Thoughts on VIR, Club Racing, and Bimmerworld

#1

I think everyone but me has been to VIR before so this isn’t telling you something you don’t already know. Being a master of the obvious is another of my many skills. Fun track, and fast. The back straight is long and boring in a car that tops out around 120ish. Holy smokes. I have a new found appreciation for Skeen’s 2.18 at this place. He must have elephantitis of the nuts. Best I could manage in 6 or so sessions was a 2.24. I know where another 2-3 seconds are but I’m not sure I’m man enough to go get them.

Club racing is crazy, I saw guys today that had cars worth approximately what I paid for my first house. I guess a podium finish with BMWCCA pays out better.

Wednesday was a test day sponsored by Bimmerworld. They had the E90’s on track all day. Man those things fly. They sound Awesome! Clay and his crew are always entertaining, they spent all day testing and helping guys with data, drive alongs, etc. Pretty super cool.

Skeen was in the house too, he was nice enough to give me the Spec E30 download on the place. Its going to be hard work just to be the slowest guy in this field. Capt. Rev. Al should make an appearance anytime now so that should keep the festivities rolling.

Spent the week before putting the awesome new spec exhaust on the car. Only to have it rip off when I tried to load the car on the trailer. SO I got to install it a second time in the VIR paddock by myself in the dirt. Much more fun then doing it on a lift in a nice garage with help. Several people were good enough to come by and laugh. I’m legal now though so that helps comfort me through the tough times.

Hope everyone is having a good week at work.
xoxo
Jim

#2

VIR is an awesome track. I haven’t been there with my spec e30 yet but my IP car was a blast around the place. I really want to get back up there.

It takes time to find a quick time around that place just like a Road Atlanta. I didn’t feel as though I started to figure out VIR until my 3rd time there.

#3

VIR is an awesome place. I’m glad you are getting to experience it.

It’s less than an hour from my front door and I haven’t been there (on track) in over a year. :unsure: I may have to break down and join the Mid Atlantic group for their next race up there.

What the race schedule for Saturday and Sunday? I might come up to watch you race and/or put you exhaust back on.

Have fun.

#4

Jim, keep those race reports comming.

Who else is in KP with you?

Regards, Robert Patton

#5

Good luck this weekend Jim.

John

#6

Patton wrote:

I peeked at the club race website…92 drivers and over 80 cars. Gonna be a full track. Anyway, a decent selection of KP drivers for Jim to mess with.

Rubenstein, Nicholas
Negus, John
Magagnoli, Anthony
Schlesinger, Michael
Robinson, James
Nissen, Eric
de Haro, Juan
Abraham, Rich

Here’s the breakdown by class:
BM 1
CM 14
DM 15
EM 2
HP 3
HS 1
IP 15
IS 2
JP 12
JS 1
KP 8
Spec E36 7

The SpecE36’ will drive you crazy if it’s anything like RRR last December. Slow as hell in the corners but you can’t pass them in the straights.

#7

Not much going on today, hung out at the track and watched more enclosed trailers and the weird vintage guys show up (btw Al is running with them this weekend).

There was a VIR club member day today, first impression…

VIR member days are for guys that didn’t find the PCA club DE’s snobby enough.

#8

Did they ask you to paddock over at Al’s farm? I’m sure your open trailer was seen as a major eyesore in that group.

At the CCA race at RA last September, I suspect the only reason my wrinkled racecar wasn’t singled out for violating the 50/50 appearance rule was that I run the event.

#9

Chuck, with all of the BMWCCA required decals they couldn’t see the dents.

Regards, Robert

#10

Jim,

Whatever you do, don’t do donuts in the paddock in your race car. I learned that the track management doesn’t think much of this stunt, and the tornado-like vortex of dust you raise can be seen for several miles.:laugh:

Sasha

#11

Well unfortunately today I peaked a bit early. I turned a 1.21 in practice, but as the track heated up I finally found the limit on my first set of R888’s. Shaved originally to 4/32’s. They have 2 Qualifying sessions, 3 races (1 40 min, 2 20 min.), 7 sessions at Wed. Track day, practice (1hr), qualifying (1hr), and a 20 min or so race today. They’re pretty much toast. I’ll get another practice session tomorrow and that is probably about it.

Qualified with a blistering 1.23 that put me dead last in KP. The 60 or 70 cars on track made for lost of traffic at the start (I was almost in hogpen when the green flag dropped). I yo-yo raced another KP guy for the entire race got around him when he blew a shift and dropped a wheel coming out of Oak Tree, but he got by on the back straight when a Cmod car parked it in the same place. I lost momentum and he kept going. I could never catch back up and get a good enough run to make a move. Track was super greasy. A JP car I ‘think’ (only saw the end result) lost it in South Bend and totalled what looked to be a nice e30 M3 in red. They dispatched the ambulance and rumor was they guy may have broken a collarbone, but this is all speculation. My official finishing postion was 50, qualified at 61, but those positions are mostly through attrition.

