Competing against more than 30 race cars from the South and Midwest, Tryon’s Blitzen Benz Racing team won the ChumpCar World Series 24-hour endurance race on the Fourth of July weekend in Nashville, Tenn., a repeat of last year’s win.
The Nashville SuperSpeedway’s 1.8 mile sports car road course contains nine turns as well as approximately 3/4 mile of the NASCAR oval. The race was run from Saturday afternoon non-stop through the night until Sunday afternoon, amid temperatures in the high 90s with 80 percent humidity.
Baby Blitzen completed 973 laps (1,751 miles, or the distance from Tryon to Rock Springs, Wyo.) over 24 hours. The four drivers, whose average age is in the 60s (Warren Board, Ned Gallaher, Mark Thomas and Jim Wright), raced against much younger drivers and won by an eight-lap margin. Other team members were Rusty Tredinnick, crew chief, and Greg Pressley, mechanic.
During the 2011 season, hundreds of race cars and thousands of drivers will compete in The ChumpCar World Series’ 31 endurance races held on premier road racing courses in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Although ChumpCar does not have a points system like NASCAR, Blitzen Benz Racing has won more races in the series than any other team in the nation.
Unlike very expensive professional racing series such as Formula One and NASCAR, and amateur racing such as SCCA and NASA, the ChumpCar World Series requires documented evidence that a team’s race car platform in stock condition is valued at no more than $500 in the current retail market. A racing program can be started with “chump change,” hence the series name ChumpCar.
A competitive endurance race car must then be designed and engineered to be powerful, fast and – above all – durable. Unlike most auto races, which usually last from 20 minutes to a couple of hours, ChumpCar races typically are run for 7, 12 and 24 hours. Baby Blitzen, based on a 1987 Mercedes Benz 190E, has been designed and race-prepared by Ned Gallaher of Gallaher Restorations, to successfully meet these criteria.
Rusty, Blitzen Benz crew chief, says that both the winning race car and drivers must be “built to go the distance.” The car must be light and powerful enough to accelerate quickly and maintain top speed for long periods, as well as brake forcefully and change gears thousands of times during an endurance race. It must be powerful, agile, fuel-efficient and the clutch, brakes, tires and suspension must be durable.
Drivers must be skillful and fast enough to drive the car quickly, smoothly and consistently for two-hour stints, a test of physical strength and coordination as well as sustained intense concentration.
According to the crew chief, he couples car and drivers with a strategic plan, scheduling pit stops for driver changes, fuel and tires, then makes tactical decisions during the race to alter track position based on competitors’ performance, accidents and weather to produce regular podium finishes.
Since winning at Rockingham in the spring, Blitzen Benz placed fourth in two seven-hour races at Roebling Road (Savannah, Ga.), and at Charlotte Motor Speedway one car finished fourth and a second car finished 13th.
In addition to owner/builder Gallaher’s and other team members’ investments, Alan Warner is a primary sponsor. The team would welcome other local sponsors.
The Blitzen Benz team will race Baby Blitzen next against 80-plus cars in “The VIR 24,” scheduled at the Virginia International Raceway on July 30-31.
– article submitted
by Warren Board