Interest in a night enduro in the MX5 on Sebring? *NOT PART OF THE VSRA SEASON!*

I really want drive a night endurance race on Sebring within the next month or so and was wondering if any of you guys (or girls! ) had any interest in competing in the race? Tentatively this is what I was thinking for the specifics.

Date : TBA but I would like to do this on a Friday or Saturday evening so that a local buddy of mine can compete with us. He works too late during the week on Thursdays to compete with us regularly unfortunately and really wants to do something like this. I was thinking possibly 08/10/2012 or 08/17/2012. If Friday is inconvenient then we can look at doing it on the corresponding Saturday.

Time Structure : The laps are pretty long on Sebring International in the MX5, around 2:30.00 or so. Obviously the race is going to be two hours long but qualifying and practice is in the air. I am thinking of doing it like VSRA Cup and doing 40 minutes of practice and then only 15 minutes of qualifying. Now this will ONLY give you 6 laps roughly to put down a solid Q lap but being that this is an endurance race qualifying is not as crucial as it would be in a small sprint race so I think this is adequate and would cut down on the seat time that you have to invest in this race.

Start time : It seems that 8PM EST/7PM CST seems to work well for the majority in VSRA. That would put us finishing the race right at 11PM CST/12AM EST.

Track : Obviously Sebring International Night!

Car : Cadillac CTS-VR Fixed Setup!. General consensus is that this car is more suited to the track and will make for a more exciting experience. I have to agree that it is going to definitely make for a more exciting race and this will be practice for season 2 of VSRA. With all of that being said PLEASE be sure to finish the race and bring the speed into the car slowly. Take the first couple of laps conservatively and let the tires heat up and let the running order settle and then lets get into it!

Format : Timed event at 120 minutes OR 60 laps. Pace car rolling start to help heat up the tires!

Pit Stops : I am thinking that there should be a minimum 2 pit stop mandate on the race with additional stops if needed at the discretion of the driver. Each driver must make at least ONE pit stop during each hour of the race. All drivers must take full tires and fuel during each stop to make it easy.

AND PLEASE REMEMBER THIS RACE IS FOR FUN! THIS RACE IS NOT PART OF THE VSRA SEASON 2!

Ideas? Thoughts? Chime in and let me know.
Lets make it happen!

-Curtis

I am definately interested. However, I am not sure on what my schedule will look like. It is hard enough to keep thursdays open. If I am available that day I will definately run with you!!

What would work better for you out of those two days Scott?

Up in the air really. Both are the same. You schedule it and I will do my best to be there. However, If you really want to make it interesting id do a multi class event.

It sounds good. I'm down for any racing really.

I just need the track... err lol

and.... 3 pit stops? I've never raced sebring, so I'm just curious.

Ripp3d wrote:

It sounds good. I'm down for any racing really.

I just need the track... err lol

and.... 3 pit stops? I've never raced sebring, so I'm just curious.

Exactly, at least we already have the car! The track is awesome and has a ton of history behind it. The 12 hours of Sebring is one of the oldest (If not the oldest) endurance races held in the US. I think it would be cool to do a 2 hours of Sebring haha.

I have been considering cutting this down to two stops one during each hour just to make it easy. Matter a fact I think I will probably change that now just for the simplicity of it.

It sounds "logical" lol.

I work both Friday and Saturday at 8:30pm, so daytime Saturday is my vote.

I'm in. Whichever day is fine.

Awesome! So far two of my three local guys have confirmed that they will be competing as well. I am hoping to get around 10 or so at least since the track is so big.

Looks like all 3 of my local guys are down to compete in this so it appears we have around 7 confirmed folks who want to race in this. For most that I have talked to Friday evening seems to work best and most others do not care so I am leaning towards a Friday evening race.

Someone in teamspeak last night mentioned wanting to do this but not in the MX5 and potentially hinted at going with the Caddy CTS-VR which is what it appears we will potentially be running next season. After a bit of thought I think this is plausible because it could essentially be practice for the upcoming season since it looks like that is what we will be driving but at the same time I honestly feel that the racing action would possibly suffer due to how difficult the car is to drive especially at night and for an endurance stint. What do you guys think, do you feel comfortable driving the CTS-VR? From the poll for season 2 it appears that everyone is leaning towards it so I assume they are pretty comfortable with it but I just wanted to ask and see if everyone would rather drive that car and how they think it would impact how much "fun" this event will be. The CTS-VR would cut the lap times down to around 2 minutes and give us around 60 laps total for the race instead of 48 in the MX5.

My biggest objective here is for EVERYONE to finish the race and get some great racing in. If we go with the CTS-VR my emphasis on my prior statement will be amplified compared to the MX5 which most everyone is comfortable with tight racing.

I'm still in.. I think it will be more exciting with the Caddy..

Ok so the results are in on the car choice and....... We will be running the CTS-VR with a fixed setup! General consensus is that with the course being so large and the multiple long straights that the car is more suited to the course and will make for a more exciting race, I agree with this. This car is also what we will be using in season 2 of the VSRA so it be practice for our next race season which will be nice.

My biggest concern here is that the car may be quite the handful especially considering the conditions. With 40 minutes of practice and 15 minutes of qualifying I believe everyone should have an ample amount of time to become acclimated with the car. I am going to implement a rolling start behind the pace car to help warm the tires and also set the running order.

I am going to put up a new post with the date and details set soon.