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VIR 24 Hour Our first race with Chumps

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

By Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing
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Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

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Sorry so late in posting on our Chumps 24 hour VIR experience. We all had to get back to work to come up with the funds to buy a new motor!

We (in the big green Oldsmocutlass) had a blast and certainly give an edge to Chumps racing over LeMons. Let me start off by saying that we encountered zero contact from any other cars on the track. Not many people want to run their Civic into an 80's model G body.

Unfortunately we detonated the #7 piston at about 5pm. As we scratched our heads in the pits and pondered loading up the car we decided to pull the piston and saw it off from the connecting rod. We used round clamps to hold the lifters up in hopes of maintaining some oil pressure. At 9 pm we pulled back on the track somewhat underpowered and with strict instructions not to go over 3500 rpm and be easy on the throttle. The apology starts here, if we got in anyone's way we are very sorry. We weren't the slowest car on the track by far as we were still passing a few cars out there. Amazingly our fix lasted and we pulled it across the finish line.

VIR is an incredible track, very technical but very rewarding and is extremely difficult at night especially for tired eyes. I don't think we had any offs during our first rotation of 5 drivers but we had a few in the night stint. I had an exceptionally embarrassing off in 3 and the fact that I was spotlighted like a hunted deer made it even more embarrassing. Lesson learned and I appreciated not having to come in and put shaving cream on my face and dance around for 20 minutes!

The only issues we had were at night. One was what seemed a blatant disregard for yellows. I thought the yellows at night were at 50% and line of sight to the next yellow light. I, and 4 other cars got passed in the esses under yellow and one of our other drivers got passed in the same location by the same car but this time the driver decided to use the grass to get around. (We have addressed these with the car owner). That wasn't the only time we got passed under yellow, I personally got passed on 2 more occasions. The other issue was that some cars seemed to have their lights mounted very high, although VIR is hilly its not the Paris to Dakar rally and the lights would leave our drivers blinded momentarily. Momentarily is way too long to not be able to see the track. Whoever had the yellow tinged lights... I am glad you could see because we sure couldn't when you got behind us. Finally, a lot of us saw the driver that got caught in no mans land and it seemed like forever before safety got there. Just because a yellow is not thrown the drivers knew that there was a hazard there and should have adjusted their speed accordingly, its a 24 hour race and the safety of that driver was more important than any spots we could gain there. But then again maybe I am just complaining unnecessarily.

Overall, we felt the level of racing was much higher than we have experienced before. There were a few idiot drivers out there but there were many, many more that weren't. We have raced with Schumaker, Hong Norrth, Magnum PU, RBanks, and many others and they always have been class acts on and off the track and we really enjoy racing (getting passed) by them. We are already planning our season for next year and hope to see everyone back at VIR!

On another note we had a new (only 2 races under his belt) driver and we really hope he didn't do anything stupid out there. If he or we did please let us know. And to the white small car MR2/Fiero? that he ran off on the front stretch we apologize for that. We didn't know about it until later.

Thanks!

Jay D Doub

The Van Buren Boys Racing

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Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

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Stigdad, Glad to hear that we didnt have complaints against us.

CutlassRacer, we are looking for a small block 305 or 350. I think we have found a donor and are checking on it but thanks for asking.

Thanks Jer!

And Sir Thomas, I am officially disappointed. I thought the closest we would get to meeting your crew was if we made it to Summit Point. If I would have known that SBD was at VIR I would have made it a point to stop by! Thats what I get for not looking over the registration list.

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Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

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I tried (unsuccessfully) to find your pit spot. I estimated where I thought you had pitted. asked around, nobody would admit to hanging with you guys....

Hopefully we'll have the T bird back for next year. It'll look like 1980's NASCAR w/ us going side by side!

Harry Gant vs Bill Elliot!

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Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

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Notation #1: while you may have been passed under a yellow, please consider that those perpetrators were probably black flagged for their transgressions.

Notation #2: when driving at night, ALL the cars look like their lights are too high, too bright, and that they have 8 lights mounted on the cars. The effect is worse at unlit tracks like VIR. Try running against the cars at a lit track or roval and you'll swear that everyone changed their lights or took half of them off the car.

Thanks for your comment on the headlights! This gives us a better idea of what to expect.

My first comment wasn't against Chumps and I am sorry if it was taken that way. I know that I have missed a flag or two or three in my time behind the wheel but these passes looked very deliberate. If I come up on a group of cars that are running in single file at 50-75% of what I have seen them run I will stay behind them until I get to the next flag just to make sure that I have not missed a yellow. 5 cars in a row don't just suddenly stop racing unless there is a reason and there should be a brain trigger that says "Why are all these cars going so slow?" and the answer is not "I am so amazing, look how I am passing all 5 cars at once in the esses!". My comments were directed to the racer(s), they shouldn't blatantly ignore a yellow (I know I can't prove it) and put Chumps in a position to have to punish them. Once is a mistake, twice is just plain stupid.

