[T.O.Dillinder]

WARNING THIS MAY BE A LITTLE BIT OF A READ.

My Grandfather use to race with the Thunder Valley Motorcycle Club in the 40's and 50's. The formats were primarily oval, hill climb, and trail.
My Father in the 60's drag raced at Union Grove (WI) and Byron (IL), and in the 70's he raced short track at Rockford (IL) Speedway. However My father would always make the yearly trip for the June Sprints at Road America.
Myself, I did karts in the 80's, AMA Motorcycles (Road Racing) and AutoX in the early 90's. Even earned a Comp Liscence that I ended up not using.
There is a whole list of people that have helped in some form or another along the way. I would have to say the biggeset and closest names that have been Dave Watson, Ray Irwin, and Gerre Payvis. As mentioned there have been others that have given support such as John Eberhardt, Bob Denton, Steve Butzen, Rick and Jill Peters, and Phil Daus.
I just wanted to thank these people for their assistance, advice, and friendship.
what I love about road racing is economics, seat time, and the variety of makes and models that are involved.
Economics:
If you were to fiqure what it cost for every minute you are in the seat, road racing comes out being cheaper than circle track and drag racing combined.
Seat time:
20 to 30 minute practice session, 20 to 30 minute qualifing session, and a 30 minute race each Friday and Saturday.
Your HPDE has 20 to 30 minute sessions, and that is usually three sesions per day for each group.
road racing provides tons of seat time.
Different makes and models:
No matter what kind of racing you do, we all have one common factor. They love of the automobile.
A road racing event is like a car show with the added benefit to see those cars perform.
Sorry for the length, but now you know a little about me.
So, what got you hooked?

This post has been edited by T.O.Dillinder: Nov 18 2007, 04:47 PM

[nape]

So, what got you hooked?

It is wheel to wheel racing that I can (sort of) afford. Give me a budget (or a ride) to go run dirt or asphalt and I'd go in a heart beat.

My dad and uncle used to run Sportsman and Late Model at dirt tracks around Chicago back in the '70s and early '80s, so I grew up around them and their buddies listening to "war stories", watching Busch and Winston Cup, and going to a couple dirt tracks a year.

It's kinda hard to run dirt anymore when you've got $25,000 4xx cube all aluminum motors in Late Models and guys running $15,000 Evernham motors converted to wet-sump in Modifieds.

[rmackintosh]

So, what got you hooked?

.....and guys running $15,000 Evernham motors converted to wet-sump in Modifieds.

Racin' is racin' aint it? (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

I know guys who have $15,000 "SPEC" Miata motors......

(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[CMC #37]

See my response to this topic on the CMC board. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[rmackintosh]

As far as what sparked my interest in racing.....

I was basically born into it. My dad crewed for SCCA cars since the 60's. He was dragging my mother to races at Laguna Seca, Sears Point, and others while I was still in the womb. As a kid, I spent much of my childhood at those places hanging out with my dad and learning to love race cars. When I was younger, I too helped crew on various cars for a few guys. When they got burned out or moved on, my life got busy and I basically became just a spectator a few times a year, went to school, and started a family.

When I could, I started racing on my own as I missed the sport so much! Personally, I enjoy building and working on the cars ALMOST as much as driving.........almost......

(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/cool2.gif)

[roadracetransam]

For myself, it is a slow evolution.... Drag racing to AX to HPDE to TT to eventually W2W. I do not have the racing heratige, my dad is acctually not even a good driver. I basically just wanted to go faster,I am building the car to AI specs now because that is were I want to end up maybe in a year or two.

[Chris Ronson Jr]

grew up watching my dad in his 66 big block vette in SCCA, Vintage, VARA..then his Swift FF, formula ford..then my mom got into it and raced a FF too. then my dad in ACRL, and American LeMans, and now his Formula B and Grant Hill's old F1 car from '75


it's in my blood, always has been.

















talk about a curse sometimes though! hahahahahaah

This post has been edited by SIK02SS: Nov 19 2007, 08:08 AM

[firehawkclone]

I don't know, it just came natural to me, since no friends or family is like me! The first day out driving by myself I went up to Hicks Rd. in San Jose Ca, and drove 4 tanks of fuel out driving the 30 something miles up and over the mountain. I't just took me 18+ years to get to the track!

[ERVRCG]

THANKS TO MOM & DAD!!!

I was a track brat from Day one...story goes that Mom broke water at the track and Dad didn't get to finish the weekend in the ole HP Bugeyed Sprite. We then spent most of my childhood chasing Waterfordhills, SCCA nationals, and IMSA.

Now I'm in debt up to my eyeballs and loving every minute of being at the track with the other family I have.

