Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/335414
July / August 2014 26 driver changes are down to the second (5 minute minimum to fuel), and engineering of the cars has become very good. If you come into the pits for an unscheduled stop, you can count yourself out of the podium, and in some cases out of the top 10. After the first year of "chumping", Richard started his own team with an E36 BMW, and Car 54 acquired a new set of drivers (Al Hess, myself, Erik Peterson, Kris Loveless, Mike Lyle, Kurt Gibson, and the occasional Wes McCullough). Over the last couple years we have been all over the place racing with the Chump Car World Series. Hallett, Hastings, High Plains Raceway, Brainerd, Eagles Canyon, Texas World Speedway (RIP), Autobahn, Heartland Park. At Watkins Glen we saw a 94 car field, Road America saw an 80+ car field. Races have ranged from twin 7 hour races, single 14s or 24s and everything in between. One of my motto's is: "Oh you ran a 1 hour enduro in series "XYZ" with a 20 car field…isn't that cute." After failure with the 944 to podium consistently, we moved to an E36 BMW for two years and managed a 2nd place, 4th or 5th a few times and many other respectable finishes (after a year of "sorting" the car). Fast forward to this year. The values change a bit for the series (long story), and our BMW is now awarded penalty laps…..so we go back to the original 944 which has a favorable value for the next couple of years. A couple of long weeks of preparation were spent in the shop cutting weight, replacing anything that could break, and greatly improving aerodynamics. We had room to work with before getting penalty laps, so we took advantage of that on the build of the car. After a year of sitting idle, the car made it's re-debut at Autobahn in Chicago. Unfortunately, another fuel pump issue reared it's head and the car was out for Saturdays race. At one point on Sunday, the car was running 2nd, but a flat tire and A t one point on Sunday, the car was running 2nd, but a flat tire and a black flag due to a fuel cap caused unscheduled stops which put the team back...