Sandhills Open Road Challenge

[UNGN]

We've been to the SORC every year since 2002. It is a must attend event for us.

If you have a motorhome, you can practically park it anywhere in Arnold, but the there are few places with hookups.

Where to stay in Arnold

If you need a Motel, and you can't get one in Arnold, Gothenburg or Cozad is best for the Shootout (thursday night stay) as these are the closest accomodations to the shoot out site (much closer than arnold) and gothenburg is an easy drive into Arnold on Saturday morning for the race.

Arnold is the same time as Sturgis, so Hotel rooms in Broken Bow can be hard to come by as its on Hwy 2, a popular route to Sturgis), and Broken bow is a long damn way (in the dark) to the shoot out site, with no parade from Arnold to follow.

[Bill Howell]

Mike,
This is absolutely the most fun I have had anywhere in my car. In fact, I refuse to remove the tech sticker on my charger from last year. It there is any way I can go this year, I will be there too. We stayed in a motorhome on private property and got to know several people there. As it gets closer to time, I will decide about going. My Motorhome will be in Michigan in July so I may just go from there to Sandhills.

[Mike Holleman]

Chris, Thanks for the info and good advice. I'll try to book a room in Gothenburg.

[Mike Holleman]

You are the one that convinced me to enter this event back at PF. Everyone I have talked with about SORC says it is a "must do". I'll talk with you more this weekend. Need advice on the navagation part. Bobby Jones will be navagating and he knows as much as I do. Racing I understand but averaging a set speed is a mystery. I won't worry too much about it being a rookie.
See you Friday.
Mike

Mike,
This is absolutely the most fun I have had anywhere in my car. In fact, I refuse to remove the tech sticker on my charger from last year. It there is any way I can go this year, I will be there too. We stayed in a motorhome on private property and got to know several people there. As it gets closer to time, I will decide about going. My Motorhome will be in Michigan in July so I may just go from there to Sandhills.

[TheJDMan]

Just curious, SORC lists a burnout contest and a running mile shootout events prior to Sat. What is not clear is if these are manditory events for the road run entrants or optional. I would do the running mile or1/2mile but I would not participate in a burnout contest. Personally I think burnout contests are just stupid, however I do recognize that others get off on them.

[UNGN]

Just curious, SORC lists a burnout contest and a running mile shootout events prior to Sat. What is not clear is if these are manditory events for the road run entrants or optional. I would do the running mile or1/2mile but I would not participate in a burnout contest. Personally I think burnout contests are just stupid, however I do recognize that others get off on them.

Sorry, but the Burnout contest is mandatory for all participants.




Just kidding.

The Burnout contest is mostly for bragging rights in the town with maybe 2-3 ORR race cars entering every year (the ones that can't resist a challenge from the locals). A couple cars have even been torn up by the combo of the mile shootout in the morning and the burnout contest in the afternoon and they couldn't make the race (or ran it hurt) on saturday.

If you have a girlfriend that looks good in a bikini, you get extra points for the burnout contest.

[Flash68]

Just watched the Speed episode covering this. Very cool event and it's only 4 hrs due south of where I grew up. Never knew about this event til last year. Hope to make it some day.

[Vegas69]

A scary place -- at night. It was a hunting lodge of some sort, with 19 heads of various ungulates mounted on the walls. During the daytime it was charming, and we even had a place to wash our cars.

What, sounds like a great place to me. ha ha

[UNGN]

You are the one that convinced me to enter this event back at PF. Everyone I have talked with about SORC says it is a "must do". I'll talk with you more this weekend. Need advice on the navagation part. Bobby Jones will be navagating and he knows as much as I do. Racing I understand but averaging a set speed is a mystery. I won't worry too much about it being a rookie.
See you Friday.
Mike

Navigating in an ORR is not that hard if the driver kind of has a feel for the road. Arnold has a road sign for every corner so there really are no surprises for the driver other than "I've could have taken that blind hill flat out". Almost all of the crashes have come from missing a sign or getting a wheel off the road... and the two rules at Arnold are watch for the signs and NEVER get a wheel off the road.

Here is me getting a wheel off the road trying to average 120 north in 2004:



I don't want to do that again.

For the Navigator keeping you on your average speed (Its the drivers job to keep you on the road) he needs Two pieces of equipment:

1. Something that tells him average speed
2. A stopwatch to time each leg

The easiest thing to automatically tell you average speed is a 90's vintage Garmin III or Garmin III+ GPS. Don't buy a new one, because they don't read average mph in .1 mph increments above 100 mph like a GIII will. You may not need this .1 avg above 100mph capability your first time at the SORC, but will likely need it eventually. Expect to pay about $50-60 off E-bay or Craigslist and if it doesn't work when you buy it, it may need a new $5 coin cell soldered inside.

