When I was in the tire store on Saturday one of the techs stopped me and said he raced with a Chump team in a 4G civic.
It's funny some of the comparisons you get from the "unwashed masses".
I like to think of myself as pretty open-minded and pragmatic, and I like to hear opinions like your tire guys..
I must disagree to some of it, however.. they are of course his opinions though..
I've run SCCA for about 2 years now, probably 40 races (20 race weekends).
For the most part, I run with the same group of people. I run mid-pack, and all of the guys in front of me sunk a TON of money into their cars. I'm running STU on a Chump-ish budget (seriously), and all of the cars that are faster than me cost at least 3x as much.
That said, we're all friends. I race with- and against- my friends. If McClughan has a car problem, I'm trying to help him. when I was having handling issues at TMS earlier this month, Austin Snader loaned me his $$$ alignment gear and took the time to come help on my car while he was having serious electrical problems with his own car. At the end of the race, we drank each other's beer and I helped him take down his canopy.
then we all said our goodbyes until next time we see each other -- at the next race, at work, car club meeting, pool party at his house, you name it.
Back up a few months to the last LeMons race.. 2hrs into the race we lost our water pump belt. the guys right next to us just happened to be driving same car. "Hey, you guys have a belt we can steal?"
sure enough, a belt came flying out of the trailer.
unfortunately, we overheated the engine and blew the head gasket... damn.. well, it's 8hrs of racing today, let's go shopping. found an engine one of the shops at the track took in as a core.. borrowed engine hoist from random group of dudes and had the engine out in an hour or so..
got the engine back in and was ready to start with 1hr left on the clock for the day, unfrotunately one of our guys hooked the battery up backwards. DOH!! it fried the alternator and several fusible links in the fuse box. another sprint around the pits and we sourced the parts necesary from fellow competitors.
we wound up getting the car running about 10 min after the day's checkered flag.
So we went to the parts store and bought replacements for all the crap we borrowed, then we went back to the track and drank beer... with our LeMons friends..
next day we had the car running and it ran just fine. while we were loading up, we were trading war stories about the crappy SHO drivers and that damn E30 BMW.. and sho'nuff, we were drinking each others' beers too. After awards ceremony, we helped our friends load up their trailers, and even put down our beer push one broken car onto a trailer... then we all said our goodbyes until next time we see each other -- at the next race, at work, car club meeting, pool party, you get the point.
It doesn't matter what group I'm racing with, I'm racing with my friends. (and there's beer involved.)
The difference I see is that many crapcan teams only make one or two races a year. other teams make 10 or 15 a year. the ones who make multiple races become friends with many of those 80 or 100 cars on the track. there's friends, rivals, enemies, you name it. Just like in Club Racing..
the only difference is I'm racing a car in an enduro with mutliple drivers vs. a sprint race against those same drivers..