VIR Recap

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:41 pm

Again to all the Event Staff Great job as usual. While Gwen and I were standing on the Balcony of the condos taking a few pictures, several folks who were staying there remarked how well organized and smooth the entire weekend was. They were strangers to me so one might say that testimony was totally unsolicited. As Jim said if there is any confusion or panic it is not detectable to anyone who just participates. GREAT EVENT
Thanks Guys

Ron Spencer · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:49 pm

Vincent, I seem to remember how you were talking about those big brakes you put on your car and how well they stopped it. Now your saying you had trouble stopping for 14? Hmm, somethings not adding up here:)

It takes a while, a really long while, to get comfortable with the late braking that 14 does allow. First you have to get comfortable with the diagonal line through to the top of the hill that we talked about in class. Then you have to get comfortable with the fact that it allows you to carry a LOT more speed up that hill. Then you have to get comfortable with modifying your braking point to take advantage of all that. This does not all happen in one weekend!

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:30 pm

Ron Spencer wrote:

Vincent, I seem to remember how you were talking about those big brakes you put on your car and how well they stopped it. Now your saying you had trouble stopping for 14? Hmm, somethings not adding up here:)

The brakes (and new Ferodo pads

) work great. Unfortunately the other half of the stopping equation (tires) is what was holding me back. My almost bald RT-615s just won't stop like your new V710s.

Graham Jagger · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:53 am **Posts:** 1718

Ron Spencer wrote:

It takes a while, a really long while, to get comfortable with the late braking that 14 does allow. First you have to get comfortable with the diagonal line through to the top of the hill that we talked about in class. Then you have to get comfortable with the fact that it allows you to carry a LOT more speed up that hill. Then you have to get comfortable with modifying your braking point to take advantage of all that. This does not all happen in one weekend!

Do you have a drawing, and/or some video that shows this line?
I'd like to see what you are talking about. The hill as viewed from when you come out of Oak Tree? Or after you crest that and do the small down/up dip by the braking zone?

Ron Spencer · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:30 pm

Graham its the hill leading up to turn 14 so its at the very end of the back straight. I have some video but will have to figure out where/ how to post it.

Basically what you are doing in the diagonal line is drawing a straight line from turn in to apex full track left to almost full track right just before you turn in for the downhill to turn 15. The classic line is to keep the car full track left at the top of the hill. Problem with that is you have to slow down more to be able to keep the car track left. The diagonal line allows you to extend the back straight and brake less up the hill. You also brake up the hill since you are going and continuing to go straight.

Make sense?

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:38 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

Stacy King wrote:

Hey Vincent...

What um ... what was goin on here?

That would be the start of my "off" courtesy of one John "I forgot to tighten my radiator hose clamp" King.

About one second before that pic my wheels were pointed to the right before I hit the coolant. When I started to slide, I noticed the gator and big rut aimed for my left front wheel. I quickly straightend the wheel to be able to straddle the rut and not debead a tire.

Also notice the E30 behind me countersteering as he hit the same slick spot.

Vincent, that is exactly where I had my off. But I think I looked a bit more like the BMW, but it kept going around and off. It was that rut and/or curb that debeaded two tires.

Out of curiosity, what session and run group was that photo from? I wonder if they have a photo of my off?

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:40 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

Out of curiosity, what session and run group was that photo from?

That was Red Group, session number one I think.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:44 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

Out of curiosity, what session and run group was that photo from? I wonder if they have a photo of my off?

Definitely maybe.

That was a popular spot for the photographer to take shots. F&S should have 'em up sometime this week.

Mark Vitacco · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:24 pm

Thank you every one for a great weekend. Believe it or not this was
the least stressfull VIR event we have run to date.
Sure, track was slick sat and there was an expected number of
drive off's but no one was foul of the two off rule. 120+ students
and no bent cars= good weekend in my book. You can tell people
had not been on track for a few months but everyone settled down
Sunday to make a very unevent full day.

We found a great way to let off steam was to rent the go kart track
for 30 mins before event setup. What a great way to start the weekend.
That has to be a new track team tradition" "the track team challange"

The only strange thing was a tendency of the grass in turn one to
catch fire. One would think with all the frost and cold
temps it would not be so dry but there were two short delays for
grass fires. Two delays for Marvin McBride who put his concentric
rim rings on backwards and proceeded to lose tire/wheel assemblies
in two consutive run groups. Way to go Marvin!

