Mikelly

We rolled into the track about 4:45 to a slew of Vettes... I was teched and heading back to my trailer when I saw Tom and stopped to see how things went with the NCM. Tom was beaming like a proud pappa and said all went extremely well... I hope this thing takes off like wild fire for you guys, because what I always said when I owned a vette was "We need a club of our own to do organized events with".

I've never run with Chin Motorsports, and it's been a while since I've "passed" everywhere on a track, although certain chapters in PCA have said "It's time to move to black run group". That said, I have thousands of miles at VIR. Since this was my first event with Chin, but with so much experience there, they has placed me in Blue Run Group. It only took half a session to realize that I was comfy taking passes in places I'd never ever thought to take one, like entering T10, or at the entry to T7 on the climbing esses.

So I spent the morning sessions feeling out the track, cutting thru traffic, and not throwing a single point by, because there simply was no one to... Point by. By the afternoon sessions I was kinda getting a little lonely... So after the 90 minute "free for all" session, I came in with the decision to ask for a "bump up".

Thursday AM and Mark was grilling me about my experience and if I could keep traffic flowing around me... I'm sitting here thinking "man I'm gonna get my butt handed to me..."

So after the first morning session I bled my brakes and met either Jeff or Jake (Sorry man, I'm horrible with names) for the instructor sign off. I figured I'd take it "easy"... Right... We were the first out of the pits and I took a lap before he said "where's everybody at?" So we slowed... WAY down, and let first a white GT3 Cup car go past me, then Mark Hicks, the GM for CMS went past in his NSX. After that I threw Mark Icard a pass in his primered Datsun 240Z LS1 powered track car. Mark I. had issues at Oak Tree and we eventually got around him. Then I eventually got around Mark Hicks, and were chasing down the cup car when we got in traffic. It was a fun 7-8 laps, then it was over and I was signed off to solo in red.

I ran one full session in red run group and then called it a day. Other than giving those passes for evaluation, and giving Mark Icard two passes in the 90 minute free-for-all session, I gave two passes, both in the 1PM red session, one to Dell Tollin in his Yellow GT3 (He flies) and one to the Red Bull Racing Ferrari 430 racecar. Other than that, I held my own for the 255 minutes I was on track.

About Chin... I've never run with them before, but will again. The pace was amazing, the schedule never adjusted, and you indeed did get more track time than you could imagine. Novice drivers get a lot of opportunities to learn, and intermediate and advanced drivers, being thrown in with the novice drivers during some sessions, get a lesson in patience. The risk is a little higher, but we had no incidents where there was car on car contact and traffic flowed well.

I also had a chance to run a new toy this weekend, a Traqmate data acquisition unit that's GPS based. I hope to learn where I'm losing time and maybe I'll get to extract a lot of useful info. I did manage several 2:10 laps, and a bunch of 2:11s and 2:12s. I have some suspension issues that are limiting the car, and then there's that whole "talent" thing...

I'll post some video once I go thru the hours worth!

Good meeting those of you that were there! Post your experiences up!

Mike

AU N EGL

Mike Great to see you again, even for a few minutes.

Great write up too. Looking for those MK videos . . .

turbo50mike

I've run VIR on my bikes, but not in the car (yet), but it's a fantastic track. The only thing that could make VIR better would be running it with Chin.

I've run with half a dozen track groups, and there is NO doubt that they run one of the best (if not THE best) trackdays around. They run no more than three groups, sometimes two groups. If it's a two day event they will run 'blended' groups on the second day where you can go up or down one group to get more track time; i.e. If you were in the intermediate group, you could literally stay on the track ALL DAY LONG.

Mark Hicks, Dr. Chin and the others are great people. Sure they may cost a few bucks more than some of the other groups, but for me, the extra money is WELL worth it since I get more tracktime.

PA Z06

Mike great write up as usual, sounds like you were really moving

MazdaRob

I have done several events with them and really like them. It is hard to go run with other groups where the track time is so much less. Once you have some experience they treat you like adults and as long as you don't do something stupid, they will let you take other drivers who can help you improve and because their sessions are so long, you don't have to be the first one in line to make sure you get all your track time.

