We're Back!!!

After at least a five year hiatus, we were back at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Mike used to go there often to ride his motorcycle on the track. He hung that up a few years ago. Well his wild hair has grown back and now he's back on the track except this time it's in a car. We bought an old Porshe 911 right around Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving we were up at VIR for his first track day.

This is an event were people bring their cars and right on the road coarse. There are about 4 different groups based on experience and ability. Since this was Mike's first time he had decided to have an instructor ride with him. There were all kinds of cars there with the most popular being Porshes, Corevettes, and BMWs. There were a few Mini's and Mustangs as well as some Mustangs. It was neat to see all the cars on the track.

Mike went up Friday night and I got there Saturday at about noon. Just our luck, it was cold as all heck. It actually snowed toward the end of the day on Saturday. I don't know if this was caused by the snow or not...


This was the only wreck of the weekend (a BIG difference between the cars and the bikes). This was a nice Viper. No one was hurt. There were some pretty serious drivers out there and this was one of the nicer cars. Sucks for him. As you can see, there is snow on the ground.

This is the scene at the end of the day on Saturday. Mike kept getting better and better as the day went on. I took my Jeep up there so I was able to drive around todifferent parts of the track and watch the cars. I took my Ipad and downloaded a stopwatch app and was able to track his time.

This was the scene at the track on Sunday morning. I bet not too many people have seen VIR with snow on the ground. It was very pretty. I drove around and took a few pictures before it melted.

It melted before too long and it didn't keep the cars off the track at all. Sunday was fun and Mike got lots of track time. I don't have the exact times but I think his time improved from 2:54 to 2:38. He only scared his instructor once!! The fastest car we timed did the course in 2:01!! Wow, that's fast.

Here's Mike's little car on the track. A lot of the other cars had more horsepower than him but his instructor said that with the setup he had he probably couldn't go much faster. We'll probably do about 3 track days a year. Nothing too crazy.