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<\/a>Road America has been hosting events since the fifties. It\u2019s arguably the premier track in North America. Its 4.048 miles of track are draped over the terrain of Kettle Morraine near Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin. It\u2019s a fast track, with three long straights: Road America Straight, Morraine Sweep, and Kettle Bottoms.<\/p>\nIt is one of the few circuits in the world that is still in its original configuration. For years I watched ChampCar run there, and it was always a favorite in the various racing sims I\u2019ve played over the years. I was quite excited about the opportunity to actually drive there.<\/p>\n
Our event was a Double 7. For our race, we\u2019d be using the chicane after the Carousel. Not only are there three long straights, there isn\u2019t anything like a hairpin. That means the track is better suited to high horsepower cars. We wouldn\u2019t be driving a high horsepower car, though.<\/p>\n
MX-7<\/h2>\n
ChumpCar works on a points scheme with anything over 500 causing penalties. Dennis has a 1988 Mazda RX-7, which starts at 350 pts. He\u2019s swapped a 1.6 liter Miata motor in place of the rotary. That\u2019s another 75. Add an oil cooler and a suspension upgrade and we\u2019re at 525 points. This resulted in a 3 lap penalty. We weren\u2019t too happy, but some people had it much worse. There was a BMW there with a 45 lap penalty.<\/p>\n
Being an RX-7 with an MX-5 motor, Dennis calls the car an MX-7. It weighs something like 2400 pounds and the motor puts out perhaps 115hp. It\u2019s not going to win any drag races, but with Dunlop DZII tires she handles pretty well. They\u2019re turning low 2:20\u2019s at HPR. Lower horsepower than the Elise, but handles very similarly.<\/p>\n
The team was Dennis, Phil, Lauren, and myself. Dennis is the \u201cteam owner\u201d. It\u2019s his car, truck, trailer, and gear. Phil is a hot shoe driver and ace mechanic. He\u2019s only raced once before, but he\u2019s logged quite a few track miles. Lauren and I are race rookies. Lauren has raced karts and bikes (both bicycles and motorcycles, I believe) but never cars. Although she has only tracked cars a couple of days she did attend an SCCA course. I, of course, have never raced and never taken a racing class.<\/p>\n
With seven hours of racing each day, we\u2019d get 1:45 each. Pit stops would be a minimum of five minutes (by rule), so we\u2019re really get more like a hundred minutes of seat time each day. At the pit stops, we\u2019d have to switch drivers, fuel the car, and do whatever minimal maintenance we\u2019d need to deal with \u2013 topping off fluids, washing the windshield, checking the tires and brakes, that sort of thing. We weren\u2019t allowed to touch or inspect the car while fueling was going.<\/p>\n
The driver change is perhaps the most complicated part of the pit stop. The exiting driver takes the wheel off, hangs it on a hook, then loosens and unbuckles the harness. The incoming driver opens the window net, disconnects the exiting driver\u2019s radio and helps the exiting driver out of the car. Incoming driver adds or removes seat cushions as necessary, gets in the car, and buckles up. The exiting driver connects the radio and helps the new driver tighten the straps.<\/p>\n
Two people refuel the car. One places a pan below the car. While one person pours two jugs of fuel into the car, the other stands nearby with a fire extinguisher. Both are in full gear \u2013 suits, gloves, helmet with the visor closed. After all the fuel is in, any other necessary work can be performed.<\/p>\n
At this point, all this is mostly theoretical to me. Lauren and I had only gotten in and out of the car one time before we actually raced, and we\u2019d never done a pit stop.<\/p>\n
Eastbound<\/h2>\n
Our first travel day took us from Denver to Davenport, Iowa. I\u2019ve been fortunate that for all my road trips since we moved back to Denver, the drives to and from my destinations have been as important as any other aspect of the trip. This was not one of those trips. We were on Interstate highways pretty much the whole way. They are great roads for getting from place to place as long as you aren\u2019t interested in what\u2019s between the places.<\/p>\n
Dennis, Phil, and I were in the truck. Lauren was flying in from California and would meet us there. The truck is a big diesel pickup with a smaller than expected fuel tank. Due to heavy headwinds, we were stopping every two hundred miles to refill. The long drive gave us a good chance to visit; to get to know each other better. Visiting was necessary, as there is pretty much nothing to look at through Nebraska and Iowa. About the only new thing to see on I-80 is all the windmills in Iowa.<\/p>\n
In Davenport, we had dinner at Gramma\u2019s Kitchen. Dennis wanted a steak and Phil wanted a beer. I\u2019d have eaten a salad if they\u2019d had a nice one on the menu.<\/p>\n