Tony Muncie took responsibility for the dinner menue screw up
That was the second thing that really pissed me off because I don't like
to be put in the position not to be able to deliver what we promiced.
He more than adjusted the bill and cut us another discount for next year.
Again, no PA in the pagoda room. We had a short meeting with the
new General Manage over that. Its all in the details as Stacy would say.
For what we are paying for this Venue we let them know facilities
in the Pagoda did not meet our expectations.

I'm really tired tonight so I probably get results out tomorrow.

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

Ryan Holton wrote:

Blue group was one of the most courteous groups I have ran with. I only had the "my car doesn't gain 100 hp when you point me by" thought one time all weekend!

Hope it was not a black Mazda RX-7. :oops:

I know it took me a while to get up to speed. I hope I was was not to much of a moving chicane out there. I learned a lot this past weekend. I can't wait to run full again.

Mark Vitacco · **Posted:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:06 pm

Reading Richards Comments, I'm glad he had a good time
as we do try and make our events novice friendly. Such observations
as Richards are of interest. I thank him for taking the time to do a
long write up.

As these are THSCC events. There should be no suprize there are a lot of THSCC folks-because if there was not THSCC folks, we would not have a track program!

One thing we try to stress is to be open minded and be able to adapt. This not only will make your weekend more enjoyable, but is a essential survival skill for high performance track driving and competative driving.

In car instructors is the foundation of our HPDE program. With all
the human dymanics that comes with it, but the fact is you can learn
from everyone who rides with you, as well as everyone you ride with.

Respect and courtecy to your fellow driver is another thing we stress
which is directly tied to passing protocoll. The first event of the year
brings in a lot of new drivers and it will usually take a day for them
to be confortable, start to open their vision, and hear more than
50% of what the instructor is actually telling them to do. Our group
is very good at this but as mentioned, the first event of the year
is all part of getting everyone back insync. By the time you get
to Yellow group the sill and expectations will be higher-but everyone
started at the same place and must be given their chance to learn.

THSCC, by defination, set very high standards for event organization.
Starting on time, keeping on schedule, efficiant & friendly registration
are just some of what it takes to make an event pleasurable but these
were some things that always seperated THSCC events from some others.
One of things that really turned me off at other events was that the
event staff just were not friendly or even nice.

Our goal was to bring this level of organization to track events. At the time we started CarGuys, Tarheel BMWCCA, PCA, TrackQuest, EMRA, were good role modles running excellent programs. We moved up
the food chain when we started running track events. This was an
part of grassroots motorsports I know our club woud excell because
I knew the type of people we had in our club. Sure we copied other organizations but now other organizations copy us.

Many of you probably do not know I was Autocross VP
for two years before starting the TT program that evolved into the
Track Program. At the same time I started autocrossing I became
involved in the CarGuys worker program with Penny. Like many THSCC
members at the time. I became active with CarGuys and became interested in Club Racing. It seemed we were turning over a significiant
percent of our membership to Track Events or Club racing. I though why
should a club the caliber of THSCC not have a track program? We should
be SOLO1 and Solo II club. More recently we included rallycross which
will grow into another large program in the years ahead.

THSCC was the big driving force behind NCAC so the concept of
partnering a series with other clubs is not exactly new. It's just
the implementation and the chemestry of the people involved that
seem to make the difference.

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:29 pm

It was nice to be down at a THSCC event again. Sure miss the tracks and the people. Great event, even though it felt like NH in the mornings.

We'll definitely try to make it again next year, and maybe even Rockingham the end of this year... we'll see.

robharvey · **Posted:** Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:38 pm

I recorded 2 of my sessions from Sunday. I edited it down to create a "highlight" video and posted it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM930gzvOso

Ron Spencer · **Posted:** Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:45 am

Rob did we ever get Rmon up and running on Sunday? I did get some times from one session on Saturday but nothing later on Sunday. Thanks for the info on getting into the wireless network.

Ron

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:39 am

The TT results are up on www.MyLaps.com ....

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