My poor Son...

[cccbock]

I'm really a Camaro nut turned racer. Long time ago, a friend of a friend took us for a ride in his 68 Camaro (which was 5 years old at the time) and I was hooked.

Became friends with another guy a couple years later while going to college. He had a Firebird Formula 400 (with a 454 transplanted) driven on the street. That was a killer car, but he traded it for a 69 Camaro (454) dedicated drag car. We won the SE Div Bracket championship with that car. We later determined that the car started out life as a COPO 427 car, which would now be worth huge money had he not cut it up.

I got married and fell out of the car hobby for about 15 years but was driving by a local car dealer one day. He had a 69 Z/28 on his lot (his personal car) which I had to have. I bought it for the outrageous amount of $12000. I rebuilt everything on the car and painted it, drove it, and sold it 7 years later for $25000. Its probably worth $50000 or more now. I took this car to the first NFME and was too scared to race it in RR, but made a few drag runs. The next year I took it and ran Road Course at NFME. Thats why I think NFME is so great...you can participate as a total newbie.

I was HOOKED.

Long story short 12 years later, I now run a Modified 96 Camaro in SCCA, starting out slow in AX then most recently graduating to time trials. A/C still works... ha ha must not be a race car.

Cool thread.

Bock

[v7guy]

I'm embarrassed to say it, but I started out street racing and occasionally running the 1320. Tanked a couple motors and built them better while taking few trips north of 155mph out in the midwest roads at 3-4 in morning. I got hooked on speed. I tried a couple HPDE and have been building toward an ORR ever since. I've been working on making everything but the motor better since then.


One of these days I'll get to the motor.

[00 Trans Ram]

I didn't know anything about it until very recently. I raced a go-kart (the lawnmower engine variety) around my house and in fields as a kid. Loved it. Then got a car (66 Mustang). Put in into a few ditches and my dad said, "Son, don't try to go fast in the turns."

In 2000, I bought a V6 Firebird convertible. About 5 months later, a friend brought me to an autox and I rode with him. About a year later, I got the nerve to try it myself. To this day, I don't remember my first run - too much adrenaline.

Did autoxing for about 4 years, then got invited to a track day. While autoxing still is fun, I don't get the adrenaline rush. Tracking the car was 20 mintes of adrenaline overdose. Did track days for about a year, and found out that I was always the quickest guy out there, and wanted some competition.

So, hello local RR series.

[Crazy Canuck]

always loved cars and bikes.
Got into bikes, and also racing them.
After a few track accidents, i started thinking about car racing... but nothing came out of it... continued on bikes.
My street bike got totalled on a heads-on collision going ~80-85... I ended-up not getting anything due to proper safety gear, but the bike was totalled.
That made me buy the SS.
With the SS, got the interest on learning to drive it better under controlled environments... so i started looking for places w/ schools, track time, and came accross solo1/solo2.
Actually what caught my mind is that solo2 in my mind maid more sense being called solo1 because one would think that you are better off learning @ lower speeds and concentrating on techniques...
anyways, that got me into autox... and the rest is history (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
Took me awhile to get used to the difference in lines and visibility @ tracks compared to bikes. Maybe I should've found a car where i'm seated in the center of the car... lol

[wdtiger]

I've always been into motorsports in general. If it has an engine and wheels, i'll probably watch it and want to drive it (and that includes the two wheel variety). My dad used to drag race a 1972 Chevy Nova. It was a bad mamajama. He's the one that got me into racing. We used to watch NASCAR races when i was a kid (4-5 years old, so 81-82). Back when NASCAR was cool and had some good racing. As far as road racing, that was Formula 1 and Indycars (when they were still Indycars). These days, i don't watch much NASCAR (i hate that Car of Tomorrow BS, the "Chase for the Cup" is lame and NASCAR died with Earnhardt Sr.), my love of Formula 1 is strong as ever and IRL just doesn't do it for me. So, really any racing is good enough for me, although road racing is my drug of choice.

I used to do kart racing with 100cc Yamaha engined karts. I've crewed for late model dirt cars. But that was in my teens. It's only been in the last couple of years that i've been able to get back into racing my own cars. Being in Alaska though, my choices are limited to autocross, a couple of circle tracks (a dirt track and a tiny 1/5 mile paved oval), ice racing in the Winter, and two or three track days a year in the Summer at an old airport thats a five hour drive away.

This post has been edited by wdtiger: Nov 27 2007, 09:35 PM

[Teutonic Speedra...]

