Driving to the track...how long to cool off?

[DARK SDE '02]

Well I FINALLY found a track that I might be able to race on! The thing is, it's in Richmond which is about 45 mins from my house on I95...So my car will be good and hot by the time I get there. Any idea how long it takes a 3.8 to cool down this time of year? I can't sit and wait for hours after registering at the track can I? It's my first time going so I really have no idea what to expect. Once you register and have the guy check out your car what can you do but line up to race? There should be some kind of pit if I'm not mistaken? Should I go there and cool off (block cool to the touch seems good enough to me)? And how long to the events usually last? I read that this track runs until 11pm, but it doesn't say when it starts... So many questions, so little time. I just hope I get some good stock numbers on Friday so I can justify all the money I've spent on mods the next time I go!

[Camaro_SLP]

Ok,,,Once they check out your car and write the #'s on it, you do NOT need to go immediately race. There are 'parking lots' that you can just put your car in and turn it off. Once you're ready to race, you will drive down the staging lanes, and wait until your turn. I would look into doing the cheap manual fan switch install to help cool down your engine. When you get there, open the hood and face it away from the sun, and turn on the heater to help cool it off faster. After that much driving I would not recommend waiting until the engine 'feels' cool enough...it will always have heat coming off of it. Most tracks sell blocks of ice if you wanted to go that route.

Tracks usually open early to mid to late mornings, and I would suggest getting there as early as possible. Tracks also have certain events on different days, so call ahead and make sure you will be able to race. Since it's your first time at the track, expect to get higher #'s at first, and through out the night you will hopefully take off time. Late at night the weather should cool off, so assuming you got there at 9 in the morning..and race all day, you could have good times in the morning, fair times in the afternoon, and better times at night.

Good Luck and have fun.

[ July 23, 2003: Message edited by: Camaro_SLP ]</p>

[Shirl]

Throw a bag of ice on the intake while you're waiting in the staging lanes. If it gets crowded there, you'll be waiting a while anyway... might as well wait in the lanes.. [img]graemlins/fluffy.gif[/img]

[Dominic]

If you're not running a low temp thermo, the fan switch nor waiting a while will help anything.

[DARK SDE '02]

I talked to some guys at work that race a lot and they're going to the track this weekend, thank goodness. I'm sure they'll get me straight. Thanks for the tips though, I'll look into cooling mods next for sure, they don't seem too expensive. Except that most thermastats require you to use a programmer right? And I heard the Hypertech one is junk and overpriced. Any way around that?

[Superv6bird]

No programing is not needed for a thermo. Just use a manual fan switch to turn on the fans if your waiting in line.