Any news from the weekend at VIR?
For those of us that didn’t make the trip,thanks in advance.
Regards, Robert Patton
Did anyone race at VIR? HPDE stories?
Patton
#1
jhall1957
#3
Ummm, I raced, but doubt anyone wants to hear a rookie story?
No blood, but a fair amount of bent metal. Any interest?
Jeff (the older brother) Hall
M3Bill
#4
jhall1957 wrote:
[quote]Ummm, I raced, but doubt anyone wants to hear a rookie story?
No blood, but a fair amount of bent metal. Any interest?
Jeff (the older brother) Hall[/quote]
Let’s hear it! Hopefully it wasn’t your bent metal.
Patton
#5
Jeff, insights from your fist race are usually the best. Like many other life experiences, there will only be one first time.
There is some great talent in the Mid-Atlantic region. Don’t be disapointed if you were not close in speed. I remember when I thought a 2.31 was a fast time around VIR.
So, what is your story?
Regards, Robert Patton
jhall1957
#6
WELL…
Let me start by saying Super Comp school is a LONNNNNNG day, especially when it’s 80+ degrees out and you spend all day (7:30 to 7:30) in your driving suit in car or in class! The best aprt was Carter coming up behind me going into number 10 and giving me that little extra push!
Saturday practice and qualifying went without much other then me hanging back and doing clean(slow)laps. Qualified last but lined up second to last because Ray/Fly Navy’s transponder wasn’t working.
So the story goes that after several laps of racing, 3 cars run down the front straight and the one in the front moves to the outside (left) of the track entering turn one, I (number 2 car) go inside and plan to brake late, Ed Davidson (nice guy!)in third car moves inside me, also planning to brake late. We enter pretty much 3 wide. Ed and I plan to work the inside and maybe swap positions around some when, BAM! Car number one decided (as best I can figure) to head to the apex. Now, after it was all done and said, my red paint was on his car in front of his right front wheel and the bulk of the body damage to his car was right behind that front wheel in in his pass door.
Ed and I just bumped together. He went off track inside and I got mashed pretty hard.
I did finish the race, had my best lap time after the wreck and then went to Race director with form in hand. My main worry was “Did I do anything wrong?”. The answer was decided pretty quickly that neither Ed or I did anything wrong. Ed=no points, me=1 point because I was involved (not fair!), other driver=3 points.
By the time I got back, Tom had 90% of the damage fixed and I raced everything Sunday in the rain. Nasty day!
Most fun of the weekend? Watching Al go off track twice and taking off like he’s shot from a cannon after the second one. Man, he must have been really PISSED!
twilson
#7
Patton wrote:
[quote]Any news from the weekend at VIR?
For those of us that didn’t make the trip,thanks in advance.
Regards, Robert Patton[/quote]
Did not make the Sat sprint, but heard that Skeen and Jon Allen had a great battle up to the end with Skeen edging him at the start/finish line. Sunday was cold and rainy. The track stayed just damp enough for it to be super slick, and not wet enough for rain tires. I qualified 8th and ended up 6th. Skeen ran fast and consistent (as usual) and ended up 2 for 2 on the weekend. Congrats to The Skeen. I’ll see you SE guys/girl Fri for the CMP enduro.B)
jhall1957 wrote:
[quote] Ed=no points, me=1 point because I was involved (not fair!), other driver=3 points.
[/quote]
The reason you got a point was so that we can keep track of the guys that get 1 point a lot of times…never really his fault but gets hit a lot actually means something is not all together good with that driver.
leithpartsgrl
#10
Here are some pictures I took with my cheap camera. Some of them came out fairly well.
Of course there is an Al theme of sort, but did get in some other cars. Enjoy 
Cyndi
OOPSEY! Am having technical concerns. I will try to post them a bit later.
jhall1957
#13
nasaregistrar wrote:
[quote]jhall1957 wrote:
[quote] Ed=no points, me=1 point because I was involved (not fair!), other driver=3 points.
[/quote]
The reason you got a point was so that we can keep track of the guys that get 1 point a lot of times…never really his fault but gets hit a lot actually means something is not all together good with that driver.[/quote]
Oh, I understand the idea of a “Wreck Magnet” but I just hate to start out that way! It was great fun and I had a wonderful time actually racing.
Carter, Chris, Carlton, David Herrington, these guys and everyone were VERY nice to Tom and I and we will be running many more with them in the future. Of course seeing Al and Travis was good too and even Scotty Mc showed his face Sat. afternoon, of course, it was way to wet and cold for him to get out of his warm truck, but he did say hello!
A special thanks to the NASA-Mid Atl crew, it was fun and very well run.
And a special hello to our “New” crew! Chris and Mike, get ready to do our nasty work!
