Speed News Vol. 1 Issue 6 July : Page 36

TRACKSIDE HOMES AWAY FROM HOME — Story and Photos by Brett Becker P 36 erhaps the only things more common than racecars at a NASA event is a motorhome, a camper or trailer. Or even a tent. That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but overnight accommodations are part and parcel of any NASA event, which often can resemble a weekend party where a race happens to break out. After Saturday’s races conclude, the track glows with the warm orange light of a setting sun, and the smoky scent of barbecue wafts throughout the pits. Who would want to leave that? Of course, there is more than one way to stay at the track. To learn how it can be done on any budget, we tracked down a number of folks, each of whom has his own way of residing at the track. In some cases, camping actually means camping, and in others, the accommodations are far more luxurious. Opulent, even. You could stay at a hotel during a race weekend, but that would mean leaving the track. Here’s why staying at the track is more fun, and how to do it on any budget. Regardless of how they make their home away from home, they wouldn’t trade it for staying at a hotel away from friends and competitors. For them, the fraternity and

Trackside Homes Away From Home

Brett Becker

Perhaps the only things more common than racecars at a NASA event is a motorhome, a camper or trailer. Or even a tent. That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but overnight accommodations are part and parcel of any NASA event, which often can resemble a weekend party where a race happens to break out. After Saturday’s races conclude, the track glows with the warm orange light of a setting sun, and the smoky scent of barbecue wafts throughout the pits. Who would want to leave that? Of course, there is more than one way to stay at the track. To learn how it can be done on any budget, we tracked down a number of folks, each of whom has his own way of residing at the track. In some cases, camping actually means camping, and in others, the accommodations are far more luxurious. Opulent, even. Regardless of how they make their home away from home, they wouldn’t trade it for staying at a hotel away from friends and competitors. For them, the fraternity and fellowship of staying at the track is nearly as great a draw as the racing itself, and it’s a big part of what keeps them coming back year after year. The Spoils of Success If you’re pitted anywhere near Benoit “Benny” Pecqueur, you’ll know it. You’ll either see his giant, business-class Haulmark Freightliner motorcoach and stacker trailer, or you’ll hear the stereo. A native of southern France, Pecqueur has raced in Honda Challenge for the past six years, and is now the series leader in Southern California. “I got interested in racing,” he says. “I bought an old Suburban, a mid-’90s Suburban with an open trailer. When we’d come for a race weekend, I had a blow-up mattress and I’d remove the seat in the Suburban, and have my mattress and my sleeping bag in the back.” His enthusiasm for racing grew, and he bought a 20-foot enclosed trailer and slept on an air mattress inside. As his business blossomed, he was able to afford a Class C motorhome so his ex-wife and daughter could come to the track with him. When Pecqueur sold the company that had taken him 14 years to build, two of the first things he bought were a motorhome and a stacker trailer, which together measure exactly 64 feet, 11 inches long. “I had a custom-made trailer because I wanted to have a rig that’s 100-percent legal,” he says. “Most of the big rigs like this are oversized. They are illegal on the road. They are above 65 feet. I wanted it legal not because of the tickets, but mainly in case of an accident. I don’t want to have every lawyer in the world sue me because I’m over in length.” The rig is a 2007 Haulmark, which features a master suite, flat screen televisions, separate shower and commode and multiple slide-outs. With 150 gallons of fuel on board, the truck can travel 1,000 miles between fill-ups, which is ideal for when Pecqueur attends the NASA National Championships. The Mercedes-Benz diesel engine is good for nearly 300,000 miles and the 20-speed gearbox shifts itself automatically, or can be paddle shifted. “The big difference is in towing capacity, the way they handle and the way they drive,” Pecqueur explains. “A diesel pusher can usually tow between 7,000 and 10,000 pounds. I can tow 40,000 pounds because this is a big rig. If you drive any bus-type RV, and then drive this, you will never drive a bus-type again. They are so stable.” They also can be fitted with one heck of a stereo. Examples: 2005 Haulmark Motor Home and Stacker Trailer (used): $140,000 New Luxury Haulmark Motor Home: $300,000 and up Right-Sized When Steve Hassenpflug began in HPDE, he was pulling his Mustang to the track on an open trailer behind his 2000 F-250. It didn’t take long before he and his wife Wendy bought a Lance truck camper with a slide-out dinette so they could stay at the track. The camper has a full-size bed, a refrigerator, generator and even a shower. “We got this in 2010,” says Hassenpflug, who works as a performance driver specializing in high-speed camera cars for the television and film industry. “The intention was to use it for other things, but so far it’s been on two camping trips and the rest has just been for track use.” Bitten hard by the racing bug, Hassenpflug sold the Mustang and bought an ASA stock car set up for road racing. Powered by a 475-horsepower LS3 crate engine and fitted with lots of pricey race gear, the car really cried out for an enclosed trailer, so Hassenpflug sold the open hauler and bought an enclosed 21-foot Haulmark. Now he has the setup that suits his needs. He already owned the truck, and the camper comes off when he doesn’t want to haul it around. Even better, the camper does not need to be registered as a vehicle and it doesn’t require all the service and maintenance that comes with owning an RV. No tires to buy or fluids to change. “I like to be immersed in the experience,” he says. “I