jcsperson

Has anyone here given Chumpcar or LeMons a try?

It's been something I'm thinking of doing for fun. I'd appreciate your input, stories, etc.

el es tu

for 500 bucks its very tempting...

picklz

I was looking at doing ChumpCar with a couple friends, we put it on the back burner for now but it's still something I'd like to get into, a friend of Mine has been doing it for the past couple years and seems to love it.

Keep in mind its a lot more than $500, the cars are probably $2500-3500+ by the time you get done with safety equipment and items that don't count towards the budget etc. Still pretty cheap racing for sure.

drivinhard

that's the allure. problem is, it ends up costing more than racing a corvette!

had fun with a lemons race but for the $$ invested, I'd rather be racing something that's 3x as fast and not going to fall apart at any second.

jcsperson

But that is divided up by a team of 4-6. I've even seen cars owned/prepped by 2-3 guys who "sell" seat time to other drivers.

I was exploring the idea of getting something started here in Orange Co., NC. VIR is ony 45 minutes away. If you're interested, PM me.

Side story: I was at the VIR Charity Laps on March 30th. I was in Group D right ahead of what I thought was a vintage racer. In reality it was the nicest Chumpcar I've ever seen, a '70s 240Z painted up in Paul Newman's Runoff colors. From 50' it looked awesome. As I got closer I saw the car was a little rougher than most vintage racers. Still, it was pretty clean and they were worried that they would get docked laps for the car being too nice. They were using Charity Laps to learn the course---some of the guys hadn't run VIR before that weekend.

ScaryFast

I'd be surprised if you'd find many in the RR forum that condone LeMons or chumpcar racing.

It's not cheap, you can't "win" (unless you have a gimmick or an amusing outfit), and ultimately it can be unsafe as these cars are not prepped to the level of an SCCA or NASA type series. I'm sure it's loads of fun once or twice, but for my $10k I'd rather have a Corvette on track against drivers who aren't planning to hit me before the green flag ever drops.

Just one man's opinion, take it as you will.

pewterhdtop

I have now done 14 Lemons races in a Porsche 924S and Audi 4000. First, it is much more than $500 to prep a car, you are realisticly looking at $3,000 to get one ready for the track. Is it safe? The requirements this year for Lemons tech are about the same as for SCCA or NASA! Roll cage construction is scrutinized very carefully as are all of the other safety features such as belts, mounting of the seat, the type of seat, belt location relative to seat and driver, cuttoff switch, tires, brakes etc.

As for on track, yes, the last event at Sears Point had 173 cars entered, the black flag/penalty system is intended to reward bad driving with significant penalties and get folks who don't race safely off the track! Never had to stop racing in SCCA for having 2 wheels off twice or 3 times in a race! (never had that issue in Lemons either as it is an endurance race and should be driven accordingly).

Finally, yes, you can win with good driving, pit strategy and luck in the car holding together for 15 or 16 total hours of racing, we have 3 first place (in class) trophies to prove it!!

Rob31

Ill be selling this soon . 85 , never wrecked dana 36 , I can set it up for an automatic if you like . right now it has a working 4plus 3 . no motor .

Rob31

Kubs

I did one LeMons race and while it was semi fun, I would rather race my Vette. First off, they let anyone drive. If you dont have a competition license you can buy one for that weekend only for $40. I was on a team of guys where I was 1 of 2 out of 6 that had driven on a road course before, and the only one with open passing experience. The other drivers on other teams did not know the line, did not know how to pass, and most of the time were just plain stupid.

The $500 is the limit on the car performance wise. Safety wise it needs a $2K cage (at least), race seat, harness, kill switch, good brakes, wheels and tires, and gas, etc. All of which add up. It cost about $1200 per person to run that race. Not to mention I only got one stint in the car because the inexperienced driver before me blew the engine, we spent 8 hours swapping, then the inexperienced driver after me blew that engine.

brkntrxn

I run with ChumpCar several times each year and I ran this past Saturday. The 240Z was a beautiful car from 50'. They did indeed get penalty laps, but it was for their engine setup, not because it looked good.

There are lots of Chump and LeMons teams in the Raleigh area. Get on the forums and you can find them and ask them some questions.

Or, you can check out our website and ask us: http://www.wrecklessabandonracing.com/



No "gimmicks" in ChumpCar. Just bring a legal car and race. Or bring an illegal car, get penalty laps, and race.

