Running the WRL Sebring 24 Hours in a crapcan Accord

So it's what, 3 days removed from the finish of the WRL 24 Hours of Sebring and all I can say is that I'm still in awe that we even finished. I'm still absolutely exhausted and still running off the high of finishing a bucket list life item. We completed 400 laps (1496 miles), finished 31st out of 46 cars, were off track for around 2 hours due to an ignition/ecu issue, burned through exactly 138 gallons of gas, one set of Hankook RS4s were used for the whole race with a rotation mid-race, one set of Wilwood Polymatrix H pads up front, & Hawk 9012s out rear. 

We were the slowest car on track and that was no joke. Quite the departure from our run at Lemons at Sebring in May when we were passing almost everyone. We had zero issues with the speed delta, most drivers and teams were very patient with us and it was extremely impressive. I thought it was going to be a major issue and it was the exact opposite. 

Our team as a whole was extremely impressed with WRLs operation, very smooth, professional, and to the point. I love the power to weight ratio classing as well, 5 pages of rules make it extremely easy to show up with something and go racing. 

We had everything from a fighter pilot to a medical salesman to an aspiring young teenager piloting the car, all with similar lap times. 

We had some amazing food being cooked for us by our support friends/family. 

Would we do it again? Hell yea.....in like two years. 

Now we just want to be in a faster car to compete in this series ahahah

PS - I was also lucky enough to be the drive to draw the straw for the sunrise stint. WAY TOO COOL. This absolutely gave me chills up my spine. All the years watching the sunrise stints from Le Mans and Daytona and saying "how cool would it be to do that?" I got to do it!!!

Awesome!!

My brother runs an older accord in the lemons and champcar series's out on the left coast and is very very competitive. 

Any tips, tricks or advice for a new team that will be running VIR North w/ Champ Car Endurance Series in a month? 

That is so cool! Congrats on completing a bucket list item!

That is so cool!

Gosh, I want to do something like that. WRL? I need more information.

Girlfriend will be pissed if there's ANOTHER 'fun' car in the stable...but maybe if I make her my fiance she'll not be as mad?

My most favorite stint I’ve ever had so far has been as the sun set at the first WRL 14hr at Daytona.  I had Randy Pobst come and drive with us, and he had the car balanced perfectly.  So perfect, I came within a second of his best time.  It’s amazing how easy a properly balanced car is to drive!  His willingness to hang it out in the bus stop chicane was the difference.

It had rained for a bit before I got in, but the track had really dried out by sunset.  There were still a few rain clouds around, and it made for the most beautiful blue and orange sky.  The hard part was remembering to look for braking points, and not the sky.

kevinatfms said:

Any tips, tricks or advice for a new team that will be running VIR North w/ Champ Car Endurance Series in a month? 

Don't be afraid to ask questions and/or for help. Everyone is very friendly and wants new teams to have a positive experience. We're car #253, black Honda Prelude. 

ross2004 said:

kevinatfms said:

Any tips, tricks or advice for a new team that will be running VIR North w/ Champ Car Endurance Series in a month? 

Don't be afraid to ask questions and/or for help. Everyone is very friendly and wants new teams to have a positive experience. We're car #253, black Honda Prelude. 

Will you be at VIR in December? Will definitely come by and say hello. And i appreciate the advice. I feel like ive asked a million questions to the info@champcar.org email that they may be sick of me.

Yes, we'll be there. 

I made it 6 hours into a 24 hour race at Sebring once, then we took our broken Civic and headed to the beach.  Congrats on the finish!

Edit -- what engine is that?  F20B?

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Well done,  may I ask a question, seek advice?  
  We are building a Jaguar XJS primarily to go vintage racing. The original thought was to also take it Champ ( chump) car racing but that's been set aside for now.  
    Should we reconsider?  
   While it's a reliable car ( or will be) and decently quick. I don't see us doing well. 2 of us will be hard pressed to last the 30 minute stints. ( due to age and condition)  So likely we'd need 3 or more arrive and drive type entrants.  
1.     Is there a way to vet these guys?  
2.     The car will be thirsty. While it has a 24 gallon stock tank.  I can see where refueling is going to put us off track at a ratio of 2-1 maybe even 3-1  is it likely we can gain enough speed to offset the refueling time? 

4.      Calculating costs, I can calculate consumables  ( about 385 gallons  per 24 hrs) but entry fees?   Other expenses? 

That's awesome!  I've run with you guys at Champ/Lemons at Sebring in the past, and that accord is no slouch!  Sounds like lots of fun.  Whooo-Tang!

1. It's hard, most everyone is an expert driver in their opinion. Friend of friends that can vouch for them has worked ok for me. If I had an absolute random person come drive with me I would be charging them significantly more money than the other guys. Try to get video of them driving if you can.

2. CC rules say if you take fuel it's a minimum 5 minute pit stop, tough to make up on track if you're pitting more frequently than the cars that can go 2 hours (max allowed).