like the people here, the crowd, the conversations afterward we all have about, ‘Oh, yeah, that was great. You dove in there, and I tried to follow you! …’ All that stuff. It’s a mini vacation for me. I don’t have to go back to a hotel room and go to reality. I can stay here at the track and play racecar driver and not think about all that other stuff. I can sit here at the track and barbecue with friends. We’re cooking tri-tip tonight.” Examples: Lance Truck Camper 992 (new MSRP): $32,124 Tent City You have to admire Matt Thiemann’s moxie. A chief lighting technician for the television and film industry, Thiemann camps in a one-man tent at the track for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s cost effective. He already owned a tent and camping gear. Second, because he’d rather hang out and bench race with friends Saturday night. He pulls his Spec E30 behind his BMW X5, but that’s a luxury he did not always have. “Up until three months ago, I drove my race car to the track with my tent in it,” says the 27-year-old from Burbank, Calif. “The towing is all new to me. It’s much nicer than going home in a very loud, shaky race car with no radio, but you’d be amazed how much you can fit in a gutted E30.” Now that he has a more cargo capacity, he has room for tools and spares. But he also brings along a couple of key items to help make his stay more comfortable: an air mattress and a pillow, which, as elementary as it seems, is easy to forget. “When I first started, I was using traditional backpacking pads, because that’s what I had,” he says. “At tracks, it’s all gravel parking lots with rocks, and it’s not comfortable. An air mattress is so worth it, because it’s not like you’re carrying into the backcountry. You just blow it up, and then you have a mattress.” Someday, he would like to pull his car with an RV. The accommodations would be more comfortable, he said, and having a shower would be nice, particularly at racetracks that don’t have them. “With setting up a tent, you always have to get to the track early enough on Friday so you’re not doing it in the dark, especially here [at Willow Springs Raceway] where the wind is so bad at night,” he concludes. “Luckily I have a pretty good tent that doesn’t require feeding poles through it, so it goes up pretty quickly.” Example: Pinnacle Self-erecting pop-up three-person tent: $239 Coleman queen-sized airbed: $29.99 Lesson Learned The first time Brian Kenny was unable to drive his car home from the track, he wanted to be sure it didn’t happen again. Kenny, 51, who owns a construction company in Simi Valley, Calif., cut two tires when he went four-off at the exit of Turn 1 at Willow Springs International Raceway. Kenny was trying to keep a Cobra Mustang behind him when he overcooked the turn and went off in the rocky infield. “After I damaged the car, we had to leave it here,” says Kenny, who runs his 2008 Corvette coupe in HPDE3 with his wife Jan. “We couldn’t get it home. We decided to get a trailer and we started towing. Then after a couple of really hot days and a couple of really cold days, we decided to get a motorhome. We didn’t want to suffer.” And they don’t. Their 2007 36-foot National Pacifica diesel pusher has two slide-outs, satellite TV and an interior as plush as a Las Vegas honeymoon suite. They were pitted next to another couple—also Corvette enthusiasts—and were getting ready to shake up a batch of martinis. Like any good businessman, Kenny also uses the motorhome as a “mobile command post” for his construction business, which means it’s at least partially deductible. The couple has been doing NASA HPDE for four years, including trips from their Southern California home to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon) and even High Plains Raceway outside Denver. “For us, half the fun, truly, is the event itself,” Kenny says. “The other half is socializing in the paddock. We’re going to barbecue with friends of ours and it’s really half and half. “We want to do some of the premier tracks,” he added. “We’d really like to take a road trip and do Road America, VIR and Mid-Ohio.” Example: Fleetwood Bounder Classic Diesel (new MSRP): $161,700 Family Affair Kevin Pyles’ father was a racer and now Kevin brings his 3-year-old son to the track with him. Pyles just sets him up with all his toys in the garage area of his 42-foot Cyclone toy hauler and he’s got the place all to himself all weekend. Pyles used to tow his racecar behind a 34-foot Gulfstream Endura motorhome, but he switched to a toy hauler-style trailer because he and his wife Joy also use their RV for vacations. The motorhome was great, but they didn’t have anything to drive around once they got where they were going. “Several years ago, we loaded the RV up, pulled the trailer with the race car, went to Illinois for a family reunion, then we went over to Gatlinburg, Tenn., for vacation,” Pyles says. “So we had to rent a car when we got there, and we went to Barber Motorsports Park on the way back.” He already owned a Ford F-350, so towing the trailer wouldn’t be a problem. So, Pyles gave his father his RV and then traded his father’s in on a new toy hauler, which is in its first season of use. In addition to helping with the car, Pyles’ father, wearing a “King of the Grill” T-shirt at Hallet Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma, mans the grill during race weekends, cooking meals on Friday and Saturday nights. “Everyone calls him Cookie because he made four beer-can chickens for everyone Friday night, then smoked a brisket all day Saturday,” he says, adding that he enjoys staying at the track more than in hotels or commuting from home. “He used to race, but he quit a year or two ago. A lot of the times now, he’ll just go to the track, and cook and hang out with everybody. “We also started racing with Gashead Motorworks and they stay at the track, a lot of their drivers stay at the track,” he adds. “So it’s just kind of one those party, getaway kind of things.” Example: Cyclone HD toy hauler with 12-foot garage: $47,000 and up. SN

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