Am I the only ZR1 at the BBORR this year?

[GrayZ]

I am green with envy, Rick, here's hoping you win a trophy.
i really enjoyed this post and all the great info (curtis)
=D>

[threestar40]

Originally Posted by cward

I remember my first ORR. I could not sleep the night before the race. Might have dozed a couple of hours. At the course at 6 am and then waited until after 10 am to finally start the 1st leg. And it was really cold. I was sure glad I had that hot fire suit. Still would go start up the Z and turn on the heater. Then proceeded to go out and get DQ for running 179 on a 160 tech. I learned in later races. I would show up about 7:15 or so. That worked OK because I was running in Super Sport so was sent to the starting line with the Unlimited cars as we went off first. Big Bend is a really fun course with lots of turns. It is a blast. I think I did the 118 miles in around 45 minutes in 2001. The ZR-1 is made for this type of racing.

Good luck, Rick. Drive safe.

Curtis

This is about it. I had a very similar experience, although I didn't get DQ'ed. I could have very easily though. They enforce the rules very strictly i.e. A 140 tech speed means 140. If they catch you doing 143, your done, they won't let you do the return run...This happened to 3 people. The other thing is, that if your target speed is 125 your not supposed to go 30 mph below that speed in any straight. (They don't shoot radar in the turns.) It would be pretty embarrasing to get DQ'ed for going too slow here, but it has happened, I suspect from people trying to win a trophy and having too much time "in the bank" so to speak.

I showed up at 6 with all the other rookies but the wait wasn't too bad...next time I'll know. Curtis, I dropped your name to Ted, the only other ZR1 I saw and also Mike Powers...they both smiled and said to say Hello.

I'll give ya'll my best account of the event:

There is much more too it than I will write here, but these are the highlights out of my mind.

First, race workers go out very early in the morning and clean up all the roadkill from the night before as obviously, that would be very dangerous on the road because of the roadkill itself and also the buzzards.

After the course sweep, You go and park at a pre-designated spot in the park and then at about 7:45 everyone drives out to the road and "grids"...It's actually all very organized...the hardest part is the wait. For example, I was grid #67 and went sometime between 10 and 11.

All the fastest cars go first...the unlimited's start about 3 minutes apart and the rest of us go either a minute or thirty seconds apart...the faster guys maybe 2 minutes, but you get the idea.

So I go. Heart pounding, sort scared out of my mind but very excited and trying to relax, My wife was my navigator and she felt the same way, she did an awesome job and I was so happy to have her there, thanks H.

On that note, if you have kids, one of you at least should probably stay at home and make sure the other one has good insurance! We have no kids, so it wasn't an issue.

So back to the race, I get it up to my tech speed very quickly which is 140...This is the fastest they will let you go as a rookie open road racer, and let me tell you, it was all I could handle as a first timer, especially in the twisties. I could have gone faster and had to back off in the straights for sure but this was absolutley fine for me especially since I have the 4:10's and I was running in fifth. Next time I can tech 168, but it's only that much more dangerous. I have to tell all of you people, I was not my first choice as driver, I'm not too good at it, I wanted to navigate, but my driver was in Europe, so I did it with my wife.

So I'm hauling *** down the road as fast as I wanted to go...the back half of the course has a lot of turns a lot of them blind, some doubles, up hill exits, downhill exits, Lot's of blind crests which is unsettling to say the least going 140, some you need to power through and sometimes there are turns on the other side...your course notes help you through this if you have a navigator. If you don't have a navigator, I guess you just have to memorize all 59 miles of it although one half of the course is very straight. The bottom line is that it is a fairly challenging course.

I survived the first leg and don't feel like I did too bad but didn't drive my car to near it's potential...in other words, the car had a lot more balls than I did. Sure, I stayed right at 140 through the straights and sweepers, but the turns is where I lost it all, it can be very nervewracking when you can't see around a corner, don't know how sharp it is and don't know if there is another corner or bend on the other side. I had two girls in front of me, one of them very knowledgable and fast, they were in a C5 and the guy behind me had a blown svt cobra David Mizler...he was also a rookie for this event, but this guy is an awesome driver. On the first leg, he passed me. I felt humiliated, but this guy had a ton of track experience and has been around car's practically his whole life driving, wrenching, selling parts, the best friend I met there. I knew he would pass me on the way back as well as he was not trying to achieve his target speed, he was out to have fun and drive his car as fast as he could...that's what I was doing as well. He gave me a lot of advice and help along the way...so at the end of the first leg, I was extremely humbled. but I think I came in about right on time for my target speed, that is, I averaged about 125 over the whole course, that's 59 miles in about 28 minutes and change.

For the second leg, I started to feel much better in the car, but still not driving it to it's potential in the corners...it just takes experience that I didn't have. David passed me fairly early as all the corners are fairly early in the 2nd leg. Then I passed the girls in front of me as they were trying to win a trophy, and they did! I finished the second leg about 1 minute early, so I improved and felt really happy to be alive and safe.

So I finished my first 118 miles in open road racing in about 55 minutes.

It was the experience of a lifetime. I feel it's a really rare thing to get to do something like this on an open road and I'm so happy I took the time to experience it myself. The ZR1 is absolutely awesome in this event, I believe, this truly IS what it was built for. It feels so good to use the car in this way. We all finished up about 5 p.m. and it all went off without anyone being killed except one buzzard by the first unlimited car and a few birds in grills. Can you imagine hitting a buzzard at 175?!!!!

It hit right on the a-pillar on the navigators side...she had to clean blood and guts off of her helmet and out of the car when she got to the other end and it peeled a little metal off the top of the car, but they fixed it and went back! The lady was very cool about the whole thing and was glad the safety guys told her to put her helmet visor down before she left!!!!!

Her husband said she never cusses, but when they slowed down at the other end and the birds head fell in the window, she said, and I quote, "GET ME THE F### OUT OF THIS CAR!" She looked like a very nice fiftiesh lady, I could only imagine how she felt. I'm glad they were ok, it might have been worse.

You would hate to break your car out there on the course as if you do, you have to pull off the road and can't pull back on until the entire race is over...if you do, according to the race director, he will personally burn your car to the ground as that is one of the most dangerous things you can do in an event like this. It would be a long day in the desert if that happened, so make sure everything is as perfect as you can make it before you attempt something like this.

Rick =)

[91King]

Rick

Great post! Sounds like you had a great time. I am planning to do BBORR one of these days.

[4DSZR1]

Great Post about your first ORR, and very enjoyable to read. Makes me want to give it a try myself.

Thanks for posting it