What do I wear to Dr ED??

[Mully]

Hello all !!
Im giong to my first Dr Ed at BeaverRun in Pa this weekend and am wondering what is the best thing to wear ..shirt and pant wise?? I do not own a driving suit yet..Do allot of people wear dr suits?? I am pretty sure all cotton is required.. Any thoughts on what you wear would be cool!!
Thanks
Mully

[Chuck Moreland]

Check with the organizers for requirements.

Typically it is long pants, long sleeve shirt, natural fibers (cotton).

Most don't require gloves but check.

Most participants at DE do not wear driving suits. Usually the guys with suits on have them because they do time trials or wheel to wheel as well.

[RarlyL8]

Our local group has no rules for clothing. Just a helmet and car inspection.

Guess you could drive neckid. Better yet let your wife or girl friend drive neckid. Gives new meaning to "Beaver Run".

[Nader]

Dr. Ed probably doesn't care what you wear, as long as you're well-groomed and showered that day.

[Dood]

Is Dr ED an ObGYN? BeaverRun?

[FlaCarrera]

This thread is going down hill fast

Moving back on topic; For my first DE coming up soon, I figured I didn't want to stand around between sessions in the hot Florida August sun in (required) long sleeves and pants, so I bought mechanic's cotton coveralls for the driving only. About $45.

Have fun at Beaver Run...how could you not?
Cheers
Ted in So. Fla

86 Carrera Targa Blk/Blk

[Mully]

LOL
After reading my post over I asked for it!!
Too Funny!!
Mully

[Don Wohlfarth]

Plan on cotton pants and long sleeve cotton shirt. Some drivers go to Kmart and buy over sized cotton pants with an elastic waist.
This would allow you to wear shorts and a tee shirt and when you are on track you can pull the pants over the shorts and put on a long sleeve shirt. Tennis shoes are fine, try not to use the ones with chunky soles as they can make it hard to drive.
You want to wear something comfortable, try and stay cool, and drink plenty of water.
Don't know if you've ever seen John Force on tv when he's wearing his drivers suit. Some people at de's make John look like he's dressed for dinner.
Relax and have a good time.

[PeteBrown]

The Northern Ohio PCA chapter requires you wear a long sleeve cotton shirt, cotton pants and socks with leather shoes. Most just wear jeans, a long sleve t-shirt and tennis shoes.

Have fun at Beaverun. It should be a fun event - I wish I could go but I have other obligations this weekend. Attached is a write up I received from an Eastern Buckeye Regional PCA member and rennlister.

Pete Brown
'87 Coupe
Cleveland, Ohio



First Impressions of Beaverun

It took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to travel the 92 miles from North Canton to the new Beaverun motor sports complex in Western PA. This new track is located about 2 miles north of Exit 2 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The following are a few impressions and comments from the lapping day I spent with the BMW club on the 18th of August.
The access road, Penndale Road, is one you will nearly miss if you are not observant. There is a sign for the track sitting at ground level on your left as you head north on Pa. Route 18 just past State Route 351. Penndale is of the one-lane variety. The first few hundred yards are just plain terrible. Huge ruts, mud, rocks, narrow, etc. Fit more for a tank trap than an access road. To aggravate the situation someone who lives in a very “modest” home by the road left his pick up truck parked about half way onto the road. I barely got my trailer by. How the folks with big motor homes and trailers got through there is beyond me.
The track owners had a portion of Penndale vacated, so it takes you right into the track. Upon entering it is like you have mistakenly driven into a highway construction project. There are earthmovers, dump trucks, and various road building equipment all over the place. A featureless plain of asphalt and dirt. A fine mist of light brown dirt, talc-like, settles everywhere. This is not yet MidOhio.
But you want to know about the track, right?
The track is relatively short, at just under 1.6 miles. Twelve turns. At least that’s how many I counted.
It is 36 feet wide and very smooth. There is one bump at turn 12 as you crest the hill and head onto the front straight. There is NO run off at this time and no curbing. You do NOT want to go off this track unless you like eating dust, dirt, and flirting with a roll over. Driving well under your limit is the rule for now. Finding the limits of adhesion is not to be done on this course until the run off areas are finished. Word is that there will be no gravel traps since they want to use the track for motorcycles, but I hope they change their minds. Turn 1 is going to be ripe for folks heading off course. The same with turn 7 where you can easily misjudge the turn and end up out of shape. And the end of the back straight will not be fun if your brakes fade or you do not get the speed out of your car before the turn.
The first 7 turns are very technical. Turn one is a down hill, left-hander and leads to a short section of right and left hand turns which take you to turn 7 which is a blind, over the hill sequence. It takes faith to do this turn at speed and after a few dozen laps I found a line that made my car feel settled as I early (yes early) apexed the turn as my car crested the hill. The front end gets light, and you cannot see the turn as it heads downhill to the right, but that proved to be the best and quickest route.
At the end of the backstretch is an up hill, right hand turn which is reminiscent of the toe-of-the-boot at the Glen. Beaverun calls it a “carrousel”. I suppose every track has to have one if you are catering to the German car clubs.
Hard braking is required as you approach this turn since you have just run the fastest part of the track. Drop a gear or two and let the hill and turn scrub off some speed. You accelerate up the hill and through the turn into the last turn, which is also blind as you head onto the front stretch.
This track is fairly easy to learn, but it will be hard to master. I put in about 85 miles and got comfortable with the track in general, and figured out which gears to use where. But, no doubt the next time I am there I will find a better way around, especially in the first few turns where I know there is more speed. When the track is safer to drive everyone will push a little harder I am sure.
Lap times? Well, kind of meaningless right now. I was timed at just under 1:29 which was probably the slowest of the cars out there, and was taken before I started using 5th gear on the back and front straights. A good time will certainly be under 1:10 for the typical DE machine. We’ll see.
Let me predict that this track will either force Nelson Ledges to clean up its act, or face extinction. I will be more than willing to drive the extra half our or so to get to this track instead of driving at Nelson and I am sure others will also be so willing. The Western PA folks will have little reason to come farther west to drive an old beat up track with some of the track world’s worst facilities.
Make plans to go as soon as you can. NOR has an event in August and Allegheny has one on the weekend of September 21-22. MidOhio region is there October 5 & 6. And of course, we (EBR) are planning on a Fabulous Friday in October.