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Guest rbeam

Guest rbeam

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Notation #1: while you may have been passed under a yellow, please consider that those perpetrators were probably black flagged for their transgressions.

Or not. Other threads have already pointed out how (too many) people got away with far too much at night because the corner workers couldn't see what was going on, and often couldn't see the number of the cars to blame. (I'm guessing that's why lights were added at T1 and Oak Tree.)

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gsmith2424

gsmith2424

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Hi 2424 -

Yep! In 2013, ChumpCar will REQUIRE all cars to use a ChumpCar manufactured and sold number background -- standard size and issue. No other number background will be accepted. Door background plates are made of reflective vinyl; number backgrounds for the roof (or hood for convertibles) is plain white vinyl but still has the ChumpCar design. All cars running night races will also be REQUIRED to have a door-mounted number light attached to each door and wired to their headlight switch. Headlights on; door number illumination on. These lights are also ChumpCar-specific, issued and sold. Everything is being standardized. Teams can still apply their own numbers using pre-cut vinyl or tape, but all numbers MUST be black and all number MUST be sized as specified in the rules.

More on this as the rules come out...

John

Good to know. These work really good and if you get the right one they are really cheap.

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Bill Strong

Bill Strong

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Are they going to be cool looking or ghet like those doritos sideways dorks?

And does this mean we get permanent numbers?

Cost. Kinda need this soon as we are planning for our 2013 budget.

Doesn't sound like it goes along with my color scheme. :)

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Justin9

Justin9

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Define cheap. There is really crappy, so-called reflective vinyl and there's the high-end Avery stuff... which we bought. While some may balk at the (extra) cost for three number background units and the lights, ChumpCar looks at it as just part of the racing overhead needed to produce high-quality, safe racing. It won't break the bank but it will affect your beer budget for a race or two... but more important, you won't get called in and black flagged and blamed for someone else's infraction because now we'll be able to see your number glowing in the dark.

As a hobby sign maker, the Avery vinyl, any kind.. is not my first choice.... 3m reflective is by far the best I have used....

I would be very interested in seeing this rule for 2013, as we are preparing a new car for its first race at Sebring next month, and I have arranged for some free paint once we get all the bugs worked out, and any changes to numbers and decals effects the design I have ready to be cut and stuck...

Also, would this possibly lead to use being able to have reserved numbers in at least our home region??? Because having to buy new reflective numbers everytime is going to get expensive...

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Guest posnova

Guest posnova

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You'll have to chill on the "assigned" numbers. John will have a plan, but no one should get their panties in a bunch if they have to peel off the black numbers and put on a different black number. Has there ever been a time that we're not flexible and working in YOUR interest?

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Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

Guest The Van Buren Boys Racing

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It seems that the tandem of Hong cars don't have anything to hide... I could spot that blue lighted black car out from 1/2 a track away! :-)

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Tubby

Tubby

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It's truly funny... 20 minutes after I closed the "heated discussion" on the other thread, the attendance on the Forum dropped by 72%.

People just seem to migrate towards conflict. What a waste... :rolleyes:

Mrs. Butterman refers to it as "Man Drama" and rolls her eyes.

It's the same on every forum, especially ones poorly moderated with guys slamming each other.

Congrats on reaching more members and activity than on several other racing forums!

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csadn

csadn

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Mrs. Butterman refers to it as "Man Drama" and rolls her eyes.

It's the same on every forum, especially ones poorly moderated with guys slamming each other.

Indeed -- on another forum I frequent, the behavior got so out-of-line, the Guy In Charge issued what he called the "Night of the Long Knives"* order: Any violation of the rules was to be met with immediate, and permanent, banning. Inside of a week, something like a quarter of the membership was purged; post count dropped by something like half.

[*: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives ]

The interesting part? The GIC died of a stroke shortly afterward -- so the Order was never rescinded; thus, trollers and spammers who come to that forum get TWEPed, no appeal, no parole. It is one of the best-behaved fora I am on -- and I don't attend fora which are poorly-moderated, so the standard is pretty high for this chair (yes, that is a compliment on the job the mods here are doing).

(Oh, and one other point: Mr. Condren does not have an ego -- at least, not beyond what is required to start and operate a racing series. I have experienced at first-hand how he treats those who do him favors, esp. when the aid comes unasked-for.)

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Guest rbeam

Guest rbeam

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We do our best... but, next year... look for NEW and IMPROVED ways of identifying all you Chumps at night. Have we got you covered, or what?! ;)

I can't wait... 2013 BCR... headlights must be removed. The only allowed lighting will be tiki torches duct taped / zip tied to all four corners. If you drive fast enough to blow them out, tough cookies! 5min re-lighting pit stop :-)

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