Thursday morning arrives with out much outward fan-fair. It's still raining, it's chilly and its dark. But inwardly I am very nearly buzzing with excitement. Back to the track, another quick drivers meeting and then it's time to get down and find out how we all stack up at the end of the day.

Our first event for the day was the ATV course. With the rain steadily falling, we geared up and listened to Ike give us a quick run down of what was changed from the day before. He informed us that due to all of the all of the rain and the ground being clay based that the track was not draining at all. Every where that was just low from the previous day now had standing water in it. The grass that was simply a low traction area before was now no traction. Ike also recommended that we try out the 4x4 on the track to see which we if we liked that better than the 2wd. What I found was that I could muscle the bike around when it was in 4x4 mode and while it didn't accelerate as quickly, I was able to get back on the power much sooner. So, 4x4 it was. 2wd was reported to be ultimately faster by our pro riders but, I don't have enough skill to make that work.

We all got two laps; one to see the course and find out how had changed from the day before and one to get serious and turn a fast lap. On my first run I found out that everything we were warned about was true. There were a couple of times that the whole way through corner felt like it was as if I was driving through the marbles and I quickly found that the fastest way around most of the corners was to do all of the braking very early, get the bike pointed in the correct direction and then nail the gas and charge off at the next corner. There were some very slight corners that it was possible to stay on the gas and accelerate all the way through and put the bike into a little bit of a slide. However, these were all made more complicated by having either a dip or a jump at the end of them. I saw Colin McRae at X-Games 12 so I know what happens when you come off a jump sideways, "setup" for the next turn. No thanks!

These pictures show one of the spots on the course where there was standing water. Some people went left, others went right, but if you had the balance, the fastest way was straight down the middle.

As everyone was going for their practice lap I, along with the Clark(e) brothers noticed that the start line was starting to have the grass worn away and the exposed clay was slippery. When it came for me to start I came to the line far enough to the right that I found some ground wasn't that too chewed up.

As I got the countdown before the flag went up, I preloaded the gas against the brake and waited "3-2-1 GO!" said Ike. And I was off. Over the whoops, slight right into an easy left, hard on the brakes as to not fly off a steep drop off, back on the gas going down the hill then flat out until hitting the brakes to scrub a little speed just before climbing the hill with rail road ties buried in the face like stairs. Then back on the gas to bring the front of the quad up and carry it over the hill. Off the gas at the bottom of the hill and on the brakes hard for the first turn in the grass, point the bike left nail the throttle and head for two logs spread about an ATV length apart. I understand that it was possible to clear the second log by jumping off the first, but I wasn't able to. Then a hard right and over another hill, this one made of large rocks and what looked like cut trees. The next bit was quite tricky because the ideal path through the area was actually part of an off camber turn. If you went too low through the corner it was nearly impossible to set up for the following left hand hairpin. Head through the middle and the quad felt like it was going to slide down to the bottom of the corner. It was possible to do, but you had to be on the gas and hanging off the right side of the bike to keep things pointed in the correct direction. I chose to go high through the corner. I ran the risk of taking out the flags marking the course and having a DNF, but if I was committed to the corner and held my course I wouldn't have to fight a sliding ATV and I would have plenty of room to set up and get around the next corner. Thankfully everything went as planned. I came around the hair pin, down the straight, made a sharp left and hit "Steve's pools" as they were called. Out the end of those and through a section of whoops and a number of jumps along with a few dips that were full of water. There was one jump that I felt like the quad was a good 3ft up in the air! Into a sweeping up hill right and across the finish line.

My best time in practice on Tuesday (in the dry) was 1:42.407. My time for the competition (in the wet) was 1:38.923! I was really excited about dropping nearly 3.5 seconds off of my previous best. It was at this point that I was especially thankful for the hours I spent back in Michigan riding in the rain and sand. It wasn't easy, it was fun and it seemed to really pay dividends.

Lee Clark was on the grid a few people behind me and had a bit of a rocky start to his run. While he was on the back section of the course, the ATV that he was riding somehow stalled. No one is really sure what happened, maybe some odd combination of locking the rear tires and hitting the gas at the same time? It's possible, after all, Lee did drive rally cars for many years and that sounds like an e-brake slide to me. What makes it even stranger is that all these ATV's were full automatics! I know that I got confused quite a few times and grabbed what should have been the clutch, only to find that I had a handful of brake. At any rate, Lee was undeterred. He got directly on a new bike and took off again. When he came back from his full competition lap, he was the picture of excitement. I can't hope to do it justice here, but he jumped off the bike pumping his fist and telling us all how great that run was. Apparently there were a few sections that he hit perfectly, specifically the corner before Steve's pools and all the way through the twin pools. He was able to cut the corner just right and shot straight down the center between the two ditches. Early reports had Lee timed at a blazing 1:19 and change! This was later revised, but no matter what the clock showed he had the time of his life and wore his grin for a solid 10 minutes after the run was over.
As the riders went through the course the rain slowed and finally stopped. Would this be the end of our rainy fun? I know that I prayed that it would! Next up was the karting event...

