(Words by Charlene Felton – Photos by John Babinski) – The Optima Batteries ChumpCar World Series (www.chumpcar.com) is the home of “Real Racing, Real Tracks®.” It’s competitive, grassroots endurance racing that has become the leader for affordable motorsports in North America. Team’s start with a car valued at $500, add required safety equipment (such as a roll cage, seat and harness, and fire suppression system), and compete in endurance races between 7- and 37-hours long, on some of the most famous race tracks in the world, including Daytona International Speedway, Watkins Glen, Road America, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In 2014, ChumpCar will hold over 80 events that include the series’ signature endurance racing, sprint racing, ice racing, and drifting.

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The concept behind ChumpCar goes back to the time when everyone with a racing dream had a chance to participate and compete…when private racers weren’t crowded out by factory teams and unlimited budgets..back when winning had less to do with the size of your wallet and more to do with preparation, your ingenuity, driving skills and some good luck. ChumpCar teams take great pride in developing their cars to endure the world’s fastest and most challenging road courses, and coming up with the best strategy in hopes of winning a famous Optima Batteries ChumpCar World Series Trophy.

Road Atlanta is a very challenging 2.54 mile, 12-turn world class road course, nestled in the rolling hills of Braselton, GA, 35 miles north of Atlanta. On February 7-8, 2014, over 500 Chumps invaded this amazing racetrack to test their cars and teams against 119 other teams for the first Sprint races of the 2014, as well as a 14-hr Endurance race.

The weekend kicked off with 35 cars entered in four sets of Sprint races. Sprint races are 40 minutes long and cars are divided into four classes, ranging from A-D, based on the engine displacement of the car. Class A cars have the smaller displacement engines and Class D feature the larger 6 and 8 cylinder engines.

The first two sprint races finished with little incident; however, the weekend’s first casualty came in Sprint Race # 3 when Team Infinity, a 1994 Infiniti J30, hit the wall head on at Turn #10 and destroyed everything in the front of the strut towers. Another casualty of the sprint races affected Team Cone Killers Porsche and their Porsche 944, when the driver overcooked turn #7 and instantly found the car in a 4-wheel loss of traction, putting the 944 into the wall, first with the right front, then slamming the right rear.

At the checker:

Sprint Race # 1—

Class A: Car # 83-Maximum Oversteer (1992 Acura Integra)

Class B: Car # 183-Junior Johnson Motorsports (1990 Volkswagon Jetta)

Class C: Car # 66-Jacky Ickx GT30 (1994 Mitsubishi 300)

Class D: Car # 14-Team Straight Welding (1999 Acura Integra)

Sprint Race #2—

Class A: Car # 83-Maximum Oversteer (1992 Acura Integra)

Class B: Car # 183-Junior Johnson Motorsports (1990 Volkswagon Jetta)

Class C: Car # 223-Flat Out Racing Z32 (1990 Nissan 300ZX)

Class D: Car # 14-Team Straight Welding (1999 Acura Integra)

Sprint Race #3—

Class A: Car # 40-Flying Tigers Racing (1994 Mazda Miata)

Class B: Car # 183-Junior Johnson Motorsports (1990 Volkswagon Jetta)

Class C: Car # 223-Flat Out Racing Z32 (1990 Nissan 300ZX)

Class D: Car # 14-Team Straight Welding (1999 Acura Integra)

Sprint Race #4—

Class A: Car # 40-Flying Tigers Racing (1994 Mazda Miata)

Class B: Car # 90-Swede Lil’ Pigs ( 1993 Saab)

Class C: Car # 917-Cone Crushers (1988 Porshe 944)

Class D: Car # 14-Team Straight Welding (1999 Acura Integra)

Overall Winner by class based on accumulated points—

Class A: Car # 40-Flying Tigers Racing (1994 Mazda Miata) tied with

Car # 83-Maximum Oversteer (1992 Acura Integra)

Class B: Car # 183-Junior Johnson Motorsports (1990 Volkswagon Jetta)

Class C: Car # 917-Cone Crushers (1988 Porshe 944)

Class D: Car # 14-Team Straight Welding (1999 Acura Integra)

With Friday’s sprint races complete, Saturday morning featured the start of ChumpCar’s 14-hour endurance race. The event started under clear skies and a relatively warm 59 degree weather – relative, that is, to the 22-degree days earlier that week.

Ninety-four cars took the green flag. It was evident from the start that a lot of the ChumpCar teams were seriously infected with ‘WRWS’—winter racing withdrawal syndrome—and were really anxious to get back to life with wide-open-throttle. As stated by series owner and Chief Chump, John Condren, “You can’t win the race on the first lap, but you can lose the race on the first lap.” It didn’t appear that many teams took that wise advice. As the first two hours of the race featured several yellow flags for off-course excursions and with cars taking Turn 12 to fast and sliding off track going through the straightaway.

As drivers settled in and got their racing feet back, everyone seemed to settle down and enjoyed the ride. However, the Chevy Malibu of team 5 Star decided to go off-roading and slid off the track to driver’s right, came back on the track bringing the fine Atlanta dirt onto the track. Unfortunately the car behind hit the dirt and spun out in turn #3 bringing out a full course yellow.

The race had a total of 14 yellows and 3 reds for the day but overall was great racing fun for all involved. It seemed the biggest infraction of the day was passing under yellow.

The first half of the race was dominated by Jacky Ickx GT 30, Flat Out Racing and Maximum Oversteer. With 6 hours into the race Special Forces and Mopar 4 Life entered into the top 5. With 7 hours down and 7 to go, MR2 Biohazard was making their way to the top and got into first place with 5 hours to go. Then out of the blue with 3 hours left Hong North worked their way into third place.

As the race was winding down MR2 Biohazard took a 4-lap lead over Mopar 4 Life and at one point was 5 laps ahead. However with 30 minutes left Mopar 4 Life had cut that lead by 3 laps and was consistently running faster laps than MR2 Biohazard. But there just wasn’t enough time to take the lead away from MR2 Biohazard.

The race ended with 57 cars still on the track.

 The official Race Results were:

1. #3812 MR2 Biohazard

2. #444 Mopar 4 Life

3. #191 Domination Chassis

4. #8 Hong North

5. #225 Flatout Racing SC300

The Optima Battery ChumpCar World Series would like to that all of its sponsors, Chump drivers, and Chump fans. We would not be able to do this without your continued support.

The next Optima Batteries ChumpCar World Series race is schedule for March 8th at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca located in Monterey CA. To find more about ChumpCar and the entire racing schedule visit us at www.chumpcar.com.