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

My junk finally got here! Man, I am not worthy of this goodness. I kind of went crazy with the gear purchasing, but I figured I mind as well have halfway decent new stuff, instead of some old guy’s NASCAR pit crew suit who stands 5 foot 6 inches tall with a 34 waist and a 60 inch chest, sporting such slogans like: Go Brown!, Viagra (Yes!) or Tide!

The first thing any red-blooded car guy does when looking at helmets is he goes and looks at the coolest, most badass-looking (and most expensive I might add) helmets, just to see what life could be like $1500 dollars poorer, but with the coolest helmet this side of the nut house.  I picked up everything Bell, and I chose the Sport helmet, it’s the standard helmet, and for my minimal needs, is very nice indeed.  Compared to my cheap Bieffe motorcycle helmet I have used for autocross for years, this thing brought comfort that I didn’t us lowly cheap racers could acquire for minimal cost.  Instead of padding that smashes you from all sides, the padding halo for the top of your head is what secures the helmet, and the front is mostly empty.  So things like breathing or accidentally opening your mouth don’t result in bitten cheeks.  It is truly comfortable, and luckily  a straight size like Medium works perfect for me.  In fact, I am dead average according to Bell. The suit, gloves and helmet are all medium, and they all fit me quite well.

For the upcoming Willow Springs race I am borrowing Leo’s standard HANS anchors, the Bell Sport comes pre-drilled for HANS devices, and it’s a snap to fit the backing plates in between the helmet shell and the padding.

For shoes I took a random pic of shoes and picked the Bell Vision race shoe.  Nice construction, well-built pieces, but a little cumbersome, I was expecting something like a tennis shoe, but it feels much bigger and clunkier.  If there is one piece I would complain about, it would be the shoes. They havn’t been broken in just yet, so I will give these a try for a while and see if they pan out.  They do have SFI tags, so for those who are wondering about things like that, they do have them.

Bell Formula FX glovs have SFI tags in the sleeve and fit me perfectly! They arent too thick so there is good feel, and the traction pads on the inside of the gloves feel good.

This fire suit is the Bell Endurance one-piece, it’s rated at SFI 3.2A/5, and is pretty thick, it’s not too bendy just yet, but if fits well for my skinny figure and is quite comfortable.  There is plenty of chest, leg and waist room, so for guys who arent 150 lbs like myself but are about my height, you are in luck.  I am about 5’11″ and for my height this is just about perfect.  This is also clearly badged with SFI badges.  It looks great, is well-built, hopefully I won’t have to test it’s fire rating.

Not shown here are Nomex socks (required by ChumpCar).  Future gear purchases may include a cool shirt for the hot races. Stay tuned, I will give a review of the gear after the Willow Springs race.

Anyone who has been around a race paddock, or watched a professional race knows the basic racer attire.  Race suit, fancy race shoes, gloves, helmet and assorted safety devices.  And as most of us have come to expect, if something is race-oriented and necessary, it’s typically expensive new.  The Chumpcar series as a whole is about being more price sensitive without necessarily skimping on the safety gear.  We have been scouring the internet in an attempt to save our team money by finding either used (but still within regulation), on-sale or last year’s product line on sale.

This is a big topic, but for now I have been focusing my search on fire suits.  Ultra Shield Race Products has some great deals even if you are that elusive size Medium, though you may have to settle for single layer nomex and hunt for some not-too-crusty fire-resistant long johns, or even piece together a full setup.  A single layer jacket here, some pants there and long johns on eBay.  I have yet to hear to any confirmation on whether it is acceptable to mix and match single and double layer outer layers, for example double-layer pants and single layer coat with a fire resistant shirt.

Based solely on cost alone it seemed cheaper to go with the closeout deals on Ultra Shield’s site for the $20 dollar pants and $30 coat to go single layer exterior and find some long johns. It was looking like I could get my suit taken care of for around $150.  Unfortunately Ultra Shield called me back on my order and discovered that they were out of the medium pants.  Thumbs up to Ultra Shield for their good customer service.

The search continues.