4. Entry fees, gas, tires, brake pads, towing costs, food, lodging...it's a lot. A typical race weekend is around $4-5k for us. 

Unless you just really want to go endurance racing....I'd skip it. 

That's a lot for a weekend...but, dang, it sounds super fun. And if split up among two others, that's more manageable, I guess. Im interested. 

Endurance racing is an expensive beast, but it's hard to beat the track time. Sure it costs more than an scca sprint race, but you're running for 24 hours - that's 24 actual hours of track time. A lot of driver growth happens in one weekend with that kind of practice. $5000 / 24 = $208/hour. There are teams that spend less, and teams that spend more. But $208 per hour of actual track time is pretty dang good. If you're not looking for hours of track time, then endurance racing is probably not ideal for you.

kevinatfms said:

Any tips, tricks or advice for a new team that will be running VIR North w/ Champ Car Endurance Series in a month? 

Where to even start. 

1) I make checklist for everything from stints, to parts/tools needed at the track, for coolers/food/grills/etc, finances, etc.

2) Bring spares on spares on spares. Highly suggest at least an extra set of wheels/tires, brake rotors, brake pads, oil, brake fluid, clutch fluid, etc. 

3) Fuel jugs, kitty litter, fuel spill pan, and fire bottle. Vent your tank and vent your fuel jugs for faster flow. 

4) Take notes on things you do well and things you can improve on (pit stops, driving style, tools/parts you realized you need extra of)

5) Have a good radio setup. We just converted to digital:

• TYT-MDUV380 (3x total handsets: 1x car, 1x pits, 1x trailer/hauler) - $121 each on Amazon
• Tram 1250 NMO 3/4" 17ft RG58 Coax/UHF PL259 Cable $22.99 on Amazon
• 450-470 Phantom Elite UHF Antenna $38.99 on Amazon
• SMA Male to UHF SO-239 Female Connector $6.80 on Amazon
• IMSA In car Radio Harness - $104 from Sampson Racing Communications
• Rugged Radios PTT - $50 on Amazon
• I just bought a Racing Radios crewchief headset for like $240 at the track. You can find them much cheaper but we left our cheap one at home. 

6) Water, gatorade, beer.

7) Canopy tent(s)

8) Make a plan

9) And most importantly, have fun

Tyler H (Forum Supporter) said:

I made it 6 hours into a 24 hour race at Sebring once, then we took our broken Civic and headed to the beach.  Congrats on the finish!

 

Edit -- what engine is that?  F20B?

What happened? I thought I saw you guys further than 6 hours in. I was also not very lucid towards the end haha. Yup that's an F20B, we started out with an F22B2 with headwork but it was too slow ath the end of the day. H22 seemed to not like running after 7 hours into any event. F20Bs have been great. 

Well done,  may I ask a question, seek advice?  
  We are building a Jaguar XJS primarily to go vintage racing. The original thought was to also take it Champ ( chump) car racing but that's been set aside for now.  
    Should we reconsider?  
   While it's a reliable car ( or will be) and decently quick. I don't see us doing well. 2 of us will be hard pressed to last the 30 minute stints. ( due to age and condition)  So likely we'd need 3 or more arrive and drive type entrants.  
1.     Is there a way to vet these guys?  
2.     The car will be thirsty. While it has a 24 gallon stock tank.  I can see where refueling is going to put us off track at a ratio of 2-1 maybe even 3-1  is it likely we can gain enough speed to offset the refueling time? 

4.      Calculating costs, I can calculate consumables  ( about 385 gallons  per 24 hrs) but entry fees?   Other expenses? 

1) I always ask for references if it's someone I don't know well. Also have some legal paperwork drafted to CYA. Like "Hey if you crash into the wall and the track charges me, you're liable for XX% of that charge." 

2) Champcar has a minimum pit time of 5 minutes when fueling. If you can get your pit stops down and exit pit road at that 5 minute mark you should be good to go to make up time. With a 24 gallon fuel tank, I would hope you could get at least 90 minutes a stint. 

3) Depending on the event, champcar has been anywhere from $900-1800 for us for an event as far as entry fees are concerned. For this 24 hour event we spent roughly $9500 on everything from entry fee, food/drinks, hotel rooms, camping spots, fuel, etc. We re-couped $3250 from the two pay drivers we had, everyone else driving was part of the team and contributed elsewhere to the total costs. 

I paid for everything for our Lemons race at Sebring in May. That was around $3200 total to include food/drink, hotels, entry fee, fuel, parts, the bribe, and my airfare from San Antonio to Orlando. 

I manage all the teams finances and typically break it down like this. That way if we get money back, I can redistribute or we just put it towards other stuff on the car. 

We need to replace a lot of items prior to this race, so it likely drove up costs. I also think we spent more than $400 on food, drinks, snacks, and ice. 

