NASA at VIR: May 2-4

[JPolen01]

wheew. What a weekend. Lots of fun had and great weather. The new paddock is definitely hotter than it used to be thanks to the pavement! Watched some great racing - nothing beats watching Dj come from the back for the win while sipping a corona. Here are some crappy iphone shots in the glaring sun. Those on facebook/instagram probably saw some of my posts throughout the day. Car and Driver was gearing up for their Lightening Lap issue (should be on stands in September) and had tons of bling chillin in the other paddock. The crown jewel was obviously the #000 Porsche 918. Absolutely beautiful. To compete with that they also had a Ferrari F12 and a Nismo GTR. Unfortunately, Ferrari was keeping the F12 under lock and key and the GTR was still en route.

[Senor_Taylor]

Great pictures, man! Would have been nice to have been there. Darn finals. Hopefully I'll be down there this summer since I live so close.

[JustinG]

Great pictures, man! Would have been nice to have been there. Darn finals. Hopefully I'll be down there this summer since I live so close.

July will be a good event to attend. Friday is the Ultimate Track Car challenge. Typically a lot of crazy stuff shows up.

[Senor_Taylor]

Sounds like a weekend to me!

Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

[rherold9]

Oh Im for sure coming to the July event. That shall be a good time

[Maengelito]

It was a pretty tough weekend for the car. For those that saw it on the bookface, I lost my rear bumper on the front straight. All the fasteners weren't on and it just decided it had enough when I was doing about 115 around the kink. It was a little alarming to see it fly up in the air in my rearview mirror. There was a 944 not too far behind me that got a great view of it all. Luckily, no one else got hurt or messed up their car. The bumper isn't cracked, just a little scratched up. It will definitely be more secure for hyperfest.

Also, that new pavement at VIR is really sticky which tends to inspire confidence. I was giving it more and more gas boogeying up the esses when I just got a little too much curb on turn 9 which upset the balance of the car. I had almost straightened it out but then lost it while going about 115 cresting that little hump at the top of the esses. I ended up just going through the grass down the hill and then back up to rejoin the track on the backstraight. However, something in the alignment is off and the car handles like crap. I couldn't see if anything was bent through a visual inspection but the steering wheel is off center and it does some funky things when going in a straight line at higher speeds.

Overall though, the weather was just about as perfect as it could be and I had a really great time hanging out with all the MMers and usual track family in the paddock. Hyperfest is in about a month!

[Jake]

Glad your weekend wasn't any more dramatic than it was, Maeng! I've gone off at the same spot in the Miata and thankfully, driver's right doesn't have much of anything to hit, just a looooong bumpy (tie-rod-destroying) ride down the hill.

I had a really great time seeing everyone for the second weekend in a row! Was kinda nice to just go play around a bit in a hilariously-stock street car, versus the prepped M3 (writeup to come in my 128i thread). Took home another 3rd Place "win" - aka participation trophy, since there were just three of us in TTD.

Big thanks to Justin for bringin' the nomz, to DJ for the trailer/paddock chill zone, and apologies for my quasi-not-really-friend Austin who has no concept of boundaries/space/when to talk and when to not. He and I will be having a discussion about what's appropriate paddock behavior when you're new and not really friends with anyone.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Another great weekend, again with caveats . Saturday started off great with a new track record and win frmo the back of the pack in GTS2. 2:06.425 is my fastest lap and new record for GTS2. There is still room for improvement, but that won't happen at July VIR (too hot) so maybe October VIR. I also jumped out in TTB on Sunday and did a 2:06.734 with only one hot lap and without taking out the restrictor plate I have to have in GTS2. New TTB record as well. Thinking some 2:05s or 2:04s are in store for TTB...

That said, I didnt want to burn up good tires for my 40 minute race on sunday. I also got the bright idea of not warming up my tires on the pace lap, to get them to hold on longer during the race. Proved to be a mistake and got too optimistic on the throttle exiting oak tree. I spun on exit and Jeff Emanuelson came around and tapped me in the front (unavoidable contact on his part). Slight damage, but even worse was I lost a headgasket through the weekend. Lots of work before hyperfest!

Oh and a little bicycling coming out of oak tree for good measuree :lol:

[Senor_Taylor]

Dude. You're missing a headlight. Better get that patched up.

[ScottyB]

such a badass picture. great work DJ!

[*insertusernamehere*]

VIR was fun! Had a blast meeting new people, learning grid and getting to know you ol' timers better. Can't wait for hyperfest.

[BLINGMW]

well damn DJ, that's awesome :thumbup: