Phokaioglaukos

The title says it all. This will be my 5th race and first enduro, the 12 hours Summit Point on the 14th, Noon to Midnight. My team knows the track (pretty well) but none of us has night driving experience (no lights on the track, just on the cars) or enduro experience. It's a ulti-class race, and we'll be in one of the slower classes (and one of the slower cars in the class, too). We do have paid race support (crew chief on radio, gas, tires, brake pads, brake disks, etc.).

Any suggestions welcome.

str8ner

Chris,

Same for us. I guess we will be competing for the last place! Who is supporting you?
See you at Summit.

Stephan

prg

I'll also be joining you in a 2nd gen RX7 run by Stephens Bros racing. I've never raced with lights nor at summit point. I'm pretty excited. Longest stint I've ever driven before has been an hour in a spec miata. This should be a lot of fun!

Rassel

You need to tell a bit more about your general enduro experience. You've done them before, with driver changes and pit crews?

Phokaioglaukos

Stephan/prg, we'll be in the white SSM car supported by RP Performance.

Magnus, we have NO enduro experience. I've been doing SM and SSM at Summit Point in the same car on the same weekend, that's two 30-minute races. For the other two this will be their first race. We've all done one hour stints at Summit Point at a recent test day.

Rassel

Oh! You're in for a total new experience. Endurance can be a bit different from sprint races and they are really really fun!

Here are some things off the top off my head:

I presume you have pit stops, so there is a lot to practice and gain there. I suggest you have a nice long chat with the crew chief on how to do them smoothly - in the pit he's the dictator! If he's experienced he can bring a ton of good advice.

Since it's some of the guys first race experience - they'll probably sleep really bad the night before, so make sure everyone has a really good night sleep the night before that. The body can take a poor nights sleep if it's in good shape, but not two in a row without affecting performance too much.

Make sure you know/practice driver-, tire-, pad/disc- changes and how to fuel correctly and also how to combine them. Get to know all the hand signals and signs (and screams!) for pit work. Well, there's a lot more to it, but a sloppy pit stop that kills 20s is a PITA to gain back on the track. Make sure the driver that is up for next change is dressed correctly and can jump in the car within 20s. (Keep all equipment really close).

The good old expression "To finish first, you first have to finish" is a golden rule in endurance! This is not sprint race Obvious, but once you're out there it's still tempting to go nuts! Keep an eye on fuel, tire and brake consumption. Keep an eye on the gauges such as water and oil. Decide on how sensitive the car is on setup and if you can drive on curbs or not.

Give feedback between the drivers and the crew on how the car/tires/brakes etc.. behaves. If you have Motec (or equivalent) USE IT! Keep a dialog between the drivers all the time and discuss on how you take different sections.

If you have radio between car/crew - keep them updated. I'm sure your crew chief will ask you during the race if you get tired. Either you feel tired or you'll notice you start making mistakes. If so, don't drive too long and get ready for a change. If your drivers have problems keeping speed, trail other cars as much as you can. AVOID the debris lying around outside the line. Frequent visit there and you have a puncture coming up. Be careful with the gearbox - don't shift too hard. Avoid dragging the brakes.

Drink a lot of water, avoid coffee (and beer obviously), eat light frequently and keep the sugar level up, make sure you take a **** frequently before and during race (when your not in the drivers seat of course!).

Get to know the rules, you probably have a certain amount of driver changes you need to do and when you can do them. If you have code 60 rule - learn it and learn how to use it!

Night is very special. You'll start missing brake, apex and acceleration points. The line will be fuzzy to keep if you don't have great light. This is completely normal and takes a lot of practice. If you can find someone who's keeping a good pace, stick behind and follow. The car actually will probably perform better with colder air and less heat on the track. There is a reason why the old-timers at Nürburgring 24H severely spank several young hotshots during night.

Well, this list can be made really long. But endurance is great great fun, I hope you have a great time!

P.S What is a SM and a SSM? Not familiar with the terms.

J richard

Having just done my first night event, +1 on it being a different experience. As the sun goes down the shadows across the track and sunlight into your windshield are a bit of an issue but if you do early mornings its about the same, a strip of tape or vinyl across the top of your helmet visor allows you to tip your head to block out the glare, fold the end on itself so you can tear it off if it gets in your way. Once it gets dark its a whole different story. Your headlights only light where you are pointed, on a track where you are constantly looking beyond that to track out or the apex of the following corner, you don't have that reference anymore, its dark. So you have to shorten up all your visual clues. Make sure you're lights are good and aimed in the right direction, after this last time I'm upgrading the wattage and type of bulbs in the headlights to PIAA high output, and that they are properly aimed, for the street they are biased down to the right, for the track you want them spread so you can see off center for the apex. At Petit all the lizards had HID projection lamps in the little round cutouts in the bumper, I noticed that they only added them for the night races as they weren't there at Longbeach. I finally backed off to let the car in front of me light the track, but he missed an apex and nearly drove off the track with me in tow, so you can't just fall into lead follow, you still have to drive your line. Anyway, it should be a blast...have fun.

