USERA/Busch East Event at Lime Rock

[Ken Grammer]

We need to start hearing from teams planning on entering the USERA Carbotech Enduro that is running on the Busch East weekend September 29-30 at Lime Rock Park.

For those of you who have been lucky enough to race on this weekend in the past, you already know it is a great weekend with lots of fans.

Details and entry forms can be found on our web site at www.usenduro.com

No... if we get big number of any specific IT class, we will seperate them into their own race group (race within the race). For example, if we get a dozen or so ITS cars, we will create a seperate class so that rest of the IT cars are not battleing the ITS cars for finish positions.

Please e-mail [email protected] with any questions you may have.

[dazzlesa]

Anybody going????? :unsure:

[Ken Grammer]

[EDITED to removed confusing reference to VIR weekend]

We are receiving a lot of phone calls... I'm just trying to get people to let us know who is in so we can plan the weekend...

Personally, the IT community should be all over this weekend. IT owners have been begging for this type of weekend and waiting around for SCCA to offer then some sort of higher profile or higher status weekend.

Short of being classified in the ranks of Grand-Am Cup (which isn't going to happen), this and the VIR event the following weekend are some of the best weekends I can ever remember offer to IT drivers.

Call us at 434-797-1866 or e-mail me at [email protected] if you are planning on attending...

[TimM ITB]

OK, I'll bite............what is meant by "With two races on the scheduled, plus the bonus sprint race in front of the fans Sunday morning" ?? Racing at Lime Rock on Sunday?? If you meant to say "Saturday" instead of Sunday, when exactly would the sprint race be put into the schedule? (I looked at the schedule posted on your website and it seems pretty full) What would be the length? Where can we see if anyone has registered yet?

thanks,

Tim Mullen
ITB # 86

[Ken Grammer]

Wow... it's been a long day! :(

I mixed up LRP and VIR... of cousre there is no racing at LRP on Sunday and the races at LRP will only require one driver.

I was answering an LRP post with VIR weekend details. That's what happens when:

a) you have back-to-back race weekend you are trying to promote, and

B) you try to answer questions when you have had a long day!

I apologize for the confusion.

The LIME ROCK entry list can be found here: http://www.usenduro.com/lrp/LRP%20SM%20Entry%20List.pdf

[Rabbit05]

Ken ,
This may be a silly question, BUT, as a racer with a very limited budget. Are race radios completly mandetory ? I would like to run the Busch weekend at Lime Rock with my Volkswagen. But not if I have to spend a grand on radio's to do it. Is there a way around this rule? We get by on a regular race meet without them. Any info would be great ! :D


John VanDenburgh

VanDenburgh Motorsports
ITC Rabbit #05

[Ken Grammer]

At the pro level, race directors (stewards) relay significantly more information from the tower over the radio then you get on a typical club race weekend. We let the teams know about everything from course conditions, cars off course, pace car status, to when the pace car is coming off the track in advance of a restart.

I understand the concern and would recomend that you comsider using a basic "family" style radios which seem to work for most drivers. At least that way the team can talk to you. Another suggestion would be to install a scanner set to our frequency in the car so you can hear our tranmissions.

But here is what I am willing to do for this weekend. We issue a tech bulleting REQUIRING minimally that your crew chief monitor race control. Again, this can be accompished using an inexspensive scanner and headset. We will RECOMMEND two-way comms between the crew cheif and driver.

That should address your concern.

[lateapex911]

So, I went to the usenduro website to find out more about the Lime Rock race, and maybe I'm batty, but I could find no links to anything othr than videos and press releases ...and the entry list link led me toa 404 error... Server down or....?

[JLawton]

If it was a sprint race, I'd be all over it!!

[BobsAuto]

Here's a question that I think may be pertinant. Is flagging going to be per NASCAR rules? i.e. incident brings out yellow, thus full course yellow as opposed to incident area yellow as in SCCA rules?

[lateapex911]

Doubtful..I am sure USERA will be going by the usual local yellow unless serious methods.

But...the website is up and running better now, but I still can't see the link to the series rules, just the event supps and specific rules. Where do I go to get the full picture?

[Ken Grammer]

Sorry for the inconvenience. I was working on the web site today to make the race infornation (schedules, supps, entry forms) quicker and (hopefully) easier to find. I will be tweaking the colors a bit, bit the information will be easily available for the current races on the opening page.

We will be used bascicall the SCCA club flagging rules with the "pro" waved white at start to indicate the start of the last lap.

Now as to the quetsions of race distance, the Spec Racer race will be 75 minutes. The SM/TC/X5 class race will be 90 minutes. I realize that some will call an hour and half race a "long sprint" race, others will call it a "short enduro"! :)

Either way, the races are planned to be run with no mandatory stop.

Again, thanks for the patience with the site and I apologize for picking the time you were trying to get your ionformation as the time I had it down!

[lateapex911]

OK, I've been digging some more to learn about the usera rules as they pertain to the LRP race.

Ken, correct me where I'm wrong. I went and found another link from another thread that had the "froms" in the browser address, but the link came up 404.

