5.0 RACER

Two days of fun on the Grand East Course at VIR. 4.3 miles of blacktop.

Mazda Drivers held their 2nd event of the year at the VIR course. The weather was great if a bit hot on Saturday with no rain. The track was clean and had good adhesion, but that didn't keep some drivers from looping it off the course. There were a few "incidents"; a very expensive porsche and a viper got close and personal with the barriers. a few blown engines/oil coolers/etc. but it was still a great time. Sorry you didn't make it Calvin. I was looking for you.

The 86 Mustang was going to have its first outing with the new AGR power steering pump and cooler. But during final tech Thursday night, the car failed inspection when it was found the input shaft was pumping PS fluid out the seal. I guess a new pump makes a bit more pressure than the older used units. And at 2 am, they are just not available for purchase.
So I spent the morning Friday yanking the old out and installing a new unit. It actually had a nicer feel, a bit more resistance. We measured the distance of the old rack and then the new one and installed it. And I guess I got lucky as the alignment looked dead on. I wanted to use Calvin's alignment procedure posted on the web site, but just didn't have the time to put it together and give it a try http://tidewatersportscarclub.com/articles/align.html . Maybe this week I'll give it a go.

But after flailing a bit, we got out of town about 4ish, too late to dump the car and trailer at the track. Painful. puts you all that much further behind when you do arrive at the track Saturday morning.

I had 2 students, a gentleman with a BMW M3 from New York state who drove 10 hours and had been at the track since Thursday running. 4 days in a row. Whew. and David Taylor, a local driver with SCCA and NASA who was doing his first open track event in his wife's Mini Cooper S. Neat little car, even if a bit underpowered. I kept on saying go-go-go-go and he kept on saying "I am". The car pushed a bit when pressured, but in that it was not race prepped, that was understandable.

the different thing about the grand east course was the use of the infield patriot course, Talk about a drop! after you come into the inner course, there is a hard left that must drop 15 feet and then a right. I should have gotten a picture as it just falls away. I felt like I was doing a slalom on the side of a hill! You had to be ready for it. Then there was a second one that that was just over a rise so you could not see the quick right-left combo. then another quick right and a left up the hill. While challenging, it really broke up the momentum of the course.

Gotta say it was great having David as a student. His background in autocrossing helped us communicate and he QUICKLY learned the course and turn-ins and everything. We had an excellent time getting around. I ended up soloing him on Sunday.

Learned a bit about front license plates. they can put up enough of a wake to disturb the airflow into the radiator. I removed it Sunday and my water temperature dropped 15 degrees. I still want to do a bit of ducting to improve the airflow.

Good way to spend Father's day. Some dads hit little white balls, some of us live for the smell of rubber and 90 weight. Next event, Watkins Glen with Car Guys over the July 4th holiday. Ava will get to have a holiday also at the Corning Glass Factory outlet store. Last time, it cost me a china hutch she bought so much.

If you have never tried an open track, do yourself a treat and attend one. Its a great time.

The Barst

Grand east was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the patriot course alot. You could really have fun throwing the car around, but I agree it didn't flow with the rest of the full course. It was so freaking long, I didn't even see all the cars in my run group during the course of the weekend. BTW I was pretty much self taught as my instructor (Toby Milne) only gave me feedback like twice. THe rest of the time he seemed to just want to chat about stuff and tell me stories while I try and drive. It was my first time driving VIR at speed, so it wasn't too easy for me to learn the entire thing by myself, but I'm still alive and the car is in one piece.

me:


Tomssound:

TomsSound

Good Times!! Had a blast this weekend. The weather held out. Nice breeze on sunday.
Only a few mishaps on track. The Grand East course is freakin huge!!!!
I can imagine how difficult it must have been to learn the turns for the people who had never driven there before.
I'm glad I already had the north course in memory. The Patriot course might not have flowed quite as well as the rest, but it made for some interesting times. I really enjoyed the bottom (suckers chicane).
The stand out fun and difficult parts for me were Climbing S's (100+mph turns - HUGE FUN), turn 10 (80-100 drift + understeer), oak tree (heel toe shift + hard turn) and bitch (throttle modulated turn). Corkscrew was incredible. (even more fun than rollercoaster).
Can't wait till I go again.
Group C here I come
If you've never been, It really is great. My instructor was great. The event is very well organized.
Thumbs up to MazdaDrivers!

Axelerate

I attended there last event on the full course and it was a good group. My next event will be with Nasa on the North course at the end of July. My first time with my new car though.

Anyone else going?

TomsSound

Wish I had the funds to do another so soon. We'll see.
North Course is great. Love the cut through , you'll climb the hill, turn and float over the crest.

getfast

I'll be there instructing. Not sure if I'm driving anything though.

Jon

Necessity

I was there thurs/fri with audi, and then sat/sun with mazda. I enjoyed the grand east, but the overall number of cars on course hurt the experience due to the horribly short amount of passing zones for non instructor groups.

B group moreso than others seemed to have a serious ego problem when it came to passes and lifting

Crossbow from 6tech.com has a few pics up. http://www.fallentear.com/gallery/grandeast

TomsSound

There were only a few sessions where it became a problem with D group.
But that was pretty early on.
I really enjoyed trying to learn Grand East. I think it will help a lot when trying to run any other configuration they have.