[Mully]

Thanks PeteBrown!
I knew if I waited long enough people would stop taking shots and answer my question!! LOL
Mully

[jluetjen]

If you are going to spend $50 buying some outfit from Walmart, you might as well go to Racers Wholesale and get your self a real drivers suit for $80. That will give you about 4 seconds of fire protection (4 more then cotton!). It even meets the minimum SCCA and FIA requirements. If you really want to go over the top or if you one day decide to race in an SCCA event, you will need to get one or two layers of fire retardent underwear so that your fire protection is in the 30 second range and then you'll be all set!

To paraphrase an old adage - If you have a $50 body, get a $50 drivers suit. Getting burned really sucks!

[89911]

What to wear? Out region requires long sleeves and pants that are made of cotton. No synthetics. I have a one piece nomex suit that is black. In hot sunny weather, you die in this. I had a chance to check out the course as an observor last Saturday, since our region was having an instructors initiation day. I echo the above statements. It will be a great track. Emphasis on be . I'll reserve my opinion after the entire course is completed and facilities are provided. It is in a beautiful area though. After spending a day or two there, you will have to hose off your car inside and out. The fine clay dust from all the construction is blowing like the Sahara. There is also zero shade, so bring anything you can think of for shelter. As for runoff, a local member went off course soon after the track opened. All the fine dust came pouring into his vents, leaving his complete interior filled with brown talcum powder. As far as the name, you can see it has already been the source of jokes. The name actually is Beave Run or Beaver un. Beaverrun is owned by this company. Might explain the grammatical changes: http://www.beaverrun.com/Mountain_Resorts/Beaver_Run/

I could see if your born with an embarrasing name. I can't understand why you would give yourself one.

Pete, I was at Mid-Ohio a couple of weeks ago with the NorOhio PCA, were you there? We were running A-B with a red 89 coupe with FIKSE wheels.

[PeteBrown]

89911,

I was unable to drive at Mid-Ohio b/c it was sold out 3 mos. in advance. I visited on Sunday. I was the one with the cooler and two little blond boys.

I hope to attend the Allegany region's DE at Mid-Ohio in October.

Pete Brown
'87 Coupe

[jluetjen]

Our region requires long sleeves and pants that are made of cotton. No synthetics.

Hmm - that's an interesting rule since Nomax (as well as most of the other fire retardant or fire proof materials) is a synthetic. I understand what their intention is (polyester melts which makes for really ugly burns), but the wording of the rule doesn't make sense.

[89911]

Pete, I'll be there. There is an event at BeaverRun with our group in Sept. If you don't mind the sunburned, dirty look!

[RarlyL8]

What do you mean? I was being serious.

Our group has no rules for clothing. Only helmets and car inspections. They "might" say something if you did drive neckid though. My bony knees might offend some.