Dealing without a crew

R

rasperin

New member
Hey guys, I had one other question. There should be no problem for me to race without a crew right? I'm going to plainly say this that there is no chance in hell that any of my friends at work/home or family would have a moments interest in crewing. My personal friends would rather be playing video games and my family is far too busy working or needing to do there own thing to help me in a hobby. How do those of you without a crew get by? How about those of you with a crew, how did you get that crew of yours?

Thanks!
 
You build a car as reliable as possible.
You do as much prep as you can before you load it on the trailer.
You get to the track early and stay late to get ready.
You drive at 95% and stay out of trouble to avoid damage you have to fix at the track.
You always have a back up plan.
 
I do a little of both. I have a friend from work who races a Formula Continental with another organization, VARA, when he races I crew for him, and he's helped me at some of my races. Other times I'm by myself, I'll set the tire pressures after practice, and leave them for the qualifying and race. I'll also check the tires if I might have flat-spotted, and re-torque the lugnuts otherwise. It's a full weekend either way, but a lot of fun.
 
jhooten said:
You build a car as reliable as possible.
You do as much prep as you can before you load it on the trailer.
You get to the track early and stay late to get ready.
You drive at 95% and stay out of trouble to avoid damage you have to fix at the track.
You always have a back up plan.
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What he said times two!
Do not even think about driver's school without help of some kind, get a high schooler, or check out your local Miata club meetings, you might have to pay for gas & meals, but driver's school is too demanding to attend alone.
 
I often run without crew. I get along fine except for two issues. 1) I'm not so young any more, and unloading/setup/teardown/loading takes it out of me, especially if it's hot. And 2) I can't get tire temperatures, so tweaking the setup is mostly by on-track feel. Dealing with car issues, getting to grid, etc is not a problem. But as previously mentioned, a bulletproof well-prepped car helps a lot. If something major comes up I'll pack it up instead of fix it at the track. Happened for the first time in seven years at the IT-Fest a few weeks ago when making it to grid for the Sunday race would have required a transmission swap.
 
Crew? I'm bringing "crew" to the Labor Day Summit Point event. They've already got Gettysburg planned for one day, a D.C. trip for another day, and watch racing for one. Crew is what Josh said. You'll meet people there, people will help whom you've never even met before; anything extra is a bonus. (Although I absolutely agree with bringing someone, anyone to schools.) It seriously is amazing what your fellow competitors and other racers will do to help you. Just be open to helping them, and it all works out. My suggestion is when you first start racing, introduce yourself to others in your class. If you see that they might use a hand, offer. You're just going to have to experience it to fully understand.

You drive at 95% and stay out of trouble to avoid damage you have to fix at the track.
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LOL! Ummmm, heck no (drive at 95%). Always stay out of trouble - even when you have crew, they'll appreciate that.
 
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jhooten said:
You build a car as reliable as possible.
You do as much prep as you can before you load it on the trailer.
You get to the track early and stay late to get ready.
You drive at 95% and stay out of trouble to avoid damage you have to fix at the track.
You always have a back up plan.
Click to expand...

JoshS said:
You'll make friends. There will be plenty of people to help out.
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honestly, this is part of what i was thinking with the crx. for the most part, they are reliable and there are lots of folks out there at the track and within the honda community that can help out.

even with spares. i was enroute to an event and got a call asking if i had an extra tranny with me. i did. my spare has more miles on it in a certain ITC car than in mine. and now i know it is a good tranny.

when i did a refresher driver school, i got an offer for crew help from a forum and it was a real help. you can do a school without help but i would not recommend it. there are too many things going on that you do not anticipate. like meeting with instructor, etc. when you might need to look at the brakes, etc.

and whatever you get, autocross it first to get an idea of what happens when you exceed the limits of adhesion and to give you some experience in prepping the car, etc.

if you buy an off the wall car cause it is a great deal, the likelihood of someone else running a daewoo and having parts with them is real slim.
 
Having just been through getting on track drill this year, a helper at Driver's School is an absolute necessity; on race weekends a crew member is good to have around, but not 100% required. In my case, for schools and a race weekend it was my 13 year old former kart autocrosser son, who got brought along to handle tire changing, air pressure, refueling and helping me get belted in. Aside from the lunch break, there is no free time at schools and it is almost impossible to keep the car cared and fed without someone doing it while you are in class.

The race weekend the big kid had a sports conflict, I took my 12 year old daughter, who also has had enough kart experience too that the session I realized driving to false grid all belted in I hadn't set air pressure, she quite capably bled them to where they should be set at all 4 corners.

