ChumpCar? $500 Racing? PORTLAND??!!!?

In reply to bam2002: the rules and the pricing state that the single entry fee is good for both enduros -- sat/sun. also, I e-mailed the chumpcar guys and they have 2 events in florida... homestead-miami and seabring. then theres a 24-hour event at rockingham and texas motor speedway. sounds great!

Sebring. Really.. DAM I go there all the time.. That will be a kick ass event.

Sweet.. 2 in FL. plus the Lemons races at CMP. I will have a busy next year.

Bryce,

We'll talk it over while pit-crewing for you.

aussie,

I would guess the night before? There's hotels right by the track or other driver's floors/couches/guestbeds? The 24-hour race at PIR starts at noon Saturday and goes to noon Sunday. Unless you have a W2W license already you will probably have to take their 2-hour course on Friday. They accept SCCA Club Racing, NASA, and LeMons licenses though...

We need to have them clarify the drivers elligability as Portland is easily over 120mph and their rules state that novices will not be allowed on those tracks. Yet earlier in the FAQ they state that getting a license is easy.

Seems like for a new series they would need to find a way to get drivers qualified to run the event.

In reply to fiat22turbo:

Good day Fiat / Bryce and all the Chumps out there...

My name is John Condren and I'm... well, I'm one of the two "Chief Chumps" at the ChumpCar World Series. I appreciate your interest in our series. If you have any questions about the rules or eligibility, e-mail us at "info@chumpcar.com" and we'll get the answer back to you. I would ask that you post any question you have and our response so everyone will be able to share the information.

Regarding our event at Portland, we will be slowing the cars down on the back straight by means of tire-wall chicanes... so 120mph will be the maximum speed for the more powerful cars. With that, there will be no restrictions as to competition Licenses and who can participate. We want this to be a great, fun-filled event.

BTW -- the reason the we're requiring a drivers school for those who do not have SCCA, NASA, FIA, GandAm or LeMons experience (even if you've been racing for 20 years) is because we get drivers that come from a wide variety of motorsports groups -- some really good racing orgs and some are just small car clubs that do autocross. Some are bikes or karts, some are drag racers or drfiters. Our series utilizes basic SCCA protocols -- flags, hand signals, safety rules, race ops procedures -- and not everyone knows those protocols. When you have 100 cars on-track, and 400-600 drivers, and a 24-hour endurance race... you want to make sure that everyone is operating with the same basic safety information. That's why we require the school. It's only 2 hours... no big deal. It's only $25... no big deal. If it saves someone from a major catastrophe... that's a big deal.

As you have heard, we're running a lot of world-class tracks -- Texas Motor Speedway, Portland, Sebring, Homestead-Miami, Rockingham, Gateway, etc. The speeds and complexities that drivers in our series drivers will face will be far greater than that of the other $500 series. We have to insure everyone's safety and we want to take $500 "crap-can" racing up a notch, putting more of an emphasis on great racing while still having a fun-filled, laid-back weekend.

So, as I said... got a question? e-mail us -- info@chumpcar.com

All the best - John Condren ("just another chump!")

In reply to P71, Nashco:

another interested party. I can meet you on Friday if your going to be there? I realize the short notice, but....

It seemed like an EV convention today at PIR. A bunch of guys came down from Seattle with Teslas. It was awesome. bringing the Fiero to the track on Sat would be a great time.

The Tesla group plans on being there again.

I'll be there tomorrow with the Fiero...due to some unforeseen issues, I might not be able to race, but I'll be there one way or another.

Bryce

shoebox,

Will we see you there tonight? Look for the group of nuts in GRM shirts surrounding a Fiero and/or a 1st Gen RX-7.

fiat22turbo,

Your still coming too, right?

Not gonna make it. Girlfriend is on-call for her hospital and it is a rough one.

I hope at some point this makes it closer to VA.. I would definalty do it and the fact that there is no crushing makes it much better and if i remember the proceds from the auction go to charity so thats very cool. and its a great way for my buddies who cant afford the time and money to go racing like I'm working on can get out and have a blast for a weekend. We always find kiler deals on cars ust sitting around so the 500 buck rule will be easy.

Sounds like we may have a team together! We'll probably need to get together at Bryce's after the West Coast Challenge to work on the Scoobie and get an idea of how "firm" everybody is about this.

The former-LeMons, now-Chump Car Subie has been officially accepted into the 24 hour race at PIR on Halloween. The Impreza wagon will be sporting a new WRC theme, as our Team Festivus theme doesn't work for Halloween nearly as well as it did for the Festivus season. See you guys at the track!

Bryce

Isn't cheap racing the same thing as a cheap Porsche?

Funny you should say that as there is a 944 being built for the event.

My team is working on a Dodge Shadow turbo, which assuming we can keep the headgasket in place ought to be fairly quick in a straight line.

If anybody is looking for another driver, shoot me a message/PM. A great guy who has driven the Subie with us before (Thunderhill last year) and just won an SCCA championship at nationals is looking for a team. We'd love to have him on the roster, but we're already full so I thought I'd pass it on in case any other PIR-bound teams are needing another paying driver.

Bryce

I skimmed over the website and this looks good. From reading the posts and magazine articles about the Lemons race, I'd say that thing has just gotten down right stupid with the crushing of cars and all that nonsense. Also, I don't know why all these kind of lowbuck races need to be 24 hours, why not make them a standard x number of miles?

I was going to do LeMons until I heard about car crushing. :/

Seriously? I mean, for people who 5k is throwaway money, I can see that, but that's really not me. Like that SE-R article in GRM, I was thinking of just using that car onwards...

1500$ would barely buy a cage, let alone race seats, fire extinguishing, ect.

Sure, people who can make space shuttles out of scrap iron (like a certain man with a Fiero...) never pay that much, but how about mortals?

PoorBoy Racing wrote: also, I e-mailed the chumpcar guys and they have 2 events in florida... homestead-miami and seabring.

FYI, When I emailed them they said the Sebring event will be on the club racing course, not the full track.....it still sounds like fun.

here's the thread I started about it earlier: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/another-500-car-race-series/13730/page1/

Just thought I would let everyone know that the World Rally Chumps won 4th place out of 40ish cars, and also won a special award "Timex" for being the most reliable. Leave it to Bryce to build ANOTHER winner!!! SO proud!

Actually, they were only 6 laps off of third place. Not bad for the subbie's third 24hr race.

Jessica Sutton

Congrats to the SPT suby! We were pitted next door and outside of your transmission syncro problems (swapped at the dinner break) it seems like you had absolutely no problems with it all race long. Our car on the other hand... heh, oh well. Hope you'll be back next year, if we don't see you at another event before then!

i signed up for the sebring event hoping to be accepted