New NA Endurance Series Starts in April

The International Sports Car Manufacturers Association (ISCMA) has announced a new C-Class sportsracer series – the North American Modern Endurance Challenge – sanctioned by the National Auto Sport Association that will begin competition in April 2007 as a specific class as part of NASA’s existing Western Endurance Racing Championship series on the West Coast. NAMEC plans to expand into the Central and Eastern regions of the USA in the future.

The North American Modern Endurance Challenge (NAMEC) will be open to C-Class sportscar prototypes meeting FIA-CN and C3 specifications and standards. The NAMEC Series will compete under the same rules and regulations as the successful Van de Vyver (V de V) Modern Endurance Challenge in Europe, and has received approval from the V de V to establish a North American series that will be operated in association with V de V to expand this racing formula outside of Europe. Constructors currently eligible for the NAMEC Series include: Radical, Chiron, ADR, EMA, Ligier, Juno, Norma, CvO, Merlin, Funyo, Fior, Lucchini, and Panhard. Other constructors can be homologated based on meeting FIA and NAMEC specifications.

The NAMEC schedule will feature six races for the championship, including the revived “12 Hours of Thunderhill” race for points that will run concurrently within the “25 Hours of Thunderhill”. Four of the six events will be three-hour races with a fifth comprising four hours of competition.

Any competitor wishing to participate to the whole season of the Modern Endurance Challenge, will pay an entry fee of $10,500 USD, for all the races of the calendar (7 races).

Sport Prototype: Dry Minimum Weight without Driver
CN
1,000cc or less weight 480kg – 1,056lb
1,300cc weight 500kg – 1,100lb
1,600cc weight 520kg – 1,144lb
2,000cc weight 540kg – 1,188lb
C3
1,000cc or less weight 505kg – 1,111lb
1,300cc weight 540kg – 1,188lb
1,600cc weight 565kg – 1,243lb
And subject to file study : - C1, C2; - CN over 2000 cc; - C3 over 1600 cc.

The 2007 NAMEC schedule and venues are:
1: April 14, Buttonwillow Raceway, 3 Hours (Day/Night)
2: June 3, Thunderhill Raceway, 3 Hours (Day)
3: July 7, Willow Springs, 3 Hours (Day/Night)
4: October 13, Buttonwillow Raceway, 3 Hours (Day/Night)
5: November 10-11, Infineon Raceway, 4 Hours (Day/Night)
6: December 1-2, Thunderhill Raceway, 12 Hours (Points) / 25 Hours (Non-Points)

To obtain a set of rules and regulations, or more information on the North American Modern Endurance Challenge, visit the Series website at [ www.modernendurance.com ] or contact Andrew Campbell and Edouard Sezionale via e-mail or telephone as provided in the “Contact Us” section of the site.

[ Read more ] ::

Mallen Alley Track Test Debut

Kevin Allen took the team's newly developed Mallen Alley PP1 car through its paces at Roebling Road in Savannah Georgia and finish the two day test with a huge smile. No major problems were encountered, so the team now is looking forward to getting out again after they resolve a couple of driver compartment issues.

Kevin reported the following:

“Roebling Road in Savannah Georgia is a great club course that features a high average speed and very nice new paving. We planned to do a couple easy sessions Saturday afternoon followed by lots of inspecting and prodding to see if anything important was going askew. As it happened, everything was perfectly fine, the only issue was a lack of stiffness out on the ends of our splitter. We were able to cross brace it with a couple aircraft cables and get through the test with no further problems. A fix is in for it, so it will cause us grief no more.

I didn't do enough laps to tell much about the car except that it gripped like velcro, it seems the aero is working pretty well. Also that my seat and pedal layout were absolutely hideous. One of our last projects was to foam a seat in place which was done Friday evening at about 11 o'clock. It felt OK until, the car started generating it's pretty substantial side forces, it then became pretty much miserable. I could not find a way to confidently left foot brake as the brake and throttle were too close together. This would not have been too bad but it also made me very slow and deliberate with my footwork. As I would find out the next day, this wastes lots of time in a car with this kind of lateral acceleration.

Sunday started out a bit soggier than we had hoped, a cold front blew through overnight and brought rain, cold air and wind, ... lots of wind. By the afternoon it was probably 20+ mph steady with higher gusts, the poor little R1 engine felt broken as soon as I'd make the turn onto the front straight as the wind was blowing straight up it. The engine would pull about 10400rpm during my easy laps Sat, today it was working hard to get 9500. I was actually worried that it was sick but it ran fine the rest of the way around, guess that's what happens when you have less than 100 ft/lbs of torque.

The weather issue aside, the car was brilliant, I have never driven anything that would generate the side loads that this car does, even with our limited setup and fiddling. Our goal for the weekend was to see if the wheels and other substantial bits would stay on so we didn't spend a lot of time with tuning. As it happens it was pretty darn good right out of the box so it saved us the trouble of having to scramble for a setup we could test with.

We managed to run a 1:11 and change with the car which was gratifying, we're not up to track record times yet, but considering the weather and our relatively hard compound tires, we were most happy. We didn't have any real problems, all the systems worked well and worked well together, the car was glued to the track and we had a ball. We're looking forward to getting out again after we address our major issues, which are the seat insert and pedal layout.”

For more photos and information, check out the
Mallen Alley chassis page, here on the Sports Racer Network,

or the [ Mallen Alley Racing website ].

[ Read more ] ::

Progress Shown on Clayton Body

Stan Clayton displayed and described the most recent progress on his and Rennie's project to make thier own version of bodywork for the first generation Stohr chassis.

Stan Clayton reported, "here is what our buck looked like after being sanded to 220, then primered and painted (gloss black), followed by buffing out. The surface was like a mirror. BTW, a paint-n-body shop did the final primering, painting and buffing out in two days for $260, plus $27 in fees, for a total of $287.

The buck was finished though primer and 220-grit sanding. We delivered it on a Tuesday morning and picked it up 48 hours later. The paint was perfect, with a high gloss mirror finish. This approach will save you a TON of time in finishing work at a very reasonable cost, but is not compatible with all pattern making materials. Two-part foam with FRP or 2-part body filler outer coat works great, but you must stay away from any hydrophilic materials such as spackling."

See the Clayton Bodywork page.

[ Read more ] ::