09/30/2010
Just got back from Darlington Raceway’s third annual Historic Racing Festival. The Festival is not a race, but merely a gathering of historic race cars where track time is provided. This was my second visit to the track “too tough to tame” and the lessons learned last year proved invaluable. With a greater appreciation for aerodynamics, this year’s RE/MAX South Suburban Vintage Camaro was built with a rear window, a spoiler, and an air dam. All things we lacked last year, making the car immensely more stable at high speed.
Before every event I make changes to the car, “setting it up” for that particular track. Anticipating that the aero improvements would allow higher speeds, I made significant changes to the chassis. My friend Fred Roempler is one of the top “chassis men” in the country and graciously offered to rebuild my Penske shocks specifically for Darlington. He also provided advice on springs, camber, track bar, cross weight, and everything else. I have to sincerely thank Fred, his “setup” proved to be perfect. I also have to thank another friend, Pat Echlin. Pat suggested that I put some additional bracing behind the windshield; advice I wisely heeded and will talk about a little later.
We arrived on Thursday and spent a few hours setting up our pit. The garage area is clearly a step up from our typical short track pits, complete with electricity, running water, and under roof! Kind of nice to be “big time” for a weekend.
Friday we went through tech inspection (two little problems, nothing major), but mainly spent our time socializing and looking at all the fabulous cars. Seventy nine year old Herb Shannon was there, complete with his car and both of his sons. Herb is another Illinois guy, raced USAC ‘back in the day’, and is a great guy. Unfortunately, burning the midnight oil didn’t quite pay off for him as his car was on display, but not quite ready for the track.
We were fortunate to be pitted next to Jim Heiland and his friend Chris. They traveled over 1,300 miles from Arlington Minnesota, only to have their car break during the first track session. Great people though, and a real treat to be pitted next to.
The cars – With well over 100 historic race cars in attendance, the eye candy seemed to go on forever. My favorite was Parnelli Jones’ 1963 Indianapolis winner, # 98, “Ol’ Calhoun”. Perfectly restored, in race ready condition, it is truly a sight and sound to behold. But, I could go on forever about a lot of cars there. Every type of car imaginable to ever race oval tracks was represented. We even had a couple of road racing cars!
Cars were divided into seven sections, with each section given three, fifteen minute sessions on the track, both Saturday and Sunday. The RE/MAX South Suburban Camaro was in section Five, 1970 – 1995 Stock Car’s. Saturday, the weather forecast was for a high of 96º, and by the time the fifth division hit the track for the first time, it may not have been at the full 96º, but it was close!
Darlington Raceway, also known as “The Lady in Black” (for all the misery she’s dished out), is a one and one third mile Super Speedway, with high banking that can be quite intimidating. Regarded by many as the birthplace of NASCAR, some of the NASCAR regulars hate it, others love it, but they all respect it and they all talk about how at Darlington, unlike any other track, you race the track and not the other cars. To say it requires your attention 100% of the time would be the understatement of the year.
Several things conspire to make driving the track, uh; shall we say “interesting”? It’s a long story, but, when they built the track on a farm back in 1950, they had to be careful not to disturb an existing minnow pond. The result is a configuration unlike any other oval track I know of, in fact it’s more of an egg shape. The first and second turn combine to make more than a 180º turn, leaving the third and fourth turn to make considerably less than a 180º turn. As if that’s not enough, the banking is different in every corner. And just for fun (whose I’m not quite sure of), there’s a few bumps that tend to “loosen” your car up just a bit.
So, how do you drive it? I’m not sure, but I’ll give you my approach – for better or worse. The main straight away is long – really long! You pass the start finish line at full throttle, heading for turn one. There’s a point on the straight that anyone with any common sense or intelligence would shut the throttle down and start braking before the first turn. You go past that, way past that, at full throttle.
Because of the high banking, and the fact that you’re riding with someone with neither common sense nor intelligence, the corner entry speed is much greater than you’d think possible. Remember I said earlier that I’d get back to that additional windshield bracing? Well, as it turns out, even with that additional bracing, at 165 MPH the upper corners of the windshield fold in slightly. So, all you have to do is wait for the windshield to partially collapse (your hint that you’re going 165+ MPH), turn left a little, tap the brakes and hang on.
