Saturday, September 8, 2018

Long Distance Racing Hurricane Prep

24 Hours of Lemons Racing

By Long Distance Racing I mean that I live in New York and next week will be racing in South Carolina. For that, it sounds like I need a big old packing list to help make sure I don't forget anything. Let's see, maybe I should make a list of items to take with me on the plane. If I was going to drive to the event I could throw in a bunch of tools and other nice-to-have stuff too, but for the baggage allowance, this might be enough. The other part of long distance racing is the Lemons race itself, about 8 hours on Saturday and then another 5 hours on Sunday for our team of 5 drivers. For me personally that should be two driving stints, one long one Saturday and a shorter time on Sunday, lots of good old "seat time" trying to weave through traffic on course at Carolina Motorsports Park. 

--Driver Safety Gear: Helmet, balaclava, head and neck restraint, racing suit, Cool Shirt, gloves          Nomex socks, racing shoes: All this stuff should fit into 2 free bags on Southwest Airlines, so at least I don't have to pay extra for that!

--Other clothes for time off the track, shorts and t-shirts for SC! Judging by the latest hurricane predictions from NOAA and the folks at weather.com I better throw in plenty of rain gear. 

--GoPro camera to capture the madness

--Money for food, ice, gas, drinks. Going out of town for a weekend of "cheap" racing costs money!

--Copy of Lodging reservations and rental car: It's amazing how sometimes it helps to show them in writing if you have a reservation!

--Boarding passes for air travel, either paper or on the phone, maybe both

--More money for other stuff, in other words, credit cards

--Camping gear for sleeping at the track, since I might stay there or go to the hotel, we'll see how it goes depending on weather and if we're fixing something on the car all night!

And speaking of weather...

As of right now, Tropical Storm Florence is heading for landfall sometime Thursday, possibly in or close to South Carolina, so it will be important to follow the weather for the next week. At a minimum we will get some rain along the way, worst case scenario our flight or the entire race could be affected by Florence turning into a hurricane and going overland towards Carolina Motorsports Park. So far I think our flight into Charlotte will be OK, it's far enough inland that the risk of weather won't be as bad as flying into Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, or Florence SC. 

Driving in the rain at the race wouldn't be all bad, just makes for a wet weekend and sloppy conditions around the campground. Once you realize you're going to be out in the rain all day, well, you're just going to be wet all day, so it's not the worst thing in the world!

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