Its just driving - what's the big deal...

I’ve tried a few times to explain how and why one is so thoroughly beat after just 30 lousy minutes of driving.  It’s totally counterintuitive.  After all – most people drive 30 minutes or more twice a day going to and from work, and it doesn’t tire them out.  So what’s the big deal.  I thought maybe easier than try to explain; perhaps a comparison chart might at least point out a few of the differences.

What	Road Car	Race Car
What to wear	Whatever’s comfortable for the weather	Nomex, long-john underwear, socks, balaclava, two-layer quilted jumpsuit, boots, gloves, full face helmet
Protection from weather	Enclosed cockpit, windshield, windshield wipers, heat or A/C	See above – This was actually fairly comfortable with the ambient temperature around 45⁰ F.  When the ambient temperature is around 90⁰ F this is brutal, especially when you’re sitting still waiting for the race to begin.
Air Flow	Fan controlled	Controlled only by speed of the car – at around 100 MPH the wind buffets your head around quite a bit.
Seat Belts	Auto retract lap belt and single shoulder/chest belt with auto tensionor.	Five point lap, shoulder, and anti-submarine (or crotch) belt, all pulled very tight, as in your lap and crotch belt make you think you need to pee, and your shoulder belts are so tight that it is difficult to breathe
Controls	Power steering, power brakes, automatic transmission (there are still a few stick-shifts out there).	No power or automatic anything.  Steering takes considerable upper body strength; brakes require significant leg/foot pressure.  Gear selection is with a very short throw stick right next to your right hand while your hand is in the three o’clock position on the steering wheel.
Instruments	Speedo, tach, clock, idiot lights – some cars have extensive gauges including oil pressure & temp, water temp, charging system, tire pressure monitors, etc., all capped off with a “check engine” light	Minimal – Tach, oil pressure, oil temperature, lap timer.
Normal driving speed	Within a few MPH of posted speed limit.	As fast as you can possibly go.  I didn’t think driving fast (100MPH and higher) would be a problem for me, but that’s not true.  It took nearly half of the first season to get “comfortable” routinely driving that fast.
Following distance	About one car length per 10 MPH of velocity	As close to the rear end of the car in front as you can possibly get, until you can pop out of his draft and pass him.
Cornering	About 100 yds before the corner, take foot off gas, begin to gradually apply brakes, applying them harder as you near the turn; when going slow enough, turn the wheel and drive through the corner gradually accelerating as you exit the corner	Keep accelerator to the floor until you reach your braking point (a point you gradually determine as the last possible point where you can tromp on the brakes as hard as you can without losing traction, and barely make it around the curve without spinning out), release the throttle and then brake – hard.  As you brake with the toe of your right foot, you depress the clutch with your left foot, “blip” the throttle with the heel of your right foot (to rev the engine so that when you release the clutch in the next lower gear you are at approximately the right RPM), down-shift to the proper gear for acceleration after the turn and let the clutch back out.  At your turn-in point (another place on the track that you gradually determine as the correct moment to smoothly but positively crank the wheel in order to take the proper line through the curve) gradually feather the brakes and turn in toward the apex.  When you do it right, the car will slide at about a 6⁰ slip angle and your inside tires will hit the curb at the apex at the inside of the curve and will slide out to the outside of the curve as you straighten the wheel  and again go to full throttle. You do this for each turn on the track – about a dozen at the Shenandoah circuit.
Seating	Padded Corinthian leather seats, relatively upright position, padded arm rests	Hard plastic seat placed directly on floorboard about three or four inches off the ground, no arm rests, padding duct-taped to hard surfaces as required, legs stretched out in front draped over a frame member under your knees.
RPM	Normally keep revs between about 1500 and 4000 with nice, smooth transitions	Normally keep revs between 4000 and red-line at 6200.  Keeping the revs high keeps the engine in its highest power band.  Shifts are as fast as you can humanly make them.
The road	Concrete or asphalt, stay in your lane	Mostly asphalt, sometimes with concrete patches.  The asphalt used is a special racing compound that provides higher traction.  Mounded curbs designed to be driven on but with rumble grooves at the inside of each curve.  Use all of the track – go wide at the entrance, steer down to the curb on the inside, track out to the far side.
Other drivers	Some good, some awful, some drunk, some distracted, some sleepy.	All of them are good, well trained in driving fast.  None drunk, sleepy or distracted.  But – they’re all trying their best to be faster than you and to get past you any way they can.
Other cars	Everything from wide loads, dump trucks, and double trailered semis to smart cars, limos, buses, Ferraris and everything in between.  Some well maintained, some barely road-worthy.   Bicycles, motorcycles, pedestrians, etc.	All very similar in power and design, all technically inspected prior to going on track, all well maintained, all similarly equipped with slick tires.
Sound systems	Bose, seven speaker surround sound (or equivalent) with radio, IPOD, or CD player	Loud!  Unmuffled engine directly behind you, winding at high revs.  Also, a bunch of other cars similarly unmuffled blowing sound right at you from their straight exhaust pipes, or worse, coming up beside you.
Signals	Traffic signs and signals	Flags and hand signals from a variety of flag stands strategically positioned around the track.  Corner workers warn you of slower traffic, obstacles, wildlife, oil spills and other track conditions – but – you have to take your eyes off the road and away from the guy you’re trying to pass or who is trying to pass you to find the flag stands and correctly interpret the flagger’s signals.
Fun	Usually pretty boring.	Wow – great fun, but also great intensity.  Concentration has to be completely on what you’re doing – no multi-tasking on track – total, intense, complete, high stakes concentration required.
Emergency  Assistance	Cell phone call or OnStar call, assistance probably about 30 minutes away.	Tow truck and trained EMTs in fully equipped rescue trucks with engine idling at the side of the track, probably less than two minutes away.  Corner workers standing by all around the track ready and able to call in your emergency and to lend immediate assistance.