I like running in the groups where you can move up or down a group. It allows you to learn how to pass and be passed in more then the traditional straights.

I am not the biggest fan of the dual group format though. We did that at Roebling and the lower group has some big speed differentials. Slow people in fast cars (nothing like a 6 car train behind a C6, although it may be the only time my 1.6L Miata laps a Vette ) and fast people in slow cars and fast people in fast cars is not the best mix. The Trackquest format is best.

I can't wait for Road Atlanta with them.

Rob

rbl

Great event and with great people. Seems that everyone got along very well. I had a heck of a time chasing an oil issue and never got it completely resolved so I finally parked the car after the first Sunday session. Seems that the breather is the cause but I'm going to pull the engine for a closer look at the block.

Hooked a ride with Jeff Sunday and the fine art of throttle steering was clearly demonstrated several times as his tires were finally shot thanks to Jake. The steering wheel just wasn't working well in T-1 until the tires would finally get a bite and around we would go!

Tim was there with the Camaro cooking out some hot laps so there was a secret pact made disallowing him to pass a Corvette. They took turns having one car run interference and keep him tied up … lol.

SouthernSon

CHIN always has a good event! I missed the NCM runs because of work. I gotta retire. Mike the 2:10's are really good laps. Of course, anything in the low 2 + teens ain't exactly slow! Good job.

The 3 J's (England) do have a way with the bratwurst, chicken, steak and fixin's! Good to see everyone and meet a few new folks.

mcar00

Mike, it was good to meet you at VIR. My buddy and I were the ones talking to you while you were bleeding your brakes. I didn't know you got out in the Red group or we could have ran together. Mark Hicks and Chin do a great job. We go to a lot of their Sebring and Homestead events so even though we have never been to this track before they let us in the Red group which was pretty cool. I think the only faster car out there was the Ferrari 430 Challenge car. He was running 2:01's but I told my buddy if we could pressure him from behind maybe he would make a mistake. So I went out behind him Thurs. AM and sure enough after a lap and a half he looped it in Oaktree. I think I have that on video so I'll post that later. We also had a great time running with Dell and his buddy Craig, both very good Porsche GT3 drivers who definately know the track. We had an awesome 4 days there and next year I'll know to bring 2 sets of Hoosiers!

Mikelly

I'm in the middle of uploading a 10 minute video clip. I'll post the link shortly...

Met a lot of good folks this past week, and we had a ball! You Florida boys were holding your own out there for never having been to this course! Dell is stupid-fast! I tried to follow him into 14 and just watched as he disappeared... He's got HUGE man-parts!

Mike

varkwso

Chin is top notch.

I am Jeff (the one that checked you) and I do wish we could have hooked up with you in red group. The truth was we did very little passing and no one was passing the "train" once we got it formed up...

Rex you seemed very relaxed as we slid everywhere. The water I put in the Camaro tank seemed to do the trick - no need for a blocker.

One of the Miata's in red did not like to give point bys to Vettes. But that is the exception rather then the rule. Sometimes they buy their own hype.

Mikelly

Jeff, There were a number of guys out there in both Blue and Red who simply wanted to drag race with others. Having the power on tap that I have helps kinda push the point, but the one thing I really noticed was a change in flagging from Wednesday to Thursday. I'd get a run coming out of 12 and before I could get half way up the back straight the flagger would be waving the blue/Yellow frantically at the cars I was closing on, but I didn't see much of that on Thursday at all...

My biggest problem is that I close on other cars so quickly. I know I had several drivers comment that they'd see me coming down the front straight braking for T1 as they were heading towards Nascar, and by the time they were breaking for T4 I'd be in their mirrors. That can catch anyone by surprise, especially with the differential in speeds we saw out there in Red and Blue...

Mike

varkwso

that is a common problem I see - the tough part is to get a student to recognize closure rate in a place they can manage it with the high po cars. I had a 2008 Turbo at Lowes on Sat - nice car and they could catch cars at the worst places...