Beginner’s Guide to Racing - Road America Ultimate Street Car Challenge Prep

Foreign. Hi everyone. Welcome back. Chris Stout here. In this episode we're going to be talking about the Ultimate Streetcar Association's racing. It's actually what got me in the Bug to buy the 2023 C8 Corvette that I'm going to be racing in. And I specifically bought it to be able to be a participant in this. I'll be doing it as a novice and in this episode we'll be going through what the rules are, what it's like to be a member of the association and some of the resources and things that they have available on the website. First off, when you join, you get a very nice kit. You get this cool cap, you get stickers. I'm a big fan of stickers. And you get a pretty cool and unique membership card. I don't know if it'll show up well in the video, but it's like laser cut with my name on it and number and the association. One of the other benefits is that you also get a discount when you are on track and being timed for their telemetry. You don't have to pay for that if you're a part of this. So that's kind of neat. The closest to me is Road America. I've ridden on it before, actually motorcycle racing courses. So I'm looking forward to getting back on it. That's been a couple of decades or so. One of the key things about participating in this is that there's a. There's five different categories that you participate in. I'll be talking about that shortly. But they do have a very large and nice specific set of rules. So it's available on the website. Make sure you get the latest edition. For me, this is the 2024 and I'll be stepping through this. I've got the highlights that are relevant for my car and I'll kind of speak generically to other cars as well. I also want to point out their website. There's a couple of different things, different places that you can find it. This one, and I'll put all these in the notes below. But this is the Optima site that specifically talks about it. You can also then look up driveusa.com and they do have a live stream if you have Roku. I've been watching some of their videos from 2022 and 2023 that are very helpful. They're fun to watch. They're pretty educational. I think they're at least an hour and a half and. And longer. So they're not just little short snippets. They might be available on YouTube. I haven't researched that. If I find those, I'll put those in the links or if anyone's familiar with them, please share them in the comments. And then specifically, like I mentioned before, I'm going to be going to Road America. So that's going to be round four, tail end of June here in Wisconsin. And Road America is just an awesome track and awesome raceway. So looking forward to all that. So next, let's dig into what the rules look like and safety equipment and other kinds of kit beside the car that you're going to be needing. So let's step through this document and step through the rules. Don't be intimidated by is fairly long and detailed. I wanted to have a physical copy so I could have it be available to me trackside if I needed something to be able to go through it and read it and highlight some of the things that are specifically important to me in my situation, which would probably be likewise for you if you're interested in it. Maybe this also might be a gateway for you to learn a little bit more about it, make it a little demystified and enjoyable for you and hopefully, hopefully get you involved in it as well too. So just to go over the table of contents, obviously, general rules, design and engineering, these are the ways that you're going to be judged. There are five, as I just mentioned, areas that you get to participate in, which I think is really cool. It's not just a go out there and race, but it's also a variety of different kinds of components to it and skill sets, which is exciting for me to work on and develop. So we've got design and engineering, we've got autocross, road rally, acceleration and braking challenge, which is kind of cool. The road course and then the point system. So let's relatively briefly go over what those are. For me, again, kind of the key fun things were to be able to participate in these different areas. So let me just kind of break those down for you. Each one of these scores up to 100 points each. For design and engineering, there's a variety of different kinds of classes. You can go bone stock out there, just off the showroom floor onto the race course, and that's pretty, pretty close to what I'm doing. There's an outlaw class that's so sophisticated and so modified that they don't know necessarily how to categorize them, which is really kind of a cool class. Some of those designs and stuff you can see on Motor Trend, you can see in a variety of different videos on YouTube that are just brilliant, just really clever. Very, very, very well done and with deep respect. Autocross is regular. What you might expect pylons on a flat surface. There's generally some kind of area where the race courses are to be able to do this. Sometimes it is, is a parking lot and so it's just cones. Biggest problem with this is people get lost. So be careful with that. And it's just, it's a fun kind of thing to be participating in as well as watching. The road rally is basically just kind of a point to point rally. Sometimes it's super, super short depending upon where it's at. And the idea is kind of like any other rally. Not too fast, not too, too slow and to be able to make it back. So most people do that fairly well. Again, keep in mind that the cars and the participants in this. I'm a novice. There are also folks that are licensed as race drivers, which is kind of cool too, something that you could work up to if that's an interest. But these are the cars. Most of them are not trailer queens. Most folks drive, drive that. They're their daily drivers as well. Even some of the modified ones, which is kind of neat. So they are licensed street