The Road to ChumpcarThe home of "Apex of Failure" a crap-can racing team.

Now that the car is mostly stripped down it’s time to build it back up. The majority of the work we need to do to get this car ready to race is in safety gear. Our big push right now is to get the roll cage in. In order to get that installed correctly we need to make sure it fits well around the driver. All that means that we need to get the seat, seat belts, steering wheel, and window net sorted out. Here is a list of what we have invested in now (there will be a lot more later):

The seat – It is a critical part of safety that protects the driver. It holds the driver in the car so they can spend his time controlling the car (instead of bracing them selves against something). It also has to be comfortable enough that someone can sit in it for 2 hours without discomfort. Unfortunately seats tend to be something that comes down to personal preference. We have to support a wide range of driver sizes and shapes. We decided to go with an aluminum seat. The thought was that the padding is easily removable and if we had to accommodate a smaller or larger driver we could modify the pads. I’m not sure how well that will pan out, hopefully we can find a “one size fits most”. Ultrashield seems to have a bit better value than Kirkey and the reviews we found online seem positive.   We ordered an Ultrashield Road Race VS 17″ 20degree layback in black.  Seat mounting is unresolved right now.  We are pretty sure we will need sliders to fit all our drivers properly.  We are hoping to find a way to make the stock sliders work.  For safety, we also have to make sure the sliders latch on both sides (not sure yet if the stock ones do that).  The back of the seat also needs a brace.  We found a great quick adjust unit from IO port that is on its way to us now.

Harness - Regulations require you get a 5 point or better harness.  Ultrashield had a great price so we ordered one with the seat as well.  All five of the belts connect in the center unit.  A quick twist of the center unit and all five pop out.  Easier to use than the “latch and link” style buckle.

Window Net – The window net holds your arms in the car when your car rolls.  Keeps all your digits intact.  ChumpCar requires one, Lemons does not.  It’s a great safety thing to have and we want to run both series so it’s a no brainer.  There is a thread over on chumpcar about recommendations. We went with their recommendation of the IO port unit.

Mirror – Stock rear view mirrors are great for freeway driving but they have blind spots.  There are several brands of “racing” mirror that help to give you a complete view around the car.  Again we went with the IO port option.  It has a nice roll bar mount and is a single piece.

HANS Device – This is an important piece of modern safety gear.  It links to the side of your helmet and is strapped under your seat belts.  It prevents your head from whipping forward in a crash.  It moves with your body and not your seat.  It still allows a good amount of movement but it does take some getting used to.  The version I’m used to using has fixed tethers.  It prevents you from turning your head left and right.  You really have to learn to depend on your mirrors.  We got the entry level unit (Sport Series) with a 20degree slope (to make the seats).  The “post anchor” shown in this picture allows it to be easily attached and detached between helmets.  This will allow us to share one unit between all our drivers.  Each driver has to buy the “posts” to attach to their helmet ($50-60 each set).  Even the entry level unit here set us back almost $700.  Really though, isn’t your neck worth $700?  There are theories out there that had Earnhardt Sr. been wearing one it would have saved his life.  Lemons and Chumpcar both require some kind of restraint device but they will accept “donut” foam rings which offer far less protection (some even argue that they do nothing).

Jalopnik just put up a great article comparing the two sets of rules for ChumpCar and Lemons.  Check it out.

http://jalopnik.com/5424315/lemons–chumpcar-2010-tech-rules-by-the-numbers

There seems to be some conflict brewing between Chump Car and 24 Hours of Lemons.  For me, racing is racing.  More races at more tracks on the west coast makes me happy.  I can appreciate both of their takes on the idea.  Judging by the number of entries turned away at the last Lemons thunderhill, it even sounds like the market can support two series as well.  Maybe people are just kicking dust.  See the linked blog post and form post from John @ chumpcar with more of the history about where they started and how open they have been with the Lemons team.

The Lemons side of things:

http://presssnoop.com/?p=1498

The ChumpCar side of things:

http://forum.chumpcar.com/index.php?/topic/396-why-all-the-fighting/page__pid__3024__st__0&#entry3024

This story started like many for me. I was getting bored of what passes for motorsport in my hometown. AutoX was fun but ultimately I felt unsatasfied devoting an entire weekend of work for 3-6 minutes of wheel time. After almost 7 years doing it, it was clear I wasn’t going to be a shining talent at it either. I needed a new project. I had recently finally started going to HPDE driver education days at the nearest local race track (Portland International Raceway) and this was definately something I wanted to get more involved in. There is a great conference race series that participates here in the NorthWest (ICSCC).  I looked breifly at getting into that but decided I didn’t really have the funds to make that happen.  I was also not all that thrilled about joining into a series that depended so much on money to get a winning car.  Money that I wouldn’t reasonabily be able to devote to racing for many more years.

I looked into building a kit car (Lotus 7, I will have you some day) or doing some kind of extreme build of my weekend driver (1993 Mazda RX7) but ultimately I’m no mechanic.  I can keep my cars running and bolt upgrades on but I’m not a fabricator.  This also wouldn’t help me get any more seat time and for me, thats the name of the game.

A friend of mine (Matt) was participating in a new form racing that I had heard about but up until then, had not considered joining, The 24 Hours of LeMons.  This seemed like the direction to go.  Costs were split between the team.  Heck, the car couldn’t even be worth more than $500!  Wheel time?  You get to run all weekend long.

The same week that I had seriously considered getting into lemons, I got an e-mail out of the blue from a buddy of mine.  He had picked up a 1987 Mazda Rx7 GXL with the intentions of restoring it to sell.  It turns out it wasn’t in as good as condition as he had hoped and had been taking up room in his driveway for a couple months.  He wanted it gone and the price was right (free!).

I had a place to drive, and a car, now all I needed was a team.  I made a short list of all my least rice most race friends and called us all together.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one who though this was a good idea.