In case anybody was wondering, VIR is still one of the best facilities in the country.

NASA held yet another fantastic event. The Cobettos, Politis, and the rest do a great job.

The copcar owns the rain. But not much else. On top of a failing tranny, the wiper motor burned out and the interior wiring is so rotten I was blowing fuses the whole way down to VIR - I eventually just unplugged everything I didn't need and all seems ok.

Shaved Kumhos on a borrowed car do not own the rain - it's gonna take me a week to scrape all the mud out of Dan's RX-7. I think I gave him a heart attack as I spun off the inside of No-Name while he watched from the balcony. Good thing his Toyo RA-1s still had some tread.

Dan made it through his first HPDE without scaring his instructor too bad. And I made it through another weekend of instructing without getting scared too bad.

I had the pleasure of instructing Beno Rubin (the new owner of Whittaker's H5 car). After a shakey start in the rain on Saturday (can't say I blame him, track conditions were miserable), he pulled it together for an impressive Sunday. He'll be a great addition to the ECHC family after he gets a few more events under his belt.

The only thing stopping this weekend from being super-duper was the speeding ticket I got on the drive home.

 

I wish I could have been there, but my wallet couldn't accomodate my registration. Great to see that Dan got in (since he and I had a lot of dialogue regarding taking my spot).

I can't imagine what the conditions were like there considering how many flooded roads we had up here... hopefully no one got over their heads and wrecked (although RJ did tell me a certain member did have an incident, but I'll let him speak first, my condolences go towards him).

 

I saw a LOT of cars go off. And a lot of cars that will need some body work. If you drive at the limit in the rain you are going to go off one day.

 

Agreed.

Both VIR and NASA rocks!

The only thing that didn't rock was the weather...

( I think we passed you as you were getting your ticket. Were you in Dan's RX7? )


[Modified by Floyd, 9:47 PM 2/23/2003]

 

There was more car-to-something-hard contact than any event I've ever been to, including the first Viper Days event at VIR 3 years ago.

Full treaded AVS intermediates are fan-damn-tastic in the rain.

It was good to meet people and put faces with screen names. See some of you at CMP....

 

As much as I love VIR, I'm glad my finances didn't allow me to go... hell, my budget is stretch alone with my car payments.

My sentiments go out to those who did have contact with non-moving objects.

 

Nope, you saw ME getting MY ticket.. hehe.... I got pulled over for not having a front plate on my car... Al got pulled over about ten minutes later!!! I would've gotten a speeding ticket at the same time too, but my little oil burner was tucked right behind Al's Mullet Mobile, so the trooper couldn't radar my car.... thank god!!!

Dan

 

Nice . I gave you my mega hyper white rear turn signals when we passed. Glad to see that everyone came away from the event unhurt, and nice seeing a lot of familiar faces today also

Brian

 

I had a BLAST on Saturday! I believe I had one of the BEST VIR Days.. and I was lovin the rain! I really felt comfortable driving.

Lt. Dan, ya there were a lot of po po's out tonight! I tracked a few in some nice hiding spots!

R-Speed guys from the NE, thanks for hanging out! Nice to meet you all.

Great job to NASA and crew!!

Thanks,
Victor

 

It definitely was a fun weekend . THough I have to say, the hogpen had me intimidated in the rain, when it did bite me in the *** with some understeer to oversteer, AWD owned

Chris. (yes, its a subaru, the one with the ricey 25's on the door)


[Modified by subyguy2, 3:35 AM 2/24/2003]

 

I'm sure you didn't mean to go for the riced look, but I later noticed that the left one is white and the right one is yellow. You gonna get some strobes for those, yo?

 

despite the rain and the cold and the wind, it was awesome... i had heard so much about vir, and it was everything i thought it was gonna be and more. the danville stunnaz and their dyno pulls in the innkeeper/mcdonalds drive thru was entertaining too. anywho, i took a few pics, tho i didnt have many chances to, so they're not that great, but here they are:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290619253

-brian

 

You're alone with those feelings.

Glad all drivers had a safe weekend, wish I could say the same thing about the cars. BTW, if anyone got a chance to get out to Oak Tree (I was working there Saturday) did you notice how ugly the tree actually is? But damn, they make it look good in photos.

Mike, who saw far too many smashed up fenders this weekend and who wishes he hadn't been so tired he missed the Danville crew due to his 7pm bedtime Sat night.


[Modified by JMU1337v0.2, 11:27 PM 2/23/2003]

 

chasing those little yeller spec racers at 100mph in the uphill esses was a blast.....

Best comment i ever had from an instructor was that he was looking around at the scenery while i was driving (i.e. he was very comfortable in the car with me). At the top of roller coaster he says "hey, you can see the start tower from here, i never knew that before"

And 375/450 springs are not stiff enough. Anyone got some 8" 550lb springs for sale?

Axxis Ultimates suck big donkey ***** on track. Andy, hurry up with your shizzle, i need real pads. I cant stomp on the brakes at marker #2 on the back straight with Ultimates (well, and still slow down that is).

