VIR weekend review - LONG

[Maengelito]

I'll start the write up of the weekend...

Well, 2003 ended on a bit of a sour note. I had axle problems at VIR-North last year, and then brake problems at summit, the last event of 2003 for me. With the LONG offseason, I was able to tie up some loose ends on Christina, as well as set her up for the 2004 season. The biggest changes were the replacement of the timing belt and water pump, which has been plagueing me for the past 8 months or so, the use of 15" kosei k1 wheels and falken azenis, a tire that is widely used but never by me on track, and the last minute promotion to HPDE3, perhaps to squeeze in more cars and get more money?

I arrived at VIR on Friday afternoon and was able to unpack the car and get it teched that night. Basically, I was ready to go, which is something that I've never been prepared for at any previous track weekend. My regular routine is to arrive Saturday morning, rush to unpack everything, and get in class or out on track without any time to unwind. That night, we checked into the plush Danville Sleep Inn and then hit up the Danville nightlife... Basically, we went to Ham's then to Walmart. An eventful night, but thats a whole different story.

Saturday morning, we got to the track with almost all the MMer's there ready to go. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and breezy, but not too cold. Definitely better than last year's weather. I was pretty nervous because I had never driven group 3 before, and we were the 2nd group out on track before any classroom instruction. I asked RJ to instruct me for a few laps, but that whole first session was really a huge clusterf*ck. I was stuck in the middle of a lot of traffic, and I think a lot of people (myself included) just werent sure what they were supposed to do. However, someone in our session was spilling lots and lots of oil on line basically from turn 2 to turn 6 which basically made the line very slick or to drive off line, both things which were a hassle, but I feel were helpful in the learning perspective. After a bunch of other groups went out, the oil basically wasnt a huge factor for the rest of the weekend. I was getting more and more comfortable as the day went on, and I think all the other cars around me felt the same. I worked on eliminating shifts and felt that I was carrying a lot more speed into various braking zones throughout the track. However, on my last session on Saturday, I was coming down the rollercoaster when something didn't feel right. I heard a loud clicking when coasting, and feeling a fairly noticeable vibration in the steering wheel. I was going about half speed down the rollercoaster and would notice that the clicking would go away when on the brakes or on the gas. Just before I got on track that session, I was thinking how it seemed odd that nothing had gone wrong with my car that day. However, I didn't wanna say anything to anyone to jinx it. I pulled into the pit and I told the worker there my situation. He kicked the tire, look at the fender lining but nothing looked amiss. Then he touched the lugnut and noticed that he could spin them just with his fingers using minimal force. The finish on the new wheels was rubbing off (as is a common thing, I've learned) which made the lugs back out. I got the car back to the MM paddock space and torqued all the lugs and went back out to finish my day. Had I stayed out and not fixed the lugs, I most certainly would've lost a wheel on that next lap. Disaster narrowly averted!

Sunday was a bit different because of the enduro race. All of our sessions came pretty quickly in the morning to make room for the race at the end of the day. I've driven track events enough to know that the first session on Sunday can't be driven like the last session on Saturday. The track was definitely colder, but still felt fairly grippy. Also, my mindset is definitely different in the morning then when I've been driving all afternoon. Throughout the day, I wanted to push myself further and further and had a few points of interest to gauge my progress. It was great because I felt like I improved at every section of track that I monitored. The first of which is my engine speed going through turns 4-5-6 and having to shift into 4th before the uphill esses. By the end of the day, I was able hit redline in 3rd before the last curve of the flat esses. This translated to the next section of track that I wanted to improve on, the uphill esses. I was too scared to flatfoot it through the entire thing, but I worked on a stable line and noticed my exit speed of the uphill esses to increase from low 90s on Saturday, to 104mph on my last Sunday session. +10mph is a HUGE difference! Again, that led me to south bend, which is scary because its an early apex turn onto a downhill section of track. I'm not sure what my speeds were on Sat, but by Sunday, I was exiting at around 85ish, but I think I had more in me. The back straight is where I'd get exploited for my low horsepower car. The black viper GTS, the blue viper GTS, the yellow 993 turbo porsche, and all sorts of other cars would blow right by my pseudo-stockish integra LS with 150k miles on the motor. I was able to touch 115 (the top of 4th gear) at the braking zone of the back straight, then as per the classroom instructor, i eliminated the downshift to 3rd going down the rollercoaster. instead, i would let gravity from the steep downhill to pull me while in 4th, and by the time i would go through the rollercoaster, through hogpen, and onto the front straight, i'd touch 115 again (the top of 4th, after not shifting) by the braking zone on the front straight.

Overall, the weekend was awesome. I made it through without anything major going wrong with the car, and this time, my brakes actually worked, and worked well! The higher horsepower cars rocked my world in group 3, which is very different from groups 1 or 2. And, I saw too many STi's out there, which makes things very very tempting...

now for the gratuitous car porn:
my pics are at
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brand new white wheels coated with brand new carbotech dust


damn sti's


some MMer's cars


the viper that would kick my ass


saturday's sprint race - turn 3


-brian

[.RJ]

An eventful night, but thats a whole different story.