Car modifications

Car Updates              

Last weekend (Nov 11-13) I went out to Summit Point to the new FormulaHaus where my car lives most of the time.  I told AJ that I wanted the opportunity to work on the car some in the off-season and to get grease under my nails.  I think he was pleased to have a driver who also wants to do some of the work and he definitely fulfilled my desire to get dirty.

Pretty much all season I struggled with the brakes.  I had what’s called a “long pedal” – a very long stroke of the brake pedal to reach maximum braking.  I also noted that even when I was at max braking I could never lock up the wheels.  AJ told me that the brakes were off of a VW Jetta and in the road car they benefit from a vacuum brake assist – no such assist in the race car.  He recommended some racing brakes and I decided to go with them.  With a shorter pedal I’ll be able to do my heel and toe down-shift more accurately, and with more braking power I’ll be able to brake later going into the turns – a definite advantage when you’re racing.  The new brakes are not a plug-and-play replacement.  We had to make several modifications to the suspension uprights to make them fit, make a few new parts to get them positioned correctly, and take a bit of stock off the inside of the road wheels so the new calipers wouldn’t rub.  Bobby did most of the real work – what I did was help to remove the old ones and then do lots of cleaning of the suspension parts to get the car ready to receive the new brakes.  While I was there Bobby got most of the templates made for the new brake parts and made the modifications to the uprights.  Apparently the old Jetta brakes also created some drag on the road wheels.  With the new brakes installed we get rid of that drag and that’s just like getting additional horsepower for the car.  We didn’t finish getting them installed while I was there – I can’t wait to try them out.

By the end of the season I was also experiencing some clutch issues, so we pulled the transmission and pulled out the clutch – sure enough – it was worn out.  So a new one is on order.  The old one was mechanical; the new one will be hydraulic.  So I got to do a lot more cleaning of the very dirty and greasy transmission and I put on the new master cylinder and routed the hydraulic tubing for the new clutch.  We’re really careful about routing the tubing.  It needs to get from the front of the car to the back going through the frame members, through the cockpit, and into the engine /transmission compartment.  It has to be secured at about 10 different places and routed so that it doesn’t chafe on anything.  There was quite a bit of trial and error but I did get it done before quitting time on Saturday.

When the new brakes are in and the new clutch is installed I’ll need to go back out and test everything.  We’ll also pour me a new seat.  I’ll report on that when it happens, but it’s a pretty interesting process.  Basically, you put a garbage bag (not really, but that’s what it looks like) in the seat shell, mix up a couple of chemicals and the whole thing starts to swell up.  Then I get in the car and let it swell up around me.  I stay in position for about 30 minutes while it hardens.  We peel the bag off and use a surform tool to shape the edges.  Then, AJ says we “upholster” the seat with gaffer’s tape.  It adds almost no weight and it should help to hold me more securely in position.

Another mod he wants to make is to put a very small Plexiglas spoiler /windshield just in front of the cockpit to try to route air up and over my head.  From watching the videos it was obvious that, particularly at the higher speeds (on straight-aways), my head was being buffeted around a lot by the wind.  A small spoiner should help me to be able to keep my head still when driving at high speeds and may actually improve the aerodynamics of the car as the air gets routed up and over the cockpit.

The only other changes we’re looking at are purely cosmetic.  There’s some minor body damage to be repaired with fiberglass and then he will do some paint touching up.  We may do some minor changes to the paint scheme as well.  It’ll still be recognizable but may be a little more swoopy.

Now I’m looking forward to the awards banquet in February.  It’ll be a chance to get together with this new group of friends, congratulate others on their accomplishments, and receive my trophy for winning the East Coast Championship.