I just always liked watching road racing. I knew before I graduated college that I was going to buy a Z28 and prep it for HPDE days. While I prepped the car, paid it off/insurance, etc., I used to catch myself at high speeds on twisty country roads out here with the 5pt. harnesses on. I grew up and realized this wasn't a good idea when I nearly creamed a horse trailer that was slowly pulling out while I flew around a turn. I just always loved speed and had the desire to drive a challenging course consisting of multiple turns, camber, braking zones, and g-forces combined in all directions, etc. It's just awesome to be in the car for a 20-30 minute session. Now the car is a kill switch, and tow hooks away from being a full racecar. Of course, now I'm getting married, buying a house, and planning a family shortly thereafter, so I may be referring to the other thread in this section and going the simulator route one day. I enjoy working on the car, modifying it, and racing it on the track. I may never do W2W due to the cost, but if I ever sell the car, I'd hope that the buyer would. My first time was at Limerock in a 1972 BMW 2002tii prepped for SCCA. Since then I've done about 60 track days on about 7-8 tracks and have progressed to the instructor level. I have found another group of friends in the NJ BMW club that have come to accept and actually approve of my "American Iron".

[dailydriver]

I used to catch myself at high speeds on twisty country roads out here with the 5pt. harnesses on. I grew up and realized this wasn't a good idea when I nearly creamed a horse trailer that was slowly pulling out while I flew around a turn.

Was this in the South Branch/Whitehouse area??

[Teutonic Speedra...]

I used to catch myself at high speeds on twisty country roads out here with the 5pt. harnesses on. I grew up and realized this wasn't a good idea when I nearly creamed a horse trailer that was slowly pulling out while I flew around a turn.

Was this in the South Branch/Whitehouse area??

I don't think by Whitehouse. Why, do you live around there?

[GM01SS]

Interesting thread..............

My "Story"

A friend invited my son and I to the track to "check it out" in 1997............................Had a new Z28 ( pristine never in rain (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif) )

Said.......hey you want to take it on the track??

The rest is history, 2 cars later and I have about a $20K habit a year! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/drink.gif)

The go fast Crack Pipe is good stuff..............

Have met a lot of very nice people. Now @ the point where I will go to the track just to hang with my friends and the driving is secondary!

Cheers!!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)

Gary

[dailydriver]

I don't think by Whitehouse. Why, do you live around there?

A little bit northeast of there (Springfield). But back in my bicycle racing days the state championship road races were always held in either North or South Branch/Neshanic Station. I also used to race in the criterium (generally flat, four 90* corners, ~1 mile circuit in town centers, like the Sommerville race) in your home town (Flemington, right?). I don't even know if they still have one there?

This post has been edited by dailydriver: Nov 29 2007, 05:13 PM

[Teutonic Speedra...]

A little bit northeast of there (Springfield). But back in my bicycle racing days the state championship road races were always held in either North or South Branch/Neshanic Station. I also used to race in the criterium (generally flat, four 90* corners, ~1 mile circuit in town centers, like the Sommerville race) in your home town (Flemington, right?). I don't even know if they still have one there?

I don't think they still race there.

[Brandon Hey]

Hmm very interesting thread, well lets see the first thing that started the spark was when me and my father built our 65 ac cobra. We met a man named Rick that helped us out along the way who had built a cobra and also built a 69 camaro with a lt1 and a t56 transmission. He took us out in his car and when around a off ramp at some outrageous high speed and I was hooked. I started autocrossing in my mustang sold that and got my firebird. Thats when I met Mike "Junior" Johnson and his wife and then Sam Strano and they have helped me out a lot. I actually heard about hpde's from a fellow autocrosser and decided to check it out and have been hooked ever since. Last season I started in hpde in my firebird and by the end of the season I was in hpde 3. Next season I will go for my competition license. Hopefully I will have the E30 done and ready to race in specE30.
-Brandon

This post has been edited by Brandon Hey: Dec 2 2007, 01:04 AM

[Racerdad916]

My roots are in drag racing, I was at the drag strip for the first time with dad at 3 years old. I will NEVER forget the sound of the Modified Production Vettes leaving the starting line in the late '60s and early '70s. 331 CID, 8500 rpm and an 80lbs flywheel makes an awesome sound!!! Raced BMX, karts in the back yard, anything that was W2W, but drag racing always took my attention away from driving fast in the corners. I found my way to an AX event in the early 80's, had so much fun that I built my '71 Cutlass to go fast and turn with any Vette, but the four wheel, non-power DRUM brakes always seemed to limit my ability to turn in with them. Fast forward to this year. Bought a Third Gen Camaro with the idea of making it everything my Cutlass was, but with brakes that didn't fade after the first corner(my buddy said brakes were over-rated anyway...). Raced BMX again for 6 years, loved the W2W competition(crashing sucked) but I always wanted to go fast and turn in a car. A few spectator trips to Mid-Ohio this year cemented the choice to build the car for AX and track days. My 16 year old son is really loving AX, he made several laps in Trackbird's Tragcially Teal with me behind the wheel, then with Kevin driving, and is hooked for life. I think all the laps in the turned up Miata helped too.....
I am a Road Racer for life......

