Last weekend I volunteered for the
ChumpCar race up at Road America. I wanted to post an update on how ChumpCar is run, and my general experiences.
The event was split up over three days. Friday was a test and tune day, then Saturday and Sunday were each 7 hour races. Each day was a separate, unique race. The only "special" thing about the race on Sunday was the winner of the race on Saturday was started with negative laps - the difference between their lap total and second place's lap total, plus one. This attempts to "level" the field and cause different winners between the two races.
Friday morning I drove up to Road America and got there around 9:30 am. A bit early, but gave me a chance to look around a little bit. Weather was cold, but fairly clear and it was a beautiful drive up in my Miata. Some attendees had already arrived, including several LeMons teams that I recognized - the most recognizable being the #22 "Mutt Cuts" - the carpeted car. After a while the ChumpCar crew showed up and I got to work helping to organize the event. All of the crew were fairly low-key and wanted to make sure that the event was a success.
I ended up working Grid on Friday - I checked for safety equipment. The tech inspectors were doing a "quick tech" of all of the cars before the test and tune, with a full tech for later. I was a bit surprised that some people tried to get out on the track with their suits unzipped or no neck protection! Everyone was nice and followed instructions when given. Overall, it went really well. I think we had 1 or 2 cars go off and need to be towed, but past that nothing too special. One car blew it's engine on the front straight, dropping quite a bit of fluid, so, since it was a test and tune day race control pulled everyone in while it was cleaned off. This was only one of two "stop the race" events on the track the entire race weekend.
Toward 3:30 or so they opened the full tech - they did it in the Skip Barber building near turn 5. I really didn't get much of a chance to see the process (I was still working grid/pit-in), but what I did see looked very similar to LeMons, with no separate "BS" inspection. Not sure how the values were evaluated, but I do know that some teams did get some penalty laps... I showed the inspectors a picture of our roll cage and they said "I'd pass that" and "No problems there" - so I don't think we have a problem with our roll cage for ChumpCar.
Friday night I drove back home - I tried to do the weekend on the cheap, so I decided to stay at home in the evenings.
Saturday morning I got up way too early in order to get to the track before the 8:15 driver's meeting. I ended up getting there at 7:45, so I set up some cones on the pit lane to help direct pit-in traffic to either the hot pits - where they could fuel and do driver's changes (and some maintenance?) or to the paddock. Pit in turned out to be my "home" for the weekend... But that's getting a bit ahead of the story.
The driver's meeting was very similar to what I expect from LeMons - don't do stupid stuff, track is set up this way, flags, if it rains we keep racing, etc. Oh, and one difference - they enforce a "Fuel Stops are a minimum of 5 minutes" rule. They have someone(me) stationed at pit-in that gives a time slip to everyone that pits, then as you exit the pits they examine it and verify the time.
On to the race - no pace car, they just sent out the cars in whatever order, let them circulate the track for maybe one or two laps, selected a car at random and gave that car the green flag. The race was on, and continued without any full course yellows or other extended delays for the entire 7 hour time period. We had numerous cars go 2 or 4 wheels off, quite a few spin, and 2 or 3 end up hitting walls. A couple also needed to be towed in.
Now - the unique part - there were only perhaps 8-12 black flags for the entire day. Re-read the list above, then look at the number there again - 8-12. ChumpCar does not black flag for wheels off or any other accidental driving like that. They do track it, and if it goes from occasional to often, then they'll black flag and talk to the driver, but only then. They want the team to be out there racing, not in the pits "doing stupid stuff"(to quote them). They would black flag for technical issues - loose exhaust, fenders/hoods/trunks loose, etc, but not for "things that are normal in a race". Additionally, even when a driver/car is black flagged, they're typically just talked to (5 minutes or less), then sent back out on the track, unless it requires repair.
ChumpCar also runs an "exception" class - they aren't eligible for awards, but they can participate in the race. There were 3(?) cars in that class - two spec Miatas, and one other. One of the spec Miatas took first (by lap count) both days, but just barely (by less than 10 laps both days).
Saturday night they do a "Beer and Pizza" party - tickets were $10/person and it sounded like it was all you could eat/drink. No idea, I didn't go to it. Evidently after that the ChumpCar guys went to Seibkin's and closed it. They were regretting it a bit in the morning :)
Sunday ran very similar to Saturday, although it was a bit more miserable. We had rain, sleet, hail, thunder, and lightning. When the lightning got close they paused the race, getting all of the corner workers into protection and everyone out of the cars, but that only lasted around 15 minutes or so. Beyond that, the race continued in the rain and general ugly conditions. Once again, a fairly clean race given the conditions of vehicles and the track. Oh, and I'm now a convert for those "tear open and they heat up" hand warmers. I had a good 6 of them in various places - one in each boot, one in each glove, and two on my back.
They did one awards ceremony for both of the races on Sunday. Two firsts, two seconds, two thirds(each with some money), and some other various awards for "the spirit of ChumpCar", etc. The awards are AWESOME - really cool welded up figures that are just really cool.
After the awards ceremony I helped clean and pack up. They also gave me some t-shirts, stickers (you'll see them when I autocross), and other stuff.
Well... That was a lot more writing than I expected. If you got through it, awesome!