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

We are right at $900/person for the race coming up at VIR. So its not too terrible. That does not include room/board as everyone got a hotel room or is splitting a hotel room with another driver. 5 drivers total.

DirtyBird222 said:

kevinatfms said:

Any tips, tricks or advice for a new team that will be running VIR North w/ Champ Car Endurance Series in a month? 

Where to even start. 

1) I make checklist for everything from stints, to parts/tools needed at the track, for coolers/food/grills/etc, finances, etc.
We have a VERY large checklist/price breakdown for everything. So far the team has been really good about splitting costs.

2) Bring spares on spares on spares. Highly suggest at least an extra set of wheels/tires, brake rotors, brake pads, oil, brake fluid, clutch fluid, etc. 
We are coming loaded for bear with wheels/tires, brakes, fluids and some of the normal wear/tear parts(wheel bearings/clutch). I hope nothing else breaks.

3) Fuel jugs, kitty litter, fuel spill pan, and fire bottle. Vent your tank and vent your fuel jugs for faster flow. 
We havent vented the tank nor the fuel jugs but everyone on the team isnt there to win the day. We just want to last and get the first race down without incident.  All drivers have agreed to keep it at 8/10ths for the sake of the car and our weekend.

4) Take notes on things you do well and things you can improve on (pit stops, driving style, tools/parts you realized you need extra of)
Understood. Will definitely bring a notebook for setup, pit stop and other misc notes. 

5) Have a good radio setup. We just converted to digital:
We went with a DIY Baofeng setup. One of the other drivers has used it in the past for HPDE's with great success so we went and outfitted the car with a full setup. I am hoping it works the full distance at VIR(2.5 miles is a big track)

• TYT-MDUV380 (3x total handsets: 1x car, 1x pits, 1x trailer/hauler) - $121 each on Amazon
• Tram 1250 NMO 3/4" 17ft RG58 Coax/UHF PL259 Cable $22.99 on Amazon
• 450-470 Phantom Elite UHF Antenna $38.99 on Amazon
• SMA Male to UHF SO-239 Female Connector $6.80 on Amazon
• IMSA In car Radio Harness - $104 from Sampson Racing Communications
• Rugged Radios PTT - $50 on Amazon
• I just bought a Racing Radios crewchief headset for like $240 at the track. You can find them much cheaper but we left our cheap one at home. 

6) Water, gatorade, beer.
Will have two coolers minimum with all the beverages possible. I dont drink any more but im sure to have a few ginger beers waiting for me after the race. 

7) Canopy tent(s)
Have 3 ready to go and will use the extra sets of wheels/tires as ballast. Have you ever had a problem with them flying away even while ballasted?

8) Make a plan
For the race? For the pits? We are going to run 30 min sessions to start to get everyone in the car then switch over to hour long stints. We arent trying to set lap records or win first place so its more about getting everyone seat time and having fun.

9) And most importantly, have fun
We are super excited, quite nervous and still feel totally underprepared. I hope that everyone has a great time and once things get rolling we settle in and have the most fun possible.

frenchyd said:

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Well done,  may I ask a question, seek advice?  
  We are building a Jaguar XJS primarily to go vintage racing. The original thought was to also take it Champ ( chump) car racing but that's been set aside for now.  
    Should we reconsider?  
   While it's a reliable car ( or will be) and decently quick. I don't see us doing well. 2 of us will be hard pressed to last the 30 minute stints. ( due to age and condition)  So likely we'd need 3 or more arrive and drive type entrants.  
1.     Is there a way to vet these guys?  
2.     The car will be thirsty. While it has a 24 gallon stock tank.  I can see where refueling is going to put us off track at a ratio of 2-1 maybe even 3-1  is it likely we can gain enough speed to offset the refueling time? 

4.      Calculating costs, I can calculate consumables  ( about 385 gallons  per 24 hrs) but entry fees?   Other expenses? 

You would not be competitive in the fastest car on track running 30 minute stints. 

My buddy who does WRL, they typically run 90-120 minute stints before a driver change. IE, a full tank of gas, pull in refuel, change drivers, go back out. 

I wish a lot of other things weren't working against me here. I could help with the pit/stops organization. Radios are great, but have an analog backup. Trust me. 2nd Longest day at Nelson we lost radios 2 hours in. Worked outside the car, just not inside. So we resorted to quik boards and sharpies. 

These are split up into 2 days right?

DirtyBird222 said:

H22 seemed to not like running after 7 hours into any event. F20Bs have been great. 

What problems did you have with the H22? That's what we have in our Prelude and it's been stout aside from distributor electronics.  

bobzilla said:

I wish a lot of other things weren't working against me here. I could help with the pit/stops organization. Radios are great, but have an analog backup. Trust me. 2nd Longest day at Nelson we lost radios 2 hours in. Worked outside the car, just not inside. So we resorted to quik boards and sharpies. 

These are split up into 2 days right?

Yup. Saturday is 8hr and Sunday is 7hr. Break between.