THSCC Forums

It really is. You would not believe how hard my heart is pounding. The experienced guys have it all over us rookies. They know the starter's habits. The cool thing, especially at VIR, are the all the flag people lining the starting grid. they drop their yellows, you bring the revs up and then wait for the slightest movement of that green. Then you spin your tires

The only time I was really paranoid was last year. The starting grid for the standing start was about 60-70 cars. So I am pretty deep back there. You dump the clutch and go rocketing up hoping no one spun in front of you or worse stalled. And there is usually one that has stalled.

The plus side, you are going a lot slower into the first turn. At Summit/CMP with a rolling start we don't carry a lot of speed into turn one any ways. But at VIR with the long front straight, we carry a boat load down into there. With the standing start, turn one is not a killer. Yes, there will be bumping but there is a difference between 70 mph and 130 mph bumping We call that bump drafting.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

On the heart pounding thing, I highly recommend anyone who is starting out in racing wear a heart monitor that will log your data if you can. There are several on the market that aren't that expensive. Set the time properly and if you have race data it shouldn't be that hard to correlate your heart rate to what happened on track (loosely, I mean...so you can see when that guy cut you off and so forth and what it did to your heart rate). Working on keeping your heart rate down by not getting as aggravated or excited can go a long way for those who do any kind of endurance racing...

That's probably a bit off topic, but it was something that hit me. You know your heart is pounding on those standing starts and no amount of data on "how much" it's pounding is going to help you control it, I'd wager. That will come with experience. But I think it can be telling how much someone screwing with you in your mirrors can elevate things without you knowing it...


--Donnie

Funny thing you bring that up. Many years ago Tim Aro and I got into similar discussion. I was really interested in the concept of wiring a driver like Tim up and then wiring someone at my level. A comparison between drivers and their heart rate, pulse, etc on the same course. I was convinced that Tim's rate would be level from start to finish. Mine on the other hand....

The heart rate is probably related to the adrenaline. It is similar to a Pro Solo or drag race rush. But toss in the workers (like the old gran prix races), crowds lining the fence (and at VIR packed unto the balcony of the garage suites) it is way cool.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

You know they wired up Gilles Villeneuve to a heart monitor in an F1 session once. His heart rate was a constant (as I recall, book not handy) 120 the entire time, including when he crashed.

Back to the title picture: what I want to know is why this race car is so damned beautiful, magnificent, true spirit of Camaro muscle-car (well, except for the presumed IRS), while the street version is quite possibly the ugliest car since the Edsel.

If the street Camaro had that front end I'd be visiting dealerships every lunch break and drooling. Instead it looks like a cross between a Tonka toy and one of those distored car models you find in breakfast cereal.

That's just not fair.

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Martyn Wheeler
AXing Kit's '05 Mazda 3, #29 HStock
(when The Gonzo Symphonic allows)