| My ChumpCar exprience in the Corvette |
Subject: My ChumpCar exprience in the Corvette by Jeffvette on 2010/8/9 4:49:25 Well guys, I can say this was a blast. Preparing a 25 year old POS and trying to make it run for 24 hours is quite the endeavor. And then having a target on the side of the car does not help much at all. The reception of the car ranged from "Cool" to "Why the F is that here". We did some final late night prep on the ChumpVette, did one last bleed of the clutch hydraulics, got drivers oriented with fuel ups, and entry and exiting the car with gear on. Got lots of looks from the paddock and wound up throwing a trap around the perimeter of the tent to shield everybody. Needless to say, we did not have a theme, so we were pretty bland. We left the track around midnight to go the the hotel and get some sleep. Saturday morning, we arrive bright and early. We ease the car over to tech and small crowds gather to watch and heckle and try to figure out the penalty laps. Tech was done pretty thoroughly, although their knowledge of Corvettes were way off base. They were tossing around numbers 330 hp and the car costing 45k when new. Which would be on par for the 96 LT4 engine cars. Tech took roughly a half hour as they were trying to figure out how many laps to dock us. The result, 30 laps. So after the charity buy back, we were down to 25 laps, factor in the lead car we were officially 40 laps down to start the race. Now we are good to go for the race after passing tech. None of us have ever driven the ChumpVette, nor the Spokane course which is rather interesting. it is extremely fast. The front straight is just shy of a mile and the Vette was pushing 125 at the end. One car was hitting 130 at the end. The back side is similar to a back country road with several turns and the track is not smooth at all. And to top it off, the track is very narrow in sections to the point that two cars is a crowd. Naturally when a car goes on course for the first time, there will be bugs to work out. We had our first pop up in our second driver stint. The SES light came on and the car pitted. Tech 1 was brought out to diagnos, no codes showed the light was off, so he was sent back out. This happened a couple of times, and was later figured out to be a faulty EVAP purge solenoid that started purging raw fuel onto the ground. After 20 minutes of trying to find a solution, we wound up capping off the system. Which worked, but now we had excess pressure in the tank. So after drilling a couple of hole in the tank and bleeding fumes into the air (Hey it's a race car, it's not environmentally friendly in the first place) we were back up and running. Total lost time 45 minutes. After that car was running great! We were turning lap times that were in the 1:58 to 2:00 minute range. Best lap time was a 1:57 and change. I made sure to get everybody a stint in the car before I ran, since everybody traveled quite the distance to do this race. I get in and it takes about 4 laps to get oriented and to start pounding out some times. Hit a zone in the low 2 minute range and then started dipping into the sub 2 minute range. Wheel to Wheel is like nothing else. Open passing when you can make the pass, and going later into the corners than somebody else to get that extra margin for the pass is exhilarating. Track days may not cut the mustard any more. This is pure adrenaline and crack addiction. So we continue on into the night time, sunset is around 9 with complete darkness coming around 10. At night, the track goes to the short course, to keep the rescue workers from having to go way out into the desert in case somebody runs off course at the end of the full straight. So lap times are now really decreasing, and the fact it is pitch black with only the illumination of your headlights adds to the excitement. We have installed two Cessna landing lights in the center of the nose. The lights project further out and to the sides than the stock headlights do, and in seeing the footage, the light spread into the other cars has to be extremely annoying. I enter the car just after midnight. We are adding fuel, so I miss my warm up session to get a feel for the track. So I haul ass down pit out and all the sudden am in mid pack. Scary feeling to come onto a dark course, you see lights all over yourself, the vision is limited. Corners that were easy to see are now obscured, and now there are two fresh turns with the short course. Both are hard left hand turns. With the limited visibility, people are now running off track bringing debris on course, and one of the hairpins was nothing but a sheet of gravel across the course. After a few laps, my pace picks up, I am now passing hard through the night. small battles crop up in the corners and the Vette then pulled hard on the straights to lose them. This is getting good!!! The final turn. I enter the front straight trailing three Miatas. The first one stays in the middle of the track, the next two start peeling off the right to make their pass. Knowing it would take them a while to make it, I go into 4th, it kicks out of overdrive and starts pulling hard. I pull out to pass on the left, I make the pass on all three cars, and start to slow down for the left hand turn. I get a brief lock up from debris, and start to make the transition into the corner, and get stuffed hard by the #29 Miata. I get spun around and luckily avoid the point in the wall with the concrete barriers and coast down the front straight with the left front wheel making a grinding sound. The car is slunked down to the left front as well. I finally come to a stop and kill the battery and make a body assessment. No cuts bruises. All the safety gear has done it's job. Hans device, 5 point harness and the seat. I wait until the course/safety worker arrives, I give him the thumbs up to say I am ok, he goes off to check the next guy. I start to crawl out of the car as the course is now red flagged. I walk over to the Miata, and he has impacted one of the concrete barriers head on. Ambulance is on scene. I walk back to the ChumpVette to get the radio out and communicate to the pits. I tell them the car is dead and not repairable. Here she sits after having the front left left wheel repaired to roll it around. Damage sustained smashed hood, bumper pushed forward, upper Arm now in the shape of an "S" and the engine cradle for the upper A-arm severely bent in. Luckily easy and cheaply replaced. She will be built faster and stronger to compete in Portland on Halloween. |
