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Contour finishes ANOTHER Chumpcar race

GCR2

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
90
Location
SC
Just finished up our first Chumpcar race of this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Unusual format this time - 4 classed sprint races then a 6 hour (8PM until 2 AM!!) evening enduro under the lights on the full ROVAL .

Chumpcar's premise is to start with a $500 car, add lot's of safety gear, then run endurance racing. Modifications are limited. It is surprising what people are able to bring as a $500 car (can you say BMW E36) as the rules get pushed to the max. - but that's part of racing.

We were heavily outclassed in the sprints - we ran in group 3 which was 2.3L to 3.0L cars. Lots of BMW's and other 3L cars. Group 3 and Group 4 (anything over 3.L) ran together. These were run on a short infield road course. We did manage a 10th place finish in the 3rd heat.

The evening enduro had 67 cars listed to start. Our first driver out was pushing the car hard and had an "off" with heavy contact to a barrier on the passenger side. Pretty nasty looking cosmetic damage but nothing critical appeared damaged. We sent him back out to finish his stint. Next 2 drivers out and we continued to move up the the rankings. Last stint and our driver radios in the car died. It get's towed back to the paddock. Toggle switch controlling our power went bad - luckily we had a spare and after a quick swap we were back on track. Car took the checkered flag and we finished in 25th place.

This engine, transmission, clutch have been solid for us. We've run a 12 hour enduro at Road Atlanta, a 14 hour race at Daytona, a 24 hour race at VIR, a 12 hour race at AMS, and now this event all on the same engine/tranny. Nothing special done to it and not a single DNF. It may not be the fastest but it sure has been reliable. (Ford, Duratec, reliable - - who would have believed it?)

This is the old Paul Radisich tribute Conturd we ran in 2012 but with a new Rothmans livery paint job for 2013.

2luc1gx..jpg

Rubbin is racin??

2vc8h2w..jpg

Special thanks to Justin, Jim and his son (fellow CEG'ers) for coming out to spectate and support us.
 
The new paint job looked good until your guy f'd up the side! Is the frame twisted? Looks like the rocker took a pretty big hit, I would think the car is bent out of alignment a bit :eek:.
 
The door took most if not all the damage but it didn't even get crumpled enough to get to the roll cage from what I saw.

And John I thought he said he got turned by someone into the barrier?
 
Badass

What are the modifications limited to?


The basic rules are to keep the TCV (Total Competition Value) below $500 or they start assessing penalty laps. TCV is a combination of AIV (average internet value) as determined by 10 craigslist ads for running examples of your car plus predetermined values for common upgrades (or subjective values or actual values for more significant upgrades). We have an AIV of $292. That gave us room to put on a BAT suspension, cone air filter, and camber plates. We still have some room for additional upgrades. A 3.0 engine swap is probably doable - we (I) just don't have the time, knowledge or desire for it although it certainly would help the car be more competitive with the top runners.

Somethings - like safety equipment is all "value free". Others can be upgraded within reason. Example - you can upgrade your brakes and wheels up to 2X their OEM value without penalty. Our car got discs put on the rears and SVT rotors up front. We run fairly pricy racing brake pads - Carbotech XP-8 's as they can hold up for a full 24 hour event.

Lots of info available here. Read through the rules if you're interested in the details.

http://www.chumpcar.com/
 
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If you want I can help you do a 3l swap


Thanks for the offer. I'm sure it would help increase our standings, I just need to investigate how it would impact our "total competition value" and potential penalty laps.
 
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