Chump Car 24 Hour at VIR: My Experience

[Jake]

So, just got home from the 24-hour Chump Car race at VIR. It was a weekend of firsts for me, and I know Chump/LeMons are kind of "the great unknown" for a lot of people, so figured I'd do a little writeup on how this whole weekend went down

First, the "firsts" - first time doing any sort of wheel to wheel racing beyond karts. First time racing/driving on track in the dark. First time doing an enduro, where you have a team, a crew, and all sorts of rules pertaining to pit stops, driving time, etc. and the logic behind it. First time doing arrive-and-drive.

Background
I was contacted by a guy named Roberto, who I didn't know but had some mutual NASA friends with, who asked if I'd be interested in joining a Chump team. He sent me photos of the car's build, told me they had run it in three prior Chump races and it had been very reliable. He gave me a price to arrive-and-drive and said that would include everything, I just needed to bring safety gear.

I borrowed a race suit from my Spec3 friend Justin. He was kind enough to let me use his Cool Shirt as well (super helpful in the heat). I already had the helmet, HANS, balaclava, gloves, shoes, and socks. I sent Roberto $Lots$ and waited for more instruction.

Arriving
Roberto emailed us and asked that we get to VIR by 10 AM on Saturday. I had planned on heading down mid-day Friday, so it was weird to get up super-early Saturday morning instead. But, I left the house at 5:30 AM, blasted down I-95 (for once) and made it there by 9:30.



Got to watch some semi-truck racing (really) and Roberto showed up with some others who were on our team/crew. I had met Roberto and Brandon (primary builder of the car, he and Roberto co-own the team) at the most recent NASA event. They were also both driving the car, as was my friend Zach (NASA TTer), and a guy named Evan, from Ohio.

We had three crew members who were all new to me but super friendly and easygoing. We all got the trucks unloaded, set up our pit stall, and got checked in.



I had to go to a "novice meeting" because I was new to Chump and W2W racing. The meeting, honestly, was a joke given I've been around a racetrack before. We discussed how to properly pass someone, which was promptly ignored by anyone who was actually new, and what the colors of the flags meant. The scary thing about Chump Car is that anyone can pay $50 and get their license... no experience necessary, not even HPDE 1. So, you have some pro-level guys out there, some people like my team (TT/W2W experience) and some total n00bs whose best driving experience to date has been cracking 100 mph on the Beltway that one time.

After that meeting, we had an all-hands meeting for drivers and crew. It was strongly mentioned that passing under yellow was not to happen. It happened anyway.



Driving
There's no qualifying session, so cars are started in whatever order they get to the grid. We got there late so we started from the back... about 79th out of ~85 cars.



Zack was our first driver. The car, in the past, had been able to run for two hours on a single tank of fuel. Chump mandates that fuel stops take five minutes, so it behooves your team to combine a fuel stop with a driver change, as drivers cannot be in the car for more than two hours at a time, and have to rest for an hour before getting back in the car. We figured we could do two hour stints, and change drivers/add fuel at the same time, no problem.

Well, that's fine except the part where the car started fuel-starving badly around the 1h30 mark. Yes, E36's all do that and you need dual fuel pumps and I cannot confirm or deny that every E36 including ours at this race had dual pumps because they're not stock equipment :evileye: Anyway, our setup worked to a point but we weren't going to get 2 hours out of a tank. Fuck.

Our strategy quickly became "radio in when it hiccups, drive it til it hiccups really bad, then back off a bit and try to get a few more laps in before you pit." This let us get to the 1hr45 mark a few times. We made sure to have the next driver suited up early so the driver change was able to take place. The car was taking almost all of our fuel at each stop (we had 3x 5-gallon jugs, the tank is 16.4ish, and it was taking 13-14).



So, drive drive drive, change driver, continue. That's the theme. Oh yeah, don't hit stuff.

We didn't hit anyone but we did get hit a few times. That knocked our right rear wheel out of alignment a little bit, which started chewing up the inner edge of that tire. Then we had side-to-side contact all down the driver's side of the car during a night stint. Car was fine but I'm sure the alignment is all crazy-eyed now.

8-10 PM
My first stint was from 8-10 PM on Saturday. I hadn't driven the car before (we were in a 1996 BMW 328i, I can't escape the four-doors) but figured it'd be just like my M3, perhaps a little slower. Thankfully, I was right. It was very easy to drive fast, even on the tires we had - Chump mandates a 200TW summer tire, no race compounds.