Thanks to those big springs and shocks we installed, the car won’t bottom out on the banking, and the back end will swing out just a touch as we cross one of those bumps at the entry to turn one. Once past that bump, but barely into turn one, you instantly jam the throttle back down to the floor. The back end will come out a little further, not too much, and you basically hold the wheel in one position as you approach turn two.
Entering turn two, you need to back off the throttle a little. Turn two is famous for “the Darlington Stripe”. Exiting turn two, the wall actually comes in a little, providing some interesting potential results. If you tried to make what would be a normal corner exit, the right rear fender will hit that wall, putting some of their white paint on your car and leaving that infamous ‘Stripe’ on the car. Not cool.
Once you’re reasonably certain you’ll clear the second turn wall, its back on the throttle again and down the back straight. Entering turn three is similar to turn one. As soon as the windshield starts to once again buckle under the wind pressure, you back off the throttle, hit the brakes, a little harder this time, and turn left. The instant the car settles in, it’s back on the throttle. Not full throttle yet, just enough to scare the s**t out of yourself. If you start to think about how you’d launch yourself into the next county if the right rear tire were to blow right now, that’s about right. The banking, and resultant g forces, is amazing.
Turn four. Because of the banking, it’s almost impossible to get a decent visual entering turn four. You can see the corner, but not the main straight away. Entering turn four, you need to go from almost full throttle to full throttle while pulling the car down on the track just a little. If you get it right, the car will hit another of those pesky bumps that will upset it just a bit, making it slide right up to the wall, giving you a clear shot at the main straight and start finish line.
Obviously some laps are better than others. My best laps were slightly over 145 MPH average. Top speed was 165+ MPH, and as best as we can determine, the middle of the corner speed between one and two was 132 – 135 MPH. Tire temps were right at 200º. Honestly, I could have gone a little faster. Before the event started, the officials were quite emphatic that we NOT run at full tilt, and any incident, regardless of how small, would result in expulsion. I love Darlington and wasn’t about to risk that.
There was only one car that came close to keeping up with the RE/MAX South Suburban Camaro. It was Jeff Gordon’s Baby Ruth car (white #1 in the video), with a V8 instead of the original six. He had a lot more horsepower than I, and could put several car lengths between us down the straight. However, I could more than make that up through the corners and posted lap times at least 2 to 3 MPH faster.
Technically, the rules say he should have moved over, allowing me to pass in the designated manner. Not realizing how much faster I was, he didn’t move. I’d simply follow him for a few laps, then back off and let him get a head start. Once he had a big lead, I’d close it up again. Great fun!
Interestingly enough, conversation with the driver revealed he was an experienced sports car racer, and driving an oval was new to him. When he complained that his radio wasn’t working right, his crew chief chimed in “I kept telling him to move over. I told him to follow that RE/MAX Camaro and try to figure out what he’s doing”. “There was no question that you had a MUCH better line through the corner”. We all had a good laugh and we’re now friends.
Sunday, it started to rain just as I was completing the second session on the track. Realizing how lucky we were to get in that much track time before the weather changed, we packed up and headed home.
The management of Darlington Raceway deserves a lot of credit. They organized and delivered a wonderful, memorable weekend. Each and every one of us was treated like celebrities. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say ‘Thank You’ to their staff and all the volunteers that helped. For me, the opportunity to drive Darlington makes all the work on the car worthwhile. If I could only go to only one event a year, it would be Darlington. It is clearly the highlight of the year and I’m still on cloud nine.
Pictures can be seen at http://hitechdigitals.com/galleries.html
In car Video, first session Saturday –
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3rZEZPWMMQ
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwylrskZqrI
Notes on videos: Turn the sound off; we still don’t have that working right. The picture is shakey and may not be worth watching. As the car goes faster, it gets worse.
As you watch the video, it may be helpful to know the unusual rules at a Historic Event like this. Slower cars are supposed to stay to the left. Passing is only permitted on the right, and only after the slower car sees you and moves over. The lane all the way to right is to be left open for emergencies. Touching another car, or the wall, will result in being black flagged the first time, and thrown out the second. You’ll see several violations of some of these rules in the video, but none by me. I want to go back next year.
The only event left on our schedule this year is LaCrosse Wisconsin on October 10th. Because the weather can be iffy at that time of year, we’re not 100% sure we’re going. Drop me a note if you want to be notified.
See you at the races,
Gary
* Turn the sound OFF. Interference destroyed it.
Keep your eye out for the RE/MAX South Suburban Race CAR!!!