There has been a comedy of errors that has kept me from writing and posting the final installment of this saga, but since SpeedTV has found it fit to print, I will post their link and promise a complete write up from here. SpeedTV's article and the Official Dunlop results. The Ann Arbor News has also written a short bit on me and the series.

But stay tuned Sports Fans, I am writing this last one up and have some action photos to share. Charles sent me the video and pictures from the Xterra eXtraction and I will get them included as well.

Until then, if you didn't know, registration is open for the 2007 Dunlop Drivers Cup! Sign up, be a hero, make a better blog, see the world and have the time of your life.

Day 3, 09/13/06

A little late, but here it is. Wednesday started off cool with a threat of rain. Up early for a departure to the track at 645a. A quick breakfast at the hotel, picked up my freshly dry cleaned fire proof suit, on the bus and to the track we went. At the drivers meeting we were given the day’s schedule. First we had practice sessions on VIR’s North course, then more practice on the motocross track. After that it was a quick stop for lunch and then to the big competition! First to the SUV course and then back to ATV.

I was really pumped to get out on the track and turn in some quick laps because this was really my strongest event. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to wait long because I was first out on the track. But on the track in what? When we arrived there, waiting for us in pit lane, were three brand new Nissan 350Z’s. I didn’t have any seat time in those cars before today and I was pretty ready to get out in the car and find out what they could do. Finally it was time: suit up, helmet on, instructor in the car and off we go! The session was set up to go one reconnaissance lap 3 flying laps on the timer and then one lap to cool down and back in the pits. The instructor that I had with me was Richard, a professional driver from a school in England. He gave me some helpful tips during our ride around the track, but truth be told, having him in the car made me a bit uncomfortable and I drove very conservative. The 350Z’s that we had were the base model so while I am sure they would have been fine for everyday street use, the suspension and brakes were really not up to the task of thirty plus drivers putting them through their paces over a day. Sure enough, towards the end of our session, some of the other competitors were complaining that the brake pedal was going all the way to the floor! In addition to that, under heavy braking from high speed, the back end of the car floated and wiggled around. This can be disheartening to experienced drivers, I know it was surprising to me, I can’t imagine how it felt to some of the people who had never been on a track before. Thankfully the crack team that Dunlop had assembled for the event was checking brakes and tires after every session, replacing pads and fluid as needed to keep us safe.

During our session the decision was made to time our laps so that we could see how changes we made during our driving session effected our times. This decision was made after myself and another driver had taken our laps, so we were asked to go back out on track for three laps: a warm up, a timed lap and one cool down. I also was told that our instructors were not going with us and I was very excited to get to run by myself and really move! I did a brisk warm up, hit the front straight with the pedal on the floor and by time I passed the start / finish line I had the 350Z pinned on the red line in 4th gear. Into the first corner I went: on the brakes, back down to 3rd, kiss the apex cone, back out wide to set up for turn 2. And on it went like this for the next 6 corners. I knew that I was running a fast lap, but it was starting to rain. I backed off a little towards the end of the run, but not enough. The track became greasy as I charged into turn 7. I was attempting to brake late for that corner, but came around too fast and felt the car rotate. And rotate some more and rotate still more. For those of you following along at home, this means that I spun the car out. However, I kept my foot on the gas, tires spinning the whole time, did a complete 360 and shot off down the hill towards the final turn and the finish line to salvage what I could for a lap time. After my cool down lap I came back into the pits and everyone wanted to know if I had seen what happened. They all saw the tire smoke and figured that because I came through the finish line so soon after that it must have been the guy behind me. Kevin, the guy behind me, even confirmed that there was still a pretty thick haze of smoke when he came through! I later found that I ran a 1:59.281 lap, with the spin included. That was quick enough to tie for FTD (fast time of day) and fastest time outright in my run group. Sounds like it’s right out of a movie? Well, good news! The Dunlop media team got some video and are going to send it to me, so watch this space and I’ll post it up when it comes.

Next we were off to take a crack at the motocross track.

