February 11 – 12, 2012
The Southeast has experienced a mild winter with above average temperatures. The week before the ChumpCar World Series event at Road Atlanta, the temperatures were greater than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The Saturday of race weekend was cold and windy with a high of 46 degrees. But that didn’t stop the racers from coming out. Saturday’s 10 hour race had 63 cars starting the race.
This is the first time the ChumpCar World Series has run at Road Atlanta, so I thought I would check it out. It’s an interesting concept. As stated in the The ChumpCar World Series 2012 Rules, "the ‘ChumpCar’ class is the basic, $500 race car, endurance racing class". This figure of $500 is not what was paid for the car, but what the car is worth (less safety equipment), or it’s Average Internet Value. "Average Internet Value (AIV) is a random sampling of various US-based, geographic markets using the Internet and well-known used car websites, whereby a car’s year, make and model is listed for sale." The "Exception Class" is "a class for specific types of existing club-based race cars and teams who want to try ChumpCar before building a ChumpCar-class vehicle". These cars must be SCCA, NASA, or other recognized clubs class legal cars.
The race formats are usually a 24 Hour Endurance Race, a 12 or 14 Hour Endurance Race, or Double 7 Hour Enduros; one on Saturday and one on Sunday. At Road Atlanta, they ran a 10 hour race on Saturday and a 4 hour race on Sunday. I was only able to shoot the race on Saturday.
Another interesting aspect of the ChumpCar World Series is that the teams can have themes, and add theme items to their cars. Click on the link above to see some of the interesting themes.
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| MR2 Biohazard Winner on Saturday. 5th on Sunday. |
GFY Motorsports 2nd on Saturday. 23rd on Sunday. |
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| Simon Says 3rd on Saturday. 47th on Sunday. |
Blitzen Benz 4th on Saturday. 41st on Sunday. |
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| Hong North 5th on Saturday. 4th on Sunday. |
Boom Pow Surprise 17th on Saturday. Winner on Sunday. |
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| Iron Lemon 23rd on Saturday. 2nd on Sunday. |
inACURAte Racing 8th on Saturday. 3rd on Sunday. |
Motorsports Photography by Clark McInnis 