varkwso

Club racing has a lot of similarities to international politics. Subterfuge, technology development, arms races, showmanship, psychological warfare, diplomacy, rules manipulations, shadow wars and outright confrontation. After 10 short weeks of Detente the competitors dropped some of the shrouds of secrecy of their new weapons, dropped diplomacy for outright physical confrontation, and put their new strategies in play with the one goal of track domination. Appropriately, bitter cold and howling winds, for South Carolina, set the conditions for this confrontation at Carolina Motorsports Park the second weekend in February. With time to rebuild, replenish, and fortify the fields of competition were strong in Thunder, Lightning, Blitz, and Time Trial. As the Geneva Convention provides guidance to the rules of war the Club Competition and Class Rules were invoked to keep this a clean fight. Just like crossing the Iron Curtain in the old days all your papers must be in order. Competition licenses, driver physicals, annual tech inspections, classification sheets and dyno paperwork were all checked and approved to ensure only the best of the best made it to the field of battle. If you think of Tech Inspectors and Series Directors as the rough equivalent of UN Diplomats and Peacekeepers it puts their role in perspective. They make sure it is a clean fight when the "dogs of racing" are unleashed. Some apparently put their Detente time to better use then others, and like the arms races in the past, running big deficits to meet the threat does not scare those with strong credit. It seems I wasted most of the Detente period on unimportant things like work, family, home improvements, shop improvements and maybe even a little relaxation. My car was prepped, teched, dynoed and loaded several weeks before the conflict. As I rolled it out in the paddock I realized I brought a .22 to a big bore fight. The arms race had nothing on what racers do! Just like global competition in the happy days of the Cold War some rolled in with a high dollar motor estates, complete with spare race cars, while others showed with the family SUV towing an open trailer. By the way, my own setup of trailer, car and tow vehicle is more toward the Greece, Italy and Spain end of the spectrum.

On track action was fierce with everything except the nuclear option being employed. New setups and techniques were deployed with many personal bests and strong podium finishes. The cold made it challenging since it took almost a full lap for my tires to get round, much less warm, after a night of 20 degrees. Discretion did take the place of valor with no data on how a frozen Hoosier A6 on a frozen track went from "that feels good" to "help me Ricky Bobby". Considering the field of competition, the conditions, the preparation invested and resources available some would be happy with a pair of podium finishes. Seriously though, in a war, who wants to finish third or even second? Good thing this is a campaign and not a one time battle. Time to assess and refresh before the next challenge at Road Atlanta.

L98Terror

Nice write up, I sure miss racing

Jason

Ditto

MYRX

All things considered, glad I am not being deployed until March

brkntrxn

Nice, Jeff.

05C6GAC

I had a great time, even better now that I have warmed up!!!

varkwso

I was ready for some heat by Saturday evening!

Z06Tracker

Nice job.

geerookie

And I was getting crap for our season not starting until late April......
It was warmer up here than S. Carolina.

Falcon

Great theme, Jeffro!

It was cold, but the inside of my trailer was a cozy 72 with the heater running.

ukrbmw

I had a great time - even brought some sand home for the kid. Thanks Jeff for all your encouragement through the weekend!

brkntrxn

I walked into a staff meeting Monday morning at 9am still wearing my coat. It took me until lunch time on Monday to warm up. No joke.

drivinhard

I tested shock valving all weekend but not sure how good my data is, since every 2-3 lap session you run at CMP is like running one 4 hr enduro on your tires

due to an accident, I did "discover" something in Oct/Dec and confirmed at CMP this go around. are most great tech discoveries in racing discovered by accident?

brkntrxn

Depends on the size of your budget.

beerkat

Nice write-up Jeff. Sunday morning my oil temp read 18 degrees when I went to start my car.

05C6GAC

Should have hung out with the racers instead of TT this weekend I guess!!!!

Z06cool

Who you calling a racer? Jody was there just feeling out his car again and scoping out the next batch of trees to take down....

sperkins

BERETTA

Great write up Jeff, Thanks

ukrbmw

Yep. One time I forgot to top off my tires with air after sitting for a month and half - turns out they really liked low tire pressure.

Except that is the only thing I've ever discovered...