worthy, so to speak, street legal kinds of cars. To be able to go get the groceries and then go autocrossing, accelerating and braking is kind of neat. You just literally do that. There's a, a start and you nail it. And there's some usually like a little bit of a curve. It's not drag race. A little bit of a turn to it and then you stop within a box. If you tap a pylon and knock it over in the box, you break it a little late, then that time doesn't count and you go over, get to have a do over. Depending upon the course and how many people are signed up, etc. There are usually multiple times that you can do this and your best time is what gets counted. Also keep in mind and be aware of this when you go to the website to sign up. There are specific times for it. I had to wait till 8 o' clock Central Time January 5th to be able to sign up for Road America. And then you complete a variety of different kind of questionnaire forms for that, mostly on your car and what, what classification for it, but there's also a fee for it. I believe it was $500. And again as a member of the club they then I don't have to pay extra for a transponder when I'm actually on the road course and then that is the kind of the biggie, the road course time trial where you actually will go out on Laguna Seca or wherever it might be for me again, road America and your fastest time. So those get parsed out by virtue of how many other cars there are. I think they limit it to 150. I could be wrong on that. I'm also looking to sign up for land speed racing. I know that's limited to 150 as well. So let's get on with it. GTS is going to be the classification that my Corvette 2023 Corvette Stingray is going to be in. It's all. These are kind of variations on the GT theme depending upon what it is. For me it's a 1990 and newer 3200 pound minimum weight and factory production two two seater which is what mine is and any all wheel drive. So that's how I get categorized as a gts. If I were to do other kinds of tweaks or things like that, it might get categorized as something else. But for me pretty much bone stock off the showroom is what that any car like that, even a C7, C6, etc. If you're into Corvettes, one of the things here's a little pro tip is to have suitable front and rear hooks. So in another video I'll show you the hooks that I have for that and how to install those. If you don't have those, it's not that you can't run, but you get an automatic five point penalty on your run. And I believe those are primarily required for being on the road course. I don't think you need them for anything else. So you can, you know, drive around certainly without them all the time. Some folks think they're pretty cool. I think they kind of spoil the look of my car. It's really kind of up to you, but it's just basically if you go off track, off road and need to be towed out that it's fairly easy to hook your car up and quickly do that. And it is fairly easy to do that without damaging your car. So engineering again is if you've done any kind of modifications, this is where you would talk about it. It's sort of like a concour four minute Concorde to kind of say here's what's what with my car. But also there's certain restrictions in terms of modifications that you have to maintain safety of it. So that's kind of fun. It'll be an interesting challenge of creativity on my part since I'm not doing a whole lot to my car. Autocross, pretty well known to most folks. Road, road, rally pretty much talked about the easy and quick acceleration braking I've already talked about. So I do want to spend just a moment here and then I'm going to show you the kit that I'm going to be using for this racing as well as land speed racing and kind of what the requirements are. You would really hate to show up at the course and not have the proper kit and not be able. If you could borrow something, that's fine too but maybe not optimal or comfortable. But they really. The key is safety. So for the road course, basically what this says, if you have any of these kinds of licenses. Awesome. That's great. Those would probably be aspirational goals for me since I don't have any of those. I'm going to be considered a novice which is great because I'd much rather be competing with people that are at a similar skill set to me. I have taken racing courses bondurant and stuff in the past. I was at Laguna Seca and done a variety of, you know, car kinds of related things on and off track. But I don't have any of these qualifying licenses. So again, seeing how this season goes, maybe that's something that I'll try and set up as a goal for the future for next year. But it doesn't automatically just dismiss you from being able to participate in this series. The key things I want to have you be made aware of is helmet. So it needs to be an SA 2015 or 2020 and again I'm going to show you I've got all the kit that meets these specs so you'll see examples of that and I'll tell you where I source those as well from Northstar and the great guys there in the Chicagoland area. Neck restraints need to be an SFI 38.1 or an FIA 88562010 or an SFI 3.3 neck collar. Most people discourage going with the neck collar because it really doesn't do the job. So I don't have that. And I'll show you what this looks like and how it clips up to the helmet properly mounted or current driver's restraints. So I don't have a roll bar, I don't have any tricky seats or anything. So in that context, pardon me, I was told that I would need that proper kind of neck restraint unless I had like 5 point racing harness which would mean a seat modification, etc. Etc which is not what I wanted to do. So I'll show you what I did without having to go to anything other than standard stock seat belts and stock seats. Again, you're welcome to modify those and make those changes too. That's very cool. But I was kind of at the upper limits of my budget for this so I kept all that stock. Also vis a vis fire