Elephant4
#14
Just got back in town today so I’m still getting back up to speed. Got to the track Thursday night and there were already a lot of cars there. The first couple of sessions friday I realized how rusty I was having not been here in 4 years. Ran a 2.22 and was ready to plug away from there. Talked to Skeen & Goldthwaite and they gave me some good pointers to pick up time. Unfortunately I had brake problems the rest of the day. I almost took out a Mustang and then went straight off at turn 1. It was like I had 70% braking. I did change pads and rotors. The rotors were kind of greasy from the packing so I took them off again and degreased them and then put another set of new pads on. Still had the problem, eventually put an old set of rotors back on that Mike D was kind enough to give me and that cured my problem but no more track time for Friday. Turns out the new rotors were glazed somehow, they had blue purple tint to them. Never had that problem before very strange but good to know. I really needed the track time especially with such a strong field at a track I didn’t have a good grasp on. Friday weather was perfect and then it started to get cold… really cold. Crap I was camping for the first time and I was freezing my ass off at 4am. Finally got up to Cobetto belting out some tune and was welcomed by cold wet weather. First practice was wet. I skipped the session as I had no interest in messing around in the wet. Qualifying was dry, phew. It also was only 15mins on a very crowed track. I got totally hossed behind a super cup porsche but it was the same for everyone, total time on track was 11 mins. I ran a 2:22.9 but knew I had alot of time left as I couldn’t get past the porsche. I qualified 8th which is what I predicted the day before. Skeen was on pole with the usual suspects Allen, Carter, Goldthwait, Cobetto and others. Mike D had an incident so he was behind me so I was expecting to see him filling the mirrors which he didn’t disapoint. At the start of the race I got a decent start and just stayed on the outside in 1 looking to avoid any madness. Coming out of turn 2 I get side swiped by Bennett who I then let go in turn 4 fearing he might bash me again. Mike D is in the trunk. After a few laps of dicing with Bennett and Mike I see Carlton goes off at turn 4 and I’m not sure if he ever got out of the gas but he comes back on track and almost collects Bennett. I stay way back. Then Carlton goes back off track and coming back on he does collect Mike D. We catch up to David Herrington who I do pass going into 1. Unfortunately the rest of the race was determined by the gaggle of porsches we had to navigate through. I could have been a lot more agressive but decided it wasn’t worth it. Bennett got the better of traffic and Herrington caught back up to me. Then a super cup car totally screwed me coming out of hog pen and we had a drag to the line which I lose. Shannon took a ton of pictures of race 1 so I’ll get those up soon and I have the video too. Skeen won but had a great battle with John Allen. I think Carter was 3rd. Sunday was more cold and wet. Again I skipped a wet practice but qualifying was pretty dry at the start. I got to the grid much earlier but still found about 12 cars already lined up. To my dismay I was behind another super cup car who screwed my whole session, throw in tow truck on course, short session and a track that got wetter as the session went on and I threw down a ripping 2:33 on my last lap when the track was at its worst. Still no where near the times of the others so it didn’t matter much. I prayed for a dry track as I don’t like driving when it is cold and sorta of wet. I would have preferred it to just rain, so I could put the rains on and be done with it. I wasn’t going to run the race Sunday as I thought the conditions were just too likely to have incidents. I decided to go to the grid and do the pace lap and see how it was. I knew right away I was not going to race. I might be a pansy but I had nothing to gain by racing in those conditions especially after just getting my car fixed from last year. Unfortunately I was on the outside so I couldn’t pit, I did the first lap and just stayed out of the way of everyone. Bennett went off in 4, Allen and Herrington were off in hog pen. I pitted and packed up. Not the weekend I was hoping for but the car is in one piece and it was good to see everyone and meet new people.
MikeD
#15
I can’t compete with that summary simon! I do have a video though. Sunday was a better day for me than saturday. I was struggling with the car all day sunday because the rear toe was out due to the incident on saturday. It was very scary in T9! I must add that carter was right behind me ready to pass me if I made a mistake. He got held up when a couple of other cars went off and I was able to keep the gap between us for the remainder of the race. It was fun and slick!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8622387072950585452
I want to see Mike’s Video from Saturday. From What I hear he had an awesome battle with johhny! Sean, Simon, others. I know a lot of you had videos lets see em.
Peace
MikeD
#17
mskeen wrote:
Divx always does that to me for some reason. Are you posting the rear facing video as well?
twilson
#18
Here’s my vid of Sundays race.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6513952169694667663&hl=en
MikeD
#19
uphkrsrcraz wrote:
[quote]Here’s my vid of Sundays race.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6513952169694667663&hl=en[/quote]
Nice drivin dude! You had a hell of a run on carter in Hog Pen on the last lap. Yall both kept it nice and clean though. Good job guys.
scottmc
#20
With the rain (drizzle) being so light over the weekend… what were most of you doing tire-wise?