Set the GPS to the "trip computer" screen, zero it at the start line, leave on the green (moving the car starts the GPS) and drive a "moving average" speed at your class speed or to .1 mph below your class speed and you will finish within 3 seconds of perfect.

To set up a GIII for OR racing, Take the batteries out of the GIII and power it with an external cord. When you cross the finish line pull the chord out of the cigarette lighter (this will be used later).

Have the Navigator start the stopwatch on green, and stop it when you cross the finish line. Have the navigator write this time down. This will give you your time for the first leg.

At the Dunning school turn around, make sure the Car is completely stopped, plug the GIII back in and turn it on. It will read out the moving time (It should be within a second, depending on your launch, but a little less when compared to the stopwatch), average speed and max speed (to see if you broke tech) right up to the point it was unplugged. Write those down.

Calculate the time required for the return leg and calculate the average speed you need to run. Speed is Distance/Time, so Time = Distance/Speed, the "Official" distance to the south leg at the SORC is 26.6 miles. If you are trying to average 100 mph, You need to average 26.6/100 or .266 Hours... multiply by 3600 to get seconds (957.6 seconds). The actual south course distance is 26.636 miles long (your going to have to trust me on this one), so GPS avg speed to run the course in 957.6 seconds is 26.636/.266 = 100.14 mph, so if you were perfect 100 mph going up, you'll want to run 100.14 mph average going south.



If you were 9 seconds faster than the pefect time on the run up (verified by the stop watch AND GPS moving time), add 9 seconds to your southbound time (957.6 + 9)/3600 = .2685 Hrs, and solve for your average GPS speed 26.636/.2685 = 99.2 mph.

Run the course south with an average GPS speed of 99.2 and you have a very good chance of being within 2 seconds of perfect for the total run.

This method won't guarantee you a trophy by any means, but getting within two seconds is very respectable. I know people that have ORR raced for 10+ years that NEVER get within 2 seconds.

We run a Timewise Rally computer that measures front wheel pulses (so I can leave the line in a cloud of smoke, if I want to), but use the GIII as a back up if we lose a wheel magnet or have a rally computer failure. We won the 135 mph class in Big bend in 2007 with a Broken Detroit locker (I shifted into 4th instead of 6th @ 162 mph) a dead speedo (also taken out by the missed shift) and dead rally computer (i don't remember what killed it) using the Tach for speed and having the Navigator read me the average speed on the GIII.

If you need any help with your calculations @ the turn around in dunning we usually have a laptop to help crunch the numbers.

The great thing about the GIII/stop watch system is you just drive and enjoy the road and just hit button on the start and stop. Complicated check point systems can come later. The main reason we went to a rally computer is so we can just drive without a lot of thinking on the course and it gives a measurement resolution not possible with todays GPS systems... at least not ones that I can afford. The SORC has the hardest finish in Open Road racing. We crossed the finish @ 137 mph in 2003. That was more scary that going off the road in 2004. The last thing you want to be doing is looking for markers you stuck in the ground or a clock on your steering wheel.

We started OR racing 10 years ago and made incremental, evolutionary improvements to get the systems we used today. We tested assumtions and came to conclusions I never would have guessed or even believed if I hadn't tested them myself.

Stuff like tire growth is linear with mph... ie run a set distance of 50.00 miles @ 100 mph and a set distance of 50.00 miles @160 mph and the Odometer will read the same as if you had traveled the entire distance of 100.00 miles @ 130 mph... as long as you keep tire temps constant (but the ODO would read much lower if you ran the entire 100.00 Mile distance @ 160 mph or much higher if you ran the 100.00 miles @ 100 mph even if the tire temps are the same). This one predictable thing makes measuring an acurate distance while traveling an Average speed possible and turns ORR into a solveable math problem.

If you aren't into math, GIII all the way.

[PT Sportwagon]

I may just head on out for a look see. I am about 3-4 hours away.

Tim

[surnufz]

Navigating in an ORR is not that hard if the driver kind of has a feel for the road. Arnold has a road sign for every corner so there really are no surprises for the driver other than "I've could have taken that blind hill flat out". Almost all of the crashes have come from missing a sign or getting a wheel off the road... and the two rules at Arnold are watch for the signs and NEVER get a wheel off the road.

Here is me getting a wheel off the road trying to average 120 north in 2004:



I don't want to do that again.

For the Navigator keeping you on your average speed (Its the drivers job to keep you on the road) he needs Two pieces of equipment:

1. Something that tells him average speed
2. A stopwatch to time each leg

The easiest thing to automatically tell you average speed is a 90's vintage Garmin III or Garmin III+ GPS. Don't buy a new one, because they don't read average mph in .1 mph increments above 100 mph like a GIII will. You may not need this .1 avg above 100mph capability your first time at the SORC, but will likely need it eventually. Expect to pay about $50-60 off E-bay or Craigslist and if it doesn't work when you buy it, it may need a new $5 coin cell soldered inside.

