Quote:
Originally Posted by ft86Fan
(Post 591042)
I also would love to do one of these races. How does the arrive and drive work? I see on the forum that people usually charge $700 for a seat. Is that all you need to pay? What about other fees like entry fee and stuff? What happens if you crash the car, break the car or someone crash into you while racing? Do you need to have a racing license? What happens if the car is broken and you don't get to drive? Sorry for so many newbie questions. I really want to give this a try next year.
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You do NOT need a racing license, just a valid driver's license. If it is your first time, you will have to take a short intro course from ChumpCar, explaining track etiquette, the flags, race procedures, etc.
If you want to show up and drive with a team, you would just have to email them and get added to their entry list. And then pay them whatever you and the team agree to. ChumpCar charges the teams a $500 entry fee per car + $100 per driver per race, so that should give you an idea of what you're reimbursing the team for, by "renting" a seat (plus fuel, parts, and time the team has put into the car).
If you crash the car, well, that's between you and the team to work out. From my experience, ChumpCar has some great, clean, courteous, racing, and as long as you pay attention, know your limits, and race your own race, you shouldn't find yourself in any "vehicle totaling" situations. Doing well is much more about simply putting down as many laps as possible than it is about overall pace. There is no need to drive dirty or block a car that is 10 seconds a lap faster and 20 laps ahead of you, and ChumpCar won't tolerate it anyway. Just concentrate on your lines, watch your mirrors, give the obviously-faster cars some point-by passes, and focus on improving your own driving.
If your car breaks before you get to drive, then it breaks and you don't get to drive. It happened to me at Road America. If you're renting a ride, they may refund you, thats between you and the team (and people in ChumpCar are pretty nice, so don't worry). You can always take a stroll down the pitlane and see if anyone else wants to rent you a few hours in another car. Generally though, talk to the team and see how long they've been at it. If they've got a lot of experience, they know how to keep their car on track for the duration of an event. They wouldn't spend all the time and money prepping and hauling the car to the track unless they knew they could finish a race... but still, bad things happen sometimes.
Chumpcar is a BLAST, and such a cool concept. And where else are you going to get a shot at doing big endurance races at places like VIR, Watkins Glen, or Road America?
