The Big Bend Open Road Race, commonly referred to as the "BBORR", boasts that it is "the most challenging road race in the world". Based on what we've learned, you'll hear no argument from our team. The open road race format is very unique. There are very few races of this kind still operating. The Department of Transportation has granted permission to close public highway 285 in west Texas, between Fort Stockton to the north, and Sanderson to the south. This beautiful stretch of highway is home to the BBORR's 59-mile, 67-turn (each direction) course. The format is to release cars at a specific interval for the southbound leg. After the last car arrives in Sanderson, the grid reforms and the racers do it all again going north. This obviously gives all of the turns and crests a whole different dynamic.
The format for all classes except “Unlimited” is to try and hit your target speed over the entire course, as precisely as possible. For example, if you race 120 miles and your target speed is 120mph then you would require exactly one hour to run the course if you averaged 120mph on the button. Now, the reality is that you have to get up to speed at the start and you have to slow down in some corners to navigate them safely. This means you will have to drive faster than your target speed to bring up your average speed overall. On top of that, you must not drop more than 30mph below your target or you may be disqualified. Furthermore, you may not exceed your “tech speed” which is different for the various classes and gives different amounts of ‘cushion’ to sub-classes.
Let me bore you with some more detail on that since it get’s pretty intriguing to think about the classes, speeds and precision required to win. We were signed up to race in the GT-3 class. Within GT, GT-1 has the lowest target speed, GT-2 has the middle and GT-3 has the highest target speed. All GT classes have the same tech speed, which is 140mph. Given the minimum and maximum speeds allowed, that means GT-1 has the widest speed range to work with and GT-3 has the narrowest of the GT classes. Make sense? Until you work your way up to earning a spot in Unlimited Class, if you choose to move up, you will deal with time and speed requirements. Unlimited deals only in speed. These car and driver combos are going all-out for the lowest time to complete the entire course and possibly the highest speed-trap mph of the event. Speeds over 200mph are not unusual.
After missing registration for the 2011 BBORR since it sold out so fast, we decided to volunteer as course workers and see what we could learn, who we could meet and see what this thing was all about. Suffice it to say we ached to be on the race course and were determined to make it in 2012.
As registration opened up, we were on top of it. We had all of our forms filled out, knew the car and our personal safety equipment would meet or exceed requirements and we pounced. After what seemed like endless anxious days we learned we were in; We had registered before the field was filled. As we do with the Texas Mile, we created a checklist for the car, for the driver/navigator equipment and for the non-race “stuff”.
The night before we departed for Fort Stockton we had the car double and triple checked, double-checked our safety equipment and made sure we had all of our forms/documentation together. The car was loaded on the trailer, the truck was loaded with gear and we set out, pre-dawn, for our 9-hour trek to our hotel in west Texas.
Wednesday, Day 1 – It would reach 106 degrees on this day. We were up by sunrise and ready to head down to Sanderson where registration, technical inspection, rookie qualifying and practice were to take place. We arrived to find cars already lined up through the courthouse parking lot and spilling onto the street and tech inspection wasn’t even open yet. The line of drivers and navigators filled the registration building and stretched well out the door and into the parking lot. Every face in line beamed with an anxious smile and the excitement was contagious. We immediately started chatting with the others in line and quickly found that we “knew” some of them from online contact and others we remembered from the previous year when we were volunteer course workers. The line moved along, we got signed in, got our driver packet, arm bands and car numbers were issued.
We then made our way outside and moved all of our personal safety equipment into the car and eventually made it to, and through, tech inspection. Tech is always stressful for me because of the unknowns and what-ifs. Once we were through the line we moved inside the courthouse for the mandatory rookie orientation meeting.
At the conclusion of the meeting I changed into my driver suit, climbed into the car and slowly made my way down to a stretch of highway 90 that was allowed to be temporarily and intermittently closed to accommodate rookie qualifying and later, practice. After a brief meeting at the staging area for rookies, instructors were assigned to each car. My instructor came over, introduced himself and asked a few questions about past race driving experience and gave me a few pointers. We were second in line. My mind was racing already; “Don’t screw up your launch”, “Don’t screw up your corners [apex]”, “Don’t get disqualified for too fast or too slow”. I assumed the instructor would act somewhat like a navigator and advise me of the upcoming turns as we set out down the roughly 10-mile stretch of road I’ve never laid eyes on before. Well, not so much. I did my best to read the road, watch his hand signals, straddle the center line, keep the car under 140mph (our “tech speed”) and most importantly, keep it on the road. We started out nice and smooth, moved up through the gears and very quickly I found myself throwing it into the first turn at nearly 130mph. “Please hold on” I begged the tires silently. I’m not certain if I was breathing or not for that first 10-mile stint. My heart was beating, that’s for sure. My instructor, on the other hand, was as calm as could be. I took that as a bit of a good sign that he wasn’t clawing at the door handle to get out and not screaming at me for royally messing up. With the return trip in front of me I had a little more confidence now. I was breathing at the start and my heart was back down from my throat and in my chest again. We launched down range and I was able to focus on reading the road, checking my speed on the heads-up display and I even recall thinking what a beautiful note that Corvette makes at higher RPMs. In the GT-3 class the target speed is 125mph. We passed through the speed trap at 124.6mph, which I also was able to see while still on-course. After crossing the finish line my instructor advised he would inform the officials that I had passed and was qualified for the race. To say I was elated would be an understatement. I drove back to the courthouse and delivered the good news to my navigator who just happens to be my wife. She got changed into her race gear and off we went for a practice session. This would literally be her first time to ever ride in this car. We made one 20-mile (10+10) practice run and determined she was perfectly comfortable and further practice would be of no great benefit. After all, this was not the road we would be racing on and adjusting to the speed would not take long.
