Angry Race Fan » Grass Roots

Finally Grass Roots Racing That’s Actually Grass Roots

Scott — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:26:13 +0000

It’s the age old problem right? Motorsports is your passion, you love watching it on television, reading about it in magazines (and online of course), and attending events in person whenever you can. But in the end you don’t want to watch you want to race damn it! I know this feeling as well as anybody. So this is the land of opportunity, if you want like to watch Football, Baseball, Poker, Bowling, what have you its pretty easy to find a league or a tournament somewhere if you of reasonably good health and have a few bucks to pony up. Not so much when it comes to motorsports. I speak mostly of road racing but it holds true for local circle tracks for the most part as well.

SCCA, NASA, and local car clubs offer numerous different avenues to get into road racing. I’ve explored them all and to date have come up pretty much dry. With annual dues, physicals, driving schools, car rental fees, safety equipment, etc. the costs for just getting out on the track a few times a year can easily push the $10,000 mark and without much trouble will exceed it. You’ll notice if you google club racing budget software you want find anything, that’s because those involved don’t want to know!

For some time the 24 Hours of LeMons offered an alternative for those who wanted to get involved in road racing but didn’t want to take out a 2nd mortgage to do so. LeMons has enjoyed a good deal of success in their 3 years of existence and now a spin-off series ChumpCar is taking LeMons success nationwide (and to Canada too). The brainchild of John Condren, one of the original players in LeMons, The ChumpCar World Series is LeMons with a twist. (That pun was totally intended! )

The Andy Warhol Miata is an excellent example of the "themes" Chump car is getting from their teams.

The intent of ChumpCar is not to compete with LeMons but to take it’s success to new markets. The formula is simple and straight forward, offer a safe, affordable, and competitive environment for “crap can” endurance racing. As Condren states, “similar to the way many of us “Old Timers” started racing back in the 1950’s, 1960’s and early 1970’s. Back then, you drove your car to the track, slapped some numbers on the side, raced it, drove it home, and then used it for work or school on Monday morning.”

The rules a pretty simple and promote safety an enginuity over the size of the team owner’s pocket books. The base car cannot cost more the $500. You can pay more than $500 but you have to be able to sell enough parts off of it on ebay, craigslist or where ever so that your out of pocket is whittled down to $500 (and yes, receipts will be required). There are no limits on the cost of safety equipment and scrimping in this area is not recommended by the series. There is a claim rule where the series has the right to claim your car and pay you $1500 for it. The car will then be auctioned off at a starting bid of $1750 and all proceeds will go to charity. The car owner may absolutely buy the car back in the auction. The complete rules for the series can be found here.

In addition to forcing the cost of the cars competing to be very low Chump Car also does a good job of keeping the costs to compete down. First and foremost this is a no experience necessary type of racing. This is incredibly rare in todays amateur racing scene. You will need to attend a 2 hour school if you’ve never raced before but the fee is only $25. That’s a hell of a lot cheaper than Skip Barber or even an SCCA weekend Driver’s school. Licensing is a flat $50 per year which is actually pretty standard. Entry fees for the events are $500 per car and $100 per driver (minimum 4 drivers per team). This is very reasonable considering the length of the event and the quality of the facilities that the series visits. So for a team of 4 it would be a total cost of $900 compare that to the 25 Hours of Thunderhill whose entry is $1395 for a car and 4 drivers.

So lets run these numbers:

Entry Fees: $900

Car: $500

Safety Equipment: $2000 (very rough estimate, could be a lot less or a lot more)

Licensing: $50 per driver

School: $25 per driver

If you split this all up amongst 4 drivers in the end you come up with $925 each to enter one event, obviously the cost per event would come down the more you enter. If you run one a year it would cost you $925 the first year and assuming the car is reused the 2nd year it would only be $275. Consumables like fuel, tires, Twinkies, and Red Bull aren’t included in this but tank gas and DOT tires for a $500 buggy shouldn’t bankrupt anybody, probably would spend more on the Red Bull.

This weekend Oct 30 – Nov 1 Chump Car is running their inaugeral event at PIR in Portland. With 40 cars representing 241 drivers and 72 crew members the event already appears to be shaping up to be a success. According to Condren each event is set up to be able to accomodate up to 100 teams. In order to whittle down the participant lists if necessary Chump Car reviews themes and / or engineering concepts submitted by the teams. The most interesting of these will be assured a spot on the grid.

With 22 events on their schedule for 2010 and entries on the books for each and every event in 2010 already it appears that Chump Car’s bet that there was a bigger market for low buck endurance racing was right on. For those of you that have been looking for a way to actively participate in motorsports but haven’t quite reached gentlemen racer status yet Chump Car might be the series for you.

