Chumpcar VIR roll call

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Who's in?

Simon Says will be, fourth year at the 24... Hope we do better than last year!

Go like our facebook page for race updates ... I promised my wife I will take more pictures this year

https://www.facebook.com/simonsaysracing

Mike Whitney
Jason Tower
Rob Harvey
Dustin Fredrickson

Thanks Crew!
Jose Pietri
Andrew Jonell
Truth Brown
Youssef Gamal
Hashim Beltaji

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:23 pm

Duff will be there, Me, Ricky, Robert, and a guy that we borrowed from another LeMons team. So far we've come in 44th every time we've run this race, so we want to do 43rd or better.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Thu Aug 07, 2014 11:09 am

I'm renting a seat in a '97 328i, total newbs... they ran one race at CMP with LeMons prior to this event.

Purple #169. I haven't finished a race at VIR since 2010.

Scott Lusted · **Joined:** Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:52 am **Posts:** 215

BookSmart is loaded up and ready!! Can't wait for such an awesome weekend!

-Scott

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

From Rob:

Simon Says Racing wins the VIR24!!!!!!
For those that haven't heard, our race team (Simon Says) won the 24 hour endurance race at Virginia international Raceway this weekend. This is our 2nd VIR24 win in the past 3 years! There were 100 cars and over 500 drivers participating in the event. We had 2 inches of rain to battle against during the 24 hours. Due to some electrical issues on the car at the being of the race, we were forced to make two additional pit stops that put us back into 36th spot. The team buckled down and went to work on making up time and positions on the track. By early Sunday morning, we were all the way up to P2! We were able to hold off the hard charging team from Bimmerworld (3rd place) for the last two hours of the race. We were settled in and looking at a P2 finish (since P1 was more than a lap ahead of us). In the last 10 mins of the race, the P1 team ran out of fuel turning over the lead to us! It was very surreal and awesome to have luck fall our way at the end. Many thanks to our crew that worked tirelessly throughout the 24 hours so the drivers could stay focused on strategy and driving!!

clinehall · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:38 am

Congrats to Simon Says!

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

There was a lot of confusion for the last 15 minutes as to why the SRI #2 car was coming in.

Initially we thought it was a drive-through to reduce penalty laps for the potential gap... But then we saw them hanging out at the end of the pit, so maybe they got black flagged? We saw the lead for SRI was hauling ass to see why his car was being held up. One of the guys from Team NAMCO said they put in 2 gallons of gas in with 10-15 minutes to go in the race; 5 minute minimum in the pits. Chump car is just like F1: it all comes down to the time in the pits. :v

I was worried coming in on Saturday because we saw Simon in the paddock when the race had been on for an hour already. Of course, the car with nothing but electrical and computer engineers winds up having electrical issues for half of the race. It was definitely a good time, and working with Dustin, Mike, Jason, and Rob is always a pleasure.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:47 am

Robert knows one of their drivers and had dinner with him after the race. He said that they were fuel starving in the turns with about ten minutes left and didn't think that they could make it to the checker.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I tried looking for your team on the live scoring, but couldn't find it. Where did you guys end up?

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:45 am

Congrats to all of the THSCC teams, as always we mostly kicked ass.

My rented ride was not horrible by any means but not without issues. We finished 15th which is the furthest up I've been in the standings in quite some time not to mention the car ran the entire race.

I unfortunately didn't finish the race. I had last stint and after about an hour I started noticing that I was slowing considerably and also losing concentration. After maybe another lap I noticed that I was way off line and turns were starting to sneak up on me. I think I may have even almost nodded off. (I know, I always drive that way... :lol:

) At this point I debated staying out and finishing the race as we were racing for position but upon further consideration decided to pit.

I get to the pits and crawl out of the car (literally) only to find just one teammate there. Fortunately he was still dressed so he got in and finished the race. Bill Strong led me to the EMT office and I sucked down some O2 for about 20 minutes.

I don't know where or how I heard about the effects of carbon monoxide in a race car but I would suggest that classroom sessions in HPDE add that discussion to their curriculum. Scary 45 minutes or so and the situation could have been far worse. The driver that replaced me said he was barely able to stay in the car but managed to bring it home.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 1:40 pm

Congratulations to Simon Say! I had wanted to visit the track this weekend to watch, but I had let a number of "honey do" items get delayed until this weekend.

