 |
|
Looking forward to being there. I am taking the instructor course and signed up for HPDE. Being my first time at VIR I thought it a bit presumptuous to race unless I get real comfortable real fast on Friday.
What’s the paddock layout for parking? Which paddock? What about camping, I see there is a fee, is that per day or the weekend? Anything else I should know?
Should be fun. I’ll be up there tomorrow night hopefully, but I will only be driving the E30 Saturday and Sunday. Look for the yellow Ferrari and come say hi.
Well, I am nowhere near as entertaining as Robert Allen but someone’s gotta report something right?
The field was 12 cars deep, some of the regulars were absent but there were a number of new drivers in the pack. We had pretty good weather on Saturday…once the ice melted. We didn’t qualify until 1:25p, so when we went out everything was dry and the temperature was relatively warm. I saw Skip and Mike D. in front of me in qualifying so I worked hard to keep them insight during the session. At the end of qualifying the top five were: Cobetto, Grace, Bennett, Davidson, and Herrington.
We had a clean start to the race on Saturday, I was able to maintain second place through the first turn shenanigans. A couple laps later I over cooked Oak Tree and Mike D got a good run on me and took second place going into the brake zone at the end of the back straight. The last couple laps of the race got interesting because the race for the lead in Spec E30 caught the race for the lead in Spec 3, in the heat of the battle the 29 was called for passing under yellow in T3 which resulted in a DQ. At the stripe it was Chris Cobetto for the win, 2.5 seconds later I crossed the line, and after another 4 seconds Skip finished third. Cobetto set the fastest lap with a 2:18:3.
Sunday qualifying was interesting, the track was dry but it started to rain a bit while we pulled off of the grid, the track was a bit slick as a result but actually got better as we went on I felt. It was difficult to manage traffic in this session but I guess most people got a decent lap in somewhere. Top 5 were Cobetto, M. Davidson, Grace, Bennett, and Gagliardo.
After waiting almost six hours between qualifying and the race it was go time! We had been watching the radar for hours at this point. Right before it was time to grid our suspicions were confirmed and the skies opened up. It was raining pretty good; most people already had their rain tires on so there wasn’t too much last minute drama. At the start it was POURING and the spray going into T1 was incredible, on the exit of T1 I was securely in P3 behind rain masters Cobetto and Mike D. At this point I wanted to observe and learn…and just hang on! After about a lap it became clear that Mike might not have had the ideal setup as the 29 was waggin’ its tail excessively. I was able to get by and set my sights on Cobetto. I reeled in Chris and actually made a pass for the lead coming out of T1. Started to pull out a decent lead but a couple laps later in the lower esses I got bogged down behind lap traffic, Chris got a run on me on the straight before the upper esses and regained the lead. We finished 0.222 seconds apart, GREAT race Chris! In my pursuit of Chris I set the fastest lap of the race with a 2:38:04.
Sunday was a blast but conditions were horrible, the spray going down the back straight was so bad that you really had to drive by your mental map and timing because you couldn’t see two car lengths in front of you. Chris and I were both making pretty good sized steering corrections just trying to keep it straight while going down the back or the front straights. A couple of cars hydroplaned and crashed trying to drive in a straight line down the back stretch.
As always Chris and the NASA folks put on a fantastic event. I had a blast racing with everyone both Saturday and Sunday, hope to see everyone in April at Summit!
It was great to meet some of you guys. I had a great time this weekend. My apologies to jtower. Thanks for the offer of a ride along, but I had brake issues on Sunday so I was a little busy.
I plan on doing comp school at Summit next month, but I might have to wait until the following month because my car needs some small items to meet the rules.
I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all. I finally got to meet the infamous Ranger. I hope his car is ok, I saw him being towed in as I was leaving the track Sunday afternoon.
Jason
Robert - thanks for posting up. I left as you guys were rolling out on track and 10 minutes later was driving blind. I was wondering if it hit the track soon and sounds like it dii.
