Argonaut

Spent Aug 28-29 at Virginia International. By far the nicest track I've been to. Its like a Country Club for Racers, very cool. Its kind of in the middle of nowhere - just north of the N. Carolina-Virgina border near Milton, NC. I arrived Wed night in a torrential downpour, the remains of tropical storm Fay. I planned to camp out but the weather changed my mind, so...next best thing, I got a room at the track. Yep, thats right, they have lodging right on the track grounds. Got a nice room for about $100. By Thurs morning the rain had stopped but the track was very damp. I left the stock Pirellis on for the first two morning sessions. Oh my, that was an adventure in sliding. Had one scary moment going into turn 1 (a heavy braking zone after the high speed front straight). You see, it seems the HT-10 pads dont agree much with the Pirellis - the pads said stop but the Pirellis didn't go along. I was quickly into the ABS. Just kept it straight and finally got slowed down enough to make the turn, albeit way off line. In the afternoon I switched to Nitto NT01s - I'm beginning to love these tires. Loads more grip. The speed and fun factor went way up. At the end of Thurs I rode with my instructor in his C5 Z06 Vette - completely set up for the track. What a rocket ship! Fastest car I've been in yet and he could drive it....oh man could he drive.

Thursday night we went to the go kart track. First time I'd done that since a kid. My arms ached so bad I could hardly lift the left one for about 5 hours afterwards.

Friday was beautiful weather. I was dialed in and turning some pretty good laps. Had fun picking off lots of BMWs and ricers. The full course is over three miles and takes me in the neighborhood of 2:20 - 2:30.

Here is a video. YouTube really destroys the resolution, its a shame, the original file looks much better. At any rate, for anyone who lives on the east coast - VIR is a must do.

Cheers, Brad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO3qzWPwbJw

r3velation

awesome vid. thanks for sharing.

jayel579

I am jealous man, nice video!!

MeanStang08

sweet video.. man that looks like fun... big time.. congrats

one thing i noticed.. it didn't look like you were shifting very much... and the sound with the RPM stayed low and slow through several turns that (to me) looked and should sound like you should be hammering them harder ? were there track restrictions making you stay in 3rd or something ? and maybe i was just seeing/hearing things..

man, i gotta do that.. cept with a rental.. lol i'd be plowin that field..

zero2sixd

Thanks for the track updates - keep 'em coming.

Out of curiosity, how did you mount your video camera?

Argonaut

MeanStang08 - believe it or not, VIR has a lot of shifts, more than most tracks. Slowest corner is 2nd gear. Two long straights are 5th for me (4:10 rear end and 25.5" tires). You probably can't hear the shifts because the sound is so poor. You have to drive with the windows open and the wind noise is loud. I've notice that videos always seem to be slower than in person - LOL. You should absolutely give it a try, its one of the most fun things I've ever done. In the novice run group there is no need to go faster than you are comfortable with - no egos, no racing, passing by point bys only. At a track like VIR you'd have to F-up pretty bad to hurt the car, there is lots of runoff, so an off-track basically turns you into a lawn mower. Other tracks can be much more dangerous because of little run off. Nelson Ledges for example in Ohio - I saw two cars into the tire wall and one guy over it - yikes. I met a couple guys from Tennessee at the track - one of them had a new C6 Z06 Vette, a little too much power for his skills. He went off but didn't hurt a thing.

Zero2sixd - the video camera is a $100 digital Nikon on video mode. The mount is a CruiseCam (http://www.cruisecam.com/mounts.html)

Import_Slaya

Good stuff! Sounds like it was a great time once the weather cleared. Everything about VIR is nice--great track, paddock, facilities...and the cart track (I did the 3-man cart enduro race the weekend I was there with NASA).

The 14-17 sequence is a blast. And of course, a deep breath before the esses...

Argonaut

A kart enduro - yikes. I was done after about 20 min, those karts are brutal - LOL.

Yep, the esses are awesome. You probably noted in the video I liked to pass there - coming out of the flat esses into the uphill esses. I could really get the car wound up and just fly by those with smaller engines.

What is your next track event? I'm off to Summit Shendoah this weekend with SCCA.

timothyrw

very nice!

you are an excellent spokesman for the sport. with everything you've been posting you've got me looking at a road coarse near indy. probably will take the plunge next spring.

RodeoFlyer

VIR is such a beautiful track. With the exception of California Speedway, all we have to look at around our tracks is - dirt. If you go off on a California track you have dust in your interior for months lol.