Richard

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:37 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

I tried looking for your team on the live scoring, but couldn't find it. Where did you guys end up?

You would have had to scroll pretty far down. We ended up 55th. We put some kind of anti-fog stuff on the inside of the windshield, which apparently causes the windshield to fog over completely as soon as you get out on track. I pulled in after a couple of scary laps and we scrubbed it off with alcohol, then rigged up a rag on a stick and a squeegee for the driver (you could just about get it wiped down and squeegee'd in the front straight before you got to T1), as well as redirecting our defog air vents to put more air where it would clear a spot where I could see what was in front of me. I got back out there and three laps later the pressure plate stopped releasing. We pulled the transmission and put a new clutch in it, then got back out there. After that it was pushing really badly. If you applied any brake while steering, the front end just slid. I ended up sliding off into the grass on my out lap and having a number of other close calls before I resigned myself to turning slow laps and trying to stay out of everyone's way. Everyone else did some off-roading in it as well, and we got bumped and side-swiped a few times by impatient drivers stuck behind us, but we all had fun out there, although not as much fun as we usually have in the rain. I hope to get it all sorted out before the HPDE at VIR next month so that can be a shakedown for the race at CMP next month.

clinehall · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 3:59 pm

steve remchak wrote:

Congrats to all of the THSCC teams, as always we mostly kicked ass.

My rented ride was not horrible by any means but not without issues. We finished 15th which is the furthest up I've been in the standings in quite some time not to mention the car ran the entire race.

I unfortunately didn't finish the race. I had last stint and after about an hour I started noticing that I was slowing considerably and also losing concentration. After maybe another lap I noticed that I was way off line and turns were starting to sneak up on me. I think I may have even almost nodded off. (I know, I always drive that way... :lol:

) At this point I debated staying out and finishing the race as we were racing for position but upon further consideration decided to pit.

I get to the pits and crawl out of the car (literally) only to find just one teammate there. Fortunately he was still dressed so he got in and finished the race. Bill Strong led me to the EMT office and I sucked down some O2 for about 20 minutes.

I don't know where or how I heard about the effects of carbon monoxide in a race car but I would suggest that classroom sessions in HPDE add that discussion to their curriculum. Scary 45 minutes or so and the situation could have been far worse. The driver that replaced me said he was barely able to stay in the car but managed to bring it home.

I could joke about how hard it is for you to determine if you are impaired but I won't cause that's some scary stuff!

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:54 pm

I think Craig was the only one who didn't spin at some point. He too had a rallyx moment at T4-T5. I totally missed the apex at the end of the stevie wonders (in the dark) and went skipping across the mud where south meets back up -- luckily, chump didn't have a warehouse of tires there this year, not that I would've been the first car into them :-) Everyone was cutting the slalom in patriot, to the point it was a complete mud-n-oil mess, which I went through side-by-side with the biofuel tdi during the 20min parade of pulling dead cars; that almost ended badly for both of us as even 25mph was too fast for that mess. At the first green lap after that crap, he almost put it on the roof braking too late at the bitch -- locking all four wheels, squirming around and the yellow lights go on in less than a second. (I don't know how, but he saved it and went sailin' on.)

As for my spin, I'm putting that one 100% on our tuner, Jason. The engine will not stay at constant throttle. I'm half way around the bitch when it lifts off for me. It's amazing just how fast the car can twirl around.

I found everyone to be very un-chump-like non-threatening. I was never bumped or hit. A lot of very close passes, but no contact at all. And most surprising, no one crowding me through the esses; everyone waited for me to get to the top and off to the right. (or apex with me, as every one of my instructors will attest, I go through there too slow and never track out.)

[For the record, I love following vdubs. It's such a laugh to see them cock a leg around every corner. And the TDI was almost getting two wheels off the ground at Oak Tree. Its like watching a cartoon dog round a corner.]

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:54 pm

I figured out the handling issue. One of our front lower control arm bushings has almost completely disintegrated. The front right wheel is fine on the outside half and bald on the inside half. I can wedge a screwdriver behind the control arm and move it all over the place. I pressed those bushings in to the control arms new about 5 years ago; maybe that's just how long they last under track conditions.

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