1st timers sound off.

[kent merkle]

Tubbys thread got me to thinking...how bout all you TRUE rookies that have never raced anything before your chump experience sound off about it. I know ill never forget my 1st time on track. I couldnt see due to the sweat in my eyes...before i pulled out of the pits and it was only 45 degrees out.

[porkchops22]

The only experience I have prior to Lemons or Chump would be Drag Racing (ET Brackets). My first road race was a late April Gingerman for the Lemons crowd back in 2010. So far everything is turning out just fine.

[Undecided]

Road America was my first race, in the twenty minutes leading up to getting in the car 3 trips to the outhouse. Once in the car all was good, was busy trying to stay out of everyone's way.

[kent merkle]

Road America was my first race, in the twenty minutes leading up to getting in the car 3 trips to the outhouse. Once in the car all was good, was busy trying to stay out of everyone's way.

Nothing like mind overload until race focus takes over behind the wheel.

[JustinParcher]

My first road racing experience was with ChumpCar. I was the third driver in line for our first event. I got the second driver strapped in, and out on track. After seeing him turn a couple laps, I went to the restroom before suiting up for my first stint. I walked casually out of the restroom to find half my team frantically searching for me. Turns out Driver #2 was totally overwhelmed with the traffic, the car, and everything in general. He just couldn't continue. So after his 15 minutes on track, it was my turn. EEK! I had to suit up, and mentally prepare to get in the car, as it sat on pit road, waiting for me. It was a bit unnerving having us lose that time, and to try to cram 90 minutes worth of mental prep into 10.

I'll never be able to forget the pure feeling of fear I experienced leaving the pit-out time check and blasting through the first two gears. Cars were whizzing past me at about 100 MPH, and then bunching up and braking hard going into the chicane at Portland. I needed to merge out left into this mess! In a great example of "we didn't think about that..." I now noticed that with the window net in the way and packing tape on the glass, the left-side mirror was all but useless. We went the entire first race weekend with only sound, headlights, and The Force to know who was at our LR corner. Thankfully that never became a problem.

After the first five laps or so to figure out the car, figure out passing and being passed, it was glorious. I fell into a rhythm and just clicked off laps. I hopped out of the car after my first stint of 90 minutes, and exclaimed "That was the best hour and a half of my life!"

Our first race was far from problem free, but we made it work, and had a ton of fun.

[kent merkle]

Thats what its about Justin,the time of your life!

[Craig]

My ChumpCar experience started with me agreeing with one of my friends that, "that sounds like a lot of fun, I'd like to try it." Apparently, one of his friends had been kicking it around for a while, and that guy had another friend lined up who also does motorcycle racing. At the start of the year, we decided to go ahead and prep the car, and we signed up for the April TWS race. Fast forward to our arrival at the track: at that point, the sum total of my driving experience was daily/trip driving in my 112 HP Civic (coincidentally, 25 more HP than the Mustang!), which once upon a time I got above the century mark but usually drove within five to ten MPH of the speed limit. I had been doing some driving in Gran Turismo to try to get a little bit of a hang for it, and my main take-aways were: how am I going to do without the driving line telling me where to go and when to brake? will I be able to deal with the traffic and locate the flags and still not hit anything? will I be able to overcome my proclivity for passing by bouncing off of the other cars?

So: start with the test&tune on Friday. I suited up and went out on the track. It turned out that I didn't have much trouble keeping everything straight, finding the flag stations and watching traffic around me. It also turned out that our car was not just a little slow, it was abysmally slow. I came off feeling better about things. I'd been able to figure out where I was going, and I hadn't run into anything.

On Saturday, I was fourth into the car. There really wasn't much that stood out about the stint. I remember getting passed a lot (same as any race), with only one or two cars that I could overtake. The highlight for me was managing to draft another car down the front straight and pass them into turn 1, I think it was the #138 Kentucky Fried Racing. I was a little disappointed that we were so slow, a single pass was the highlight of my time in the car. I wasn't scheduled to go back in the car, but with about 15 minutes left, the guy who went before me came off because he felt like he was losing focus (two offs in short order). I scrambled to suit back up and was able to get the car back on the track to take the checkered flag.