[V6RSR]

Meeting Mark Donahue as a very young child on my minibike at Riverside raceway watching the CanAm races. I read about him more in a book my dad and brothers had of him and how he was a "driving enigieer". I became intrigued on the design elements of cars before I was ever 10 years old. His death taught me respect of the sport and gave me knowledge that even legends can die and know your limits. I grew up always wanting to wrench on my own things, my minibike, my bycycle, the lawnmower I had to push every week. I learned not to trust anyone else touching my stuff that I was only comfortable if I myself tightend that bolt. Nowadays that is OH so true, When I am doing 65 on the fwy, or 165 on a track, I like to know "I" was the one that last touched all the nuts and bolts and everything was inspected. My biggest fear in driving has never been driver error, its mechanical failure- Thats where the big names in racing world have mostly died- I try to keep my fate as safe as possible rather than relying on other enginneers and crew.

To this day, class racing is boring to me. I like unlimited racing. But that cost bucks. SO... What I like most and only is building a car and taking it to the track- running it, who cares about what other cars just like it do, I do not run for trophies......What thrills me is to bring that same car back the next time I run it and better that cars lap times. Thats done through engineering and setup. I do not have to be a big of HP anymore. I like to take an underdog type car and beat something that it is "not suppose to beat". After all, I do not care how fast you are for your class, if there is 3 groups running at the same time and you are leading the slow group, nobody is watching you, they are mostly watching the fastest car on the track at that time. Everybody expects the big HP car to be fast and your skills get written off as " anyone can win if they drove that 800hp car"..etc.. I like to have the car everyone walks over to at the end of the day and scratch their head looking for the mysterious parts- those are my likes and challanges- thats where I love racing, challanging myself each time I take a new car to the track. I shake down that car to be the best it can be, then I am done with it and then detune the dampers enough to be just comfortable enough for daily use (Shocks have come a long waysince I was a kid). A few years go by, I get the bug again to do something else, I redo this.. build that...change such and such for whatever reason...The track play starts again.

As for what I am doing in racing cars. I am so damn bored with what I have been able to build so far in life that I want to raise the bar biftime in my next build. That will cost money and most of all take massive engineering skills to pull off. Ibought a project a few years back and am waiting in life til I have the machinery and funds to build a retirement so to speak car of my dreams. I am going to build a platform under my vintage '67 Cooper S RHD that I want to rival the cornering abilites of open wheel cars and the acceleation and braking G's to suit. It is going to be areo engineered to stick tot he ground with a 1400lb vehicle max weight, 400Hp mtor goal and a remachined Jag style rearend with inboard discs and lever suspension setups. I want a 5:1 unsprung weight ratio and a very low CG.
I want to then take thois car out and have fun with it grunting and trying to keep myself concious in my golden years of driving this little thing out with some unlimited vintage cars rather than stuck with the fun looking but boring Mini's, Bugeyes, and Sprites. I want something that you just think, Man, I gotta drive that.

And thats why I do not race anymore even though I am still contantly around it. I do the occational jump in the car for a few shakedown laps for others, buts for me? Whats the glory of traveling about to win lets say ESP class in autox at the national when their were other cars that day that ran far quicker lap times in other classes. I want to be as fast as I can in MY car and My budget- without rules- thats where I stand in life. I guess I got into racing way too young and it just gets boring without unlimited pocketbooks.

[wolfgang]

My interest started while in high school in Germany (61-65) My first car magazine was the July 62 issue of Sports Car Grapic. Cover was Phil Hill in Ferrari TR at Sebring 12 hr. Road racing was the only type of events in Europe except for Rallys. Went to the REAL Nurburgring in Aug 64 for the German Grand Prix won by John Surtees in a Ferrari. Still can only afford 1/18 scale models of Ferrari's. Started AX mid 70s then got a Lotus 61 Formula ford in 78 & 79. ran in the SE regional events. Wrecked car at Roebling Rd in 79 _ long story. Then havent raced until 2003 when I started DEs in my 2000 SS. Am trying to get back into real racing in the next couple of years - funds willing. Of course I've attended years & years of spectator events in the SE. Went to my first 24 hrs of Daytona in 1967. Won by a Ferrari - What else did you expect???? hahahahaha