Pounding out fenders is cool too.... prybarz ownz0rz

 

This says it all........

 

Greg - Who is really wishing that he had gone now...

 

yea, vir was a blast. running in the rain was rather plesant for me. i got to chase dan for a little while. i had a front row seat for his big wiggle commin out of oak tree running down a 911 in the rain through rollercoaster was awsome. now if i only had straightaway speed i wouldnt get rolled by all the cars im faster than in the corners...
-spenc
ps-thanx to Doctor CorteZ for being a great instructor

 

Fixed it for you.



[Modified by Dragon, 12:19 PM 2/24/2003]

 

Amen. NASA Virginia is first-class, as is VIR.

I was a bit nervous about my first time in Advanced HPDE being in the rain, but found that the Civic on Azenis rules in the wet. While the big motor rwd guys were slipping and sliding we were staying hooked up pretty well.

Thanks to Jason Franza for sitting in the right-hand seat and giving me good advice, and the confidence to try it out. I owe you big-time, Jason.

Sunday was fun when the instructors and some of the enduro guys came out in the last two sessions. Plenty of fast traffic, so i got to practice my point-by skills quite a bit. A Z06 went by me so fast on the back straight I was almost too stunned to remember to brake for 14.

 

Agreed. I wasn't nearly as terrified as I expected to be and by the end of saturday I was downright comfortable in the rain. It really was a great learning experience and great for burning the proper line into your synapses.

Victor was one of the few people who really owned me but I was taking it really easy. I didn't want bend the 'new' hybrid at it's first event.

On that note. The car was fantastic. Everything worked perfectly except for an AC belt idler pulley that decided it didn't want to be part of my engine any more. That happened at some point on the second Saturday run and thankfully it didn't do any collateral damage. I'm glad I caught it in time. It would have sucked if it cut the supercharger drive belt.

On THAT note: I'm loving the JRSC. the power is soooooo usable and the car is a lot faster than the old one. I was topping out at 130, 8K rpm in 4th on the back straight. I'm scared to see what 5th would do. Intake temps hit a maximum of around 200 degrees when I was really pushing it on sunday and I did have a little detonation but the J&S caught it just fine.

All it all a GREAT weekend and a great feeling having built EVERYTHING on the car myself (and not having it blow up or fall appart)



Mike


[Modified by 92sleepR, 2:42 PM 2/24/2003]

 

I had good time watching, sucked since i didnt plan for the crappy weather.....i showed up in a thin jacket which was soaking wet as soon as i stepped foot out of my car. Props to all of the drivers who were in the rain....i can barely drive on the highway in the rain, none the less in the worst weather conditions ever on one of the nicest tracks. Oaktree OwNeD a few cars....s2k.......ouch. Great weather sunday, really windy. I feel bad for the driver of the WRX, i think he is a HT member.... to a good weekend.

 

Lots of people went off on saturday, unfortunatly most people who went off hit something, and could not get back on track due to extreme wet off the track, as some of you saw the vir trucks were getting stuck pulling people out. They had to send the tractor to get people he was the only thing that could get tracton. I was going to take the del sol out on saturday.. however I decided that I would not since it is my daily driver, and my ride home, even though i am sure it would have been a a great learning experience. Sunday was mucho fun the uphill esses rock I was almost going through there flat footted, and was making up lost of time one a lot of people in that area.

 

Overall the weekend was good. But, after driving in the rain Saturday my nerves were shot! I had a few close calls, a few wiggles, a few brake lockups, and a lock up and spin into turn 4 with Jamie (DoctorCortez) as a passenger (sorry). It took me a little while to get my mind back in the game Sunday, and that really did not happen till the last session. But, I still had fun, everyone was super cool and everyone left the event in one piece.

Thanks to NASA for a well run event.


[Modified by 6ghatch, 10:18 AM 2/24/2003]

 

This is a good comment - car-to-something.. I think you are right. Considering the weather conditions (rain - really monsoon) cold, and slick, I am totally impressed with the lack of car-to-car collisions.. Offs and sliding accros wet grass and only getting the car hurt is totally impressive - so HATS OFF to all the good driving AND instructing...

This is the 1st time in the 3 years NASA-VA has been aroudn that we've had weather like this...

Maybe someone upstairs thought that a new learning experiece was needed.

Maybe we should order a few more rainy HPDE weekend (NOT)

Gld you all had a good time regardless. It make it worth it to us to know that the work it takes brings grins to your faces.

 

Excellent weekend! It was great to see everyone, despite the less than optimal conditions. Managed my first all 4 off after the roller coaster (avoiding a car that was avoiding a stalled car on track) and missed the guardrail by an inch. Rally wagon managed to get out on it’s own. AWD rules! Nonetheless, learned a lot in the rain and am FINALLY starting to get Oak Tree down. Sunday was a blast and still reliving the last session over and over in my head. Can’t wait to get back out there again. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it all happen!


[Modified by WRXrJen, 4:53 PM 2/24/2003]