Anyone running ChumpCar this year?

Some friends and I are thinking of giving ChumpCar this year. One guy brought up concern that they may not be running some of the events because previous results have not shown up.

Any insight to this?

I'd hate to build a car and be the only one of two to show up again.

i just did an event at vir a week or two ago and there was great turnout. even tony stewert raced

fiesta54 wrote: i just did an event at vir a week or two ago and there was great turnout. even tony stewert raced

Tony seems to be a really cool guy... Check this out: oh click me!

yea he really was. i was amazed that no one bothered him. he was treated the same as everyone else. chumpcar is very supportive of kids and racing. i highy recomend it to anyone thinking about $500 races. me and my friends put together a team of high schoolers and chumpcar covered our entrance fees. everyone there was very supportive towards us

some of our schumacher taxi teammates ran at VIR, and had nothing but great things to say about the whole experience. they've scheduled next year's VIR event for May, and I fully intend on going. the only thing is that chumpcar has had pretty low attendance, which makes me worry that they are not making enough money to remain viable.

That is so cool of Tony. Big-ups to the roundy-round guy.

We are planning on making the 24 hour at Hallett in June. Could be scary in the dark

fifty wrote: We are planning on making the 24 hour at Hallett in June. Could be scary in the dark

Not to mention hot

I'm taking part in a 24 hour race in Spokane, WA this summer. Last time I saw a picture of the car, it had no front clip...

We ran our Subie at the first Chump Car event, 24 hours at PIR last halloween. It was great fun...our slow, yet super-reliable Subie got us 4th out of 40 or so cars! I had done 5 LeMons events prior to the Chump Car event, and the last couple of LeMons events I went to were getting pretty frustrating (compared to the first couple, which were great fun!). The Chump Car event was fun again, and they're getting some really good tracks and really good track time, so I'm glad to see some competition in the crap can racing arena. They treated everybody like rookie drivers, not like idiots looking to go drive in a circle. Full set of flags, rules enforced but not overboard, reasonable penalties, and geared to be enjoyable.

We planned on using the Subie for the Spokane and Portland events this year, especially Spokane...we really like TRUE 24 hour races, and we had a great time at the first Chump Car event! Unfortunately, scheduling just isn't working out this year, so we decided to put the Subie up for sale so somebody else can go have fun with it instead of just collecting rust in my driveway. It's still for sale, as a matter of fact (shameless plug!).

By the way, bluesideup, if your "one of two" comment is in regards to the west coast $2009, here's a tip: If you show up to the Chump Car race 24 hours after it started, you're not going to do very well in that event, either. Seriously, if you want to do it, do it. If everybody sits on their thumbs waiting for somebody else to sign up, nobody will sign up. If Chump Car ends up falling apart for whatever reason, the same car can run LeMons, rallycross, autocross, etc. Build a car, beat the piss out of it, enjoy. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Bryce

Bryce we aren't sure if the event at Portland will work better or the one at Infineon. I contacted John at ChumpCar, he said there are already 30 teams signed up for Portland and the Infineon race has quite a few people signed up already 8 months out.

Yes I was referring to the $2009 Challenge. I know you built your car yourself just like I did. I only wish I could have started more than 4 weeks prior to the race. When you were running down the drag strip I was under the car with a gas tank on my face and a mouth full of gasoline, I know we've all been there! I actually did make it to Barona that night but it was after everyone had gone home. I wish I could have seen the Fiero, it was an impressive build. Regardless the West Coast Challenge ended up being a cluster berkeley as we say.

We're not sure what kind of ride we are going to enter but slow and super reliable like your Subie will be the plan. How did you like the format of ChumpCar vs. LeMons?

Like I said:

Nashco wrote: They treated everybody like rookie drivers, not like idiots looking to go drive in a circle. Full set of flags, rules enforced but not overboard, reasonable penalties, and geared to be enjoyable.

The BS judges weren't taking handles of booze to ignore certain cars, like LeMons. Teams WERE encouraged to make healthy donations of school supplies to a local school for kids in transition. They stopped for two hours so kids could come and trick-or-treat in the pits and see all the cars and racers. Alternatively, LeMons pits aren't usually very family friendly. Chump car gets better tracks, more track time, and has better racing. The series donates a bunch to local charities, giving the local community a reason to like the series. There was WAY more green flag racing, fewer ridiculous penalties, and a full set of flags. I think using a full set of flags is a clear indicator of what the organizers think of the drivers involved and what their expectations are as well.

I like Chump Car a lot more than LeMons, today. LeMons used to be a lot more fun, but IMO has lost some of it's luster...not sure if it's by driving up profits, increased popularity, too many events, or what...but it's just not as much fun as it used to be for me. Chump Car made things fun again, I enjoyed the PIR event much more than the last LeMons event I did. Finishing well might have helped my perspective.

Bryce