I completed my SCCA road course drivers school back in April and I need two actual races to get my Regional License (I'm driving under a Novice Permit for now). Well, Saturday was my first real race. My buddy who owns two Dodge Neons decided he'd drive too so Saturday morning we take off at 05:30 for Indianapolis to O'Reilly Raceway Park...which used to be known as Indianapolis Raceway Park. It's the same place where they run the NHRA Summer Nationals (drag races), and there's also an oval track where Craftsman Trucks and Busch...or Nationwide Series run during the Brickyard weekend. The park is only minutes from the Indianapolis Speedway.

I had high hopes for the place but this place was a mess. Having never even been there before I was hoping to get the most out of my 45 minute practice and qualifying session. After about 2-3 laps trying to figure out the joint, I was shown the black flag with an orange circle (meatball). This flag means you have something wrong with your car and you need to come in and fix it ASAP. I had noticed a little smoke coming from my car, but about the time I was shown the flag I noticed quite a bit of smoke. My buddy in the other Neon even pulled up along side me and told me to go to the pits because he thought he smelled oil.

I went to the paddock, got out, and jacked the front of the car so I could look around underneath. Ended up (and a fairly common problem with Neons) my power steering fluid was "venting" onto the exhaust header. I looked the engine over to make sure it wasn't oil leaking and it looked good. I cleaned up the excess power steering fluid and jumped back out on track to try to salvage any time that was left to learn the track a little more. I got to run one complete lap when I went back out and then they let the checkers fly meaning the session was over. On the cool down lap I noticed nobody was ahead and my buddy was coming up on me so I went ahead and pushed to get what little experience I could out of this. About the time he got behind me kind of close, my power steering belt let go and hit his car...heh. I didn't even know it until I got to the next corner and the power steering just quit. Scared me a bit because it took me by surprise. Oh well, no power steering...no power steering fluid was going to vent...no more smoke!

Back in the paddock my buddy wanted to look the car over because of the problem and found out when the power steering belt came apart it took my alternator belt too. Good thing the session was over...whew! With my 4 total laps on track I only qualified 17th out of 20 drivers. At least I'll be starting at the rear since I still don't feel very comfortable with the course.

We decide that this isn't a points race and doesn't really count for anything, so all I need to do is finish half the laps plus one to officially complete the race for my license requirement if anything else happens. The race is an hour enduro.

We grid up and do a warm up pace lap and then it goes green. I have a good start but being at the rear a lot of the normal slower cars are ahead of me (I really needed to have a better qual session than 4 laps...lol). About 4 of the slow cars end up 4 wide at the end of the straight so I back way down because I just know these guys are going to wreck each other out...I've seen it happen in our rFactor races...heh. Amazingly they get into single file and make it...leaving me way at the back by now. Still trying to figure out the course I hang with these slower cars for a few laps. The car seems fine now without the power steering, but it's a bit harder to steer (but not too bad). I start making up some ground and get by a few cars and finally catch a quicker car on the front straight (I have quick gearing) and decide to go around him.

Did I mention there's a drag strip at this park? The front straight IS the drag strip. There are two defined drag strip lanes with some sort of slick stuff layed down. Good for dragsters...not so good for road course cars heading into T1! While alone everone runs in the middle of the strip where the track is clean. Coming up on this car I have to jump over a lane to get by him. I'm running about 115mph and clear of the car and brake slightly for T1 (almost a wide open corner). Suddenly I feel the back end of the car break free and I start thinking this is just like rFactor...there was no saving it. I looped it into the grass! Luckily there are no walls there, and also luckily the car I'd just passed made it back by me. No harm, no foul...the car spun 360 and ended up stopped in the grass facing forward. Whew! I look at the track workers and they wave me back on track.

I had a few more close calls where the back end tried getting away from me but I saved it...I think I was trying to push too hard because I started feeling a bit more confident. Well, until my buddy backed down from where he was running so he could run with me (no points race...just having fun). We ran a few laps together swapping positions so he could show me his lines and then I'd show him mine. I started feeling a bit racey again and my car was quicker in the straights, so I took him on the front straight. Got around him (tires in the drag strip goo) and went hard into T1 again...and once again the back end broke loose and I looped it again. UGHHH! All I could think of was that I was going to take both of his cars out. Luckily AGAIN I spun in the same place and ended up facing forward in the grass again and he got by safely. I decided after that one that I wasn't going to pass on that straight again.