Congrats on great weekend - two seconds is nothing to sneeze at!
I want to pass on my thanks to the Halls for letting me hooch up with them. And there was an E36 driver in a high-end RV next to them that cooked us all steak dinners on Sat night. It was some serious primo hospitality.
An instructor’s E30 started burning a couple minutes before my oil pressure flat lined on Sunday. The engine compartment was completely engulfed by the time the fire crews got to it. Recovering from that’s gonna be a bitch.
Robert, congratulations on the two P2 finishes.
Anyone that can run with Cobetto (or the SE’s Schwartz) in the rain (or dry) has got a good thing going on.
Mike and Ed Davidson, how were your races?
Regards, Robert Patton
Robert,
My weekend was really a “get back in the game” session, so nothing really to report. Practiced in the 2:25s, qualified in the 2:29s so was near the back of the pack in the Saturday race. Got by 2 cars by turn 4 on the first lap and stayed there the rest of the race to finish 8th only be be DQ’d for being underweight by 14 lbs. Did not race Sunday as didn’t have tires. Mike will share his story later - not a great weekend. I enjoyed talking to a few of the SE guys.
Ed
Awesome job to the roberts. Grace goes without saying. Also Rob Gagliardo, who finished P4 on sunday in his first ever race weekend. Looks like its going to be another competitive year.
Be careful when VIR’s crew is towing you off the track past their maint shed.
When I got towed out of the back stretch I was pulled past some little maint building. We weren’t going very fast but the car rolled over something large enough that the car jolted heavily overit. I was close enough to the tow truck that I didn’t spot what I’d run over. I got a glimpse of it in my rear view mirror and it looked like a cylinder about the size of a large paint can. It wasn’t a paint can, but that gives you an idea of it’s size.
Tonight I found that my oil pan protector plate took a blow so hard that it’s more then just bent up, it was almost holed.
Ranger wrote:
[quote]
An instructor’s E30 started burning a couple minutes before my oil pressure flat lined on Sunday. The engine compartment was completely engulfed by the time the fire crews got to it. Recovering from that’s gonna be a bitch.[/quote]
I was in the rattle canned green 87 e30 in the instructor group. That session on Sunday was rough! First a fire, then my friend in the CRX almost hit’s me spinning in T3, and then your motor goes! I actually saw your oil pressure light come on!
After I almost got hit I was shooken up and backed it down and quit while I was ahead. Had lot’s of fun with the e30’s, it was a nice change of pace from the normal high hp cars in group 4.
Hope I wasn’t holding you SE guys up too bad, I don’t often get to see how I fair against other e30 driver’s.
Axelerate wrote:
[quote]Ranger wrote:
[quote]
An instructor’s E30 started burning a couple minutes before my oil pressure flat lined on Sunday. The engine compartment was completely engulfed by the time the fire crews got to it. Recovering from that’s gonna be a bitch.[/quote]
I was in the rattle canned green 87 e30 in the instructor group. That session on Sunday was rough! First a fire, then my friend in the CRX almost hit’s me spinning in T3, and then your motor goes! I actually saw your oil pressure light come on!
After I almost got hit I was shooken up and backed it down and quit while I was ahead. Had lot’s of fun with the e30’s, it was a nice change of pace from the normal high hp cars in group 4.
Hope I wasn’t holding you SE guys up too bad, I don’t often get to see how I fair against other e30 driver’s.[/quote]
hey brett, nice meeting you last weekend. we did have a nice little pack of e30s in the hpde4 group and you easily kept pace. i think the only person that got held up at all was alex, but then he might have been on hoosiers 
Hey guys, I was unable to get any in-car video from the last race but one of my friends took this on Sunday…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy0865b8DRQ
It is mostly Chris and I but it gives everyone a good view of the start and the first couple of turns when we are all bunched up. Rob lays a nice pass in T4.