TomFree

In a quick marriage of brotherhood\sisterhood in speed, the Conturd will find itself on the starting grid of VIR/Chump at the end of July. Running under the Benchwarmer Motorsports team banner, we have a combination of RandomTask's team (Joe, Micah, and Karen) and my team (Me and two friends from NC).

Fresh off of some lessons learned at CMP, the Conturd is getting a fresh(er) motor, some fresh tires and brakes, and lights for the 24 hr event.

It's gonna be intense, interesting, and most of all fun. Night racing at VIR is an experience.

Broke Neck

We will also be there in the E30ATA. Didnt think Joe was going to make this event.

Watched a few videos from Mike Skeen driving VIR at night ....wow .... its dark. Im hoping for our sake they put chicanes in the straights. Will suck for everyone but momentum cars like ours.

We drove down to Charlotte to kinda get a feel what ChumpCar was like last month, as we have only done LeMons .... definatly a HUGE change.

LeMons = shitty race cars
ChumpCar=race cars that look like shit


Last July with NASA it was 114 degrees on track, so hopefully they drop like flys from the heat haha.


Our team is

Me
Chris (Flite)
Mike (Icantdo55)
Kienan (All Aspects)
AJ

and have a couple great crew guys comming along with us

Randy (Muncher)
Jason (JDM74)


Hopefully yall can swing by and grab a couple beers.

Definatly looking forward to the event, not the heat.

TomFree

Last year when we ran the entire event on VIR-S, they didn't use any chicanes, so I'm guessing they won't do it this year either. It should be really interesting when we switch over to from VIR-S to full course.

And...you're d@mn right on how dark it is. The first 30 min of my session in the dark last year was near terrifying. It's the definition of overdriving your lights.

I totally agree with the "Race cars that look like shit" description. There is some pretty serious machinery at the Chump events.
Joe is doing some crazy scheduling to make a wedding and the race on the same weekend. He and Karen won't be there for the start, but will get there in time to drive some night shifts.

Broke Neck

Thats awesome!



Well be on the look out, come say hey and drink a few with us (Friday of course)


Heres our car ....






And what it looked like for LeMons South



http://jalopnik.com/5465613/tired-of...with-an-e30ata


And LeMons the first year we did it

TomFree

I remember the SR71 theme. I was at that event and wondered the whole time how much that contraption on the roof weighed. The current camo theme looks menacing. Me likey.

I will definitely come find you guys on Friday.

Flite

Lights lights lights lights lights....


We need to figure out lights



Oh yeah, We'll be there with my big white RV with the garage on the back. It's not hard to spot. There will definitely be beer in the fridge.

Broke Neck

Beer in the fridge, and in the keg

BTW - DIBS on a bed in your RV. Mine will hopefully be sold Friday.




TOM - what have yall done for in car communication. The walkie thing just really sucks, and cuts out, cant hear .... etc.

Also are yall running a cool shirt setup?

TomFree

Communication - well...I'd like to tell you I liked what we've used, but it's iffy at best. We started with some Motorola GMRS radios, and generic earbuds so the driver could hear, but not talk. BZZZZT. Didn't work worth a crap. You could only hear during cautions, and it was hit or miss at that.

We did some research and found that most everyone on a budget uses the Midland GMRS radios because they have a much stronger transceiver. A lot of folks use the motorcycle headsets with those, something like this The motorcycle headsets give you a separate PTT, and we've typically mounted ours on the E-brake handle. When they're working, these headsets are great, but they're just not designed to be put in and removed from a helmet a bunch of times. The connectors on the earpieces and mics are pretty flimsy. The other weak point on them is that the connector from the headset to the PTT is a freakin' PS2 connector. Again...not a connector that's designed for a bunch of cycles.

We've been trying to find a setup with a better headset, and my friends with the #8 Magnum PU Prelude seem to be happier with the headsets they tried at CMP this time. Worked like a charm and sound quality in the car was excellent. They're still using the Midland radios with these new headsets. I'll have to get the details on the new setup.

We do run a cool shirt setup with a home-built cooler. Ours started life as one of the "EB Ice" branded therapy coolers. We stole the bilge pump and the connectors from that unit and put it in a MUCH larger cooler. I have a "recipe" from the guy that built it if you'd like to see it.

At this point, Micah might build a new one for the Conturd, or I might borrow ours from the E30 for this event.

We need to iron out the light situation as well. Keep in mind that Chump is pretty specific about the lighting rules. No more than 4 lights, and no more than 55w per light.

My friends with the Prelude are running a small light bar with 4 refurb Hella 500 rally lights. They queried a friend who had done some "real" enduros about how to aim the lights and came up with a really nice pattern. I drove with the Prelude team last year, and their setup this year should beat the h3ll out of last year with the (2) 55w headlights and (2) 55w foglights. I couldn't see sh!t for the first 1/2 hr in the car. Straight ahead was OK, but finding your turn in markers off to the side was impossible.

TomFree

Just found out today that Kevin Shaw (VIR Track rental guy) said that they'll have Friday test sessions for $100/ car. Since half the team has never driven the car, we're going to run a few minutes each to get a little seat time and shake the car down.

Right now, the test day is pretty informal. Go to the classroom in the South paddock building, sign up and pay. No word on how much track time to expect, but I have a feeling that it will be as much as any of us would want, being that we don't want to burn the cars down before the race.

Broke Neck

Pretty sure its Friday At The Track ... me and a couple of the guys were going to bring our other track cars to run as well on Friday.