Chuck, you have now had time to wind down from the BBORR. Give us the details on your "rookie" experience. Even if I could only work it, it was good to see someone I knew out there.

It was good seeing you again Guy.

What a week. On the way down to BBORR I got pulled over for 75 in a 70. The nice trooper let me off with a verbal warning, and gave us better directions to where we were going. I drove the speed limit the rest of the trip.

We got there Tuesday night, and I died about 8:30 PM. Wednesday my dad, who is navigator, slept in, so I went and checked in. I didn't realize that registration was at the other end of the course, 65 miles away, and missed the rookie school. No problem as it was offered the next day. I got signed up and the car passed tech. I forgot glasses, and since my dad was wearing my closed face helmet, and I the open, I bought a $10 pair of Dale Earnhardt tinted goggles to pass.

Thursday we had a brisket burrito for breakfast as this was all that was available besides gas station food. We signed him up, took the rookie school, and did the practice sessions. This was an 8 mile stretch of another highway, which was closed. It was pretty technical with changing radius turns, a long straight ending in a tight turn, etc. My instructor signed off on me after one run. I was a little tense and not quite as smooth as I should have been, but not bad. The next run my dad rode. At the end of the straight I braked a little late, so the turn was not optimal, and there were plenty of hard things to hit if you blew it (this is in the desert in west Texas 20 miles from Mexico ). I gathered the car up, and we decided to call it a day (I think dad was a tad shook up). Because it was hot, the ac was run for these runs. It cuts off at WOT or above 4500 rpm (which is in the low 130 range). It is pretty cool cruising down the highway at 130 with the ac on. We ate Mexican, and drank beer.

Friday we got to sleep in, and drove the road a couple more times, and had burritos for lunch. Then we went to navigator school, and the drivers meeting. I put 5 gallons of 101 octane unleaded in, and filled up with pump 92. We ate Mexican, again, and I washed the car.

Saturday morning we had to be at the park by 6 am, so we were up at 5. I did not sleep at all. We ate a sausage and egg burrito. The morning went pretty well at first, as they got us lined up in grid correctly before 7:30. We were supposed to start at 8, but did not until about 10. There was a deer killed on the road the night before, and 10# buzzards were hungry. Rumor has it they mess a windshield up pretty well. When we were getting close, we strapped in and finally pulled up to the line. It was a strange tree with no stage lights, four ambers that were .400 apart, and a final green at the bottom. The timing starts when the green light pops. I tried to anticipate the green, which results in a massive bog. It recovered and I shifted at 5500. We quickly got up to 135 indicated, which according to our GPS (on the practice run) was 138. I am not allowed to exceed 140mph, and trying to average 125. The course is 59 miles each way, and has 60 turns. I pass the first of 10 RADAR traps, which has digital display reading 137. I had the cruise set, and kept hitting resume to make sure I did not go too fast. I used sixth a little, but it is really straining to hold 135. The first part was relatively straight, but the last 18 miles is pretty technical. There is one point where you go up a steep mountain, the after it crests it goes left, then reduces to a right with an ~8’ drop off. Extreme caution required. I was a wimp and went trough it at 90. We finished this leg 14 seconds slow according to dads timing, which would prove very accurate in the results.

3 more gallons of 101 were added, and topped off with pump 92. It used a half tank in 59 miles. I did not try to calculate mileage as we had driven in town. On the return trip, we had to make up time. My dad was pushing me from the start, so I made it up in the first 25 miles (the most technical part). Shifting at 6300 got us up to speed, and I used fourth a few times to get off a blind corner that I over slowed for. Sixth was not used. I set the cruise at 128 for a while, and got lost on course, then he realized we were 30 seconds fast. I slowed to 110 to scrub some time, We are not allowed to go below 95, and I should have slowed to that speed (or slightly above). I sped back up to 125 after a bit (blame the greedy speed devil in me). We didn’t have enough markers logged towards the finish, and got lost on course again. Dad intuitively thought we should slow down; I chose not to. We round a corner and see the finish. He yells that we are about ten seconds fast. I stand on the brakes trying to get down to ~98. We crossed the line 8 seconds fast according to our watch. I should have listened. His timing proved extremely close to the official results.

The car ran cool, and never lost any oil pressure. Oil was Mobil 1 5w40 SUV formula. Tire pressures were 34 front and 32 rear “warm” (short easy street drive). Outside temps for racing was in the 70’s and pleasant. We entered the hand timer class, which means all we used was a chart with landmarks, times, and distances, plus a stop watch. A GPS has to be hard mounted, and I don’t want to drill holes in the dash. We need to find out if a suction cup mount will pass tech.

We went to a party in the park, and ate a brisket burrito. We filled up with gas (6.5 mpg on course), went to the hotel and slept, showered, and off to the dinner/awards banquet. My stupid car would not start (crank but not fire), so another competitor was nice enough to give us a ride. The food was great, steak, shrimp, veggies, and cobbler. Yummy! The banquet was way better than I expected. They really put on a great event. They handed out trophies, and during the awards passed out results. We finished fourth of twelve in the 125 class. We averaged 125.264 mph over the 118 mile course. We walked back to the hotel, and were pulled over by a state trooper. He asked if we were with the road race, and was said we were. He asked why we were walking, and I replied that it was because my car broke down. He said he thought it might have been that we had been drinking and were doing the right thing. I said no. I think he was going to offer a ride if we weren’t in front of our hotel, and was very polite.

