Olitho

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Cal Club Announces Sponsorship of 2009 Corvette Challenge Presented by Speed Ventures

BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. (April 17, 2009) – The California Sports Car Club, Cal Club, one of the oldest and most storied racing organizations in the nation is please to announce the 2009 Cal Club Corvette Challenge presented by Speed Ventures time trial competition.

The Cal Club sponsored 2009 Corvette Challenge presented by Speed Ventures series will compete at three different Southern California racetracks with six schedule dates. With this announcement Cal Club is again opening the door for new racers as it once did for Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, and more recently, so many club and national racers in the SCCA.

"The 2009 Cal Club Corvette Challenge presented by Speed Ventures is a perfect way for Cal Club to connect with future road racers," said Cal Club Regional Executive, Steve Staveley. "Cal Club offers the perfect platform for Speed Ventures competitors to graduate to hard core racing and test their skills against the best in the west."

The Cal Club 2009 Corvette Challenge presented by Speed Ventures series will take place at Willow Springs International Raceway, Buttonwillow Raceway Park and the Auto Club Speedway. Classes will be available for Stock, Modified and Unlimited with divisions for C5 and C6 versions of Corvettes. You can register at www.speedventures.com

Track day and time trial enthusiasts have proven to be the number one feeder system of new racers to Cal Club. Cal Club's sponsorship will increase brand awareness with drivers most likely to take that next step to wheel to wheel racing. The high horse-powered Corvettes are high profile cars at track day events and this series is sure to bring Cal Club plenty of interest.

Trophies will carry Cal Club's logo for all six events as the series sponsor. All apparel, results, announcements and forum postings will prominently feature the Cal Club logo.

Speed Ventures will provide the track day management and registration for the event. Corvettes throughout Southern California will be participating in HPDE track events and Time Attack format that will determine winners in three classes plus a rookie classification.

More information and rules can be found at:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/sout...r-may-1-a.html

For more information please contact:
Tom Barrett
253-651-5155
Tb51955@aol.com

gkmccready

I see stock class allows unlimited alignment settings, but for modified class you take points for removing washers behind the a-arms? Isn't that an alignment setting? And it looks like any non-stock calipers dump you straight to Unlimited?

Edit: Poly bushings also go to unlimited?

trackboss

Those rules definately need some refining. The alignment stuff should be free. For one, who will check and two, who is to say what was on there originally. They ought to look at time trial nasa stuff and use that as a guide.

Olitho

We should clarify that to be any camber settings using stock hardware.

The Modified class does have points for some things that are allowed in Stock, but we are trying to manage the overall point count no matter the combination. It gives the drivers some flexibility in prep.

Non-stock calipers will not bump you to Unlimited unless you have a ton of other mods. It will only move you to Modified unless you have C6 calipers you put on a C5. We allowed for that as I recall.

We will undoubtedly have to make adjustments and clarifications as the series progresses.

Olitho

We have a guy managing the car classification process. I am sure he will do fine. This is not ST1/ST2 type of rules. We will continue to refine the 2009 CCS rules so that they are the best for a Corvette dedicated series.

Olitho

So TrackBoss and GK are you guys going to sign-up or grouse from the Bay Area?

gkmccready

I'm considering it. But it's tough to justify a 5h30m drive to WSIR with Laguna, Sears and Thunderhill so close. Reading those rules makes it tough to decide since my Wilwoods, camber plates, and poly bushings throw me to the wolves. :-)

What's the actual format? Run in your usual run group with a transponder and get grouped at the end of the day?

trackboss

I think it would be fun, but only if I can fit in modified. I prefer to keep my motor stock and untouched internally. Same thing with interior and aero. I think you would get a bigger field if the rules run along the lines of TT in nasa. It just allows for more crossover. Camber plates, shocks, brakes, bushings/monoballs, etc. are all very common modifications that just about any car that gets regulary tracked will have. I hate to see a penalty for parts like that which make a car safer, less expensive in consumbles, and simply better. Those penalties may make an otherwise street car have to compete with real race cars with a ton of hp, aero, etc. That really is not something desirable on the street. Peronally I like the TT rules because a true street car can follow them up to TTS with maybe some slight disadvantages if one, like me, chooses for the car to remain a real street car not a "street" car.

Olitho

I hope you guys know I was joking about the "grouse" comment. I should have used smileys I suppose.

I don't know what thrown to the wolves means. It should be good fun competition. With so many classes I have a feeling almost everyone is going to get a trophy in the series. It comes down to seven classes as I recall and we are paying trophies to 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Some classes won't have three cars I bet. Modified and unlimited look like they will get the most registrants. The awards will be nice ones you won't be embarrased to put on your mantle or hang on the wall.