We arrived to find some bright yellow Suzuki 125cc dirt bikes waiting for us along with plenty of gear to keep us safe. A quick walk of the course with our instructors and then the people who had never ridden a dirt bike got a chance to try out a smaller bike before they went out for their practice laps. Since I have ridden dirt bikes before, I was able to get straight out and begin to learn the track. It was a fairly short and simple course with two small jumps and a table top at the finish. Simple but not too simple because on my first practice session I must have crashed 10 times. Always in the first corner and I always washed out the front of the bike. I kept moving further forward on the seat, but I just couldn’t get traction with the front tire. Finally, when I felt like I was basically sitting on the handle bars I was able to start driving clean laps. I never got very comfortable, but I was able to qualify second. I was also the only one in my group jumping the table top, so it’s possible that the media people got some pictures of that. Until now, the only 2 stroke bike that I’ve ridden was a 250cc bike and all of my other experience has been with 400cc or bigger 4-strokes. Since I’m not a very good rider, I have always been able to ride with the bike in second gear and power easily and steadily out of corners. I’ll tell you what, that just doesn’t work on a 2 stroke. It was all I could do to play with the gas, clutch, brakes and transmission to keep the bike moving forward. I was able to do well in qualifying, but there are a couple of other guys who have pretty extensive motorcycle experience. I have a feeling that they are going to be very tough competitors come race time.

We peeled off our muddy motocross gear, got back in the bus and made straight for the AutoCross area on VIR’s newly resurfaced skid pad. By this time the rain that had been predicted was coming down in full force. This made the fresh asphalt very slippery. We got a quick but very wet course walk in and then it was time to start our practice. We did three sessions of three laps each and I was really surprised to find out how much the tires and track warmed up between the first and last sessions. I was able to fine tune my driving and ran the fastest practice time for my group. It rained like a monsoon during this time and we all huddled under the ez-up that Dunlop supplied for the timing and scoring folks. As you can see, we managed to have a good time anyway.

We then piled back onto the bus and headed in for lunch. The rain continued on all through the lunch hour and as we headed back out to the coach I started to worry about what kind of mess the SUV course was going to be. When we arrived at the staging area for our first competition event, there was a quick drivers meeting to let us know that there had been some rule changes. After running the course so hard the first day, some pretty big ruts had become apparent and we now had a target time of between 7 and 8 minutes. This seemed like it might be challenging, but after running the day before in the 3-5 minute range it sounded like it was entirely possible. Next we found that if we ran too fast and then waited somewhere there would be a penalty assessed. Also we were going to run the course backwards to make some of the climbs and descents less treacherous.

The event was scored as follows: all competitors start with 50 points and each time they make contact with an obstacle or hit any part of the truck on the ground because they were going too fast points were deducted. Just like in rallying, points are also deducted for going too fast or too slow and not coming in during your assigned time.

Here the before shot of our Xterras before they left for the first run.

With C.J. driving and Dallas riding shotgun, the first truck left for the woods. After it was gone, we walked down the trail to see how bad thing potentially were going to be. The answer: BAD! Just walking down the road confirmed that the clay was going to be just as slippery as I had imagined. As I walked down a slight grade, I nearly had my feet come out from under me a few times. You could also see the imprints in the mud from the tire treads. They started out a normal size, but as the hill became steeper the treads looked longer and longer and eventually as truck slid the imprints disappeared completely!

For the next 11 minutes we all stood around and wondered if they were going to make it back out. Then, finally, we saw this.

Blurry as it may be, that’s the lead car with a victorious Dallas waving out the window.

When they were back and parked we got to hear how bad the woods trail was. Apparently the places that were just damp the day before are now all small ponds and rivers. Even with the super grippy Dunlops, the Xterras were still slipping and sliding along the trail. Almost all of the hills were not only wet, but they had water cascading down them washing away the clay and exposing tree roots and bare rock. C.J. said it was a real challenge, but it was very fun and she was looking forward to her turn as a passenger.

Next up was the other C.J. again in the yellow Xterra. Down the trail he went, into the abyss. And we waited and waited some more. And then we stood around and waited further.
After what seemed like forever, the call came in over the radio that they were stuck. Not only were they stuck, they were wedged in such a way that if they tried to go forwards or backwards it was also going to push them into a tree.

After a small amount of deliberating, a call was made and another truck, complete with winch, showed up. Rich, one of our instructors, jumped in and away they went to tow the first truck out. After another 30minutes and several failed attempts they were finally able to pull the first truck out. The pictures below show the damage.