Set the GPS to the "trip computer" screen, zero it at the start line, leave on the green (moving the car starts the GPS) and drive a "moving average" speed at your class speed or to .1 mph below your class speed and you will finish within 3 seconds of perfect.

To set up a GIII for OR racing, Take the batteries out of the GIII and power it with an external cord. When you cross the finish line pull the chord out of the cigarette lighter (this will be used later).

Have the Navigator start the stopwatch on green, and stop it when you cross the finish line. Have the navigator write this time down. This will give you your time for the first leg.

At the Dunning school turn around, make sure the Car is completely stopped, plug the GIII back in and turn it on. It will read out the moving time (It should be within a second, depending on your launch, but a little less when compared to the stopwatch), average speed and max speed (to see if you broke tech) right up to the point it was unplugged. Write those down.

Calculate the time required for the return leg and calculate the average speed you need to run. Speed is Distance/Time, so Time = Distance/Speed, the "Official" distance to the south leg at the SORC is 26.6 miles. If you are trying to average 100 mph, You need to average 26.6/100 or .266 Hours... multiply by 3600 to get seconds (957.6 seconds). The actual south course distance is 26.636 miles long (your going to have to trust me on this one), so GPS avg speed to run the course in 957.6 seconds is 26.636/.266 = 100.14 mph, so if you were perfect 100 mph going up, you'll want to run 100.14 mph average going south.

If you were 9 seconds faster than the pefect time on the run up (verified by the stop watch AND GPS moving time), add 9 seconds to your southbound time (957.6 + 9)/3600 = .2685 Hrs, and solve for your average GPS speed 26.636/.2685 = 99.2 mph.

Run the course south with an average GPS speed of 99.2 and you have a very good chance of being within 2 seconds of perfect for the total run.

This method won't guarantee you a trophy by any means, but getting within two seconds is very respectable. I know people that have ORR raced for 10+ years that NEVER get within 2 seconds.

We run a Timewise Rally computer that measures front wheel pulses (so I can leave the line in a cloud of smoke, if I want to), but use the GIII as a back up if we lose a wheel magnet or have a rally computer failure. We won the 135 mph class in Big bend in 2007 with a Broken Detroit locker (I shifted into 4th instead of 6th @ 162 mph) a dead speedo (also taken out by the missed shift) and dead rally computer (i don't remember what killed it) using the Tach for speed and having the Navigator read me the average speed on the GIII.

If you need any help with your calculations @ the turn around in dunning we usually have a laptop to help crunch the numbers.

The great thing about the GIII/stop watch system is you just drive and enjoy the road and just hit button on the start and stop. Complicated check point systems can come later. The main reason we went to a rally computer is so we can just drive without a lot of thinking on the course and it gives a measurement resolution not possible with todays GPS systems... at least not ones that I can afford. The SORC has the hardest finish in Open Road racing. We crossed the finish @ 137 mph in 2003. That was more scary that going off the road in 2004. The last thing you want to be doing is looking for markers you stuck in the ground or a clock on your steering wheel.

We started OR racing 10 years ago and made incremental, evolutionary improvements to get the systems we used today. We tested assumtions and came to conclusions I never would have guessed or even believed if I hadn't tested them myself.

Stuff like tire growth is linear with mph... ie run a set distance of 50.00 miles @ 100 mph and a set distance of 50.00 miles @160 mph and the Odometer will read the same as if you had traveled the entire distance of 100.00 miles @ 130 mph... as long as you keep tire temps constant (but the ODO would read much lower if you ran the entire 100.00 Mile distance @ 160 mph or much higher if you ran the 100.00 miles @ 100 mph even if the tire temps are the same). This one predictable thing makes measuring an acurate distance while traveling an Average speed possible and turns ORR into a solveable math problem.

If you aren't into math, GIII all the way.

Thanks, that is some really good information. Looks like we got some studying to do!

[Flash68]

Wow that was close!

[UNGN]

Ron Adee, who's Won the One lap of America and holds the unlimited record at Arnold watched the Video and a said "oh know.. he's Apexing too early... this is going to be ugly".

The last three corners Northbound at the SORC are in the next county (Blaine County) and they don't do any road maintenance on them... so the broken shoulder and the launch ramp right before the Apex should be still there for everyone to enjoy in 2012, like we did in 2004.

Now we Apex late for the final corner.

[Larry Callahan]

This looked like a lot of fun. I may fly in and check it out this year. Does anyone know what the best airport is to fly in from LAX?

[OptimaJim]

It probably depends on what you do once you get to the airport. Lincoln is closer than Omaha, but North Platte is much closer than both of them. However, if you plan on renting a car, I don't know if there are car rental places in North Platte.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, optima batteries, Inc.
www.twitter.com/optimabatteries