suit, an SFI 3.2 A1. The advice I got from the guys at Northstar was that that's fine but there are better ones. So I got one that's upgraded a little bit and the key with that was that they said with this level and again I'm a novice so if you know different, please put it in the comments that you would probably need a like fireproof underwear etc underneath it. And I thought, oh my gosh, they're. These are not easy to get into in the first place. That's going to be. They're going to be. They tend to be fairly warm and toasty. I don't need any more stuff underneath that to be running in Road America in late June. So I chose one that kind of exceeds this spec and I don't have to wear the fireproof long underwear or anything else underneath it if I don't care to ISO. It's a more than a single layer fire suit. Next up is SFI or FIA certified retardant gloves. I've got those SFI or FIA fire retardant socks and full coverage leather shoes. I've got all those and I'll show you what those look like. One of the things about shoes is that they have some that are not full leather but that are also specked out to meet these requirements. They did at Northstar and they were a little cheaper if they weren't leather. But I thought, you know, I don't want to wind up here and then say, oh, oh, these aren't leather. So I really went super specific on this one. So if anything, I've kind of overshot with these with going with the specific neck restraint that I'll show you the more than a single layer suit and the full coverage leather racing shoes which you may, may not have to go with, but that's what they recommend and that's what I got. So I'll be showing you those in just a second. So those are really kind of the key important things. They tell you also like a general schedule which is super helpful. They also then show you the point system how that works and then also, you know, if this is kind of your thing. If livery is your thing, these are the stickers and where they get placed on your car. So this is just a sample with a Nissan gtr, but this would be very similar to what goes on and where they get placed. Those are all proper rules that have to happen. That can happen. You get those on your first showing up to the track. I believe I've already registered, so I haven't gotten any kit from them. I don't expect to get it, but when I show up at the Road America, I expect that that's when these will be provided to me and when they get placed. And there's also. It's hard to tell on this, but there's also kind of a upper windshield sticker that goes on as well too. You can have other stickers, other kinds of things on it as well too. They do have some general, not super strict rules about that because a lot of people do this with sponsors and whatnot. So those are generally pretty legal as well too. So that kind of steps you through what the rules are. Again, I'll put a link in the show notes where you can get your own PDF of this. And next up, let's take a look at the physical kit that I was actually talking to you about and that I'll be using for all this racing with Optima as well as speed racing. Okay, so let's go through a walkthrough of the entire kit. It really starts to kind of creep up on you, surprisingly how much there goes into it. So again there's variations by virtue of what activity it is that you're doing in the Ultimate Streetcar Challenge. This is the full kit and then some to be able to actually go out on the road course in my case Road America. So that's maybe. I don't know if we'll actually go from top to bottom, but we'll kind of attempt to do that. I've had a number of helmets, have a number of helmets, all motorcycle related as of late and none of those qualify. Motorcycle helmets are not specced out at the same level as racing helmets. I'm sure there's a variety of reasons. The one that I'm particularly aware of that DOT certified motorcycle helmets are not fireproof. This is a Bell M8 and it's really pretty nice. They have a carbon version of this which is actually quite a bit more expensive but not all that much lighter, which I was really surprised and pleasantly surprised to hear. So I could save a few dollars on it. It's got a Nomex flameproof interior. It's got a very nice design in that I was able to, off the shelf, so to speak, comfortably fit this. But you can get different pads in here if, if they don't fit your face. Well, I have kind of a, I have a big head but kind of a narrow face. So I was really happy with the size of this. A lot of times, at least with motorcycle helmets I have a difficult time. So the fireproof is really kind of the main thing about it. It's got a lot of other specs and bells and whistles with regard to has vents for defogging. Also, the specs are such that you can't wear an open face helmet even if you have an enclosed car. So that's one of the key things with the rules. And also as I mentioned, with regard to neck restraint, this helmet, some helmets you have to drill. This is a very affordable helmet. You can spend $5,000 on a helmet. I did not. You can take a look. I'll put Northstar's link to their website. You can talk to the guys and if you're in the Chicago area, go visit them or look at them online. They very kindly, while I waited, installed this clip in here. You can do it yourself too, if you wish, but it'll fit up nicely with the neck harness that you'll see in just a second. Oh, and also little neat factoid, Kevlar neck strap. Kevlar is always going to be neck strap. That is Kevlar is always going to be in yellow. That's also a nice little feature. So a lot of spec to this helmet. Again, I'll put links in the show notes. There is just a lot going on with this helmet, which is really, really pretty cool and a great price point. You also need fireproof gloves. Pretty much everything I got is in Sparco. I'm not, I paid for all of this. I don't have any sponsorship, so I'm not biased in any which way, other than I like them