Comedy at its finest.

by Sunday, I was exiting at around 85ish

Hell yeah...

I was getting 90ish exit speeds sunday, but there's plenty more left... for another weekend. That turn is so fast/fun, the world just drops away... cant see shit and hope the curbing is there when you come out

[Dave]

quick synopsis of my weekend.
Arrived Friday along with Maeng, Scotty, Feersty, Ryan T, and Boobies. I must say, it was really nice to be able to unload the car at the track and reserve a place for MM to keep thier cars and shit close to the grid and classrooms. After this, the hilarity ensued (If you buy those cookies, I'll punch you in the dick).
Monday morning brought a lot of excitement with it, but I was surprisingly calm, something I attribute to having done a lot of traveling with the guys and knowing the basic routine. Classrooms were good, Unkefer is a very good teacher, but I was surprised how he didn't really go into techniques until much later. My instructor gave me some good advice about checking tire pressures, brake fluid, and lug torque every time before going out on track. First session was very good, learning how the track was shaped and braking zones, passing zones, etc. The second session I continued to work on form and going a little bit faster. Third session brought more aggressiveness, but I found that I bit off more than I could chew. I came in way too hot on turn 3 and early apexed, crossed over the track and tried to force it back into line, continued to pull out onto the grass but my steering brought me back onto the pavement. Unfortuneately, as soon as the rear tires came back on pavement, they grabbed and rocketed me across the road onto the other side, in front of turn 4. I did 2 spins and luckily stopped, just a little over a foot shy of the guardrail. Good learning experience but my nuts sucked way up into my body and it took a while to get them back down. However, I got right back on track and kept on going. The fourth session brought me faster and eager to get back on track the next day. Over the course of the day, I found that I have a slow leak in my passenger rear brake line, but this never served to be any major concern (will be remedied very soon). It was also determined that the 3 MM cars (Chad, Kaan, and I) were possibly the fastest/most skilled in our group. I personally rolled a couple STis, a corvette, and an SL500 to name a few. I went into Saturday loving the uphill esses but have also come to be very fond of the roller coaster as well; in fact I love the whole track from the flat esses to the front straight (the other is fun, but also served to be where I had the most trouble).
Sunday I woke up ready to roll, possibly a bit to eager. Although I had been told not to go out and drive like I had Sat afternoon, I believe I pushed it harder than I needed to. I had the joy of waiting for 5 minutes on grid for an instructor to show up (mine from Saturday was nowhere to be found) and so I wanted to make the most of my session. Unfortuneately, turn 2 got the better of me and I spun (stayed on track) due to overcorrection. Still got right back out there and kept on going. In fact in this session I had my best run through the uphille esses (went in at ~100, exited at ~97) and I was very happy, even though I lost a quarter of my track time. My second session again found me instructorless and again losing a large chunk of track time. Jeff Curtis (chief of instructors) was my instructor, and I quickly found that the line I had been following all of saturday and my 1st session of sunday had a lot of large flaws in it (due entirely to lack of criticism), and that I had not been shown some markers that I should have been aiming for. Jeff reeled me in bigtime from where I had been on Saturday and I don't think I got over 90 in the esses again that day. I did learn a lot and took them to heart, but at this point I was very frustrated and pissed that none of this information had been shared with me previously. My third session was quite uneventful again, except for getting passed by numerous cars which couldn't touch me all day on Saturday (another blow to my ego :? ). I'm not saying that I new it all, but it is quite irritating to do something all day on Saturday, and it is obviously is working (regardless of it being right), only to find out the next day with one session left to practice the new information that has been made available and is the proper way to drive the line.
Looking back, I still had a good time. Sunday was a major sour note due to the dissappearance of my instructor and finding out that everything I had been doing had major flaws in it. Saturday was a blast and I enjoyed every second of it. The drive home was quite long, and I found that I kept hearing things and thinking something was wrong with the car, although nothing seems to be wrong with it. The new brakes and suspension were incredible on the track; this car absolutely LOVES the twisty roads and it will be very hard for me to drive anything else on track. I've found a few things I want to fix before Summit in May, and then we'll see how well my car really can do. Thanks to all of you for the help preparing before and at the track, and for all of the encouragement. I'm already excited for next time.
One thing I will make sure of next time, I will have an instructor ready to go for both days so that I don't get the shaft again and sit on grid instead of being out on track.

[Evan]

My review:

Got there late friday night, didnt sleep much like usual.
Lots of track time saturday. Have lots of fun.
Both students are pretty good.

I am cursed with brake problems.
Miata having brake issues, brakes overheating and pedal is soft. During bleed saturday night see that rear caliper(s) are busted.
While taking wheels off, see that one of my pimpy forged lugnuts was crossthreaded and stripped. Go to advance and get a new stud and lug.

Sunday is more of the same. Get accused by Unkefer of being late to grid. Takes all afternoon clearing it up that it was my student that was late to grid, and thats why first session we were still on grid while I teched the car.

I took plenty of video, so unless Jacko wants to keep being an admin-dick, Ill upload it for all to enjoy.

[Evan]

favorite out-of-context quote of the weekend:
"Those 2 holes need to be re-penetrated"