd give it a whirl. I'd also heard a lot of really good things about Road Atlanta. I was going to be in SC anyway picking up a load to bring back to Baltimore, so I figured, what's another 2 hours down the road to go for a race?
The race was a 14 Hour format- Racing started at 8AM Saturday and ended at 10PM Saturday. There were no breaks. This means two things:
1) When the car breaks, you are really under the gun to get it fixed
2) Night Racing!!!
Katie and I arrived at the track Friday night around 8PM, with our camper and the dog. We set up camp, poured some beers into plastic cups (R/A is a supposedly-alcohol-free venue) and wandered around for a bit to chat with the other racers, most of whom were openly drinking beers out of marked bottles. Folks were generally pleasant, though there was none of the party atmosphere that you find at a Lemons event. I did see several folks I recognized from Lemons, including some cars (Like the Battleship LTD and Sanford and Son truck) that did Lemons once and apparently are now just doing Chump. The LTD, by the way, is now purple, has racing tires about a foot wide, and sounds like it has a NASCAR engine. It also was off the track a lot, as was the truck.
As we were browsing the pits, we ended up chatting with a fellow who had a black Porsche 944. He was showing me his Lexan work on the windshield and backlight, as well as the NASCAR tearoffs he'd scored supposedly *wink* on the cheap. He asked me if I'd ever raced Road Atlanta before. "No". I replied. Of course, then he and his team go into how this is one of the most challenging courses in the WORLD, how it's WORLD famous, etc etc etc. Then he asked me if I'd raced it on a video simulation. "No, I don't have one." I replied. He's starting to get a little weirded out now. "Well, have you watched any of the in-car videos of the track?", he asked? "Nope", I replied. Now I can see they've gone beyond weirded out, and seem generally worried for my safety. They're starting to scare Katie, even. "Honestly", I said, "I haven't even really looked at a track map." Now they're panicking for me. (I hadn't walked the track either, as we arrived after dark.) It was somewhat amusing, at least from my perspective.
Well, I can now say that I _have_ looked at the track map. Here it is:
http://www.roadatlanta.com/trackmap.lasso
The map, of course, doesn't really convey everything that there is about this track. Because, you see, the map is, well, flat. It might have some small curvature, depending on your computer monitor type, but it's still just in 2 dimensions. But in real life, R/A is not flat. It is, actually, very much not flat.
My first stint wasn't until about 5 hours in on Saturday, so after the green flag fell, in between driver changes Katie and I and the dog and the team captain's wife crossed the footbridge over the start/finish line and walked the infield to check out the track. We walked over to the "Esses", back over to the infield tunnel, and then back to the S/F line. The racing action was very good, and vantage points were terrific. We got some great pictures and I got at least a feel for the general layout of the track. Over 100 cars had entered the race, though this was reduced somewhat by attrition to perhaps 60 or 70 cars by the time I went out around 1PM. Around this time I suited up, wedged myself into the car, checked the mike, and headed off down pit road to join the action.
A word about the car: Junk Male came up with their team name/ theme because of the vehicle they ended up with: a ex-postal delivery Subaru Legacy estate. The most unique feature about this car was that, being an ex-postal vehicle, it was right-hand-drive. Also, they had swapped out the automatic transmission with a 5 speed gearbox. And the original 2.2 litre engine was gone, replaced by a torquier 2.5 boxster.
So, I was going out into the thick of the racing action, in a car I'd never driven before, with right hand drive (which I've also never driven before), with a stick shift (which I've never done with my left hand, other than the few times shifting with my left when my right hand was holding a cheeseburger and I was steering with my knees- which is pretty much not equivalent at all, it turns out), on one of the most challenging road courses IN THE WORLD (!!!) that I'd never driven before. Clearly, this was a recipe for success.
The first 2 or 3 laps, I was holding on for dear life. It felt surreal- my (left) hand was shifting gears and the steering wheel was moving and the car was going pretty fast, but I had no idea where I was on the track, or how I could prevent myself from being hit by all the other cars who were clearly much faster than I was. But about 4 laps in, it was like a switch flipped. I don't know if it was all the years of experience I'd had Lemons racing, or my awesome ;-) talent, or just sheer survival instinct, but I started actually racing, and realizing that I was racing. And having a blast doing it.
You come out of the pits onto Turn 1. Everyone is bunched up on the far left side of the track in preparation for the turn, all doing about 250 miles per hour coming down that front straight. You are attempting to merge in front of them all, driving 25 miles per hour as you leave pit lane on the left. You floor it up the hill towards the Esses. Turn 2 is OK, but you have to exit and stay way to the left to set up for 3 and 4, which are tighter than they look on the map. Especially 4. Between 4 and 5 is downhill, and I realized soon that I could punch it to the floor in 4th gear down this hill with very little steering input. It's crazy, fast, and definitely a pucker moment the first time you do it. Turn 5 sucked. You come into it with a big head of steam but need to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the idiot in the Ford Escort who is slower than you and using up the entire turn. Turn 5 heads off to the left, uphill, so you're downshifting into 3rd, and trying to stay off the gators on the right side. There's _just_ enough straight between 5 and 6 that you have to upshift into 4th for 3 or 4 seconds before braking for 6. After driving Turn 6 a few times, you realize it's not as sharp as 7, so you can kindof carry 4th through 6 and brake harder for 7, where half the drivers understeer and plow into the gators and into the dirt. But this is Chump- no one gets flagged for 2 or even 4 off. Being the exceptionally skilled Subaru driver that I am, I developed a habit of late-apexing 7, which sets you up nicely for 8 and 9, which are like the Kink at CMP, except you don't even think of lifting. 3rd gear takes you out of 7 and I was into 4th about where the "MAZDA" label is on the map, and drag racing through 9 in 4th, hitting about 5800 RPM. Turn 9 ends up on a downhill towards 10A and 10B, the chicanes. There was a huge sandbox at the runoff for 10A, and it collected it's share of duffers who got stuck in there and needed a pitching wedge. I never quite built up the confidence to brake for 10A as late as I know the car could have- the brakes were absolutely fantastic, and I know I could have waited a marker or two later to start braking, but blasting down that hill at triple-digit speeds with those two 90 degree turns looming in front of me instilled just enough fear to brake cautiously.