Buttonwillow is not that far for you, but we are only doing one there.

Olitho

Have you actually added up your points to see where you are?

I expect 90% of the cars to be street cars that are driven out to the tracks. There will be a few T1 cars out there, but if they have licensed race drivers I figure we bump them to Unlimited. My car will probably be entered with a non-racing friend driving it. I don't know how many, if any, I will enter myself.

trackboss

SCCA license and hoosiers already bump me. IMO, too many classes. Narrow them down and clean up the rules to allow for bigger fields with some competition. So is the time trial format or a real race?

Olitho

Time trial format....

We came up with several classes because we wanted to try and have level playing fields to accomodate as many cars as possible without forcing people to mod or demod their cars... the exact concern you are having. The other philosophy was that we wanted people to have fun and have a high degree of probability of going home with a nice award. We budgeted for that. With that said though the competition will be good as only one person in each class will get the coveted 1st place trophy. We also expect equally nice season ending awards that should make drivers proud.

Cool shirts and other sponsor prizes and give-aways are expected.

trackboss

Modified 7.1 has no number assigned to it.
Just some more thoughts:
In modified I think it would be fair to assume that everyone will be on some sort of R compound. The points hit for the tires seems excessive
Swaybars are a common modification so same for that.
catalytic converter=who cares?
flywheel needs to be physically looked at to check and that will not happen.
I think a min. weight should be installed.
The others I pointed out in my above post.

trackboss

I understand your format, but I am not a fan of trophies for mediocrity. I am a hardcore racer and with no competition the incentive to attend is not there. In addition, I really don't like being on the track with moving road blocks.

Olitho

Perhaps this is not the series for you then. This is really intended to be a gateway series for those heading to wheel to wheel or just want to have a more casual and fun competition weekend. What you are describing is SCCA regional, national and/or NASA racing.

That is the other reason we are essentially bumping licensed racers to Unlimited. Your car may be at a handicap, but you will have to put all your racing prowess to work to win against what will likely be less hard core racers in highly modded cars. Personally I can win pretty much all the highly modded cars here in my T1 car. That is one reason I am going to let a friend enter my car most of the time. I have enough awards from SCCA regional and national racing I don't even know where to put them all.

gkmccready

I'm just saying. My car is a C6 Z51 with coilovers, poly bushings, Wilwoods on base rotors up front, stock calipers on base rotors out back, camber plates and stud kit, and 18x11 wheels wrapped in Toyo R888s. I drive my car to work as much as I can, as well as enjoying it on the track.

At best I'm 75+?+20+15+10+15 = 145+? ... coilovers+poly+brakes+a-arms+washers+(poly swaybar bushings). But the ? immediately puts me in unlimited... right? And that's assuming the Wilwoods fall in to the brake category which right now holds C6 calipers on a C5, or C6 Z51 cars running base rotors (how can you penalize that!?)...

A C5Z on fresh stock components running Hoosiers should beat my car...

trackboss

Just so I get an idea what a car like yours is capable of what is the T1 record at BW #13CW? Also, what tires is that on.
I saw the video of the time attack with your car, but either the tires and/or track surface was extremely slippery or the driver just was way out of his league. I'm assuming to run up front in T1 the driving has to be better that what I saw.

Olitho

That driver did a 1:56 on Nitto NT-01s with a APR wing on the back and canards on the front, but no splitter. The track was in bad shape that day. The car was not set-up optimally in my opinion for wing/aero stuff.

My best time on BW13 on scrub Hoosier A6s, but none of the aero stuff mentioned above, is 1:56.xxx. BW13CW has not been raced by CalClub since March of 2004. A Viper did a 2:01.5 back then.
http://www.calclub.com/html/html2/ar...ve.htm#buttrec

In a race these days I imagine a 1:55 would be the lap record on fresh A6s, maybe even a 1:54.xxx if the air is cool and the track temperature not too cold.

Here is one of the qualifying sessions and part of a race from the following weekend:
http://www.trackhq.com/forums/photop...6/limit/recent
http://www.trackhq.com/forums/photop...8/limit/recent

Dreamin

Oli & I were working on some rules updates... here's the cleaned up version:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/sout...ion-rules.html

You're in Mod Class (by a good margin):
Coilovers +75
Poly bushings +10
Brakes +20
A-arms +15
Washers +0 (Counted in A-arm points above)
Sway bar bushings +0 (Counted in bushing points above...if only bushings are changed on factory swaybars)
R888 +0
Wheels +0
Total: 120

With all your suspension bits... and Wilwoods... i'm not so sure about that.

Dreamin

I'll be at Laguna on Monday with CFRA... drop by if you can.