On Sunday, since I was next in order, I got the green flag. It started off well enough, as I put in the fastest lap of the weekend, but then I overcooked it a little through turn three, tracked out too far to the left, and when the left wheels hit the dirt the back end swung around and I was spun back across the track. It rattled me a little bit, and I ran a little slower. Not too long after that, I got behind the #50 Dakota pickup; they were able to pull away in the straights but held me up in the corners. I wasn't able to figure out how to use my advantage to get by (it doesn't help that really, the only multiple-line turn at TWS is #1/#2, which is after they had a chance to pull away from me on the straight, and at that point, I still hadn't gotten completely comfortable with my line through #2). I got a little frustrated, made a really low-percentage attempt to pass going into #13, made semi-heavy contact, and black-flagged myself. It's a good thing I did, as the right rear wheel was wrecked.

Final stint, I don't remember anything interesting happening. I had a couple of object lessons from the morning on the need to be patient and stay within myself through the turns. The main thing I focused on was figuring out my line through turn 1 and turn 2, and by the end of it, I was feeling pretty good about my speed through that part of the course.

Even notwithstanding my disappointment at our non-competitiveness from a performance point of view, it was a lot of fun. There are two spots at TWS that I particularly enjoy driving; #1 and #2, the gut-check of how much speed to carry off the straight and finding the aim spot through 1 and the turn-in for 2, and taking #7 flat-out and the g-forces as the banking and the hill catch the car. At this point, as our continuing schedule shows (we're also signing up for NOLA), we're all hooked.

[Segeltorp]

Well, I had done a one day driving school event some 15 years ago so I had seen a race track. (AND I had been riding as a passenger in Indianapolis with Hurley Haywood )

My other 3 drivers had never even visited a track as spectators. We did VIR and had an absolute blast. Such a great group of people, so much fun getting up the learning curve for how to actually drive. It was intended as a once in a lifetime thing to do, but now we're busy switching the engine and waiting for next year!

We mainly tried focused on how to use our mirrors as much as the windshield, stay out of the way for the fast cars, and above all avoiding taking anyone out by doing something stupid out there.

The experiences can be summarized as follows:

- Man, it's incredible how fast everyone are going! Cars flying by left and right. And interesting that by the 2nd round of stints we started keeping up pretty well with the slower half of the field.

- very interesting that it didn't really matter how slow we were taking it, lap times were irrelevant compared to how much time we wasted doing plenty of driver changes and sloppy pit stops. That said, as rookies I doubt that one should ever go longer than an hour. It's not about winning anyway, and the risk for stupid driver errors would seem to go much higher when fatigue sets in. One hour is long enough for rookies to keep the focus.

- it was perfectly ok to have a slowish car that was easy to drive. Too many things to learn anyway. I never tried to really learn the whole track, but settled learning how to get a few of the turns well. Add 2 or 3 corners per year and eventually I should be doing good?

- And finally, I had heard the rumors that Chump was going to be more competition focused and more "real racing" than another somewhat similar series and worried a little that this was the wrong group for us to hang out with. In reality, I was very comfortable with Chump. It just seemed like the fellow Chump teams were on average very professional and were racing very cleanly. Quite considerate passing, no wild line changes just in front of you, no worries about being hit from behind... Just not at all the feeling of bumper cars at an amusement park when I had thought that the more liberal rules of "rubbin' is racing" should have made Chump more scary.

So, be worried - we will be back!

[ChumpStang]

I've found that before every stint, even though I'm experienced (using that term lightly) now, I still get ridiculously nervous. Like the kind of nervous where you physically shiver no matter what the temperature is. But as soon as I'm on the track, the very instant I put the foot down and feel the first set of lateral g's, I'm at home. It all becomes second nature to me. All the nerves disappear and my mind sees it for what it is: It's driving a car. Now of course speed and danger is increased but at the end of the day, passed all the variables, its still driving a car.

[Craig]

That said, as rookies I doubt that one should ever go longer than an hour. It's not about winning anyway, and the risk for stupid driver errors would seem to go much higher when fatigue sets in. One hour is long enough for rookies to keep the focus.

That's probably about right for the first race. We stayed at an hour for our second race, but in our third, we were comfortable pushing our stints out near 2 hrs, and the same at Harris Hill Road.

Personally, I seem as likely to make a stupid mistake early in a stint as late in one.

[JustinParcher]

As a rookie, an hour would probably be good. I pushed to a full quarter-race stint of an hour and 45 minutes in our last race. By the last 15 minutes, I could tell I was getting fatigued. Unless you are used to this kind of thing, that's a LONG time.

