Nashville Race Report

[Guest ChumpCar]

Just arrived in Lebanon, TN --- 6:00pm on Thursday evening. 78 degrees and a light breeze. Really GREAT weather. Supposed to be 80-82 tomorrow and Saturday. PERFECT racing weather.

Reports this race weekend may be a bit spotty. We received word late this morning that Cathy McCause, our Director of Marketing (and jack-of-all-trades) is down and out with some bronchial infection that would have contaminated 2/3 of the entire Southwest Airlines network had she gotten on a plane. So, we're 2-staff members down this weekend. Lloyd, Erik, Dave and I are holding down the fort... pretty thin, but we'll manage. However, that means less time for me to post race updates. Bear with us this weekend... more to follow.

John

[cpmskinny]

Who is winning now?????????????? At least let us know around lunch time or so.

[Guest Pirate Danger]

Who is winning now?????????????? At least let us know around lunch time or so.

I was going to head out there this morning bright and early, but we've had probably 2-3 inches of rain this morning in Nashville, and it's still coming down. I'd be surprised if they were on track based on the weather this morning, and the area's notorious lack of runoff.

Then again, I could be wrong. If the rain stops, I may head out and I can post updates from my BB.

[coolcars44]

how many cars started this race?i cant wait to see pics.and yeah rain wont stop road racers this aint nascar lol

[Jeff G 78]

Can you list the car models in your next report? Thanks and keep the reports coming!

[coolcars44]

18 cars thats a decent showing im glad to see the benz guys there

[truk41]

1:28's in the rain isnt bad. What kind of car is it and what tires?

I wanted to be there so bad, in 2009 I ran a 1:13.0 flat there in a CSP prepped miata(lacking top end) on hoosier R6's, and I did get the chance to run laps in the rain with the same tires, pucker factor big time, 1:20.3.

Is anyone flat foot all the way through turn 1 to the hard left 180?

Good luck to all and have fun, enjoy the rain.

[cpmskinny]

Blitzen Benz to the front!!!!!!!!!!!! Represent for us other German car drivers.

[loumindar]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the race was halted at about 3:00 pm due to a tornado warning in the area. Cyclonic activity had been spotted in the vicinity and the course was red flagged to get every one off the race track, out of the garages, and into a safer area (media center).

The rain absolutely poured down and flash floods occured throughout the area. Although the Nashville Speedway is a beautiful facility, it does not drain particularly well (like much of Nashville) and the decision was ultimately made to halt racing for the day. At one point there was some discussion about trying to race on Sunday, but the weather looks even worse for tomorrow.

I'll leave it up to John to announce when the race will be re-run, but I wanted to give a big shout out and "thank you" to John, Lloyd, Dave, and Eric for doing a fantastic job under some very trying conditions. They showed just the right balance between "let 'em race" and concern for all of the drivers, crew, and volunteers. The decisions that were made were spot on.

[dvot]

I'll leave it up to John to announce when the race will be re-run, but I wanted to give a big shout out and "thank you" to John, Lloyd, Dave, and Eric for doing a fantastic job under some very trying conditions. They showed just the right balance between "let 'em race" and concern for all of the drivers, crew, and volunteers. The decisions that were made were spot on.

Well put. Hard decisions were made. But they were well made.

[loumindar]

I just thought of a couple of more "thank you's" to throw out there. Thanks to the Southern Illinois University Automotive & Technology Club for coming out to the track and volunteering to be corner workers and race inspectors. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Also, thanks to Rick Fradette, manager of Nashville Superspeedway for being so flexible and accomodating. Not only did he offer to let us run on Sunday if we wanted to, but he also gave us a make-up date before we left. Thanks, Rick!

[Jeff G 78]

John, I am totally impressed with how ChumpCar has handled numerous delicate situations lately. I can only impagine the stress you must be under to keep everybody happy and keep the series viable. Even though you have no control over the weather conditions and were forced to halt the race, you took the high road and made it right for all your racing customers. If only airlines and other companies had that kind of customer service...

I wish you all the best and can't wait to join you guys this August at GingerMan Raceway when the BRE Datsun makes its ChumpCar debut. Hopefully there will be a large turnout so you can return to Michigan again next year.

[loumindar]

John --

Thanks again for a great day of racing. ChumpCar did a great job!

I do have one suggestion for the May 16 race. Rather than run it as a continuation of the May 1 race, I would suggest running a completely separate race. That will help to attract more cars and the new cars will be on equally footing instead of starting 60-80 laps down (or however many laps were run yesterday).

Looking forward to seeing everyone again on May 16 and racing again in Nashville.

[Guest bob-e]

Great racing under the worst rain middle Tennessee has ever seen. Everyone drove great. I was surprised at the limited amount of offs at the speeds we were going. I tried to push (for some dumb reason) and had a good hydroplane that sent me up the banking just shy of the wall. I hope everyone can make it back in 2 weeks if Tennessee doesn't float away before then. I pumped 2 inches out of my finished basement that hasn't seen a drop of water since I moved here. Hope you all made it home safe.

Bob-e

Team Top Gear

[dvot]

Half our team pulling the car have made it back. Two of our drivers are still stuck near Nashville. I-40 was closed in several places and we drove through multiple detours with massive flooding. They don't have the ground clearance of the tow vehicle and couldn't make some water crossings. We creeped for miles and miles and miles and found detours, etc. We were delayed near 5 hours. Tough weekend for all.

