Here we go again.

Looks almost too nice for Chump racing!

Good luck this season, have fun!

Good Luck Shane! Go get 'em....

See you there!

Thanks guys.
We hope to make a better showing this year. Sebring likes to rip the car apart. Was so proud last year when the car held up for the whole race.

T.C. No BMW this year and does that Mercedes have a engine swap? Love the paint job.

kick butt!

We've got the BMW & the Merc (last year we had the BMW & a Miata). The Merc has a LS1 & 6 Speed!

I didn't see your car listed in the Garage/Pit List. We are in Pit 3

Shane, do you need any more Cookie Cutters? I have 2

Can't wait! Should be fun, but hot again. Hoping my mid-day runs will help a bit with the heat acclimation. Also hoping to get to dice it up with T.C. on track this year. Somehow I miss him every year.

I'm scheduled to run Stint #2 & 5

6inch or 7inch?

We are garage/pit stall 16. Where are you at?

Something to help with the heat. Never used one before.

We need to get you two on the track together. I had George down for stints #4 & 8. Maybe we can change that up a bit. George did so well at night (or maybe I did so bad) I wanted him to finish the race this time. I don't want to separate the stints to much. Doing #2 then 8 seems crazy. To much down time in-between stints.

We're all good Shane It works out one way or another. I like the thought of #4 and #8. Who knows how it all shakes out, we might still end up on track together with full course yellows, weird pit stops, etc.

Stop beating yourself up - you're a quick, solid driver. I might have set FTD, but remember, I'm the only one who spun too. One spin throws any gains out the window.

Not beating myself up at all. I can't wait to try to run with the young guns again. I just know my times fall off a lot at night. I start my braking zones way to early. Getting old. thats all.

I've spun in about every turn at Sebring (3,5,13,16). I was never scared after the spin because I was always somewhat off line. Your spin scared me.

Here is the incident from last year in case anyone's interested. The guy hugged the other side of the front stretch the entire straightaway so I had no idea he was closing on me in turn 1 (you can just barely see him in the mirror). Scary? Yeah, I guess. But here's how I look at it, like many other things in life - no sense worrying about something you can't do anything about at that moment. I was a little worried in the car, but at that point, if I was going to get hit, it was just simply going to happen. Instead, I just went back to getting the car started and on my way, but truthfully I lucked out. It's weird though because I distinctly remember putting two feet in and clutching the car, but it still stalled anyway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSBWL3_BdRQ

7"s with Old Hoosier Rains Mounted

PIT #3

WTF? I will never run again without one - I almost died of Dehydration at the Sebring Chump 2 Years ago because I didn't have one

I'm in the BMW for Stints 2 & 5, but I will be in the Mercedes at some point. Maybe Stint 8 fighting for the Win!

What scares me about that (and Thank God it has only happened to me once - at Sebring, Old Turn 10) is Spinning (not of your own accord) and being Dead in the Water sideways with Cars coming at you!

Last year in my 1st Stint in the BMW was terrifying at times! Every good right turn, a Wire stretched off the Ignition which killed the car, then as soon as the car straighten out, the car would roar back to life. Talk about watching the Mirrors, I felt like I was in IMSA GTU back in the day! I broke a Tooth when I clinched my Teeth in Turn 16 when I thought I was going to be clobbered from the rear, then the Car woke up, jerked and my Tooth snapped. Good thing I'm not effected by Pain too much.

But Chump Sebring is an Adventure/Happening/Best Time of your Life/Race!

It's the one thing I plan my Year around! "Kids Racing for Life" is also one of the few Charities that I donate to.

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How many other Teams of any Organization (IMSA, INDYCAR, etc) get their cars displayed at the Chateau Elan every year? None, but ours! Panoz used to put a car of his there occasionally when he owned the place, but our "ART" cars are there every year

I tested it the other day and couldn't believe it. My first thought was that it was too cold.

I will be Debuting my New Helmet at Chump '16

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Everything good with you Guys? Shane, did you want my Cookies? no time to dis-mount the Hoosiers, but I can still bring them.

Staying at the La Quinta - See you Friday!

The Mercedes Dyno'd at 280/310 to to wheel on Monday!

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TC: I like your helmet...where did you get that done, if you don't mind sharing?

Tony

Savage Designs in Melbourne, FL

Mike does a lot of Pro Helmets. I have used other Painters in the past, but I won this Helmet in an Auction that came with a Certificate for Paint by Savage. My winning Bid was less than the Helmet price from Bell much less the Paint

My Helmet line-up - the only one I don't have is my first helmet from the mid '80s

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Very cool TC - thanks! I too have a Bell open cockpit helmet - a must or the P1 car! I'll look savage up...have a great race.

PS: So the helmet "mounts" are your version of a hunters display? eh?

Tony

Hunter's Display!

I had never thought of that way till I posted that picture on Facebook and one of my old G/Fs made the same remark

the Holders are made by Bell and used in bicycle stores

Don't worry about the wheels for the weekend. My head is already spinning.

Were staring at the Residence Inn.

I can't believe there letting a LS1 powered car in Chump. I assume its an EC car?
I wish your teams car had a different paint scheme. I'll see that BMW in my mirror and think "that doesn't belong there"!
See you Friday, can't wait.

See you tomorrow afternoon!

Fuch! We were 10th overall then a driver spun...

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We packed up, but TC is still there swapping engines in their Mercedes! Wishin him luck.