and I'm a user. But if Bell or Sparco would like to sponsor me in the future, I'm more than happy to. So Sparco flame proof fireproof gloves also come in kind of a nice package to keep things nice fireproof stock socks that also meet the FIA standards. A lot of this stuff, Sparco is Italian. I didn't realize that. I'm a old Ducati builder, so that, that speaks nicely to design and whatnot. Sparco, this is the suit that I was talking about. That is the double layer. I can't really. There's not really a whole lot to show you with that, but that's what it is. It's very comfortable. It's got a nice waist cinch, which is nice. I weigh a little bit under 175. I'm 6 foot 2. And it fit just really, really nicely. Supposed to be of different dimensions. You can get different sizes and stuff, but this was a very affordable, very nice option. It also comes with a very nice carrying case, if you like, for track day. Put your name and your team and whatnot on it. The Italian flag, colors, etc. It's got a little zipper for extra kit if you want in there too, which is just all nice. Really presents in a nice package. This is OMP's head sock. This is not required. This is one of the little extras that I chose to have. It just makes it a little easier, a little bit more comfortable with getting your helmet on and being comfortable in it. Also, I think actually adds a little shelf life to your helmet since it's, you know, the oils and whatnot from your hair and skin and sweat while racing don't permeate into the Nomex materials and stuff. Kind of keeps everything nice. So that's a nice little bonus piece. Not required by rules, but for comfort and just longevity and taking care of your gear. This is the neck brace or neck harness. This is by Simpson and just show you the box that it came in, which is. Oops, nice. It is carbon fiber, not fake carbon fiber, real carbon fiber. And I can't really demonstrate it on, but you can sort of imagine or envision that these straps go over your right and left shoulder. This then is at your back. And then these loop hooks, which I think you've got good fidelity in this video to be able to see that detail. These then clip in to these in the back that I showed you. They just sort of like snap on and snap off so that your head and you can see if I approve, your head and neck and back and spine get a little bit more of a rigidity or act as a unit together. So your big, heavy head and helmet isn't flopping around on a very delicate neck and connected to your spinal cord. So this is kind of a nice thing, like I said. Also, therefore, it saved me from having to redo my seat. Redo my harness allows me to run stock seats and stock seat belts to be able to do that and be safe. They also give you a kit of materials and a sticker, which is always fun. So really, this is new to me, familiar with these other kinds of things. But this was a new piece and I was really glad. Again, tip of the hat to the folks at Northstar for being able to educate me around that and save me embarrassment of not having the proper setup when I get there. I also want to shout out, I'll put this in the notes that John Reuther, who is the founder and owner and president of North Star Motorsports in Lake Barrington, Illinois, was just awesome. So is Steve Gentile. He. Those two guys just help fit me. Kind of held my hand through this whole process. And actually, you know, these two guys are just really amazing car guys in general as well too. And John had some great stories about Vic Elford. I had the opportunity to study under Vic Elford when I took my racing course and Vic was just amazing. Look him up. He's now passed, but he is probably one of the the penultimate Porsche racers, Le Mans, etc. What a CV he has. And then finally we've worked our way down. This is Sparco. Also, I need to race an Italian car next time with all this Italian kit. But this is what I mentioned before. These are leather. It's like a sueded leather, which is nice and that comes up and covers the ankle. So I just kind of really wanted to make sure there were others that do meet the FIA standards. But since Ultimate Streetcar said leather, I didn't want to get there and be embarrassed or have a problem. So you can kind of see all the sizes and specs and whatnot with them. They're not, I wouldn't call them light. I'm a runner and I know what a light shoe feels like. And I wouldn't want to put a whole lot of miles on foot with these. But I think they should be three terrific for being on the course and doing the kinds of things I'm going to be doing. So that will wrap it up for this kind of first edition of getting race prepped. I'll also be talking about, as I mentioned, I plan on going to do land speed racing. So I'll be talking about that. It'll be exactly the same kit. So this video, this segment of this video will be duplicated in that. But we'll go over those rules and how all that works. And then also once I'm on the track, I'll be doing on track footage. We'll be talking about that and I'll be talking about this is the prep for me. I'll be talking about the prep for the car. Some of the racing pieces that come separately with the car, about getting those installed. About the downloadable PDF from General Motors about prepping your car fluids and all sorts of things. With that, we'll do a deep dive into that and demystify that. So this is exciting right where I'm at now. It's pretty snowy and cold, but it's nice to get all this stuff together now so when the weather does get better and I can start getting out that I know that everything's all safe and ready for the roads. So drive safe. I hope you enjoyed this video. If so, please subscribe, share it with friends. Your friends like it and there'll be more coming your way. Even though for me, right now, when I'm shooting this, it's winter time. But this is the time to get things in order and organized and learn and register and prep. Thanks. Drive safe, Race safe.