VIR/Al Fairer weekend

Wow, what a spectacular weekend for racing. Cool, clear and windy. I always enjoy VIR has got to be one of the greatest tracks out there.
Not aware of any especially terrible crashing going on. Good fun close racing.
Not sure what the car in front of me was doing on the Sunday group 6 race start.
They just sat there while virtually the whole field flashed by on the left and right??? I was locked in and could not move around.
I was looking forward to a track lesson from Ron and some of the front runners but spent the whole time overdriving the car trying to catch up.
Sadly ran out of gas on the last lap out of Oak Tree but was having a good go up till then.
Look forward to another go one of these days. What happened to Jeff??

Travers
ITS19

That would have been me at the start. I lunched the alternator... as soon as I punched it for the start, data shows the voltage dropped to 11 and I lost fuel pressure. Spent the first lap getting out of everyone's way and pulled in. Sorry if I held you up.

That sort of capped off our weekend. Our truck's motor died on the way down. We borrowed a truck from a friend and it broke on Sunday night in the middle of nowhere. Patched it up with foil tape (literally) and ended up having to ditch the trailer and take a rental car home the next day. My car's alternator blew up, our other drivers were either in a wreck, lost a transmission, or lost VTEC. We still have a trailer tuck in North Carolina and two broken trucks distributed throughout the northeast to deal with. What a debacle.

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Originally Posted by D.R.

We still have a trailer tuck in North Carolina and two broken trucks distributed throughout the northeast to deal with. What a debacle.

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..... Man, what a bad trip! Sorry to hear about that.

..... Now I don't feel so bad about driving off and forgetting to screw in my tongue jack. It dug into the ground and was made to look like an L ......... Had to cut it off with a Sawzall...:blink:

Rough weekend for ITS. Jeff had a rear control arm break in T3 on lap two of Sat's race. My motor was sick all weekend and wouldn't go faster than a 20. I was driving like hell and getting nowhere.

On Sunday my motor illness was still not cured and I dropped out before I hurt it. Zsolt had some problems with his GSR and dropped out Sunday, and, I saw an ITS BMW pulling out on Sunday too.

But I did remember to retract my trailer jack.....:o

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Originally Posted by tbtapper

Wow, what a spectacular weekend for racing. Cool, clear and windy. I always enjoy VIR has got to be one of the greatest tracks out there.
Not aware of any especially terrible crashing going on. Good fun close racing.
Not sure what the car in front of me was doing on the Sunday group 6 race start.
They just sat there while virtually the whole field flashed by on the left and right??? I was locked in and could not move around.
I was looking forward to a track lesson from Ron and some of the front runners but spent the whole time overdriving the car trying to catch up.
Sadly ran out of gas on the last lap out of Oak Tree but was having a good go up till then.
Look forward to another go one of these days. What happened to Jeff??

Travers
ITS19

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So how was it like on Hoosiers Travers??

This was my first visit to VIR, and what a wonderful track it is! Very fast and technical, it took me awhile to get up to speed. The racing was unusually close for where I come from, and this took me some time to get used to. But once acclimated, I fought tooth and nail and picked off several cars that had outqualified me. It was great fun and I'll be back in the near future.

Also, kudos to North Carolina Region for putting on a great event. :happy204: Everybody was nice and most helpful, especially the chief steward, who personally ensured me a last-second entry into a second race group for Sunday. And the end-of-race podium ceremonies were cool. At the tracks I race in Great Lakes and Northeast Divisions, they just excuse you from impound and tell you to "come back later" to pick up your hardware...

Sorry to hear that Dave. I figured something was up with your car at the start. Plenty of other races to make it up later. Phew, what a weekend for ya. I would need a break after that.

Figured something had to be wrong with Ron for me to out qualify him! Was expecting him to blow by and I'ld follow for a lap and learn.

Had fun digging through the ITA Miatas. Boy those little buggers can roll through the corners lucky for me the long straights kill em.

Travers
ITS19

I didn't make VIR cuz I had a bit of a problem returning from MARRS 1 at Summit. :(

Chuck - who is looking for a new tow vehicle

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Originally Posted by callard

I didn't make VIR cuz I had a bit of a problem returning from MARRS 1 at Summit. :(

Chuck - who is looking for a new tow vehicle

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Wow, and I thought I had overheating problems...sorry to hear that Chuck.

The best thing I can say about this weekend was that the weather (Sunday - the only day I could make it) was perfect. The car...not so much. After a mechanical problem cut my morning qualifying short - as in I got in a warm up lap short - I started from the back for the race, and spent most of the time fighting to keep the car on the track (a fight I lost on two different occasions). I ended up DFL among the ITA cars that were still running at the end. At least I finished...although I (and many others) never saw the checkered flag; still not sure what was going on there.

Did I mention that the weather was perfect Sunday...

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Originally Posted by erlrich

...although I (and many others) never saw the checkered flag; still not sure what was going on there....

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.... I never saw the checker until after I had passed about five cars at the rear of the field. I could not figure out why they were slowing down. And when I got to the flag stand they were checkering the cars ahead of me...... And I was the overall leader... All the way back to fourth overall never got the checker until the second time around.

.... Talk about confused............:blink:

Here are some vids from my car on Sunday.

Sunday Qual w/ data: http://www.vimeo.com/11612970
Sunday Race: http://www.vimeo.com/11627709