So.....entry for the race, which includes the practices and qualifying, is $450

My lic fee is $50.

And I need a radio for my crew, or a scanner for me,

And I need matching shirts for my crew.

The race is 90 minutes, backs up to the 6PM cufew, which means it will either run the full distance, or be shortened if there is any delay in the day that exceeds the "fluff" time in the schedule.

No mandatory pit stop, so most will run it straight.

My feedback is this: I'd be interested in the race, but I'm just a single racer. I have no crew to wear matching shirts and to talk to. And I really don't want to add a radio system and shirts and have to pay a crew for this event. On top of that, I know how the NASCAR folks run the weekend. Everyone else is their puppet. If it rains, Usera could have no race. If there's an incident in the Busch race, Usera could have a very shortened race. So there is a bit of gamble to entering. (thats normal, I know, but having run the weekend before, it's a larger gamble than usual) As an individual driver, I'm probably not the kind of guy you're looking for to run the eventanyway, but I'm trying to make a case for the event. But the crew, the radio and the uniform thing are giving me pause, as it's likely to be a hour plus sprint race, essentially.

I might suggest that the requirement to have crew and a radio be waived for this event, which is really more of a sprint than it is an enduro.

[Ken Grammer]

I apologize for the sudden broken links in past posts. I had developed the site using Publisher and I upgraded to a later version this weekend while revamping the site to make things easier to find. It changed the names of the files, so it broke the older posted links in the process! I will try to go edit the past links.

I addressed the radio issue earlier. We will wave the requirement for radios but I still feel strongly that we MUST have the crew chief monitor Race Control. But guys, this isn't as serious a problem as some may make it out to be. If you don't have a formal crew chief, pair up with a friend and ask them to help you.

As for the team shirt requirements, we will wave that rule as well. I fully understand that no one wants to spend money on matching shirts for one race. Our goal isn't to add cost... it has been to present a "professional" show. But we also understand we need to be flexible and will do so for this race.

I will get the competitor bulleting drafted and posted so we can put these two issues to rest officially by early next week. Radios and Team shirts will be "recommended" for both LRP and VIR.

You are correct in saying that we will be at the mercy of NASCAR for the weekend. However, I have been told that if it rains and the schedule slides, we WILL get our time. Now we may be moved up early if it rains early, but I've been told that if the time comes for our race, we will get our time. Of course I don't control the weekend, so we will have to stay open minded and flexible.

My last comments would be to say that we most certainly are looking for the individual drivers, as well as "teams". The whole reason we created USERA was to give drivers of all levels a place to race more professionally... to serve as a bridge series between club races and very expensive series like Grand-Am.

[gran racing]

Ken,
I realize that it's probably too late for this year, but is there any possibility of running the race at a different time of the day? One of the things that could be appealing about this event is to run it with numerous spectators watching. Having the race at the very end hurts the chances of this happening. In years past, people tend to stay for the main race then start packing up. Heck, even if the race were shorter (which may go against your series purpose a bit) but were more in the spot light, I think there would be many more people interested.

[Ken Grammer]

I understand the question, but we don't control the scheduling of high profile weekends.

Regardless of the time slot, this is a great weekend and IT guys who have been begging for higher profile races shouldn't miss out on this weekend!

[Ken Grammer]

Current SR and SM/TC entry lists:

http://www.usenduro.com/lrp/LRP%20SR%20Entry%20List.pdf
http://www.usenduro.com/lrp/LRP%20SM%20Entry%20List.pdf

9 SRFs and 12 SM/TC. That's a good start. We need to double those numbers to have some really great shows!

Most of the TC cars are ITA. Are there any more out there wanting to join in the fun?

[PDoane]

If anyone considereds this/my question to be hijacking this thread, I'll post it separately; but I was wondering if anyone still had results for the Busch North IT support race from back in 1998? That was the first/last time I ran with the NASCAR guys.

I'm sure it wasn't USERA back then, but the 1998 experience was definitely frustrating. Almost every session was cut down/shortened because of delays during the NASCAR session. As I recall, we got 2 laps for qualifying. That was also the year that one of the NASCAR crew guys was killed during the race (car hit the pit guardrail and sent a peice flying into the pits), so we wound up with 1/2 the IT race length after the red-flagged NASCAR race. I will say that running on Sat meant a lot of the fans stayed to watch and were still there applauding us as we drove out that night. My guess is that the fans that are camping stay Sat night and leave Sun.

[Ken Grammer]

You are correct in that USERA was not involved with the 1998 weekend.

It is a fact of life that the Busch East guys are the PRIME show and we will have to remain flexible and work around their schedule. I have been assured by track management that the only way we would get a shift in schedule would be due to rain. I've stewarded and worked this event for several series (Cooper, AGT, World Challenge, Miata Cup, etc.) in the last couple of years there and have found the current Busch guys great to work with.

While I can't promise our time wouldn't be shortened for unforseen reasons, I do have confidence in the track and Busch that our needs would be considered, and understood, in all decisions.

And I agree... the fans have been great at past events. They show up looking for a great weekend of racing and enjoy getting to meet the teams and drivers.