It has been a long week but, right up front, I want to thank all who have made sacrifices for the independence we all enjoy and to all who are making them know all over the world as I peck this out. We are not a perfect country but I have been all over the world and I cannot find one better.
The plan was to run VIR for 4 days, Lowe's for 1 day and CMP for up to 2 days. This light schedule was made possible by the great event staffs at National Corvette Museum, Chin Motorsports, Carolina Porsche Club of America, and TurnOne. As with any campaign it started with integrated planning. Establishing multiple bases of operation and adequate logistics up front is necessary. When, deep down, you are as tight with money as our household it takes creative partnering. Through the kindness of Kim, Patches, Khoi, VIR and Toby we were able to find a place to lay our heads for the duration - ANCTM (at no cost to me). Before the events we all collaborated on the meal planning. Thanks to SAM's (and 4 large coolers), Kim, Patches, Lisa, Khoi and Artie we only ate four meals "out" all week. The only item requiring an emergency run was beer (Tim was there you know) - there is only so much payload on a 3/4 ton truck. The evening meals were feasts truly fit for royalty and since Patches was there it seemed appropriate.
With planning and initial logistics handled the convoy departed home station on 30 Jun with a very loaded truck and trailer with a loaded ZO6 for VIR. Since this was a non-time event the "good" tires were left at home to keep the Team from being tempted. We also scavenged up the pads available to keep costs down - since it was not for a coveted beer mug - these days were only for fun.
Check in for event number one at NCM was OK with lots of people working hard. They had me down for a small shirt, Jake down for a 2XL shirt and Tim down for no shirt. Sorting that out was more complicated then it needed to be. Roc - let the missing shirts from whatever event go - it is runway behind you and the paying customers do not care to hear inventory control problems. It was like a family reunion though (except I was not looking for dates) with lots of familiar faces. Au N EGL is a great resource for us malcontents at these events!
We then checked into the palatial estate leased by Kim - what a place to stay at VIR! Being ANCTM we took the fold out chairs and floor. I was really lucky to have PharmZ as a follow on student from a few weeks back at Roebling. He is a great student with good skills. I had his lovely wife in Primedrive - she seemed to have a good time. My GM student has had three events all in C6Zs. He has some habits that are hard to break in a C6Z - we only went off once in the uphill esses but the near misses were pretty common and impressive. He had a great attitude about it, once we got over "these cars take corners like T1 & T2 like this" - they don't by the way, and significantly improved by the second day. He went out with Jake for a session in the white FRC. That seemed to help. We were really busy with students, a front brake swap (we came with tired pads and spider cracked rotors) and visiting with everyone. We missed talking to Danny Puskar of Carbotech in person but he knows my phone number and credit card numbers well though. We did get to hang with some RAFT racers since we were paddocked close. Somehow I missed getting my RAFT stickers last year. Danny Popp was helpful as always to all at the event. A big thanks to Mungo ZO6 and Southern Son for the take off XP10 brake pads - for some reason they thought we could use them and we did. Team England took the FRC out mostly since the ZO6 had street tires and we did not like pointing that many people by in the instructor group - we have nothing for a well driven C6Z. Jake and I never had an empty seat at the NCM event. Jake seems to give the best rides based on the feedback. I even had PharmZ in the car when we took a little detour around Beerkat when he did a really cool spin at Turn 3 - if there was a Sparkle Pony Spin Award for NCM - he would have won it hands down. We did take a massive rock strike in the windshield of the FRC from people straddling/hopping rumble strips though. By the way, unlike others, we did not ask to or drive any GM cars. From the tone at the instructor meeting it seemed it was a privilege to be allowed on track with the GM cars. I understand "no" the first time - I am married.
We rolled into event two in a fairly simple manner. Signed up with Maria and went through tech with a minimum of pain. Chin ought to consider annual techs for their "regulars". It had lower track density and instructors are only assigned one student each. Jake had fun with his student, rode with many others and gave a few checkrides. I spent Chin mostly giving checkrides. Due to the slower pace we were able to "convoy up"with Tim, Khoi and others for some great lead follow around the track - Rex was silly enough to get into the car with me for one of them. Riding the Tim train is always a good time. The only car trouble we had was with the Corbeau seat rails - we trashed the third set. Chasing the little balls around the floorboard was not the same without Toby there. We bolted the seat to the floor - a little long for me and Jake needed multiple pillows to drive the car. Did not seem to really slow him down muc h - he sure did complain a lot about it though. Southern Son and I came up with the brake parts for a C5Z from NY when his rear pads shredded - one advantage to running the "Spec C5". We really enjoyed the Chin event and hated to see it end. We were absolutely whipped though and ended up staying at the track on Thursday night. The pool was very refreshing and seemed to wear some of the excess energy down on Joe, Jake and Josh. We were also able to walk the track. It really is revealing to get at pavement level to see why cars act like they do. We think we can take a new ZR1 on the north course with the FRC...
Friday we were up early and headed to Charlotte. We made it to Lowe's about 1100 for sign up and tech with Carolina PCA. Nadine, Marty and Doc's Garage made that very easy also - thanks guys I was hot and tired also! We even picked up a PCA annual tech - what a great idea. David was there in his C6Z already. We then descended on Crista and Toby for lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast. Jake and Josh were like locusts at lunch - naturally I ate like a bird. We had the rare privilege to tour the Toby mansion and his shop. Some guys just seem to live right. My wife will want to move out of the doublewide if she sees how my track buddies live. The food was outstanding by the way. My IOU file is getting large.
Saturday we split forces with Jake running at CMP with Sylvia, the one who really keeps CMP in line, with Josh and me hitting Lowes. Toby showed me the line on the first session. After that I was unleashed upon my students. I had Waddisme in his ZO6 and a 2008 Turbo Porsche. Both were awesome cars and well driven. The sessions were long and let the students really get the rhythm of the track. The roval is fast, really fast, if you ignore the consequences of an error. It was eating a Porsche a day and several engines let go also. Toby told me what to do and when I did it the track was ridiculous fast. One student decided to watch me from the grandstands instead of riding with me after seeing me taking out the other student I think. I thought I was taking it easy around the track when John said "you are pretty aggressive" out there. The line does track you out of NASCAR 4 straight into the wall - I was crossi ng start/finish about 150 (5th gear out of the turn) for the brake point and turn in for T5. I hit about 160 entering Nascar 3. Banking really lets you put the power down. It was making me think hard about the 41 heat cycle rear tires and the 4 year old tires on front. Nitto NT01s do last well. Josh located the video driving game and spent a lot of time whipping up on the unsuspecting. Josh and I were tired puppies when we departed Charlotte for home with an intact car empty of gas in the trailer.
We were able to put $180.24 in the truck across the line in SC, my new record, on the way home. Overall the costs were tolerable - about $320 for ontrack gas and about $350 for tow fuel. We even came back with one more set of used XP10s then I left with. It is possible the 275 Nitto NT01s are dead so we can mount up some Hankooks to get the contingency money in NASA Time Trial.
The people are what made the week fun. I had a blast with all of the regulars and many new folks also. All the events kept me hopping so I did not get to hang out as much as I would have liked with everyone. It looks like we will be at CMP next weekend, the 24 Hours of Lemons on 26/27 July at CMP, Roebling with SeatTime on 2/3 Aug, Road Atlanta 8/9/10 Aug with NASA-SE, Road America on 11/12 Aug with NCM then a long break until Barber and Rockingham in late Sep. I may even squeeze in some work if I have to.