Kurt R

Stay out of the way of the white Integra. I'll be there crewing for them.
The pits are small, so organize your stuff well so you won't be running around searching for stuff when you really need it.
You not only have to worry about your light ahead of you, but competitor's lights behind you when they come up to lap you - we put window tint over the mirrors, others put tape stripes on the back window so that you can block their lights.
Don't count on the car ahead of you to stay on the track in the dark - or the light for that matter.
The race is the wrong time to find out you are night blind. We had a driver like that years ago, and had to finish the race with two drivers.

Listen to the Professor if he chimes in on this thread. He has years of experience doing this.

DogInBlack

Circuit Motorsports

You don't have enough lights on the car. I've yet to hear anyone comeback from an night enduro and think they had enough light.

As for aiming them I agree with J Richard. Ahead is nice but don't forget that the apexes are nice to pickup earlier than when you are at them.

VaSteve

I'll be there crewing for an E30 belonging to a friend's boss....hell, i don't even know what color it is yet! I think you guys are in the same class in the Spec Miatas?

Professor Helmüt Tester

Rule #1: Slow down
Rule #2: Don't get tangled up in anybody else's problem
Rule #3: Don't fall off the track

Have a way of keeping hydrated in the car. It gets freakin hot at Summit Point in June, and you'll likely be in there for 1.5-2 hours at a stretch, as that's the fuel range of a Piñata at the Point, so you'll need ~quart of cold liquid riding along. Lite beer works best, but plain water is probably simpler, and it's not so crappy tasting when it gets warm. Consider big bicycle bottle with hose and camelback bite-valve, or a camelback itself. It just needs to be something that's really obvious and handy that won't get forgotten on a rushed pit stop.

Lights - hopefully, crewchief/car-owner has added a combination of flame-throwers and wider angled cornering lights. Biggest mistake that I regularly see is cars with cornering lights aimed too wide...If you think they need to be aimed at an apex 75' in front of the car, you need detox. You're going a bajillion mph...if they're aimed that close, by the time you see anything, it's too late to do anything about it.

Most common call over the radio, from pits to car, in endurance racing: Slow down. Duh. Make it last, back-time your fuel strategy, watch for FCYs and maybe try and skip a fuel-stop or two.

Der Professor will be there, but for the first time in history will NOT be driving at the SP12 hour, as we're taking a year off the enduro thrash.

PHT
5 (or is it 6 ?) class wins at the SP12.

PedroNole

Seeing as my buddy and I won it last year....

Do well on all of the things you can control:

1) Develop a good plan with as fast a pace possible. Yes you have to "finish to win" but we only won by 21 seconds.... You'll need some luck here and there but it's damn near a 12 hour sprint race.
2) No penalties, no penalties, no penalties
3) Don't waste ANY time with the pit stops. Take extra people if necessary but your pit stops have to be flawless.
4) Lots of lights
5) If you take/buy fuel in drums, make sure you put a filter on the pump. You never know what's at the bottom of a fuel drum.

If my son wasn't in Little League All Stars, I'd be back there. It's a great race.

If you want, send me a PM and I'll give you my cell phone and I'd be happy to talk with you about it.

jakermc

I did my first enduro in April, but only 4 hours and no night driving. What I learned:

1) Work on your conditioning and get yourself in shape. Thankfully I started training in the gym a few months before the event and it paid off. Even in 30 minute sprints I notice a big difference now. Hopefully you've been preparing.

2) Pit stops efficiency is HUGE. We finished 10th out of 31, a good showing, but lap analysis later revealed we could have had a decent shot at the podium with better pit stops. Our bottleneck was fueling and we had stops about 90 seconds slower than the winning car. Our crew was unfamiliar with the equipment we were using and that hurt us. We also got called into the penalty box for a 1 minute hold for a crew member going over the wall early. It takes a lot of laps to make up for mistakes in the pits.

It was a great experience and I can't wait for the next one. I hope you have as much fun as I did, enjoy!

MHC2S

I have raced the 24 Hours of Nurburgring 3 times in my life ( 1999,2000, and 2001) see pic below of yellow Z3. Driving that track at night in the rain turned me from a little boy into a real man
As fare as the car goes be more than prepared. Go over every single thing. You won't beleive what can fail in these kind of races and I have seen it all. As fare as you go, get as much rest as possible, eat pasta and drink a lot of water.