TKOGTO

With Track Daze 11/1 and 2. Any recommendations on how to lower lap times, where to stay or eat would be much appreciated.

TIA

Dan H.

I'd recommend staying at the track or in Danville. I've stayed in South Boston and Danville, South Boston kind of sucks. Danville has all the regular chain hotels. In Danville we thought Me's Burgers & Brews was a pretty good dinner stop. Both Danville and South Boston are a 20-30 minute drive to the track in the morning. If you stay in Danville and have to park a trailer one of the nights, check google maps to see if your rig will fit. I stayed at the hampton inn and there was only one or two spots I could park a truck and trailer. The hotels are on the side of a hill and may have limited parking. Another reason I like the idea of staying at the track. And my gear isn't in a hotel parking lot in Podunk.

I like the plantation restaurant in the track. Good chow, dinner can take a while there. The breakfast counter at the track is awesome, chicken biscuit por favor! And the lady calls you sugar

I'm down there this October for my third visit. I have a room at the track this time. Its only a few bucks more. Its good because your close to the track and the plantation restaurant. I think its bad because I bring fuel jugs to save on the up charge at the track. I don't recall fuel anywhere near the track other than the paddock pumps.

Theres a good "One Lap" tutorial that Randy Pobst does on YouTube. Its before the repave so not exact but gives you an idea on what to expect corner by corner

Bill Dearborn

The Sleep Inn near the Danville Airport is a good place to stay. The Best Western is about a quarter mile further West than the Sleep Inn and is cheaper but I have had room mechanical issues the last couple of times I stayed there. Both of them are about 10 to 12 miles from the track. The problem with staying at the track is the only place you have to eat nearby are the Oak Tree Restaurant and Aunt Millies in Milton. Aunt Millies has great Pizza and Ice Cream.

South Boston sucks. You are about 24 miles from the track and about 12 miles of that is on two lane back roads that can be fog covered in the morning or evening just as we are heading into deer mating season.

Bill

davidfarmer

stay at the track, even in your trailer if necessary, Tavern and Millies are better than anything in Danville IMO.

Watch as much video as you can, make yourself apex later EVERYWERE than you want to, and use that extra space for accelerating on all of the straight. There are no stand-alone corners, you have to know which portion of each complex is the most important, and know where to throw away a little speed to gain a lot.

Great course, you will have an amazing time!

davidfarmer

I like Randy, and he has some good things to say, but that is a horribly produced video....

davidfarmer

Innovate

Be careful in all of the esses. The track is fairly easy to learn and fun as all get out to run.

Poor-sha

I'll be there as well and staying at the track. Come by and say "hi". As far as Millie's goes, I like extra cheese on my pizza but they go completely overboard!

tw78911sc

Stay at the track, give them a call. It is the best

truth.b

I'll be there as well. I've include a couple obligatory videos from my recent past events.

argonaut

I'll be there as well. 4 days actually: Thur-Fri with TrackDaze then Sat-Sun with Audi club.

TrackDaze will run the Grand Course on Friday. Same course as Car and Driver uses for their annual Lightning Lap. Watch the videos on youTube. They tested the ZR1 this year and it broke the track record (the Lightning Lap track record), which then was promptly broke again by GT2 RS.

TKOGTO

Will do for sure.

Poor-sha

Since we're sharing videos here are a couple of mine from this week. New PBs for me on both tracks. I can't wait to see what the ZR1 is like with cooler air.

VIR Full

VIR Grand

TKOGTO

Sean, Truth - good to meet you both @ VIR. Nice to put a face to the avatar.

Thanks to all providing recommendations. Stayed @ the track 2 nights (a suite @ the top of the climbing esses) and the Sleep Inn 1 night (the Italian restaurant next door delivers right to the hotel room. In the pouring, this worked great... for me).

Track is fantastic but the trip home was a bit of a disaster. Got some misfiring in the morning before leaving that went away after a re-start. Then about 2 hours in, a transmission line that got chaffed by the condenser belt started leaking heavily. Got a tow from AAA to a AAA shop but they wouldn’t work on the car. It was a Saturday and I think they only had techs that could change oil and tires. Luckily I found a nearby race shop and they took pity on me and stayed late to replace the line. I got a check engine light within 5 miles of leaving the shop but I counted on it being something that got tripped from the fluid leak as the car was running and shifting normally.

About 3 hours later, somewhere in Delaware, the misfiring came back. I pulled over on I95, shut the engine off and said 3 Our Fathers and a few Hail Mary’s. Like @ the start of the day, the misfiring went away. I had a sense it would come back over 70mph so I took it easy the rest of the way. 16 hours door-to-door. Not fun.When I went to move it around the driveway while cleaning it a few days later, I couldn’t get the misfiring to stop. Code reader showed a random and multiple misfire code and a transmission control system malfunction. I did some research on the codes. If I’m lucky, both could be minor fixes (a dirty MAF from the trans fluid all over the engine bay, a trans fluid refill, a bad purge solenoid). Mechanic picked up the car a few days ago. Keeping my fingers crossed major work is not necessary.