[CutlassRacer]

My first road race was the Lemons race on New Years Eve of last year. I have driven 190 mph drag cars (hope to break the 200 mph mark next time out ), and our car at the Gainesville Road Course, but I was still nervous before I got into the car for my first lap of head to head competition. I ran the car until it fuel starved, and that was the only stint that I drove as we broke before I got back into the car. This last ChumpCar race was my second road race and it was AWESOME!!! I thought I was only going to get one stint in the car again when the rain stopped the race, but I was lucky enough to be the driver that took the checkered flag!

[Guest NSFW]

My first road race ever was Hellowine 2010 in Portland. I've raced karts a few times, and been drag racing once or twice, but nothing involving a real car and a twisty track. I believe that's true for all of my teammates, other than one guy who has a lot of kart experience, and we were pretty much grinning all weekend long.

Here's what I wrote shortly after I got home...

/>http://forum.chumpcar.com/index.php?/topic/1632-team-pony-express-survives-hellowine-2010/page__hl__hellowine__fromsearch__1

We raced again in April, and race #3 is just weeks away!

[kent merkle]

There is nothing like your first time,sometimes good sometimes not so much. But always memorable.

[csadn]

There is nothing like your first time,sometimes good sometimes not so much. But always memorable.

"What happens in ChumpCar, ends up on Facebook"....

[olddude13]

First off i must say i had a blast. but why have rules if they are not followed this was take from this site. I do apologize if our lights were annoying. We did VIR with standard Hella 500's and decided that it was too dangerous to not see so we upgraded to HID's. We may be able to fix this in the future with better aiming. so i guessNext time we will pop the v-8 after we tec?

[krek]

After getting washed out at Nashville in 2010, Iowa 2010 was my rookie race. By "rookie" I mean I had never driven a car on a race track... no HPDX, no lapping days, no nothing.

We sent out our two most experienced drivers to start the race and were leading at the four hour mark when we sent another rookie out. I was sitting in the pit, getting increasingly more apprehensive when the radio call came in that he was sick after 20 minutes and coming in. I had my suit on, but was still in my street socks and shoes, helmet packed and gloves misplaced. We were leading the freaking race and the racecar was sitting idle while I fumbled around gathering gear and changing. I accidentally untied my shoe getting into the car and Scott tied it for me, buckled me in and did his best to settle me down.

I tore out of the pits, ripped down the blend line, grabbed fourth gear and realized I hadn't remembered to breath since I left the pit. I exhaled and instantly fogged my visor despite the 90+ degree weather. As I turned into the infield at Iowa I remembered that braking in a straight line and a late apex was critical to getting through the first bit quickly... and I instantly forgot it all when my mirrors were suddenly filled with cars. I waved cars by with both hands, self preservation taking precedence over my desire to maintain the lead.

After a couple of laps I found my footing and started driving. I was still freaked out in the infield, blowing the first corner badly, but I realized I could make up the time on the oval portion and maintain the position. Rich radioed out (startling the snot out of me) and suggested that I use the BAR car as a rabbit and chase them for a few laps. That lasted for... half a lap and then they were gone. I found the next available car and pulled in behind to follow when I noticed the driver frantically waving me by.

I remember Rich and Mike (experienced guys who had already driven) talking about how the tires gave them a "little feedback" on two corners. The tires were screaming virtually all the way around the track and I got the courage up to radio in and ask what I was doing wrong. They suggested I find another rabbit, which I did until the tutorship was complete and it was time to move on.

I passed and blew the first corner again. On the next lap, I locked up the brakes and blew it again, going on the wrong side of the cones. I told myself "You need to get this under control before somebody notices", not realizing that everyone was watching. The next lap I was too hot, but instead of going around the cones again I held the line and punted them. I can still recall the sound of each of the seven cones hitting the car. As I came around the black flag station I caught a glimpse of flag as I went by.

"They are black flagging somebody, it might be me" I called into the pits. I looked ahead on the next lap around and realized it was me, and guessed that they had been trying to get my attention for a few laps. Oops. I came in and Lloyd started out by apologizing, they didn't want to black flag the leading car, but... "I'm still in the lead?!?" I yelled at Lloyd.

Bless his heart, Lloyd took a long look into my visor. I'm not sure what he saw, but I imagine it wouldn't have been out of place on a Saturday morning cartoon character's face. He started over, a LOT more slowly this time. All in all, I sat there for at least three laps before he sent me back out with a stern warning.

Back on track I minded my line and started braking earlier. I never did get that corner right during that first stint but eventually got to where I wasn't getting passed on the infield and was still making up some time and distance on the oval.

