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. :-)