moochman4life

Heading to VIR on Monday with the Trackdaze crew for their last event of the season. Wooohooo! Weather calls for a few showers and temps as high as 63(F). Trying out my HT10's for the first time...and my bosses camera. I've been wanting to get some in-car video. Hopefully my all-seasons hold up, too.

Argonaut

I was at Virginia International this past Monday with TrackDaze.com. Met "moochman4life" there and got to spend some time with him. It's always fun meeting up with forum members. The weather put a big damper on things. Monday morning started out pretty cold (as one should expect in Nov) but dry. I ran in the advanced group and have to say it was probably the quickest group I've ever been in. Normally I only have to give one or two point-byes per session, I did far more than that in this group. One of the cars was a Ganassi built tube-frame stock car wearing Dodge Challenger sheetmetal. It was said he was putting down 800+ RWHP On the back straight, if I'm really on it, I can hit about 140. He flew by me like I was standing still, I'd guess about 180. Holy Moly was that car loud at full throttle, almost scary loud.

There were several Mustangs in my group, including a Mustang Challenge car and a couple AIX monsters. Overall I was surprised at the # of Stangs there, usually you see one or two. There must have been 9 or 10 of them at this event.

VIR is a big and very technical track. There are several corners where you need to turn in and position the car in the exact right place within a few inches or the following turns are blown...or worse you are in the grass. I hadn't been there in a year and, knowing this, I treated session 1 as a get reaquainted session and took it very easy. In session 2 and 3 I had hoped to hit it much harder but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and started sprinkling rain both times. I had well used slicks on the back and the rain was just enough to start bringing the oils out of the surface and make for a very slippery situation. So, both the sessions were pretty slow also. Then the rain really opened up for my 4th session so I packed it in. Not the ending I was hoping for in 2010 but thats the way it goes some days. I did 13 track days this year and this was the only rain day, so overall I can't complain.

Here's a shot of the Challenger:


Here is one of Moochman chasing down a BMW:


A nice Audi R8 V10 - very, very fast:

moochman4life

Yep, that M3 was just another victim.

4 hour drive down on Sunday, a near-full track day Monday, and then 4 hours back early Tuesday morn...and I slept like crap both nights down there. I was exhausted at work yesterday.

That said, it was extremely fun. Had a blast. I was in the Novice group, and all but a few of the 30-ish people in the group had some track day experience, but most (like me) were new to VIR.

Man, VIR is not as intimidating as I initially expected. I was so concerned with high speeds and then braking...but I'll tell ya, my HT10 fronts and HP+ rears held up like a champ. As I got used to the track (never been there before), my speeds increased but my braking points also reduced. Instead of braking at markers 4-5 on the front straight (400-500 feet), I was able to brake at marker 3-4 (300-400 ft) on the second session, and then 2 (200 ft) by the third session. All the while overall speeds increased. I drove home on the pads, pulled them, and they still have a ton of life left.

I have to say that I wasn't totally prepared for the increased speeds - as opposed to the slower (for me) straight-line speeds at Shenandoah (only other track I've been to). As I grew more confident in my braking capabilities, I was easily able to slip into 5th gear on the back straight (well in excess of 130mph). It's funny, but my instructor (who is a 50 year old female driver of a Porsche GT3, btw) would tell me to give more and more throttle on the two big straights. Ok, roger that. And the faster I went. I just needed to get more comfortable going that fast...which happened.

My only hex-but-turned-out-to-be-a-blessing was my all-seasons. Didn't have slicks or performance summer tires since it's getting colder as we're approaching winter. Still cold all day, when it started raining I never lost a beat. I concur with Argonaut that as it started raining, there were a couple spots where it started getting slick. I hit one at the end of the front straight as I was still trying to brake later and later. Almost went off, but was able to correct, took a wide line and got my focus back.

There were two sections of the course that I REALLY enjoyed:

1. Oak Tree Turn and the Back Straight - IMO the beauty of my car is the straight line power. That said, I had to make sure my car was lined up straighter, faster (and in the correct gear: 2nd) than any other car on the track to harness that power. The vettes and even the GTR in my run group had hard times staying in front of me exiting the turn. They all gave me the point-by. Only a hopped-up STI did me in (again....they've turned into my bane lol) after I got more comfortable in my car and on the track. Did my new driveshaft help me out any here?...hopefully.

2. The Esses - All of the esses. So, the first set and the last set that climbs the hill. My instructor initially had me lifting before entering each "ess". As in totally lifting off the throttle. I'm still new to this, but I didn't completely understand why. By the end of the second session, I said "nope". Instead, I started feathering the throttle, and I blasted through these in what would look like a straight line. I had excellent exiting speed coming out of the first set which allowed me to overtake almost every car in front of me on the bridge straight.

My instructor was awesome, too. She actually let me drive my car. She had me try many things, but she let me drive. She repeatedly told me that I was a quick learner...that I "loved" the above-mentioned parts of the track. Matter of fact, she was giggling throughout the second and third sessions, remarking on my "good" and "great" lines throughout the track (probably just being encouraging lol).

I only ran 3 of the 4 sessions, too. I was having fuel issues during my third session, with my gas gauge reading E when I had more than a half-tank left. It was causing my car to sputter at times. Wonder how much "faster" I could've been. Also had a clunking noise up front after the third session. I thought it was my sway bar end-links again, but turns out I just had to re-torque my wheels (duh). Conciously decided not to push my luck on the track for the 4th session with it raining way harder and knowing I had to drive my car 4 hours back to the house.

Man, overall an awesome experience. Met a bunch of cool people, including fellow Stangers as well as Argonaut. Starting Monday night I've been falling asleep thinking about banging out correct lines and blowing by M3's.

Can't wait for schedules to get promulgated for next year.