Phil asked the waitress \u201cWhat kinds of beer do you have?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Phil says, \u201cI\u2019ll have an IPA.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waitress goes a bit blank, then says, \u201cWe have Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light, Shiner Bock, \u2026\u201d They have Sam Adams, but nothing like an IPA. A recurring joke on the trip was \u201cWe have all the beers!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes this go on our permanent record?\u201d<\/h2>\n
Friday was check in and registration. This takes place outside the track; we wouldn\u2019t go through the tunnel until Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>“Look where we are!”<\/p><\/div>\n
Registration opened at 3, but we got there about two hours early. We parked the truck and trailer with the other early birds and wandered over to look at the track between turns 13 and 14. I wandered down to a flagging station to get a picture of the track and see there\u2019s a gap in the fence there. I tell the guys \u201cyou can get on the track here\u201d. \u201cShould we walk it? We\u2019re probably not allowed.\u201d What the heck, we\u2019ll just take a quick look. Once on the track we head downhill toward Canada Corner. We walked along Kettle Bottoms like tourists, wide-eyed. A maintenance guy on a little tractor went by and waved at us. Gee, he didn\u2019t make any indication we weren\u2019t supposed to be there so we kept going. We made it to the chicane after the Carousel before track officials arrived. Our presence here is strictly verboten: we\u2019re in deep doo doo.<\/p>\n
Dick, the security guy, asks us for our IDs. \u201cYou with ChumpCar?\u201d \u201cYes\u201d. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be here, it\u2019s a maintenance day, the track is closed.\u201d By the time he finishes writing our info in his memo pad, another car comes by with a track manager. While Dick filled her in about us, a third car went by. She instructed Dick to take us back to the main gate. On the way, I ask Dick \u201cIs this going on our permanent record?\u201d He didn\u2019t recognize the reference. Or Dick has no sense of humor. For a while we were sweating that we\u2019d get a penalty from ChumpCar. We didn\u2019t think they\u2019d eject us from the event, but I can\u2019t say we didn\u2019t worry about it a little.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Canada Corner panorama<\/p><\/div>\n
Back at the truck, we make the acquaintance of the teams around us. The guys in front of us were from Texas. We shot the breeze with them for a while. After a couple of minutes, one asks me \u201cAre you the guys who got in trouble for walking the track?\u201d These guys were in the third car we saw. They had somehow talked somebody into giving them a ride around the track. On the main straight they saw somebody in bigger trouble than us \u2013 somebody else had driven their car onto the track (not their race car).<\/p>\n
On our left was a team with a TR-7. They have it decked out in a James Bond theme. It\u2019s number 700 instead of 007. One guy says, \u201cCheck out our license plate\u201d. I walked to the back of the car. He pushed a button and the European style plate pops up revealing another plate behind it. I didn\u2019t see that a little water nozzle also deployed. I got sprayed and sported a nice big wet spot on my left thigh. A few inches to the right and I\u2019d have looked like I peed my pants.<\/p>\n
Finally 3pm rolls around and we get registered. We take our gear \u2013 suits, helmets, shoes and socks to safety tech. On the way there, I see that I have a little tear in my suit from the sharp edge on the CG lock in the Lotus and worry that it will fail. It wasn\u2019t that close of an inspection \u2013 just looking at the safety labels, and I pass with no problems.<\/p>\n
A short while later they open the gates. Although we were early, we end up in the middle of the line. We drove into the paddock through the tunnel, headed up the hill and found a paddock spot. We were assigned a pit spot and assumed we had to take the same number paddock spot, but we could have parked a couple of spaces closer. We unloaded the car and took it up for inspection. They gave us a pile of sponsor stickers to put on the car and we were done.<\/p>\n
Aside from our run-in with the \u201claw\u201d, there was a lot of waiting around. One of the topics of discussion was fast we might be lapping. Dennis suggested four minute laps. I was thinking we\u2019d be faster \u2013 a 2:20 lap at HPR is over 60mph and Road America should be faster. Just how much faster was anybody\u2019s guess. We all looked forward to finding out just how fast we would be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple years ago I started asking people if they knew of anybody who needed another driver for a race. I was asking specifically about Lemons races; I didn\u2019t know about ChumpCar or WRL. I had no idea what would … Continue reading