No we blew the motor in the BMW, took it out, found a team that had a nasty Street pullout longblock, assembled it and took the Checkered Flag!

Sorry about your car Shane - I know it will be better than before soon. I don't have a front clip, but I have a Metal front bumper with a cut-out for a front cooler you can have


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George, after you left, they Black Flagged the Race for 2 1/2 Hours due to Lightning (Corner Workers safety) We kept plugging on the Motor since it was in the Garage, so we actually didn't lose all of the 3 1/2 Hours it took to do the motor!

I was the guinea pig to take the re-built car ( we had pulled the blown motor, tranny, exhaust, cooling system, a lot of wiring) in the Rain and there was still some Lightning.

Plus for us, because of the Black Flag Delay, ChumpCar gave every team that re-started & finished a $100 Credit/Refund - we got 2 because the Benz finished too.

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I drove both the BMW (in the Rain and at Night!) and the Benz. Daz Benz in a POS! The Owner has $35,000 into it (3 LS motors so far), but everybody that drove it was hoping it caught fire so we would never have to drive it again. The LS Motor & 6 Speed were nice ( I think I only reached 5th a couple of times), but that Fucher pushed and with the weight of the car, the Brakes were scary. Not it that they would go out - but if I braked 5 feet early, I felt like my Grandma , but if went 5 feet later, I thought I was going to DIE! Seriously! Also if the backend stepped out a bit, it snapped back violently, I couldn't drift the back at all! Every Driver (4 of us) thought the same thing. It also suffered from 1 Fuel Pump replacement and after that a Fuel Pickup problem in which it would only run for about 40 minute (about half tank)

We ended up having 5 Drivers (and 1 guy didn't drive much - he was the one that blew the BMW motor & he didn't want to drive at night and he didn't want to drive Daz Benz) for the 2 Cars, so even with the Down Time for both cars & the lightning delay, we ended up with good seat time

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What did think of this ChumpCar? It won the Clean Car Award which goes to the Team that has the fewest incidents & finishs. They said that the Mustang didn't even have a spin all day!

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Oops!

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Double Oops!

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Great photos as usual from Eric, TC. I'm glad you got some running in - I had a feeling that Mercedes was going to be a total bear. LS motors are great, but better in 914s

I wish we could have stuck around a little longer to watch you out on track, but the boys were pretty dejected. I had even offered to go get my car, tech it, and get back out on track, but we decided we had enough for one day. With the rain/lightning, it was probably better that we got on the road.

George,

I hope the driver was only rattled and nothing worse
so sorry for all of you... but especially Shane!
brant

BTDT

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On site repairs being made.
In the background I'm working a come-along, pulling hard.
That's Thorshammer on the ATV just pulling lightly on the inner fender which was bent outward.
It was hard to keep the car stationary.

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48 hours after the incident the car was ready for a photo lineup.

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So Chris...they just needed a four-wheeler, tow straps and some balls. Good job!

Tony

I was waiting for Chris to chime in. You're hit looks just as bad as ours. Ill post some pictures next. I'll start a new thread in the Garage. Not to many folks check out the paddock. (your throttle linkage worked great!)

Thanks Brant. It still hasn't sunk in yet. Going to try, weather permitting, to get her out of the trailer tonight. Maybe then it will hit me.

There was a few 914 guys there and they were all so proud of what we were doing out there. My run was the only one we have on video. You guys need to check it out. Running down some pretty fast cars out there. The only difference we did to the engine was we changed the cam (removed the 494 for a 163 grind) and added 44 EMPIs. She's was quite a bit faster. Three seconds faster for me.

Some pictures.

Pull, bump, bang, pull, bump....repeat. You'll be amazed how malleable that front end is. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey....It won't exactly buff out, but hammer & pull and it'll be ok--for a chump/track car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiS2JRwfZn4


Here's our first stint. We didn't get a chance to swap the Gopro for the second stint. No crash footage. Wish I had more to share.

If you get a chance, check out Shane's video. His driving is really consistent from rev-matching to general aggressiveness/smart passing in traffic. And that motor really purrs!

Shane - I don't know Sebring but do have a friend who drives there - what was your fast time? Just curious - good, smooth driving.

Tony

Old engine was a with Toyo RA1s was 2:47:1. With the new cam and larger carbs I did a 2:47.3 on falkens. Once the car is straight again I can't wait to toss those Toyos on and try to best my time. Think I get down to a 2:45.
I don't get the most out of the car. Still a bit conservative. George bet my time last year by a 1 1/2 seconds at night.
Thanks for the compliment. In chump car smooth and predictable is key.

Yeah, fast times really are irrelevant in this type of racing. Knocking off a second a lap for ten laps nets ten seconds, but one stupid move can cost 30 seconds to a minute or more. I pushed a little harder at night last year just to see how much was left in the car. In the future, I'd probably adopt Shane's style. If we were running solid 47-48s for the whole race and only pitted minimally, we might have been in the top 5 overall against newer BMWs, V8 Lexuses (Lexi?) and the like. It really does punch way above it's weight.

I realize that...I was just curious as I have only one other benchmark - a different car completely though - no comparisons. I'm planning on doing Sebring this Winter, with a friend, who has raced there in the past. Once dates are set, maybe we can get a number of 914 to participate and make it a fun time. I'll circle back once schedules are released...

Not knowing much at all about Sebring...my guess is I'd be running the 20's somewhere - maybe mid to high. Time will tell.

Tony