stripethree

The VIR experience began at 6:30am Sunday morning, when I set out from Columbia with Sco and his fast down to Sourthern VA. We stopped for breakfast and didnt really hit the road until 7:15. Cruised nice and easy on down to Danville VA making a couple stops for gas and restrooms and watching others blow by us only to later succumb to the long arm of the man. This includes a stock looking Ford Focus with a hideous DTM wing and Enkei Racing stickers all over it I certainly got a laugh. We arrived at VIR just before the start of the Rolex Series VIR 400 at 1:00pm, so we didnt get to see the cars up close in the paddock, but no matter. The race was amazing, especially knowing that over the next two days, we were going to drive the very same course that the professionals were currently attacking. I took lots of pictures with both my 35mm SLR and my point and shoot. It was amazing to be that close to the cars on the race track. The sounds were just as amazing as the sights. We were walking around the paddock and were about 10 feet from the prototype car pictured below started up and revved. The damage to our hearing that surely occurred was certainly worth it.

Listening to the German 6 cylinders roar down the track in the Porsches and BMWs, along with the booming V-8s in the GTOs and Vettes and the screaming prototype cars might as well have been the best symphony I’ve ever heard.

There was also some nice eye candy on display off the track; Ill let the pictures speak for themselves.

After the race ended, we get over to our hotel, go through Audi Clubs tech inspection, check into the hotel, check in with Audi Club registration to get shirts and event packets, then hang out until the drivers meeting. After the drivers meeting I find my instructor, who trailer-ed in his highly prepped 5.0 Mustang to run, I introduce myself and we chat for a bit. He asked about my car, so we walk over and take a gander at the R and he asks about what events I have done before (none!) and what I have done to the car (quite a bit). After we chat, I head off to dinner with Sco, Sperry, the Induktion crew and a few others. Bullshit and hang out for a while, then sleep, okay, honestly, an attempt at sleep. I was nervous and excited, and I don’t sleep well anyway, so you can guess how that went.

Get to the track Monday morning and unload, then over to the skid pad after a drivers meeting and a short classroom session. This is where the fun began, on a two hundred foot skid pad, adequately hydrated, with little danger if you lose control (in a spin, both feet in!) First go round was a blast and I think the instructor that rode along was having as much fun as I was because we ended up doing about 18 laps instead of the 10 we were supposed to do. Hey, he was the one telling me, okay one more, okay one more, faster. Haha. I couldn’t get the car to spin, but throwing it around in a big circle was fun, even if it sounds stupid. It was even more interesting when the instructor pulled the handbrake at various times. Second go round was even better. My instructor rode this time (5.0 Mustang, remember?) and really made me push the car. Again, no spin action, but played catch with it pretty well, getting the rear loose then bringing it back again with throttle modulation until traction returned. Stay off the brakes. Attempted to drift around the pad, at my instructors request (I swear!), but couldnt do it all that well, its hard in that kind of car. Left feeling good about myself and the car, helped by the instructor telling me he felt confident about my car control and how I would do on the track later in the day. Was I still nervous? Good grief yes.

First session comes and I took it easy, which means maybe 90 on the long straights and lots of brakes before turns. Man was it a blast though. Second session late in the afternoon I went at it a little more aggressively and concentrated more at working on the lines. I found myself getting more familiar with the course and more comfortable driving it. Speeds picked up and I passed a handful of other folks in my run group. First day I left with a huge grin.

The second day, was even better. By my second morning session I was pulling 120 on the front and back straights and was cutting through the turns more aggressively. I got a little rattled when the BMW in front of me almost lost it coming into turn 4 after he put two wheels on the dirt, but he (and I) kept things going. I was getting faster and faster around the track each run, which of course exposed some things I needed to work on: downshifts and braking. Third session, I started out taking it easier to work on these things and picked up speed later in the session. I thought I was a little sloppy, some of my turns it looked like I was trying out for a drift event, but the instructor was adamant that I just kept picking up speed and needed to adjust for it. Fair enough. I also needed to concentrate harder at the lines when I was in traffic; I had the tendency to pay attention to the cars in front of me rather than the upcoming track, with inevitably lead to some less than optimal driving on my part. Hard to fight the instinct to look at other cars around you, especially when you are pretty close together and moving at a pretty good clip. I wonder if this is what the crazy people on the beltway are doing, looking way ahead on the road and ignoring the cars around them, haha.

The fourth session, my last of the weekend, was the best and most fun. I got better at the lines in both sets of esses, was nailing downshifts coming into Oak Tree, and even got ballsy and started turning into the roller coaster later and later, inching closer to the line I should have been aiming to take. Hey, its intimidating to glance down that hill knowing that’s where you’ll be headed if you screw it up, but I guess thats why they tell you to look ahead on the track; look at the hill only if you want to end up going down it. Not my idea of a good time. By now the instructor had me no longer braking before the climbing esses, just easing off the throttle to modulate the speed I was carrying through the turns. Holy crap that was insane to carry 80 through those turns, it felt awesome to feel the car fly through it. One lap though, carrying a little over 90, things got a little hairy when the rear end of the car got light and started to step out from under me. I got a little freaked, but avoided the instinct to hit the brakes and instead played catch with it, just like on the skid pad. My instructor complimented my car control and camly advised, lets not do that again. I agreed, thinking, yeah, I’d like to take the car home in one piece, and only carried about 80 into the climbing esses the rest of the session. The close call, in retrospect, was one hell of an adrenaline rush, and I have to admit, I was quite happy with myself that I didnt lose it. The last session overall felt awesome, smoother for the most part and definitely faster. The entire weekend was amazing, I cannot say that enough and I cannot wait to go back. I learned a great deal about how this car handles as well as how I handle it. Not that this kind of at the limit driving occurs that often, but its still great to feel like you know that much more about the behavior of the car you are driving on a daily basis.

In addition to my own driving, observing and listening to the other cars screaming around the track was fantastic. There were C6 Covettes, 911s of various generations, E30 and E36 M3s, and 944s to mention a handful. And of course, how I could I leave it out, the Porsche ‘I’m going to make your jaw drop everytime I go down the front straight because it sounds that good’ Carrera GT. It didn’t matter how many times I saw it fly by, it gave me goosebumps each and every one. Sure, I’ve seen them before, hell, the very day before (the one running was not the same one I photographed Sunday), but how often do you get to see a near half million dollar street legal race car scream down a race track straightaway. It wasn’t overly loud, but just loud enough that you could pick the high pitched 10 cylinder whir out amongst the deeper notes of the higher displacement American cars and the off pitch notes of the tuned Germans and Japanese. Then to have it pull into the pits 3 feet from you (we were staging) and be able to see the heat coming off the engine area only to have it wow you again as it hauls away in first gear. ‘Hauls’ is about the understatement of the century, by the way. That car looked so smooth at high speeds it was scary. But that’s enough, if I keep going on and on about the Carrera GT, well, there’s a few folks that would drive many hours to express their envy in person :cough: Tim :cough:.

Lastly, I have an apology to make, and it is to my poor, poor Avon M550s. You did well my faithful all season friends, and I am sorry that I made you scream so much and in a matter of hours, shaved hundreds (maybe even a couple thousand, who knows) of miles off your life off that you will never see again. Just know that your sacrifice was appreciated and that it was definitely for the greater good.