Putting some new tires on for qualifying tomorrow and hopefully I can put a better showing together for the Sat. race.

#12

Nice report, Good Luck tomorrow!

#13

The results are up on mylaps.com from yesterday… But that doesn’t give us all the excuses that the write up does.

#14

+1 Geiger. I’m going up there today to watch Jim get whooped again. I will say that a 2:21 is a damn good lap…especially for never being on the track until this week.

#15

So today was enduro day. Not a real enduro where pit strategy can win, but an hour “enduro” with a mandatory 5 min. timeout.

I choose not to practice to save my mojo for where it counts. 1.22.125 was my qualifying time, good enough for 2nd in KP. Mike Hinkley was on pole with a 1.21.899. Thankfully he choose to race in JP with someone else putting me first in line.

To further ensure success I asked Seth Thomas if he’d like to experience the power of the e30 in the enduro. He initially declined and for awhile it looked like I might have to make do with the 2nd team lineup of Dave White. Fortunately for me, Seth’s sponsorship deal fell through on all the other faster cars he preferred to drive and I was back in business.

Unfortunately the video will have to go up early next week. The race itself was sheer madness. I had to drive at 11/10ths (for me) to hang with the various KP cars while trying not to get bogged down in traffic. Highlights include, getting passed multiple times on the straight, more cars falling off the track then I’ve really ever seen, and light rain and a wreck or two. Oh and I managed to completely drive off the track during a double yellow while talking on the radio.

Maybe those handsfree cellphone laws should apply to racing as well. I’m sure thats a first.

Results - 4th in class. Special thanks to Travis of MLT fame for helping out in the pits and working the radio.

Oh and Seth busted out a 2.18 even though due to our very poor enduro strategy of having me drive most of it (hence the 4th place) he only did 3 laps.

#16

nicely done Jim. While things may not have turned out quite as well for you at VIR as they did at CMP… you did have a little extra help…

However, you do seem to be putting down some respectable lap times.

Now for Sunday, you need to put down the phone (Travis’ cougars reports can be very distracting when truing to get better than a 6th place finish) and try to bring home a win.

Good Luck

#17

The Alonzo report

I entered the VDCA race at VIR cause I wanted to kick some of my ole vintage buddies asses…it didnt work out quite like that. My vintage group was about 60 cars, and the range of HP and Talent was huge. After Friday I felt like a jackass for whining about not getting a lap at the MA VIR event. There were guys running 3:00 laps, and then there were guys in Bugeye Sprites blowing by me on the straights. It seems the vintage guys do not mind getting passed by a mega buck motor, but get a little antsy if you out drive them in the corners. Friday was hotter than heck and the track went downhill. I did have a good race with Whit Ball in the vintage IFU afternoon race. Saturday I learned to be first on the grid to get a shot at a clean lap. I changed to 1 year old tires as opposed to the 2 year old ones I ran on Friday. I was gridded 18 out of 50+ and had a pretty good race with a Ginetta, Elva and TR3 of the race director. Sunday morning I heard a rumor that some folks were not pleased with my passing techniques…I really had to put it in there as most cars could just motor me…so driving a fairly conservative race I finished 8th in the enduro with all Formula or Sports Racers in front of me but one fast as hell 2002. In the sprint race I got tagged pretty hard in the first turn by a TR 3 that had been punted by an out of control Bugeye…the TR just happened to be driven by the race director, and Bud told me his car was totalled, I have a very beer tech looking dent, the passenger rear 1/4, rocker, and door are smashed, but I was still able to drive it home.

Al

#18

scottmc wrote:

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HAHAHAHAHA:laugh: Jim the pet monkey

#19

Some final thoughts.

  1. Wow I almost spent a week at the track, that is pretty awesome.

  2. You can wad some cars up at VIR and something must bring out aggression at that place if the vintage group is making contact. I was literally afraid for my life at times during the enduro yesterday.

  3. I qualified with a 2.22 and decided that being the 2nd to last KP car in the race that started at 3pm-ish wasn’t as important as getting home before 1am tonight. Seem to hit a wall in terms of improvement there and seemed to be repeating the same mistakes, knowing what they were didn’t help either.

  4. Driving 7 hours sucks.

  5. I ripped off my awesome new exhaust pulling onto the trailer - again. P.S. I hate the spec exhaust.

  6. Clay has a massive head or Scott hacked up that photo shop, probably both are true.

  7. You can make fun of me, but don’t disrespect the sticker.

  8. I cracked a rotor in half yesterday, not sure how or why. Pretty sure it did it when I jacked the car up. Al was standing next to me and we heard it pop. Picture to follow. Soon to be a 6th place trophy. No one had seen anything like it before. Scary.

#20

Here is the cracked rotor. [file name=_cid__0419081200.jpg size=54734]http://spece30.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/files/_cid__0419081200.jpg[/file]