The whole "get in, harnesses on, Cool Suit hooked up, radio plugged in, window net clicked" process was rough the first time but still figured it out in the alloted 5 minute time. You can go over the 5 minutes but it's obviously in your best interest to get out there right at 5 and start turning laps.

So yeah, car was great. They have a giant clock strapped to the passenger door bars, so you can see how long you've been driving. My first hour or so was easy, it's VIR at sundown. No glare, got to feel out the traffic situation and got over my nerves of passing/being passed literally everywhere. Then the sun went down and it was dark dark.

There's no lights used on VIR, so by 9:15 I was driving with just my headlights. Thankfully, the sucktastic E36 lights had been replaced with some super-bright LED strips. Every other team had the same idea. This made looking ahead of you easy enough, but every time someone got behind you, their LEDs would fill ALL of your mirrors, and you had very little idea as to where they were behind you... and then were temporarily blinded as they passed you.

So, I drove 'til 10 PM and came in. Moved us up about 7 places which was cool. Helped on the crew for an hour or so and crawled into the Denali for some shut-eye. Because of the fuel-starve issues, our stints were coming up faster than planned. I was supposed to go back out at 6 AM, and that got pulled back to 4 AM "but be here at 3:30 just in case." I got three hours of very crappy sleep, and pulled all of my still-sweaty-and-now-cold gear back on as I stumbled back to the pits.



4-6 AM
My next stint was done entirely in the dark and it was some of the hardest driving I've ever done. Many instances of "whoops, the apex was 10 feet ago, I should turn now" and "oh fuck that's the grass BRAKES." I did get some really quality passing in and moved us up in position significantly, about 9 places. There were a lot of moments where it was either easier to let the guy behind go by to get rid of the blinding LEDs, or where my knowledge of where the track went was advantageous. I did a lot of driving-by-memory and super-late braking during this stint and got around a lot of folks.

Came in at 6 AM, drank a large coffee and promptly fell asleep in a camp chair in the pits.



1-2 PM
Somewhere around 10 AM, we figured that if we timed our final pit stops right, everyone could get one last go in the car, for an hour each. The last three of us (Zack, Evan, me) took an hour each and I asked if I could be the one to take the checker, as they both had at prior Chump races. They agreed, so I got in at 1 PM.

My whole goal was to simply finish. We were running on corded tires (should've had 3 sets), the brakes were almost down to the backing plates, the track was greasy as hell (quote from Zack: "It's like drifting around a parking lot in the snow") and I was not going to overcook it and lunch the car at hour 23:xx.

After an hour of tediously "racing but not all that hard, but still don't lose position" -- we had 2 laps on the guy behind us, and were down by 2 laps to the guy ahead, so position change was unlikely now -- I finally saw the white flag at start/finish, indicating this was my last lap. All of the teams who still have cars in the race come out to the hot pits wall and cheer the drivers on for the white flag and the checker. Lots of headlight-flashing, fist pumping and cheering going on there.



I took the checker at 2 PM and we finished 15th. :thumbup:

Aftermath
We started in 79th-ish, and finished 15th.

We had 5 drivers and 3 crew. Drivers and crew alike worked tirelessly to make sure we had tires rotated for max life, pressures checked, fluids checked, drivers exchanged quickly and easily, food/drinks on hand, tools at the ready, etc etc. It was a really fantastic group of guys to drive with.

The car used up two sets of BFG Rival tires (225 15), one set of brake pads (PFC 08), approx. 140 gallons of fuel, and burned only one quart of oil. We put about 1,600 miles on the car in 24 hours. The motor was cut off for roughly 4 minutes at a time for fuel stops, and was otherwise ran right up near redline almost constantly.

Ultimately, I don't know if I'd do another Chump race or not. I had a blast, but the varied experience was dangerous IMO. What this does make me think about is where I want to take the M3 after it gets caged this winter. Doing some W2W racing in GTS2 sounds mighty fun.

[BLINGMW]

that's awesome! Nice work.

[D_Eclipse9916]

We didn't hit anyone but we did get hit a few times. That knocked our right rear wheel out of alignment a little bit, which started chewing up the inner edge of that tire. Then we had side-to-side contact all down the driver's side of the car during a night stint. Car was fine but I'm sure the alignment is all crazy-eyed now.

The car used up two sets of BFG Rival tires (225 15), one set of brake pads (PFC 08), approx. 140 gallons of fuel, and burned only one quart of oil. We put about 1,600 miles on the car in 24 hours. The motor was cut off for roughly 4 minutes at a time for fuel stops, and was otherwise ran right up near redline almost constantly.