LeMons sucks hind tit in my opinion and I will never, EVER give them another dime of my money. It is created and conducted by the drama queens that we picked on in high school. They finally have a bit of "AWWWTHORITAYYY" and they find it extremely funny to annoy anyone that tries to really race.

I have seen MORE wrecks in a NASA weekend than I ever have in any of the southeast ChumpCar races (VIR, Rockingham, Charlotte, etc.) Period. Sure, there are those people that have never turned a lap on a road course, but if you are any good at situational awareness, you learn to identify them and stay on their rear bumper until they drive off in front of you. It's rather fun.


-Kevin

jcsperson

I think it had a 280ZX motor in it. Maybe that's why.

Thanks for the info. I'll look for you guys next time out. I think my next event is the NCM HPDE at VIR in June.

Best quote: "Faster to the finish than a sailor with Selma Hayek after a 12 month cruise."

Silverado_13

Will be running VIR 24 and Road Atlanta Double-7 this year.

OCCOMSRAZOR

I'll just throw the BS flag on that one right now.

I bought an 84' Camaro for $350 that we turned into a Chump Car. That car has better safety equipment on it than most of the Corvettes racing in SCCA.

Here is a link to our team page if you want to take a look.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/St...36797229698092

Like any endurance race, it takes time and money. You can't expect to be competitive without putting in alot of effort. Chump car has gotten away from the gimmicky theme stuff and is mainly concermed about good, fair racing. But the trick still is to stay on the track turning laps.

BTW, our car turned the single fastest lap of the Chumpcar race at Portland Int'l Raceway with a 1.31.XX on a 1.98 mile track. That's a very respectable time. Unfortunately we lost too much track time due to an alternator that had to be replaced and a belt tensioner that exploded on track (that was exciting!!) that also had to be sourced and replaced.

The car weighs 2600 lbs and the motor puts out about 375whp, not too much different than most C5's.

I get loads of seat time in a car that will still hit 140 but with crappy-*** 195 hardness tires. Try running that setup with 60 other cars on track, in the rain.

It definately has made me a better driver.

rfn026

Random Thoughts
I spent 3 years running Chumps. I ran 1 LeMons race and would never go back. Chumps is for racers. I'm not sure about who LeMons is for. My main problem with LeMons is that I wasn't real happy about under the table cash in the tech line. I hate paying taxes too but LeMons is taking it to a new level.

The most fun I've ever had on a track was starting Sebring with 96 other cars. The whole track goes green at one time. It was insane - and really fun.

It's getting expensive. My old team is now up to $25,000 in the Camaro. Keep in mind the car is on it's 4th year now. The entire drive train has needed replacing at one time or another. The same with the brake system. Things just wear out.

There are a lot of good teams out there. Riley Technologies used to bring a super fast Ford Probe. Pratt and Miller have been involved. So has Tony Stewart. I know teams that dyno test on a regular basis. How about Brembo 6-piston calipers? Yep

The hardest part of the whole effort is getting 5 committed people. Chumps won't let you run unless you have 4 drivers. It sounds easy but when you ask your friends for money and time they sort of disappear.

It was fun though.



Richard Newton

0Paul Ruggeri

We've finished 7 out of 7 races in LeMons with our Crown Vic. I think its a blast. We put together a reliable car which the first thing you need. The cars are safe, believe me I've seen some scary crashes. The quality of the drivers is all over the map. Some people have no business on the track, but some are very good. Tommy Kendall was driving at the last race we were in at Sears Point March 24-25. Imagine 170 cars on a 2 mile track in the rain, intense! Check out the videos on LeMons website.
If you have 5-6 teammates the costs aren't bad. There are the initial cost, but after that its really cheap.

OCCOMSRAZOR

Well, you can do it with two drivers, you just have to pay for four. My partner and I have done it like that for the last 3 races. I plan to start selling seats real soon, but did not want to take peoples money until I had a reliable product.

rfn026

Interesting. At the recent PBIR race one of the drivers had to go to the hospital for a pit accident. They were going to black flag the car for only having 3 drivers. One of the crew guys has a PCA license so after he paid his money he was allowed to drive.

The team ended up paying for 5 drivers.

Richard

L98Terror

I'll let you know, I'm slated to drive the chump double 7 at Road America

drivinhard

At the prep/maint/entry fee level, you may as well run a spec miata or a specE30 or something even faster, with NASA/SCCA, etc, especially considering the "you may never even get to turn a lap" nature of multi driver enduro racing.

That being said, one event in one of the crap can series is probably worth doing once.