Check out more about The Chump Car World Series at http://www.chumpcar.com

CHUMPCAR WORLD SERIES ANNOUNCES 2010 SCHEDULE AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:21:51 +0000

Morgan Hill, Calif., October 19, 2009 – The ChumpCar World Series, North America’s newest international road racing endurance series, announced today that it has a 20-race schedule set for 2010. ChumpCar’s events will extend to 14 States and include one event in Canada. ChumpCar also announced that its inaugural event will be held at Portland International Raceway (PIR) on October 31. The ChumpCar event will be the first 24-hour endurance race ever held in
PIR’s 48-year history.

The full 2010 schedule includes:
Infineon Raceway: 9-10 Jan
Willow Springs Raceway: 30-31 Jan
Rockingham Speedway: 13-14 Mar
Pueblo Motorsports Park: 27-28 March
Virginia International Raceway: 3-4 Apr
Putnam Park: 10-11 Apr
Shannonville Raceway Park: 1-2 May
Homestead-Miami: 8-9 May
Memphis Motorsports Park: 15-16 May
Brainerd International Raceway: 5-6 June
Texas Motor Speedway: 19-20 June
Iowa Speedway: 26-27 June
Auto Club Speedway: 10-11 July
Spokane Raceway: 24-25 July
GingerMan Raceway: 14-15 Aug
Roebling Road Raceway: 21-22 Aug
Harris Hill Motorsports: 11-12 Sept
Sebring International Raceway: 25-26 Sep
Firebird International Raceway: 9-10 Oct
Portland International Raceway: 30-31 Oct
Infineon Raceway: 11-12 Dec

The ChumpCar World Series is an automobile racing series for production sports cars, touring and sedan vehicles. Race events follow two optional formats; a single 24-hour endurance race or two (2) 7-hour Enduro races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. With ChumpCar, however, each car entered in the race must be purchased for or valued at less than $500. While another $1,500 of safety equipment and safety modifications must be made to the cars before they can compete in any ChumpCar race, the result is an extremely low-cost race car that doesn’t have any real advantage over any other car in the field. The series stresses a casual, fun-filled weekend of racing, bringing back the spirit of the 1950s and 1960s, when racers focused on camaraderie, sportsmanship and racing for pure enjoyment.

Because racers tend to be local, grass-roots teams, the ChumpCar World Series, by design, gives back to each community in which events are held. Each event benefits a local Designated Charity, with contributions coming from several unique ChumpCar procedures, including a novice driver’s school ($25 per rookie) and various penalties based on driving infractions. For the Portland event, ChumpCar has chosen the Portland Community Transition School (CTS) as the Designated Charity. CTS is a private, non-profit school dedicated entirely to the needs of children aged 5 to 14 whose families are homeless, in transition or otherwise experiencing poverty-related crises. “This is a terrific and heart-warming organization,” said Ron Cortez, a ChumpCar Co-Founder. “These teachers are doing a tremendous job, working against unimaginable hurdles and issues… and it’s all bout the kids.”

In addition to a $500 contribution to CTS by ChumpCar, the series has asked each race team to bring needed school supplies to the race. Supplies requested by the school can be found on the CTS “Wish List” (http://www.transitionalschool.org/wishlist/wishlist.html).
Furthermore, ChumpCar promotes automotive technical skill development by utilizing a team of local high-school, trade-school or college auto shop and automotive technology students – known as the “Wrecking Crew” – to deliver and execute other penalties, realized in varying degrees of race car dismantling. For the Portland International Raceway event, ChumpCar will include the participation of up to 16 automotive technology students from Portland Community College (PCC) as members of its Wrecking Crew.

“ChumpCar is all about cars and how to make an average street car, with 100,000 miles on it, survive the rigors of a 24-hour endurance race,” stated Lloyd Boggs, ChumpCar’s Chief Technical Inspector and Crew Chief of the Wrecking Crew. “It’s about car preparation, technology and mechanical skill. We’re delighted to have Portland Community College as a part of our event. Who knows, I may learn something from these kids!”

ChumpCar will donate $500 to the Portland Community College Foundation, targeting the donation’s use within the automotive technology program. “This is a terrific way for our students to apply their education while having a lot of fun,” commented Linda Gerber, PCC’s Sylvania Campus President. “It’s not very often that our students get the
opportunity to participate with a racing series.”

Portland Community College is the largest institution of higher learning in the State of Oregon, serving nearly 1.4 million college-age residents in a five-county, 1,500-square mile area. Last year nearly 90,000 students were enrolled in PCC.

More information about the Portland Community Transition School can be found on the school’s
website at www.transitionalschool.org.

For more information about Portland Community College, visit their website at www.pcc.edu.
Find more information about the ChumpCar World Series, the series rules and the schedule of
events, at www.chumpcar.com.