Time to race... but what flavor?

Zomby Woof wrote:

dculberson wrote: Oh, edit: I also want to try circle track stuff but their safety reputation is pretty poor. Lots of contact, very little in the way of deformable barriers or tech inspections, etc. It's kind of scared me off of it a bit. I might spectate a couple times and see what it looks like.

I've been around circle tracks all my life (that's a long time) and I can't recall ever seeing anybody get hurt in a crash. It happens, but it's very rare, especially when you consider how many tracks are running every weekend. I bet it's safer than road racing. Probably by a lot.

I would agree, when there is contact it is probably safer since everyone is pretty much going the same direction all the time (a continuous arc).

Great suggestions.

Keep 'em coming.

Circle track. Huge bang for very little buck. And I must say that wheel to wheel to bumper with 20 other cars you really don't notice that the turns are all one way. And its a wide track, so if you really want to turn right, then pass inside.... pass high.......pass low.... pass high again....That is if you are not just being passed by everyone else in which case you hug the inside and wonder why you thought it looked so easy from the stands. And of course road courses are mostly just left turns anyway. I think our local course is 6 lefts and two rights.

ddavidv wrote: I owned a '67 LeMans. I'd strongly suggest you get something vastly different to persue racing with. That thing will be an excercise in frustration attempting to turn it into any kind of road racer.

Come on now. You've been here long enough to know Curtis likes to do things the hard way.

But in all honesty, I'm in a similar boat. I really want to do vintage racing with either my 1800ES or a Triumph of some sort... but I also know me and know keeping $cope creep under control will be a constant battle. While I know running a stock B20 will be fine for awhile, eventually I'll be buying a $10K race-prepped engine...

What I "hope" will happen: I'll get my Volvo basically running and can get it on the track and maybe do some hill climbs and eventually prep it for vintage. In the meantime I'll just do auto-x to learn better driving skills. The other option is I buy a real race car - probably an F500 - and learn w2w racing there, eventually moving to vintage.

The other possible scenerio is nobody buys my E30 and I say "eff it" and gut it into a SE30 car... although that would really be a waste of a good survivor E30.

Hey Curtis... I bet my lunch money you gonna like SCCA American Sedan

I suggest do some AX to get the basics of car control down. Then join a LeMons team to get your feet wet with on-track antics before plunking down big bux to modify your LeMans.

Zomby Woof wrote:

dculberson wrote: Oh, edit: I also want to try circle track stuff but their safety reputation is pretty poor. Lots of contact, very little in the way of deformable barriers or tech inspections, etc. It's kind of scared me off of it a bit. I might spectate a couple times and see what it looks like.

I've been around circle tracks all my life (that's a long time) and I can't recall ever seeing anybody get hurt in a crash. It happens, but it's very rare, especially when you consider how many tracks are running every weekend. I bet it's safer than road racing. Probably by a lot.

I've been around amateur road racing for 15yrs and it is pretty safe as well. I've seen a concussion or two, a broken ankle needing surgery, collar bone, ribs, a few cuts that needed stitches but my entire experience could be overshadowed by a single weekend of motocross.

There have been fatalities in that time - but either as a result of a health issue or at a "higher" rung of the ladder than Club Racing.

Back when circle track cars were basically redone cars from a junk yard, with NO safety requremnts except for some sort of helmet. I saw two drivers killed, one lost a leg, two others were severly burned. How ever, since more safety regulations and stricter build rules, the racing has be come pretty safe.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I've been around amateur road racing for 15yrs and it is pretty safe as well. I've seen a concussion or two, a broken ankle needing surgery, collar bone, ribs, a few cuts that needed stitches but my entire experience could be overshadowed by a single weekend of motocross. There have been fatalities in that time - but either as a result of a health issue or at a "higher" rung of the ladder than Club Racing.

I race motocross too It can be bad, but my club races at a number of different tracks. A few all natural motocross tracks, and a few man made tracks. I no longer will race the man made tracks. I don't consider 20 jumps in a flat field to be (because it's not) motocross. When we race the natural tracks, injuries are rare, and usually minor. At the man made tracks they're common, and usually there's an ambulance involved. 4 strokes and man made tracks are ruining motocross, but that's a rant for another day.