Chump Car Practice Day?

[Fuehrer]

Since there is a large concentration of CC Entrants here I though I would see what you all thought of a Chump Car practice day at the BIR School.

We could use one of the school days in late May as a day for teams to bring their cars to BIR and get some seat time in before the actual event. This would be on a Monday (all the schools are on Mondays). We would be sharing the school with regular students - this would not be a "dedicated" CC school.

I've floated the idea to Gary Curtis and he thought it would be a great idea. We could get some type of discount off of the usual school rate.

Is this something of interest? What day would be best?

Thoughts welcome.

Thanks

Tom Fuehrer

[JCN]

If you could combine this with getting a ChumpCar License, that'd be awesome.

[Andrew]

If it's on the 24th or 31st of May I'd be very interested in attending this event. Any date earlier in May wont work for me.

Thanks for thinking of us :D.

[Jeff (The Alignment Guy)]

Sharing the school, or just alternating track times? The cost should reflect this. $50-100/car/day to run between the Spec sessions would be a reasonable value. One thing about schools; Part of a school is car control and race craft, the other part or a club school is learning how that club runs a race. One club's pit road, race start jumping, or yellow flag rule may not be the other's. It's like shooting pool or playing pickup basketball in a strange neighborhood; you need to know the local customs. Even if I had a comp license (which I might by May if business affords it), I'd take the Chump school just to learn their ways.

[miata#37]

Since there is a large concentration of CC Entrants here I though I would see what you all thought of a Chump Car practice day at the BIR School.

We could use one of the school days in late May as a day for teams to bring their cars to BIR and get some seat time in before the actual event. This would be on a Monday (all the schools are on Mondays). We would be sharing the school with regular students - this would not be a "dedicated" CC school.

I've floated the idea to Gary Curtis and he thought it would be a great idea. We could get some type of discount off of the usual school rate.

Is this something of interest? What day would be best?

Thoughts welcome.

Thanks

Tom Fuehrer

I'm certainly interested. Would the format be friendly for those of us who are sharing a Chump Car and are new to driving on a big track?

[shocauto]

We've been trying to find times and ways to get our car on the track prior to the BIR race, so I'd be interested in this. I'm not sure how many of our team could afford an extra Monday off, however. We've thought about trying to do one of the schools as well for a little more track time, so this could work well for us.

[CarRacer]

If you could combine this with getting a ChumpCar License, that'd be awesome.


I concur. Qualifying for that as well as learning the track would be great. May sounds like a great time to do it as well, let things dry up a little after the spring thaw.

Would the price be per car or per driver? A price of $100 sounds excellent per car. I'm not sure how these things work though.

[Fuehrer]

I talked to Gary at the BIR School this morning and worked out some details.

Date: May 24th.
Cost $300 per car (plus tax) - up to 4 drivers. Normal school cost is $265 per car, $100 for each additional driver.

This is a normal BIR Performance Driving School day and simply an opportunity for Chump Car participants to get some seat time. No Chump Car specific rules will be taught by the school. All Chump Car licensing must be done through Chump Car. In other words this practce day is not affiliated with CC in any way (I'm sounding like a lawyer).

This event is 2 weeks before the BIR race and a great chance to get people in the car, check seat fitment, get used to the track and check out the car with plenty of time to make needed "adjustments".

You should contact Gary Curtis at BIR directly to reserve a spot.
1-866-511-7606

Enjoy!

Tom Fuehrer

[ganseg]

In another post here, it was stated that a DE will not count toward being licensed for Chump Car. Since the BIR school is not wheel to wheel, it will not cover your license. That said, what a great opportunity!!! $300 is such a deal.

[JCN]

Yes, but the Chump Car license is just a classroom session done at Brainerd the night before the event. I was hoping that they could arrange to do that during the afternoon there (for the people who would otherwise have to leave work early the Friday before ChumpCar).

[ChumpCar]

Hi JCN -

We'd love to be at the track for your test day; however, we've got 22 races this year and we're on the road a lot. In fact, the 24th is when we're just pulling out of Shannonville (Ontario, Canada).

Regarding the Driver's School, we schedule the class and tech inspection on Friday afternoon... and into the evening... SPECIFICALLY so people don't have to take off work on Friday! Hey, how about a little love here?

Here's Friday's schedule:

3:00pm – 8:00pm Safety, Tech & Theme Inspection
3:00pm – 8:00pm Driver’s Gear Inspection
4:00pm – 7:00pm Walk-the-Track (if available)
6:00pm – 7:00pm Driver’s School

There's just waaaaay too much going on Saturday morning for us to do tech and registration, so we get it all done Friday night (which also leaves some teams a little breathing room to repair serious issues if they don't pass tech). If you can't leave work or home and make it to the track by 8:00pm... then you better take Friday off. :)

All the best -
John

[miata#37]

Does anyone know if this school will require the chumpcars to be equipped with passenger seats and belts?

Normally I would assume "yes", but they do instruction in SRF's up there so maybe they have radios?

[ganseg]

Last year they didn't have radios for the Spec Racer Fords - they had you follow the instructor. Not sure how they will do it with Chump Cars.

[JCN]

Last year they didn't have radios for the Spec Racer Fords - they had you follow the instructor. Not sure how they will do it with Chump Cars.

Maybe the instructors will ride bicycles? :p

[Champ]

Maybe the instructors will ride bicycles? :p
Well we don't want the instructors to get too far ahead.

[cra_fizzer]

BIR does not have radios.