Mid-Pack Glory Can Be A Lot Of Fun

We all want to win on track but very often that means a lot of time and a lot of money.

Budget is a very relative term when it comes to racing; it often feels like mere millionaires competing against billionaires. 

Racing is my form of relaxation. Beyond a certain level of effort it starts to feel like a job for me. I did it once and vowed not to ever again.

Now I have just as big an ego as anyone else out there but I always go back to something Ayrton Senna said. He noted that he enjoyed Karting the most as it was solely for himself.

Vintage racing brings me the most joy; it fits the way I like to drive a car and things are just that bit more laid back.

So the race video here is typical of one of my vintage race weekends. I'm posting this so folks can see that you can have a lot of fun and while you're ego may not  like it, battling it out for mid-pack glory can be a lot of fun. 

I've long figured it would be more fun to be mid-pack than at the very front or back. I don't have what it takes (on multiple levels) to run at the pointy end, but if we ever get up to mid-pack I'll let you know how it goes.

A good battle anywhere in the field is better than a runaway win IMO. 

Nice! When I raced mountain bikes, no matter how much I trained, I could never finish better than midpack (I'm built like a Clydesdale). But there'd always be several guys with comparable abilities to my own and we'd have a grand old time, fighting for the privilege of being slightly less mediocre than the next guy.  

You could run five wide on that track.

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I typically end up racing slower drivers in faster cars.........not to that I'm and less mediocre than the next guy.

Wow, that Triumph wasn't really any quicker than your 1200, which surprised me. Turn 8 and 9 look crazy, I can't imagine what that would be like ina really fast car (or bike).

RacerBoy75 said:

Wow, that Triumph wasn't really any quicker than your 1200, which surprised me. Turn 8 and 9 look crazy, I can't imagine what that would be like ina really fast car (or bike).

I offset a lot of the speed difference by coming off of corners faster.

My car is doing 105 mph through turn 8 and I'm still flat when I turn into 9.

I raced motorcycles there in the 80s and even on my 125 GP bike did 120 through there. I think it was something crazy like 140mph on a TZ250 GP bike that I once rode there.

In reply to RacerBoy75 :

Here is my best of turn 9........I was working out the level of aggression.

If I ever return to racing (I cling to my driver suit still), it would be in Vintage.

When I raced SpecE30 I was a mid-pack guy. Depending on who showed up, solidly P6-P10 out of 15+ car field. All I needed to have a good day was find ONE guy who I was close in speed/talent with. Pass...get passed...pass again...that was what made it fun. I quickly knew I'd never be at the front, because I had too much mechanical sympathy for my car and too much sense of self-preservation for myself. You have to take significant risks to run with the Big Boys. 

I also like Vintage because the cars that I like don't go all that fast. I really don't need to go above 120mph, ever, in my remaining years. One of the reasons I also retired from instructing.

We'll see what the future holds after I retire. Unfortunately, a lot of the cars I like for Vintage aren't exactly popular for parts supply.

In reply to ddavidv :

The group I run with has a DTM class; people run E30s on occasion.

As for parts availability, yeah there is a reason Sprites and Spitfires are popular.

I keep my Datsun tuned at a level that it seldom breaks; I'd rather finish mid pack then run towards the front and break ever other race. On occasion it wounds my ego that a sloppy driver in a fast car finishes just ahead of me but that only lasts about 5 seconds because I'm having a really fun time.

I like when you post these videos, Tom. They're fun to watch, and the discussion that ensues here is always good.

E30 is long sold. Unfortunately, I like weirdo cars when I consider vintage racing. Fiats, mostly. Mk1 Ford Fiesta. Or a Cortina. You know, cars you can't buy things like windshields for.  I'd probably rock something in the under 1 litre class because "slow car driven fast". This sort of thing is really enticing, but there's literally one guy I know who still supports rear engine Fiat parts.

British cars are easy, but they don't quite speak to me the way underdog Italian cars do.

If I have someone (or many someones, preferably) to race with I don't much care where I finish.

I find that I really want to go there with a car that's capable of winning.  I'm happy with finishing mid-pack while having fun racing, but I want to know that is because *I* suck, not because my car sucks. :).

In reply to ddavidv :

We have a whole crew that races Italian cars. They run a Fiat 124 Coupe, a 124 Spider and an X1/9. 

The 124s run up front and the X1/9 runs around my lap times. They have a great time.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

I find that I really want to go there with a car that's capable of winning.  I'm happy with finishing mid-pack while having fun racing, but I want to know that is because *I* suck, not because my car sucks. :).

 

The handling only car is good; the motor is the issue.

I have a line in the sand on my so called race engines. They need to go 5 seasons; that typically means their power output is 80% of what a race engine would be.

A fully built Datsun race engine for my car needs rebuilding after two weekends. That is not fun to me.

My D-Sports Racer was a front running car and while it made my ego feel good it was a lot of effort and money. I still have the lap record certificate which is cool but I'd rather have fun.

By contrast I have a great time in the Datsun; it's hysterical fun and doesn't require much effort. It's super relaxing to race.

Tom1200 said:

The handling only car is good; the motor is the issue.

That's one of the things I like about power-to-weight racing classes (in my case, NASA Super Touring).  Traditional racing class rules (such as SCCA) are about what you're allowed to do to the motor, and they class them based on the assumption that everyone is going to do the maximum amount allowed by the rules, which is how you end up with classes full of motors with 20 hour lifetimes.  Power/weight classes, OTOH, specify a maximum amount of power that the car is allowed to make, based upon the weight.  How you make that power is entirely up to you.  If you're allowed 250 hp at the wheels, then you can build an expensive high-RPM 4 cylinder screamer if you really want to, or you can just detune a bone stock LS motor that you pulled out of a junkyard.

I won't say it's a cheap class, but it's a lot less expensive than similar speed SCCA classes, and also has fewer of the chassis-specific allowances that the SCCA rulebook is full of.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I like that format as well.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I enjoy the concept of ST, but ST's problem is the ever present class to regional participation. GLTC got it "right" by only having one very open class (they have two this year), but then didn't really have the network or number of events of a NASA/SCCA.
 

accordionfolder said:

I enjoy the concept of ST, but ST's problem is the ever present class to regional participation. GLTC got it "right" by only having one very open class (they have two this year), but then didn't really have the network or number of events of a NASA/SCCA.

Yeah, I agree, there are too many ST classes.  Locally we have zero regular cars in SU through ST3.  ST4 was pretty strong a couple years ago (that's where I race), but has declined recently for various reasons.  ST5 is also reasonably strong, but ST6 is just a few Spec Miatas who want to run in another group.

My problems with GridLife are:

- I hate driving on tires that suck.  Yes, it's the same for everyone, but they still suck to drive on.

- I don't understand why people want races that only last 4 laps

- I don't want a rock concert at my race events.  I'm there to race, not to party.  Maybe I'm just too old. :)

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I'm not trying to sell anyone on GLTC - just stating their participation per event in the class is astronomical as is their car variety. They also have a very health front-mid pack competitive BOP. Many of the cars do exactly as you said - an LS that's pretty much at 10% throttle to redline, some make cars that are screamers w/ oldschool engines, some K's w/ light detunes. I'm a fan of the formula, though artificial torque/hp curves take a lot of policing. 

I thoroughly enjoy the classing for TREC this year, though I know you can "gamify" it and it takes some manual intervention.