Rich radioed out that I had 10 minutes left in my stint and I must have relaxed a little because I became aware that my entire body was tensed up and soaking wet. I was pulling myself tight against the belts and had a death grip on the wheel. I sat back against the seat and marveled at how wet my suit was. I came into the pits, got out and started apologizing to the team for going out in first and coming back in fourth.

I hope I never forget that first stint, the panic, the discovery, the evolution and eventually the exuberation.

[JustinParcher]

I hope I never forget that first stint, the panic, the discovery, the evolution and eventually the exuberation.

The rest was brilliant, and so scary accurate, but the last line sums it up for me. Isn't your first time the best, even though it is probably the worst you'll ever drive?

[brawls43]

First for me was at the BIR double 7 in 2010. The race was like June 4th or so, and we had just "finished" the car two weeks before the race. First time taking it off jackstands was to take it to the Test and Tune day at BIR two weeks before the race. This was great, because all our drivers got a chance to learn the track before having to race on it. This was a huge help for all of our nerves. We found some gremlins, fixed them and painted the car over Memorial day, and loaded it up for the June race.

Our tow vehicle owner had gotten some brake work done the week before the race, and had just gotten his Jeep back. And it turned out the shop didn't torque his lugs well enough. About an hour up the road his left rear tire fell off. Luckily he had just pulled over to the side of the road as the last lug sheared. We sent one driver up to talk to Chumpcar about us being late, we got some honks by other teams driving by, who also told Chump we were on the side of the road, so they believed us that we weren't just stalling to show up late. We pulled tools out of our chase vehicle and set to fixing the Jeep. Ran out to get the lugs we needed, and F&*@ing O'Reilly's gave us the wrong ones, so they wouldn't install, which we didn't figure out soon enough. So frustrated and exhausted we called a tow truck, which then flatbedded our tow vehicle and hooked up the trailer for the drive to BIR. It was a little expensive, but we had done too much work to miss that race.

All in all it was great to get up there and do the race, we finished mid-pack both days, but we were just happy to finish.

[DrawingBoard]

2011 Iowa was my first non-karting race, and it was a blast. I was the last of 4 drivers to go out that day, and waiting was like climbing the hill of a giant rollercoaster you'd never been on before. When I finally got in the car, I was sweating puddles, but within four laps I had settled in and found it one of the most fun things I'd ever done in my life.

I tell everyone driving is only 1/2 the fun of CCWS, the other 1/2 is meeting everyone else on the pit and in the paddock. Sharing laughs and swapping stories is worth the price of admission alone!

[porkchops22]

First off i must say i had a blast. but why have rules if they are not followed this was take from this site. I do apologize if our lights were annoying. We did VIR with standard Hella 500's and decided that it was too dangerous to not see so we upgraded to HID's. We may be able to fix this in the future with better aiming. so i guessNext time we will pop the v-8 after we tec?

This is my statement and you are taking it way out of context. If you read the rule book properly you would know that HID's lights are perfectly legal. However, I know that sometimes depending on car angle, track camber etc the lights have a way of becoming annoying regardless of how bright they are. Your comment of popping in a V8 after tech is purely out of line and doesn't even make sense. You will also notice that in the original post that no one complained about our aiming and that I was simply making a blanket statement of apology (as many people do).

Please, in the future, when you don't know what you are talking about don't post a comment.

[Tiresmoker]

Nelson Ledges this past weekend was my first road race. Done lots of ET bracket racing, a little autocrossing, lots of Gran Turismo, plenty of illegal stuff on the street, but had never done real wheel-to-wheel. My first lapping event was at Mid-Ohio in 2009 with my daily-driver ('08 Cobalt SS). We tested our ChumpCar (#5 Saturn) at Nelson a few times this summer since it is local to us, so I knew our car and was familiar with the track.

Our team were all rookie road-racers. We had talked about each driver trying to take it easy for the first few laps to get a feel for the car, the traffic, etc. While we had tested the car, we had never been out on the track with so many other cars. I know from my own experience, I pulled out from pit road and was immediately in the middle of a pack. So much for easing into it! Within a half-lap, I was already passing slower traffic.

For me, the important thing to realize was 1) I didn't have a 'fast' car 2) I wasn't going to win the race during my stint. I tried to race competitively, but the most important thing was to bring my car back to my teammates running, and in one piece.

