Chump Car Texas Twister 24 hour race
 

Almost 7 hours in, and 2nd place, 12 seconds behind the leader, and running + /-1 second from the leader.

2nd place, 5 seconds back.

Who's on first?

Cold wheels, hot steel lugs... How much torque during a tire change?

Not sure but they are in a Miata.

1st and gapping.

Johnwag just drove a 1 lap lead!

This ---- is getting intense.

More intense then you taking a poop?

Shiitts ways easier with a big gap.

30 minutes to go,cruising in 4th, 5-lap lead.

We win!

Congrats! Who's we? Surely you not texting and driving again...

It was pretty funny after the race. We were protested for a coolant reroute and the official responded, "they can make that out of ---- from Home Depot". I also wish I could have seen the look on their faces when they got under the car with brake cleaner trying to clean paint or whatever off the springs and shocks of our car since we were running Autozone garbage shocks on cut stock springs (both 2nd and 3rd had Bilsteins). These guys were all over our car looking for something to protest, we won fair and square with solid drivers and a good strategy.

David ran a 2:03.9 in a shitty, $500 shitbox Miata with a junkyard engine and Autozone shocks with stock cut springs. The SCCA SM record is a 1:59.xxx, hahahaha.

We where never formally protested for the coolant reroute, but they just had a few questions about it. Once we explained how we did it, then they didn't say anything else about it.

The car felt great and very neutral. We had no problems with the heat except for slightly increasing tire wear. No mechanical issues in the race other than the lights needing to be reaimed at night to actually be able to see.

John Phillips Car 43, Don't tread on me, had some very good drivers and they few that I talked to seemed personable. A guy named William Keeling (I hope I spelled that right) was talking to us for a while on Friday about getting into spec driving and through the weekend about other random crap. This team was going at with us a lot and after 600+ laps we where only 2 laps ahead until they had a mechanical problem. They pushed us and I hope we pushed them.

Our drivers where amazing and our crew even better. Every single time we where in and out of the pits in the required five minutes and no more. People underestimate how important it is to have a great pit crew that is on the ball for everything and that is exactly what we had.

Overall I learned a lot and had a hell of a time. There where some talented teams out there that we had fun driving with and really made the race exciting. We decided at the last event we wanted to take one seriously and go for the win and it happened. The whole team was unbelievably stoked and I can't wait to get back out there.

You're a bit more professional about it than I am. I did not appreciate the attitude at the end of the day; I know its part of the game though.

It's crazy how so many things have to go right from the first lap to the 24th hour, every single step of the way. We won with headroom, without that last caution we still would have been in the same position, but we'd be fighting for it. I don't know that I could stomach a sprint-race to the finish, the last two hours of cruising was possibly the longest two hours of my life. I love endurance racing up until about 6am, then my mantra is "endurance racing sucks!!!".

I didn't sleep for 36-hours. On the way home my GF claim I was sleeping and asking "how are the tires?" "Fuel check!" lol

Nice! Wish I could've been there to see it!

Congratulations

Congrats, so advice for somebody who wants to protecipate in the next couple of seasons? Doing some research on it I see that you have to be apply, was that difficult?

I didn't drive but I will say that you should be prepared to drive beyond your abilities when requested. If someone told me before the race that we could consistently run 2:06s in that car, I'd bet a serious amount of money against it. Then, everyone did it and someone even busted-out a 2:03. Targeting lap times and "running defense" is complicated.

Now that I helped with strategy in the twilight hours, I really don't understand what guys on TV mean when they say "run your own race!!!" I think the only people really doing this are the ones more than 10-laps down. There is no way any car can really be the fastest all the time because you'll have things like tire life cycle, driver fatigue, track temp, and fuel load to deal wtih, you gotta learn when to manage them and when to punish the tires to position yourself for a trophy.

I'm looking for a junior team to learn w2w with in the near future. There is a Hallett race in July...time to start whoring myself I guess.

Unfortunately there are no miatas around here to be had for 500, Probobly end up in a civic or something.

There are too many Miatas out there anyway. If I were building one, I'd try to stay away from a Miata. The problem is, Miatas are so god damned fast, lol.

thats why i want to run one, btw did you guys have to run a hardtop.

Black plastic affixed with hose clamps and self-tapping screws...which had to be harvested for mirror relocation in the hot-pit during a driver change, lol.

got any pics of this monstrosity?

The car owner can post more if he wants, but this one is on FB and pretty much sums-up the car, lol:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...00825509_n.jpg

that car takes dirty bitch to a new level.

is that a vent in the driver's door or some sort of DRIFT BATTLE SCAR?

Yes it does. The car was in a bad wire fire that burnt up the fuse box and was abandoned at a repair shop for 2 years until we bought it. Now the wire harness is completely gutted and we only use what we absolutely need.

Back before we had a cool suit system, this was the driver cooling system. It worked surprisingly well.

I will grab some more to post up.

I thought the hole in the door was originally used to evacuate fuel fumes? I miss the the yellow wire birdnest that "fixed" the wire fire, lol.

congrats on the win!

I also just pitcrewed for two 7hr events. a 24hr would be crazy awesome.

I wish we had $500 miatas available here to run in chump car.

the ford probe has to do for now.

It was originally used to evacuate fuel fumes yes. When the exhaust fell off in the first race we did, back in 2010, it was blowing right onto the gas tank without us knowing it. That heated the fuel and without the charcoal canister system intact, it just let fumes out in the engine bay. The result could have been something much worse than it was.

After we fixed that, we continued to use it as a cooling system for the driver until we invested money into a cool suit system.

What does it say about people like us who not only want to be around a machine like this, but revere this beast? lol

Good job guys! More pictures.

John Phillips is a grumpy dick head.

yo jake call me asap bro I have some news

It's been interesting explaining to doubters that this car was a legitimate chump car. The 2:03.9 random ass flying hot lap mixes things up, but it has became clear that people who have argued that time are slow drivers, so comprehending that time is difficult for them. This car has been on fire!......literally!
Overall, I had an excellent time driving and i'm very glad that Robert included me as one of the drivers. Everyone on the team did exactly as they were supposed to and didn't compromise the race as a whole. Smart driving, excellent preparation, and methodical pitting allowed us to win the race and I believe that we could do it again without a miata.

I believe that anyone who doubts us breathes through their dirty mouths.

On a related note, I'm going to check out a 1993 Cadavalier for a Lemons race later this summer so I might finally get a chance to race like a man.

Congrats on the win!

What tires you run? Size?

Stock clutch?

They never gave me ---- for my reroute....did you end up using my idea?

Cant wait...we are signed up for the 24 hour Chumpcar race at VIR in august...cool suit a must.