I don't know what we plan for the makeup date. Several of our drivers have commitments that weekend. On the flipside two of our team (myself included) didn't drive at all and want some seat-time and we're solidly in the top-5. We're gonna do a cost-benefit scenario deal as we'll be at TMS a month after the makeup date regardless.

[krek]

According to the live scoring we were in the top 5 cars when the race was postponed... and darned excited to be in the hunt. As much as I want to insist that we have the opportunity to resume with that advantage, on behalf of Eggboy Racing (the #21 Motorcrap car) I encourage Chumpcar to restart the race if it encourages additional paid entries.

I can not over emphasize what a class act John was during this weekend. Lloyd, Erik, Dave and the entire Chumpcar organization did everything possible to make the best out of an impossible situation.

You guys deserve 75 entries at every event... anyone who is taking a "wait and see approach" to the ChumpCar World Series needs to get off the fence and give these guys a chance.

Anybody who enjoys racing will not be disappointed.

[FLATLINE]

I would like to thank everyone at ChumpCar for putting on this race. Out team especially knows how hard it is to just put together track days, but to run a race is another animal and to do it under 100 year storm conditions deserves a round of applause from everyone. We Feel you have made the best call for everyone safety. Our car (#84 mustang) was getting dangerous..... I vote we start the race over and place penalty laps for the position you are in, not just a clean start over. That is not fair to those who worked hard and drove harder in the same conditions everyone else was in.

example:

15th place starts -15 laps down

14the starts -14

13th -13

and so on

We will go with whatever! It was a blast!!

Also, TracksUnlimited.net was glad to donate our May 16th track date to the ChumpCar officials and most of all to its racers. We fully support this series. 1st rate Organization!!

Micheal Peden

TracksUnlimited.net

TEAM FusterCLuck

#84 Mustang

[cpmskinny]

Good call John, you seem to prove to new people rather frequently that you are a class act and you handle your race organization in a similar fashion. Great call once again.

[dweymer]

Yep, John made the tough decision; and I agree it was the correct one. I for one, had a blast in the rain, the azenis were obviously wrong tire for the weather, but it gave great drifting practice. I killed some cones though, since my windsheild fogged so bad(note to self, install a fan). All in all, another great CHUMP event. See you again at RRR.

[Jer]

Impressive response to conditions well beyond your control, John. That will really help build some credibility for Chump.

[Tim Green]

Thanks everyone for putting on a great race. It was my first time in a real, door-to-door race, and I had a blast. I think the decision to stop the race was a good decision and I have no complaints. I'm looking forward to coming down again in 2 weeks.

Right now, I'm not sure I like the idea of doing anything other than resuming the race where we left off. I'll continue to think about it over the next few days, but I don't think our (or any other teams') good luck/skill should be nullified. But, if your car broke and you're going to have to restart X hours down, there's not much incentive to repair it and come back. I don't mind repaired cars and new cars joining the race, but I'm not sure what to do with them either. I'm just glad I don't have to make this decision. :-)

Still, I vote for resuming the race from where we stopped.

Thanks,

Tim Green

#30

Team KY Spirits

[Guest RaoulDuke]

I agree the right decision was made--we could maybe have gotten another couple of hours of total run time (with numerous red flags) but the threat of tornado and flooding was too great to justify it.

Any chance the results will be posted to MyLaps today? I know it's not final (pending re-running) but it would be nice to see the breakdown for the time we did get on track.

Thanks for a great time--looking forward to the next one!

Nelson

White Lightning

#18 Honda Civic

[krek]

I just reread the thread and realized that Team Fustercluck donated the track time on the 16th to resume the race... nice job guys!

People have been asking "How was the race?" all morning and I keep answering, "The weather was miserable, we were wet and cold, I didn't get to drive and I'm exhausted from the tow home. It was GREAT and I can't wait to do it again!"

[loumindar]

Thanks everyone for putting on a great race. It was my first time in a real, door-to-door race, and I had a blast. I think the decision to stop the race was a good decision and I have no complaints. I'm looking forward to coming down again in 2 weeks.

Right now, I'm not sure I like the idea of doing anything other than resuming the race where we left off. I'll continue to think about it over the next few days, but I don't think our (or any other teams') good luck/skill should be nullified. But, if your car broke and you're going to have to restart X hours down, there's not much incentive to repair it and come back. I don't mind repaired cars and new cars joining the race, but I'm not sure what to do with them either. I'm just glad I don't have to make this decision. :-)

Still, I vote for resuming the race from where we stopped.

Thanks,

Tim Green

#30

Team KY Spirits

Tim -- Those were extremely miserable conditions to do your first race in. Congrats on keeping the car and drivers all in one piece. You guys did a great job (despite your latex house paint flaking off the car).

Looking forward to racing with you in the future.

[e3pres]

I vote for starting the race over again. I know this sounds like a typical racer, but I'm not convinced that our transponder was working. If you guys can get the detailed MyLaps info, it would tell for certain, but after leading for a long time, we were shown 24 laps down after our first driver change. I've heard other people say that they thought their transponders were sketchy. In that kind of rain, who knows what affect it might have on electronics. I know the Red Rocket team (who always run strong in the other series) had problems directly related to the weather. From what I heard, the Prelude hydro-locked their engine from rain water getting in their super-cheaty cold air intake. Basically, I think many teams had problems due to the ridiculous conditions. I'm not opposed to giving the top 5 some bonus laps or some other reasonable advantage, but not only will you discourage new teams from signing up, but I think you will even discourage existing teams from returning. That would be unfortunate since so many quality racers came out in such terrible weather.

That is my $0.02.

Adam

Troublemaker, Meteorologist, Reinmeister

Team Fustercluck