For all the criticism of the driving the Nelson Ledges event, I didn't experience too much of it. Slower cars were pretty good about signaling me by (probably better than I was at doing the same for cars faster than me). At the end of one of the FC Yellows on Sunday, the Meal Time Honda pulled one of the stupidest/craziest moves in turn 13 by coming in between me on the outside and another car on the inside, almost spinning out to the outside, and somehow recovering. On another yellow, the #91 VW Corrado passed me after going past *three* double-yellow flag stations. More annoying than unsafe.

But at the end of the event, I had a GREAT time and am very much looking forward to doing it again. Everyone I met in the pits, both racers and officials, was friendly and helpful.

-Dave

[Blue Cobra]

I am writing an article outlining my experiences getting ready for and racing in ChumpCar. Here is an excerpt describing that very first stint in a race car, on a race track with other cars...

To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I knew the team was still in the lead, and I did not want to let them down. But self-doubt was gnawing at me. Would I crash and burn in turn one? Or would I drive so badly that I would be shamed off the track by the righteous indignation of a black flag. Would a race steward then get on the track PA and announce to everyone "The driver that just got out of the #40 Miata is a talentless pig who had no business standing on a racetrack, much less driving on one." Would I be any good at this? I had dreamed all my life of this moment, and here it was staring me in the face. I wanted to run.

Feeling like the stay-puft marshmallow man I clumsily stepped to the car as Randy was yanked from the seat by my son, Russ. I was wearing nomex underwear head to toe, a three layer nomex racing suit, nomex socks were inside fire-proof driving shoes, and thick racing gloves covered my hands. Under my helmet was a balaclava and I was wearing earplugs with tiny built in speakers for our in-car radio system. All of this was strapped to a HANS device that was resting on my shoulders. Russ stepped out of the way and I grabbed the roll cage and swung into the seat, wiggling my way as far into the pads as I could. Russ then hovered over me, pulling the seat’s racing harness together and snapping the straps into the cam lock. He then pulled down on the adjusters, cinching the straps tight against the HANS and my abdomen. He asked if it was tight enough and I told him no, make it tighter. He tugged mightily on the straps one last time and I felt them snug me tighter into the cocoon of the seat and safety gear. I could move my arms and legs well but my torso felt like it was part of the car. As he shut the door and started putting up the window safety net I snapped the steering wheel into place. He then plugged in the cable dangling from my helmet which enabled me to talk to the crew chief during the race.

Russ was gone now. It was quiet in the cockpit except for the race cars that roared by on the front straight, only yards to my left. Someone finished cleaning the windshield and then stepped away. John was just in front of the car, and then he moved a good yard or two away and gave me a signal to wait for a couple of minutes. It was if everyone was moving back to let me know that I was on my own. I thought about the movie ‘Le-mans’ where Steve McQueen sat waiting for the start of the race and all he could hear was his heartbeat. I wondered how fast my heart was beating, and then I forced myself to focus. The steering wheel was thick in my hands and felt purposeful. I pushed the soft clutch pedal in and jiggled the shifter to make sure the car was in neutral, and with my right hand I snapped on the master battery switch with a huge clunk. Glancing at the control panel I verified that the switches for the data logging system, the radio, and the in-car camera were all in the correct position. Then I heard John’s voice in my ears, telling me I had one minute, and to start the car, I replied with “copy one minute†and engaged the starter. The little four-cylinder engine barked to life and idled nervously.

I sat alone in the car and thought how the engine sounded like a tenor with laryngitis. Raspy and hollow but with a determined note to it. “15 secondsâ€, John said in my ears. There I sat, wound tighter than a clock, begging God not to let me make a mistake and trash the team’s hard work and dreams. And then he said go, and I was off.

The little Miata accelerated noisily onto the front straight, as it did a couple of cars flashed by, a 300ZX and a BMW 3 series. I shifted into fourth gear just as I got to the braking point for turn one and reminded myself to hold back for a lap or two to let the tires warm up. Several other cars caught up to me on the first lap and some passed. But soon I was at race speed, arcing the car into corner after corner, always trying to find the marks that represented the fastest line through each corner, and I passed some of the cars that had gotten by me. I had no idea what position any of the other cars were in, and that was a good thing. I did not need the distraction of stressing over losing a position.

[Ham Sammich]

^^^well written^^^ nice job.

[kent merkle]

Great story blue cobra. How About the rest of some of you new chumps since the last update. I know there is quite a few of you

at NOLA So sound off you rookies.