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I know I'm opening myself up to the wolves here but I will be racing this year for the first time. I will be ITS class I'm not looking to blow doors off just mainly learn as much as possible and build respect w' competitors. What should I expect in my first year in relation to car problems and possible rule & regulation issues that I may not want to encouter?
Where are you at?
Raymond
Welcome to the madness!
Just a couple ideas...
If you can hang with anyone local they will gladly mentor you, and thats huge. Even better if they have your kind of car.
That said, the biggest issues are often the silliest, like the paperwork, lic. items, physical, and so on. So read up on the website, and feel free to call hQ in Kansas early to get things lined up and resolved.
Secondly, the car needs to pass tech. It's mostly a safety exam, not really a rules thing. SCCA is really an "honor society" of sorts. The officials help to resolve conflicts, but rules infractions are most often left to the competitors to police themselves, protesting when they have to. Unless your car has grevious issues, or you are super fast right out of the box, absolute legality won't be your first concern.
Car reliability and safety are. So make sure the car has all the "consumables" freshened. Thinks like bearings, brake pads and rotors, and so on. Nut and bolt the entire car to check for proper tightness of fasteners. Check to be sure the belts and nets and your suit and helmet meet date requirements.
If you can, get the car teched before the first school. Some regions do this preseason. Check your regions website for info.
Finally, read the GCR, concetrating of the race procedures and the IT sections.
And most of all, have fun!!!!
What car and class? Where will you race?
I am in ITS class in the Northeast region. I live in southern NH and I have a 1993 Probe GT which I believe I will be the only one and I also understand that I will be outgunned by the looks of the GCR lineup it has posted but it's cheap and hopefully I will be able to learn with it.
Is the car already built? If not, you might want to strongly consider buying a pre-built car. Or if you must build one yourself, maybe rethink the car choice. Why start with a car that is poorly classed. Yeah I know, because you have it. (I was there myself.)
Racefreak, welcome aboard.
With the Probe, you probably have a decently reliable, if not the most competitive, ITS car.
I would not spend much money on anything my first year other than seat time. Get to the track as much as you can. Run tires down to the cord. See how they respond over their life. Use your motor as is, don't spend time and money on it that could be spent at the track. Once you get somewhat up to speed, do start fiddlign with things like spring rates and shock settings to get a feel for how they affect the car.
Also, find Ron Earp on this board and send him an e-mail. He knows more about Ford stuff than anyone I know, although the Probe in ITS is the Mazda clone, right?
When putting the car together, dont spend your money on some whizbang product that promises 5hp and 3ft lbs of torque, spend it on new rotors, calipers, pads (hawk blue are good) new brake lines and reliability/safety stuff. A new radiator and hoses will last you a season and are more important than the fun stuff...once you get some seat time start playing with the goodies like suspension and power upgrades. I also suggest running TOYO RA1 tires for your first season as they seem to last the longest and take a good amount of abuse. If you rotate them alot, you will get more time out of them. Never know, If you dont like the car and want to do a different one after a few races you will not have a ton of money in it too! Good Luck!
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affect the car.
Also, find Ron Earp on this board and send him an e-mail. He knows more about Ford stuff than anyone I know, although the Probe in ITS is the Mazda clone, right?
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Another good Ford guy is tderrone, if you can get ahold of him.
George
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input and ideas, they're always welcome.
There's a guy who races a Probe - he calls it Probenstein - in NASA MidAtlantic. Post a question at www.honda-tech.com in the Road Racing forum, and ask. (Yeah, it's an odd place to look but it's an odd car to race.) :)
K
Is a Mazda MX-6 LS the sister car? Do a lot of parts cross over?
Doesn't Racey Stacey drive a Probe? I think she chimes in once in awhile......
Stacey does drive a Probe IIRC, but it isn't the GT that we are talking about here.
This one is the Mazda twin, a 2.5L V6 with 164hp stock. Decent revs, decent torque. Parts availability is going to be tough. Good headers and a high quality limited slip may be non-existant.
The 'freak' has a long time "Buddy" (pun intended) to help him through the process. Should be fun!
AB
I talked to 'freak', also known as Dan, today (we work at the same place) about the progress of the car. It's almost at cage stage. We have a goal of having Dan at the April school at NHIS.Quote:
The 'freak' has a long time "Buddy" (pun intended) to help him through the process. Should be fun!
AB
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I tried to talk Dan into buying a 'prebuilt', but he wants the stress of building his own.
I have a contact (Chris M on here) already that's a Probe GT racer/owner (& the car is for sale in Ohio). So we have 1 "expert" to talk to. All other Probe GT 'experts' are welcomed to throw in $.02.
Great advice as I expected from here. It echos what I've been saying to him. I want to get him to some autocrosses too for more training.
PS- no word about big blue yet AB