All told, three dents, a tail light lens and a bit of wood between the tire and wheel was the total of casualties. The guy riding shotgun to C.J. was his partner for the event, Charles. Charles is a quick thinker and had the presence of mind to bring his digital camera and take some stills and video of the situation. As soon as I see them, I’ll add them as well. There were some more deliberations and the decision was made to call the SUV event off for the rest of the day and pick it back up tomorrow after the instructors had the time to set up another course in an area that was less severe.

But the question remained what to do next? Time was tight and we couldn’t write off our first day of competition. The decision was made by the head of scheduling that we would head back over to the skid pad and would have our AutoCross time.

Back at the Autocross track, the rain poured on and we had a quick meeting where got our running order and found the event format. We heard that we were getting two total, though non-consecutive laps. Sadly I found that I was first. This was a little bit of a bummer because now the cars and track were stone cold. Cold tires, cold brakes, cold ground. In practice before, even in the rain, the cars got faster as we not only became more familiar with the track, but as everything got some heat into it. Oh well, that’s the luck of the draw some times.

Off I went and was just not able to put together any sort of a run. On my first lap I drove very conservatively and came in with a slow 38.776. After waiting through the rest of the first round of drivers, I came in 5th.

This is not a good start to things. I ran a 35.511 in practice; I’ve got to be able to find some more speed somewhere! Second run came up, I slipped the dark red Honda Civic Si into second (to limit wheel spin on the launch) waited for the starter to begin his count down... the flag was up, I revved the motor to 2500rpm and waited. The flag came down, my foot came up and off the clutch pedal and the engine bogged... crap. Then the motor came alive and the tires began to spin, just great, I can’t win driving like this. I drove like a normal person for the rest of the lap, just a little out of my comfort zone. I ended with a 37.343. While that was over a second better than my first run, it did nothing to improve my overall standing and I ended that event in 5th place.

Some good news is that my teammate Juan was able to beat the rest of the group and between his first and my 5th we were in 1st place as a team!

Since we had our other competition event canceled for the day, we took some time to play on the skid pad and learn some wet handling skills from our instructors. We spent about an hour learning about evasive maneuvers and wet traction limits. Talk about an added bonus this, was a well rounded group education section.

Off to dinner we went, a little cold and wet, but on a whole satisfied with a good days racing. It was another delicious dinner of salads steak, fish and chicken. Then back to the hotel for a soak in the hot tub and some car talk about the state of racing in the US, the UK and world wide.

Then it was time for bed. I found out that we were getting on the bus early so that we could try and make up some time on our schedule and still get everywhere we needed to be on Thursday, i.e. done with all the events and to the awards ceremony.

There is also more info on the Dunlop site. No results yet, or photos but I am sure they are coming.

I'm will working on getting the write up completed for what happened on Thursday as well as my pictures for the rest of the week. Hopefully I'll have pictures avaiable tonight and the rest of the text up tomorrow.

Until then, I won't spoil the ending. :-)

Today started very early with a really tasty breakfast at the hotel and then a short bus ride to VIR. When we arrived at VIR it finally struck me how big this place really is. I heard reports today that the track facility and grounds are set on 1500 acres. We literally drove for a good 5 minutes before we reached the paddock. When we arrived at the track this site was here to greet us!











Would you look at all of these M cars? M6’s M5’s and M3’s oh my!





But sadly, this stuff wasn’t for us, it was for a BMW driving school. So that begs the question, what are we driving? When I know, you’ll know!

Today we had our drivers meeting where we heard about today’s events: karts, SUV driving and ATV. Our Pro instructors were very animated group and gave some great tips about each of todays events.








First up was our time at the Kart track. Our karts are 6.5hp touch and go (TAG) just like the ones that you can find at the local batting cages except much faster.













Our track looks like this.














We have been told that with the new Dunlop kart tires, we are consistently running 3-5 seconds faster than the same karts usually run. Since I’ve never been here before, I’ll just their word for it. What I can say is that these karts cornered harder than any I’ve driven before. The day wasn’t terribly hot, so it took about a lap and a half before the tires had some heat in them and were sticky. But once they were hot they stuck like glue. So much so that I literally came around a couple of corners on two wheels! I don’t have any ictures of that, but I am asking around to see if maybe there are some available. At the end of the session, the whole group gridded up and we ran a wheel to wheel race. It was very cool to be out there with 10 other motor heads dicing it up.







Right after the kart track we headed to another amazing lunch, this time right at the track. Today for lunch we had an assortment of salads and some blackened tuna that was out of this world.