Thursday, Day 2 – This was going to be our day to really put in work on our course notes. Very good course notes are provided by the BBORR and also by the race team we joined (The Lone Star Corvette Club, Open Road Race Team). It was our responsibility to refine those notes into a form that would best suit our needs. We drove the course two times, down and back, for a total of 240 miles to get familiar with the road surface, sharpness of the turns, camber or crown of the road and picking out good landmarks. We thought it would be key to have a handful of landmarks where we could time-check or find our place in the course notes in the event that we lost our place. I looked for long straight stretches where I could check the mirrors, gauges and push higher speed if necessary, to make up time lost in corners.
Thursday night was the “Racer Reunion & Rookie Welcome Party”. We determined it’s code name was “the blender and crazy hat party”. Upon arrival we found a large crowd of racers, navigators, officials, a hospitality tent, DJ, a kiddie-pool full of ice, tequila, margarita mix and triple-sec…and a gasoline powered blender. Yes, a 2-stroke engine had been rigged up with the blender apparatus on top. We determined this little beast could go from zero-to-margarita in about 4.7 seconds. It was a very nice gathering and just like the line at registration you could see everyone was excited and there is a great deal of camaraderie.
Friday, Day 3 – We decided to fine-tune our course notes one last time. We drove the 120-miles of highway 285 once more, calling out the turns, crests and such to make sure we were as comfortable as we could be. Unfortunately we were running late getting back to Fort Stockton and missed out on the first of several community-oriented events. Several racers took their cars and met up with the kids and parents of the head-start program. The kids made cars out of cardboard and showed them off to the racers. From what we were told and what we saw in pictures, we won’t miss out next year.
We did make it to the second event which was another group of racers and cars going to visit Alamo Elementary School in Fort Stockton. The children came out in waves, clung to the playground fence and asked for autographs while picking out their favorite car. They made us feel like real rock stars.
We stayed as long as we could but there was another mandatory meeting coming up. We drove to Rooney Park and made it on time to attend the navigators meeting just before the driver’s meeting. With most of the race cars on site, the people of Fort Stockton and surrounding areas come and walk around the car show and prepare to take their places for the BBORR Parade.
After the meetings concluded and the car show began to wind down, the roar and cackle of engines coming to life soon filled the air. The parade was about to begin. We had heard about “proper parade etiquette” and had four huge bags of candy at the ready. After the line formed up and the police escort led us onto the main street through town we began throwing candy to the children along the parade route. There is no question the people of Fort Stockton have embraced this event. The financial impact for the communities is tremendous and the good will from locals to racers and vice-versa is heart warming.
Saturday, Race Day – Much like Christmas morning, I was very much awake before the alarm went off. We had to be at Rooney Park in our grid positions by 6am. We suited up, tested our two-way radios and headed out to our car. You could already hear the ghostly distant sound of big-horsepower engines in the cars making their way to grid well ahead of sunrise. We got into our car, fired the engine and without having to say a word looked at each other and confirmed, “this is it”. We idled through town with the windows down, enjoying every lope of our engine as the note echoed off of the buildings in the still sleepy town. We had topped off with a mixture of premium pump-gas and VP Race Fuel the night before so our engine was very happy. After taking our grid position we met with the three driver/navigators in front of us and the three behind us. We agreed on how we would communicate in the event that overtaking was necessary. We made sure there were no radio frequency conflicts and wished each other the best of luck.
As outlined at the top of this article, this is not a ‘race’ in the traditional sense but more of a rally format. With cars leaving one at a time on a steady interval, if everyone did their job perfectly, we’d never see each other and passing would not be a consideration. But, we live in Real-ville and stuff happens. I still found it to be quite a thrill to know we’d be right behind a Lingenfelter prepared Corvette and immediately in front of a former NASCAR stock car once driven to victory by Joe Nemecheck.
We were led out of the park in order of our grid positions and slowly made our way down highway 285 until we reached the starting line just a little south of Fort Stockton. The sun was just starting to break over the horizon and it was going to be an absolutely beautiful day. Eventually 156 cars were in their places. A helicopter and two airplanes were overhead for our safety. The course workers were in position all along the length of the highway, the course had been swept, cleared by police, and fire & EMS personnel were at the ready. The first Unilimited car fired his engine. Near total silence fell over the participants that were milling around their cars. The next thing we heard was nothing short of sweet music. The sound of an American V8 engine tearing off into the distance. First gear, second gear, third gear, fourth gear. It was like an audio version of watching a launch of the space shuttle. We knew by the sound and time ‘about’ how fast he must be going by now. It seemed to just go on and on, to our joy and amazement.