This morning we left for the 6 hour drive home. It was a lot of run. We met a lot of great people, and everyone was nice. We learned a lot, and hope to trophy next time we run highway 285. It was really impressive how close some people were to their target times/speeds. There is a LOT more to this than we thought.

(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Good story and writup! Only off by 8 seconds over 118 miles....not bad. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup.gif)

Good job (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup.gif)

Nice write-up!

Great job! If all goes as planned I will do the rookie thing in Oct. After your experience maybe I won't run the '40.

Good to see you had fun.

Although I kept on thinking all the references to burrito's were going to sneak up on you! :leaving:

Nice job Chuck. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup.gif)

LOL. The southern end of the race is only about 20 miles from Mexico. There aren't many food options, but most places sell burritos (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Guy, you could do it in the 40, but I suspect the SS might be a little faster (although I could be wrong).

I have already made hotel reservations for October, and am almost done filling out the entry.

Now I need to get that roll bar and fire suit :drive:

Glad you had a good time. You should try and hit a couple of the other ORR events that are held in Nevada. The BBORR is a VERY technical run. There are alot more tight turns that just about any other event. Even the UNL. class average speed isnt very high (150-160).

Just a couple of tips for you on your next event.

When your at the start line, don't try to "launch" your car and anticipate the green light. The only thing you need to worry about is that your navigator anticipates the light. You can make up for the 1/2-1 second you lose when the bulb goes green VERY easily. Best thing to do is have the nav. get the green, check to make sure all watches are running and then take off. Not only that but trying to make a hard launch right out of the hole puts alot of stress on parts, and seeing as that your going to be hammering the crap out of them over the next 5x-90+ miles, its always a good idea to take it easy on the standing start. When I run I wait for my navigator to tell me to go, I don't even watch the tree. Then I baby it about 1/2 way through first and then stick my foot in it.

In ORR one thing I learned that is that you don't hunt for the APEX until you can see the exit of the turn. Since you already have alot of track time you know where I am coming from. Its harder than most people think it is, especially on a public road with a crowned surface. you can feel the car want to pull over into the other lane as soon as you cross the yellow lines and if your not on top of it, your entry speed into the corner can be way to fast. I have to make a concious effort not to start crossing over until I see the exit of the turn. It can make all the difference in the world between scaring the shit out of your navigator to the point he only wants to watch the floor board of the car or actually paying attention to mile markers.

Anyways, glad you had a good time and I'll look forward to seeing you at an event sometime.

Ha, thanks Chuck. The '40 may run with the SS for a short distance, but I am scared the fenders might start flying off around 135. But that might come in handy if someone was chasing me!
I need to look into signing up for Oct.
One question...your instructor, Carpenter I think, since he has run unlimited, anything in particular that he mentioned that you hadn't thought about?

Thanks Boyce. I appreciate the wisdom. A new record was set at BBORR (I think Mike Borders in a NASCAR T-bird) at 168mph average.

Guy, the main difference that Todd pointed out was the crown in the road, and what Boyce stated about apexes. I had a hard time with that, and crossing the yellow line at first, but got comfortable with both pretty quick. Todd only rode with me once, so there was not a lot of driving feedback other than BE SMOOTH and stay off the shoulders. You don't use your brakes much (well I was trying to as old habits are hard to break). They told me I had too much camber (1.2-1.4º), and I didn't even mention the little bit of toe out. I thought about having it aligned in Fort Stockton, but there really wasn't time. The RII's did fine even with the alignment. No noticeable wear and they were not hot when I pulled off.

The car seemed the most stable on 285 spanning the middle of the road. I suspect this is because my alignment is even on both sides, so on top of the crown was more even.

Everyhing you will need to know is covered in the rookie school.

Yeah, Mike Boarders owns MKM Promotions (www.openroadracing.com) and I had heard he beat Todd Carpenters record.

A good alignment for ORR in a late model Fbody is about 1/16th toe IN, max castor you can get (usually about 4-4.5) and 1/2* camber. you are running the risk of loosing a tire at speed with to much camber since you wont be using the entire surface of the tire to absord the heat build up. Next thing you know you have a tire deskinning itself at speed (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) , seen it happen, not fun, wouldnt want to do it myself.

I was gridded right next to chuck and agree with everything he had to say...Great stuff, loved it

Karen suggested I post my pictures here
http://www.corndesigns.com/photography/alb...ls.php?album=72

Welcome abord Frank!

I still want to run some of those, I just wish something was closer to Ohio.

What did you think of that red Polara?

It is one hell of a machine. Damn near shakes the earth when it fires up. 15.0:1 compression, HUGE c.i., and hauls roughly 40gallons of methonol (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

That big as brick has seen north of 200mph on more than one occasion. Guy that owns it (Joel Hanning) is a pretty nice guy.

The Polara was one of my favorites. The driver was a very nice guy, and said it was an all aluminum 450 cid motor. Sounded like satan coming from those pipes, and I liked it.

FYI, Frank and his father won the 125 class (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)