Post lunch time we headed over to the SUV course. Our goal here is to negotiate a tight and twisty off-road course, come through two precision sections marked with caution tape. If you make any mistakes and any part of the vehicle comes in contact with part of the scenery they deduct points, just like if you hit a cone when autocrossing. We got 8 minutes to complete the course, but no one in my group took more than 5 to finish and my teammate Juan took a record 3:18 to complete. This track was very hard to photograph becase it was completely deep in the forrest. So all I got was this groovy shot of the finish.
As you can see here, we got the trucks pretty dirty and the course has been dry for a few days. It was an easy drive for now, but if the rain that is predicted for tonight comes in and soaks the course, it is going to be a different story. The course is almost totally clay and will become very slippery and unpredictable. Only time will tell.

Maybe these guys know...









After tearing up the SUV course we moved on to the ATV course. This was not exactly what I was expecting. First, we are riding utility quads instead of the sport quads that I have 99% of my experience with. For any of you who think that it’s all the same thing, you are WRONG! These utility ATV’s don’t turn nearly as quickly and they sure don’t jump like anything I expected. It was very easy to over drive the suspension and get a little behind the bike. I did, however see some provisional results and at this time, I have the fastest time for my group. There is a lot of time left out there to be had, I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow and really dialing in and getting a faster time. Thanks Harry for your help. I managed to not take any pictures of this event because of some administrative dificulties. Again I am going to see if anyone else has some and take some next time we are at that course.

After a really great dinner it was back to the hotel and time for bed. Tomorrow starts early, we are on the bus at 6:45 for the track.

To reply to FriendsCS, yes there has been cake, and I like pie. I don’t think there is a beer sponsor, but I have been drinking Coors... how did you know?

Flight from Detroit to NC left on time. However, it is possible that this is the smallest commercial plane that I have ever been on. I have more room when I drive the Miata than sitting in this seat. Last week I got an email from my team mate Juan who was having a very busy week getting his loose ends tied up so he could come and play at VIR. My flight gets in around 1140; his doesn’t get in until 1445... Three hours is a long time to sit around and be excited so hopefully there are two groups making the trip from Greensboro to Danville.

When I got off the plane, I went to the baggage claim and found my contact for Dunlop. I also met Mike Austin who is coming to cover the event for Super Street magazine and was on the flight with me from Detroit.

We then got into the van with our driver Carl for the ride to Danville. When we showed up an hour later, this here to greet us.












I then checked in and was greeted with this sign.














After that sign, we picked up our schedules and race packets. Within this packet I got all of the press releases that were issued by Dunlop and a quick look at the week. In short, it’s gonna be busy!

Breakfast starts at 530, runs until 730 when we leave for the track. Drivers meeting comes up next around about 830, practice until about 1130, back on the track until mid afternoon, then hit the showers to clean up before a super swanky dinner and then back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Next we took a bus to the Goodyear Golf and Country Club where we ate an amazing dinner of some good Southern BBQ.

After dinner and a few drinks we heard from our hosts who gave a little info about each of the competitors and the teams. We are teams from all over the United States and even one from Quebec. There are number magazine writers from both on and off road publications who all seem like they are here for a great time.

After story time, we were told that there was a surprise for us... the door slid back and there was a room full of racing gear! Driving suits, shirts, gloves, shirts, a hat shoes and a huge bag to carry it all in. Talk about better than Christmas, this is it.

Tomorrow we find out what we are driving and get in some practice. That time is coming up soon so I am going to wrap it up and head to bed.

Last night I had a chance to brush up on my quad riding. In short, I got beat up! During my riding in the last couple of weeks I had spent all of my time on a dirt bike. That riding was hard, but in a different way. It was hard because I was doing my best not to fall off of that beast or flip it over backwards. But it was easy to ride, it didn't weigh very much and it jumped like a champ.

This is much different for the quad that I rode. It was much heavier but easier to ride because I wasn't worried about falling off. It was different to jump though. Instead of flying relatively level, it really likes to nose down if you aren't on the gas coming off the jump. The hardest part about it was getting off the seat which was fine the first few times but then my quads started to burn just above my knee. I did get faster as the night went on and by the end was actually doing pretty well (in a relative sort of way).

Here are some pictures that were taken by my friend Harold Goodman.

Setting up for a jump.





















Time for take off












A soft landing and setup for the next section











Power slide




















Post practice grins with myself and the long suffering camera man.










Harold has been a great help over the last couple of weeks for getting ready for the Dunlop Drivers Cup.

Only a few days left until we leave, just enough time to get a few more runs in and some all important rest.