I ended up finishing the hour race, and finished 11th out of 20. Not too bad considering it was my first actual race against real racers and not other school drivers like in April. Also considering I had looped the car twice and backed way down because I was afraid of doing it again. I just wanted to complete the race. I had to wring out the sweat from my t-shirt under my driver suit, and I was nearly exhausted. No power steering, 15 corners, blazing sunshine and about 80F. An hour doesn't sound like much, but most normal SCCA races are only about 25 minutes long. I had reset my trip odometer before the start and ended up driving 98.5 miles in the hour.

The track was just horrible and I doubt I'll ever run there again. I wouldn't want to drive it slowly with my Jeep. Other than the drag strip with two lanes of goo, about 3/4ths of the rest of the track was like driving on crappy country roads. About 5 corners I was getting crazy wheel hop from the bumps, and in a couple places I actually got a little air from the bigger bumps. I would say the only thing it was missing was pot holes...but half way through the race I almost hit a chuck of concrete that had come up from the track...leaving a pot hole...lol.

All in all I did have a good time, but it was kind of frustrating for most of the race just because the car couldn't sit still due to all the bumps. My body is aching, but at least I finished and have only one more race to get my regional license.

Somebody had in car video during quals Saturday and you can kind of see how bumpy the track was. You can tell by how his car sounds going through this corner. BTW there were two green Neons there, and this one wasn't me!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RTqOpbsCiKA

wow sounds like a tiring weekend. Glad you finished. also what a great video.YIPPEE 1 race to go.
Happy for you jay.

Hey, Weas, thanks for the updates. Tough luck..glad you got out of those 2 spins with no dents. 11/20? That's great!

I can't imagine driving 98.5 Miles in one hour, that Neon must have been shaking a lot. Road vibration is tiring, especially with NO POWER STEERING! I'm impressed.

I ran 2 20 minute races in the 40-50 mph gocarts, and I was drenched and drained after each one of those, I can't imagine an hour in a real car. Average speed of 98.5 mph seems really fast to me. What was your max speed? (how fast can a stock neon go anyway?)

as fast as the gerbils run on the wheel.

Great stuff WK!

I'd guess that replacing part$ is a standard procedure after any racing weekend. Doesn't sound like anything too expensive got broken.

I wonder how hard it would be to mount a video camera...?

Not sure how fast a STOCK Neon can go...these have been tweaked a bit.

Fastest I went here, I guess the drag strip part of the course would be a quarter of a mile...was just over 115mph. A couple other straighter sections of the course I could get into upper 90s to about 100mph, and when I had a chance to peek in the corners I was trucking along around 75-85. I think the slowest parts were only down to about 60 through the really tight corners. Figure I ran 98.5 miles in an hour so the average speed is easy to figure...lol.

*edit* Forgot to mention it's got a 5 speed tranny...and I don't use 5th gear. I run 4th up to about 6500-7000RPM which has been just right for the straights I've run so far.

At my driver school the front straight might have been just a bit longer and I made it up to around 120mph.

I asked about a camera because that would be really cool. My buddy said he did it in the past but only had an ancient huge VHS camera. I might look at getting a pencil camera to mount somewhere.

The wife backed out at the last minute (I had her listed as "Crew" for me) and was supposed to take pictures. I bought her a Canon Rebel XT 350D...mainly so she could get some great shots of my races...but that doesn't seem to be paying off...lol. I'm asking around if anyone has some shots of me so standby.

Don't underestimate the racing Neon.

That little 4 banger can hit about 80 in 3rd gear before the rev limiter, and 120 in 4th. I don't use 5th so I'm sure she has quite a bit more gerbils.

I still can't believe you averaged 98 MPH! That's really cruisin dude!

Impressive. No wonder you were sweating bullets. I'd be such a pile of mushy goo after a race like that!

Way to go.

Fun reading Weasy!
You're actually out there doing it, and that's just great.
98 mph average in those circumstances is pretty impressive.
Can't wait for Weasy Racin' Part Trois - Weasy gets his license...