Ultimately, I don't know if I'd do another Chump race or not. I had a blast, but the varied experience was dangerous IMO. What this does make me think about is where I want to take the M3 after it gets caged this winter. Doing some W2W racing in GTS2 sounds mighty fun.

First, :thumbup: on going out and doing one. Super excited to hear that you had a lot of fun W2W.

Second. The damage, the passing under yellows, the "clueless drivers" put a damper on what is essentially a slightly more fun HPDE. The price of consumables and entry fees was astoundingly large enough that it almost cost more to run our chump car one weekend than my GTS2 car. (and that is excluding winning tires or anything with NASA).

We wound up spending more than I thought thanks to $1300 entry fees $6-800 in fuel (including tow), $400 worth of pads, $700 worth of tires (we only used one set, another $700 if you used 2 sets!), and then basically a motor or transmission every other event because you just did 1600 miles racing for 24 hours. We rented out seats for 6 hours (4 drivers for 24 hours) for $900 and that was just a break-even point that didn't include extra maintenance like the motors and trans.

That said, if you didnt want to go through HPDE levels, invest in a race car yourself, and just wanted to have fun, Chump is a very good option. I was always disappointed that MM never put together one as I feel like it would be a great way to get current students out there.

[Jake]

Yeah, agreed on the expense. I am very glad that I didn't have to shell out more than just the entry fee, even though it was pretty huge in itself - I paid more than what you charged for seats on your team. We wanted to keep number of drivers down though, and settled on 5 as a way to get cost reasonable and a lot of seat time for everyone.

Joey and I (I think) talked about doing a LeMMons/ChuMMp team when we were still in college. At the time it would have been really tough to do, and frankly it's still out of reach for students to join in to an already-established team (unless mommy & daddy give you a REALLY nice Christmas gift of $$$$). The problem is that even if you get the entry fees, even if you get the car built, then every driver has to have a race suit and full safety gear, which is $$$. Between entry fee + gear, each driver could be looking at $2500 of spend.

It'd be fun to have an MM alumni team though, with students as crew.

[navin]

Nice write-up, was actually going to message you about your thoughts on Chump Car. I think it's still on my "I want to do this once" type of list, that are start looking into the AER series (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.americanenduranceracing.com/home/about-aer/">http://www.americanenduranceracing.com/home/about-aer/</a><!-- m -->).

[PDenbigh]

Nice Jake! Fun writeup. Props for 15th!

[Jake]

Nice write-up, was actually going to message you about your thoughts on Chump Car. I think it's still on my "I want to do this once" type of list, that are start looking into the AER series (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.americanenduranceracing.com/home/about-aer/">http://www.americanenduranceracing.com/home/about-aer/</a><!-- m -->).

Thanks! This was definitely a bucket-list thing for me. I've wanted to do a race like this since hearing about Lemons racing back in my early college days.

[BLINGMW]

It'd be fun to have an MM alumni team though, with students as crew.

I've always been interested but I don't really get the extreme enduro format. Seems like anything beyond a few hours is just turning laps for the sake of spending money. And like you mentioned especially at night and with the wide variety of skill level you'd be foolish to actually try to jockey for position. Count me in for a 4 hour max crapcan race.

*edit* maybe when there's enough aging POS VW diesels out there, a 4 hour race with no refuel or tire changes, two or three mandatory driver changes. :thumbup:

[Senor_Taylor]

I saw you finished 15th, but I had no clue you started so many places behind! That's an insanely huge grid. It must have been insane seeing all of those cars on track at the same time.

[G.Irish]

It'd be fun to have an MM alumni team though, with students as crew.

Make it happen and you'll have my money. I've never really looked seriously into Chump Car or Lemons because I don't like wrenching on shitty cars but if someone else organized it and did the wrenching I would pay to participate.

Maybe once a year we could have a student race on the team and subsidize them. Maybe the fastest student of the year at kart enduros and autocrosses.

[Senor_Taylor]

I'd think it'd be super cool to be the support crew.

[Apoc]

Doing CMP in September and I'm sure we could use crew! ☺

[G.Irish]

So Jake, how often did you feel the driving was unsafe? Once a lap? A few times a stint? Was it the unpredictability of the other drivers? Ill-advised passes? Other drivers swerving all over the place? How many incidents and cautions were there?

One thing that had occurred to me about hooptie racing is that the cars are more prone to mechanical failures that could cause a loss of control at an inopportune time or worse yet, someone oiling down the track. Anything like that happen (DJ feel free to chime in since you did some Chump Car no?).

