Virginia International Raceway 8/5/2010 - 8/8/2010
VIR is officially in the books. In a weird way we are happy to be done with it. Of course it’s always fun to go racing, and also exciting to go to a new track, especially a world class facility like
VIR. This was just a stressful event from start to finish. A 14 hour trip to get to the track was a trek, when it involves several of those hours driving through the mountains in a race rig it becomes an adventure! We only smoked the brakes once, which was conveniently at the bottom of the mountain as we were planning to pull into a Walmart anyway. By the way, if you ever get the chance to visit a Walmart in the hills of
Virginia, it’s a great people watching venue. We couldn’t wait to get to the track to get on a motorcycle, so 50 cents later we got our first practice session.
Once at the track we set up down by the “big rigs” because we assumed it was the best location. Ben Bostrom and Graves Yamaha have been there a few times before. After we finished setting up Josh Hayes stopped by for a minute, which made us feel cool. Our new SS Shades www.ssshades.com were a great addition to the weekend!
Friday only allotted us 2 practice sessions totaling about 15 laps on the track. The endurance race took up the rest of the day. It was pretty interesting watching the pro teams do their pit stops. 2 tires and fuel in 16 seconds on a motorcycle is a frenzy.
Saturday offered more practice time, but we still only got another 20ish laps in. We were lapping in the high
1:38’s already, which is respectable on the limited track time. We knew that the race up front would be at 35’s or even 34’s and that much time is a lot to gain.
When the first flag dropped, so did our lap times. We immediately found ourselves running up front and were able to finish the race 3rd and 4thin the 1000 Superstock race. Up next was our 600 Superstock race. Once again more time was shed. Nick was now lapping in the
1:34’s and Oliver in the
1:35’s. This positioned us 2nd and 3rd as the checkered flag waived. Next up was the 750 Superstock race. Nick had a battle for the lead on the last lap, but unfortunately caught a lapper in an in-opportune location and fell just a second back. He was only able to finish 2nd again. Oliver found a last ditch effort to take third back from another rider in the final turns of the race, but got drafted to the checker down the long finishing straight and had to settle for 4th by 0.01 seconds according to the official timing. Nick took to his solo effort in the 600 Superbike class. Once again he claimed the second position on the podium. Oliver entered the weekend with a chance to lock up the Formula 1 championship with a second or better in that race. In his final race of the day, he found himself on the top of the race results with another win in the class.
Unfortunately Nick was unable to compete in his last 2 races of the weekend. Racing had been delayed and eventually had to be suspended to complete on the following day. We were unable to stay for the extra unplanned time.
VIR has a history of too many red flags. This event would be no different. We can’t count how many races were stopped, we even got sent back to the pits on our “out lap” when there were multiple incidents before the race even started. The biggest tragedy was that a fellow competitor lost his live in a multiple bike incident. Our deepest sympathy goes out to family and friends of Rob Gette.
I don’t want to end on a negative note, so we are looking forward to BeaveRun on Labor Day weekend. It’s a track that we are familiar with, which will be a nice change. Also, Thanks to all the people that help get us to the track. In particular, our families, Peak Powersports, Uber Racing/ Pirelli Tires, Scorpion Helmets, C&S Powdercoating, Honda Pro Oil and Chemicals, Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers, SS Shades, Pro Wheels Racing, Pit-Bull, Hotbodies Racing and Vortex.
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