But, I also never ended up in the sand.
10B turned uphill towards a tunnel. I was in third most of the way up the hill and usually grabbing 4th right out of the tunnel.
Do you remember the first time you ever rode a roller-coaster? Remember when it took you way up high, and then suddenly the tracks disappeared beneath you and everyone screams and throws their hands up as it plunges a few thousand feet down? That's what it was like coming out of the tunnel. You come into the light, and the road disappears. Then, to compound matters, you have three choices- go to the right, which led to a dead end blocked- off road, go to the left, which took you into the pits, or go straight-ish and come careering down this huge, sweeping, slightly off-camber right hand turn under the YOKAHAMA start-finish line. After a few laps of figuring _this_ out, I sort-of knew where to plant the car exiting the tunnel to apex Turn 12 just right as I came flying down the hill, WOT in 4th. Usually I had to do a little confidence lift as I came around 12, but a few times I was flat out, and using up the entire track, ending up on the far, far left getting set up for Turn 1, doing about 250 miles per hour, trying to dodge all the idiots on their pit-outs.
If CMP were the bunny slopes, Road Atlanta is the Black Diamond in March, after an ice storm.
Memorable moments:
-Coming down T12, full-bore in 4th gear, not lifting, and ending up with 2 wheels off on the left going 100+ under the S/F tower and thinking "The car is going to lose it now, and I'm going to spin out and crash into the concrete wall here, and probably die" and before I finish the thought, I've corrected and am back on the track heading towards T1.
-Heading up T1, which I could do in 4th, when a Jaguar XJ6 spins in front of me. This is a hugely-long car, and as it rotates it's taking up 3/4 of the track. The Blitzen Benz was on my left, and he decides to take an off-road excursion to get around the spinning Jag. There's 2 E30's behind me, and a Miata to my right. The Miata brakes, which leaves me _just_ enough of a hole to floor the gas pedal and aim about 8 inches off of where I _think_ the front of the Jag is going to be (it's still moving, spinning, and sliding) when I pass it. Which I did. Barely. Don't ask me to repeat that little feat, because I'm not sure that I could.
-Battling for place a couple of times between 8 and 9, and 10 and 12, once with a Datsun and once with a Miata, both of whom tried to squeeze me into the grass as I passed them. I held my line, and they bounced off, losing considerable ground.
-Night racing. Take everything I wrote above, and now imagine it illuminated by two small candles in two small mason jars attached to the front of the car with opaque tape. The Subaru had just a pair of stock headlights. Other cars had 100 million candlepower spots mounted on their bonnets (Sorry about the English-eeze. I did spend all weekend driving a RHD vehicle). My second stint was around 8PM, when it was not only dark, but raining. At this point, everyone either decided to a) stop racing and pull into the pits, like sane people, b) drive around the course under heavy caution speeds, or c) continue driving like it was sunny and clear out. Naturally, groups b) and c) did not coexist harmoniously on the track, and I spent fully half of my night stint either under caution flag or red flag- Red flag means you stop your car in place on the track and wait for a yellow to proceed. Also, imagine coming out of that dark tunnel into blind darkness below, at Wide Open Throttle in 4th gear.
After my night stint I walked back to the camper and saw that I had a text message. It read, "Your car just did the most awesome drift up Turn 1!!" I looked at the time stamp. I'd been behind the wheel, and I remember that drift. I remember thinking while doing it, "Hmm. I've never gone uphill sideways before. This sure is different."
We ended up finishing 31rst out of the hundred or so cars that entered. We had two repairs- right at dusk a driver came in complaining about steering slop, which we traced to a loose ball joint in the tie rod end where it connects to the rack. We decided it would "probably" last the race, so we zip-tied the dust boot on and sent the next driver out. Who, thankfully, was not me. I was next after him, though, but that driver said the front end felt "pretty good", so I proceeded to head out into the dark, rainy night, in the unfamiliar right-hand-drive shifter car with sketchy tires and a bad front tie rod ball joint and pass every car I could get around. I think I set fast lap for the team, around 1:59, and I don't think I was much slower in the dark and the rain. Which means, of course, I could have been MUCH faster in the daylight when it was dry!
The other repair involved a broken exhaust pipe right at the Y pipe of the engine after the driver before me at night came in. It made a horrible racket, and was probably not too good for the valves. I welded it, and then proceeded to hop in for my night stint.
One of my favorite memories from the whole weekend: Remember that Porsche fellow I wrote about in the beginning? After finding out I'd only raced Lemons before, he told me, "Well, I've never raced Lemons, but from what I understand- and don't take this the wrong way- Lemons is a bunch of idiots who think they are race car drivers, and Chump Car is a bunch of race car drivers who think they are idiots." I let it slide, and we had a good laugh, at my expense presumably. About 3 hours into Saturday one of our teammates pitted excitedly, saying how this black Porsche had spun while passing him and made a very close personal acquaintance with the concrete wall near the tunnel. They were bringing the car in on the flatbed as he spoke. The driver was unhurt, fortunately.
Yup. That black Porsche.
'08 - '10: 1966 Volvo 122, "Charlie"
'10 - '18: 1975 Ford LTD Landau --> 2018 - current: Converted into 1950 "Plymford"
'22 - current: 1967 Volvo 122, "Charlie ]["