[G.Irish]

I'd think it'd be super cool to be the support crew.

There are many, many opportunities to crew for all types of cars if you're into that. I crewed for some pro endurance racing teams while I was still at JMU.

[Senor_Taylor]

I might have to look into that.

[ScottyB]

way to go man...not only is it completely badass that you did this but pulling in like 60 places to finish in the top 20 is nuts. great driving!

i can't blame your sentiments on the spread of driver skills but in the end, you can always look back and say you've done an enduro now. some rainy, half-blinded day out on VIR you may subconsciously recall some advantageous chump muscle reflexes and it'll save your ass :lol:

[.RJ]

One thing that had occurred to me about hooptie racing is that the cars are more prone to mechanical failures that could cause a loss of control at an inopportune time or worse yet, someone oiling down the track. Anything like that happen (DJ feel free to chime in since you did some Chump Car no?).

I dont get the impression that chump car is a crapcan demolition derby from what I've read on the internets (and naturally, that makes me an expert vs attending a real event!). I feel like the prep level isnt much different from IT/PT type cars, with real cages, seats, hours invested, etc - the difference being that everyone's on stock engines, cheap shocks, wheels and tires. There's no cap on time spent, and most people jumping in have *some* level of track experience either HPDE, TT, no?

Take a look at this - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.roadraceautox.com/showthread.php?49926-Build-Thread-LeChumpImprovedTouringPT-Mustang-V3-0">http://www.roadraceautox.com/showthread ... stang-V3-0</a><!-- m -->

Thats probably above what most LeMons/Chump teams will do but it cant be that far off these days. I could see jumping in to this before going back SCCA/NASA/etc 'SRS BSNS' racing, it does look fun. Although I'd probably instruct or do moto trackdays again before any kind of racing.

[D_Eclipse9916]

You just have to temper your expectations. If you have raced or have graduated above HPDE 2, you have to realize that 50% of the field out there are guys that haven't done over 80mph on the highway before, nevertheless been on a race track. It's not a demolition derby but I was hit multiple times under double yellow (sometimes 3 corners after the first yellow went up!!!!), and I am pretty sure 25% of the field would pass me under double yellows (full course yellow so no excuses).

99% of the times I got hit was some dingbat braking 1000 feet before the braking zone and I flew in, braked got alongside, and they just turned into me. They had 0 clue I was there even with an ear-splitting RX7 that we drove. There is 0 heads up driving, and most are completely overwhelmed. Once I tempered my driving down to an HPDE level I got hit a lot less, but why "race" if I am not "racing"?

Then shit like, people are unpredictable. Here is a video of me behind 2 VERY "experienced" chump cars (one is a bimmerworld car, the other is well known in chump). He decides to brake in middle of an acceleration zone for no reason. Btw - he continues on after this, eliminating the thinking that he had a car issue.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://vimeo.com/87773511">https://vimeo.com/87773511</a><!-- m -->

Also, the car prep is so low sometimes you jump in a car (like I did) where the car was straight nasty. We threw on 6 year old azenis and I almost died with how sideways it was. ChumpCar was about to pull me off track for the shenanigans (never hit anyone and never went off) but Donnie Weymer vouched that I was experienced.

I have done 4-5 chump races and they are absolutely a blast and I would probably do them as a team if I didn't race NASA. But as I said before, its a long race with no drinking. And when the race is done, nobody hangs out and parties, they just go home. A NASA weekend breaks it up more and allows more social time and fun when you aren't on track.

[Jake]

It's not a demolition derby but I was hit multiple times under double yellow (sometimes 3 corners after the first yellow went up!!!!), and I am pretty sure 25% of the field would pass me under double yellows (full course yellow so no excuses).

Dude, we had someone roll their car during a full-course double-yellow, at Oak Tree. During the first two hours.

I have done 4-5 chump races and they are absolutely a blast and I would probably do them as a team if I didn't race NASA. But as I said before, its a long race with no drinking. And when the race is done, nobody hangs out and parties, they just go home. A NASA weekend breaks it up more and allows more social time and fun when you aren't on track.

Agreed, the vibe was definitely different. Still lots of fun, but I have a good thing going with NASA and plan to focus on that first and foremost. We have a good time on track and off alike.

[BLINGMW]

He decides to brake in middle of an acceleration zone for no reason. Btw - he continues on after this, eliminating the thinking that he had a car issue.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://vimeo.com/87773511">https://vimeo.com/87773511</a><!-- m -->

:lol: that sucked :x