As the line crept forward we got ourselves prepared, climbed into the car and made one last check that everything was secure. We were the car on-deck. An official leaned into the car and gave us the latest updates. “Cars off at 3 miles, 6 miles and about 12 miles out…be careful”. We then rolled up to the line. We watched the starting lights intently. Yellow, 5-4-3-2-1…GREEN! We started our timers and I sent the car off in first gear. 6000rpms…second gear, 7000rpms…third gear. We were on our way. As I started to settle in I had to remind myself to breathe slowly and steadily, concentrate on the road and “control your speed”, I told myself. We’d come too far this week to be disqualified. In a matter of seconds we were at 125, then 130, then 135mph. We were cruising at nearly 135 miles per hour in the Big Bend Open Road Race. It was a little surreal, having the freedom to sail down the highway legally! My wife / navigator was already calling out the upcoming turns just as we planned. She would provide the verbal direction and I would then prepare to attack the corners.
Now, stuff is happening pretty fast at these speeds. When I heard “right…I think” and I saw a left coming up I knew we had lost our place momentarily. We stayed calm, she found her place again quickly and we were again attacking the course. This being our rookie event, it would not be a shock to learn we were doing something wrong and our first alarming sight was that we were closing in on the Lingenfelter Corvette and doing so very quickly. I rolled out of the throttle and hugged the center of the road to put myself squarely in his driver-side mirror. Quickly he noticed, eased to the right and flashed his turn signal to confirm he knew we were coming around. I stood on the throttle again and slipped by safely giving a quick wave of “thanks” to the other pair. This did have us concerned that we may be running way too fast. It was about this time we started really checking time. This is when I found out that I had ‘double tapped’ my timer at the start so it had run off one second and was stopped. Not good. Not to fear though because my navigator had two more timers in her grasp, for a while. After telling her my watch didn’t start and her telling me she had dropped the master timer on the floor, we didn’t lose hope. Even after she asked me for a trip-odometer check and I reported back that I failed to reset it at the start, we didn’t lose hope. We kept our foot in it and just pushed to run what felt like a higher than 125mph average in hopes we would get the timers and odometer right on the return leg and correct our time. As we closed in on, and crossed the Sanderson finish line I was shocked. The master timer, somewhere on the passenger side floor, had started beeping just as we crossed the line. We had come very close to nailing our time!
We eased into town and were guided to our parking space for the short break as the remaining cars in other classes made their way to Sanderson. We refueled, checked out the car, re-hydrated and even had a darn good cheeseburger. Soon enough we were on our way back into the car and idling out of town to the cheers and waves of the local townspeople. By now it was hot, really hot. Sitting in the sun, wearing 4 layers of fire-retardant protective gear and driving a black car…did I mention it was hot? Soon enough cars were moving again. We were ready this time. Trip odometer reset, all three timers in our hands ready to go and a fresh set of course notes. 5-4-3-2-1…GREEN! We clicked on all of the timers unloaded the clutch and we were off to the races again. This course, with all of it’s turns and elevation changes is fun! I found myself so at ease, having the first half of the race under my belt now. I was diving into the corners with much greater confidence, shifting more to power out of tight turns and quickly reclaim speed. My navigator was also more confident. Calling out the corners, directions and road features in perfect time with our pace. This northbound run was absolutely fantastic. I felt I could have kept driving that for hours if they’d let me. Entirely too soon, my lovely wife and navigator, calls out “5 miles to go”. How depressing. I was at my highest high right now. The car was showing me what it was made to do and I was in the zone. She started the countdown for me to hear and use along with my visual reference of the finish line to try and nail it right at zero. I could see we were going to come up short. I downshifted and leaned into the throttle. 126, 128, 130, 135, 138mph…I didn’t dare flirt with 140 and get disqualified at the finish for going over our tech speed. We blasted by the checkered flags at 138mph but the alarm on our main timer had already gone off.
I had declared earlier in the week leading up to the race that if, as rookies, we qualified, finished without a DQ, driver and navigator still on speaking terms and the car intact…we’d consider that a personal victory. Well, we did just that and then some. When the final results were posted we learned that we were 3.2 seconds (115-thousandths of a mph) off of perfect, for our target speed. Good enough for 7th place.
While 3.2 seconds might sound pretty decent, you should see the accuracy of the top three places in most classes. Some class winners were off by thousandths of a second. Really. If you were to look at the top 40 finishers overall, based on their respective targets, they were separated by less than 8-tenths of a second.
We met so many new friends and again enjoyed the people and sights around Fort Stockton and Sanderson. 2013 won’t get here soon enough. We look forward to participating again in “the most challenging road race in the world".
For more information, feel free to contact us.