Once you are in a routine after 4 or 5 events, it does get easier, but help is always good to have around.
 
This is my 5th year racing, and I've never had any crew; even when friends have come to see me they aren't doing anything to the car. I even did my driver's school without a crew, but as others have noted it would have been really nice to have had even one person helping out there. So yeah, you can get by without a crew, but you better know your car inside out, and be able to fix everything that might go wrong. It also helps to have a car that is bulletproof.
 
Before I went to drivers school I hung out and helped other guys with the same kind of car. I got them to crew for me for the schools. Since then we all usually paddock together so if any of us have a big problem there are plenty of hands. I have had my own crew guy maybe 10 races out of 100.
 
Most everything has been covered, but I'll add this: make sure getting into (and, more importantly, out of!) your particular car is a one-man operation. Cool shirt, earbuds/radio rig (probably not an issue for you), helmet, HANS, harness, window net, gloves, maybe glasses, getting the thing fired - develop a routine that lets you do all this on your lonesome, even if your fingers (like mine) get nervous inside the 5-minute whistle ...

Related note: some guys see no need for an emergency brake in a race car, but I highly recommend one, especially if you'll be crewless.

Steve
 
I have spent most of my time without crew until I started meeting people at the track. You'll never be with out after that!

Also try to hook up with guys in your area to ask for advice, hang out with, etc.
 
you may come to the track as one , but you are rarey alone !unless your a pure a** . we often help other racers even the ones we race against , cause if we can't win i want another rx-7 to win ! ralph
 
i don't think i've ever once had crew at a race weekend. if you're mechanically capable it's no big deal at all. the only weekend i really wish i had crew was at my drivers school, there just wasn't any time between track/classroom sessions to keep tires/brakes/fuel/etc sorted.

the best advice here is to have the car fully prepped and ready to go before you leave your house. there are a couple honda CRX/EF civic guys that run in ITA that could help you, and a few miata guys at the track that used to be honda guys.
 
As others have said: For drivers school - you MUST have a crew. You will enjoy the experience 1000x more when you get out of the classroom session and your car is on the grid and ready for your next session. You can do it yourself, but it could be a very tough time.

Having a 'good' car makes a HUGE difference! My brother took a Prod car (Fiat 850!) to his drivers schools. I was part of the crew for the first one. We worked on that car ALL WEEKEND! We pushed it farther than it ran... (at least that is how it felt!) We actually got recognized at the end of the weekend for always having the car on the flase grid and ready for each session. There is 0 chance he would have passed the school without having a crew.

On a race weekend, get to the track early on Friday and make friends! (This is easy to do with racers!) You'll be doing all the small stuff yourself (tires, fuel, fluids...). If anything major happens, there 'should' be plenty of folks willing to pitch in and help out! We've all seen it first hand - everyone comes together to help out when someone needs it. You see a car come in on a hook, you stop over to see if they need anything. Most do not - but some do! Even if it is just providing moral support for the crew to get it fixed! Most racers want to have competition on the track and will do just about anything to help out!
 
Never had a crew for racing--that is why I gave up on Pro Rally.

Learn to wrench. Pack everything wisely--Just stuff you can change--at worse--overnight.

Things like spare engines, trannys and the like do not fit that category.

Be wise with tools. Carry what you need.

Heck, even though I have no crew, I often have time to help others.

x2 on driving conservatively. Don't abuse the mechanicals or the bodywork.
 
joeg said:
Never had a crew for racing--that is why I gave up on Pro Rally.

Learn to wrench. Pack everything wisely--Just stuff you can change--at worse--overnight.

Things like spare engines, trannys and the like do not fit that category.

Be wise with tools. Carry what you need.
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+1

i used to pack up about my whole garage worth of tools/spares/etc. now i just bring the basic stuff, and if anything major breaks "screw it, somebody hand me a beer."
 
When you go to the track make sure you park "in the mix of things" and not off in ytour own corner. The people around you will help. In the begining you might not know people but don't be afraid to ask for help. All of us want more cars on the track to race against and will help get you on the track no matter what. We (the other racers) don't always know if you are having trouble that is why it is important to ask people around you or others in your class. DON'T BE SHY!

Raymond "As for driving 95%... go 100% if you crash you will be amazed how many people show up with the tow truck drivers to help you get the car on the trailer... If nothing else you will make new friends quick :)" Blethen

PS: On second thought if Dave goes from 95% to 100% I am not sure any of us could catch him! Dave for the safety of the hubs you should back it down to 85% :)
 
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