Backyard Motocross

After riding... lets face it, across North America, including Canada, the US and Mexico, racing fast racecars at tracks from here to Virginia, crossing 12,000+ ft mountain passes in crazy conditions on Adventure Touring motorcycles - what did we do this weekend?  We had an entirely entertaining time in our very own backyard!  We like to call it Backyard Motocross.  Thanks to our buddies Ben and Rich on their 250 and 450's we did some fall landscaping.
Check it out!
MnM

VIR

Saturday September 17, 2011

V.I.R. Virginia International Raceway…a private “Country Club” for car racers…..wow what a dream.

On board with Mike heading into the esses at 120mph

Mike and I are here on an invite from Mark, driver extraordinaire and Marketing and Sales Manager for TMI Autotech, Inc.  TMI builds, sells and maintains the Arial Atom open wheeled car.  Virginia is their home track and we are racing in the spec series with 19 other drivers.  All these other drivers bought the car for the series….TMI’s job is to maintain the cars and have them ready for the drivers on the Saturday practice session.

I’m sitting here in the driver’s hospitality tent, which is a 60 x 40 foot tent off the side of a transport truck race hauler.  The tent is equipped with lights, speakers, lots of ceiling fans and a tiled floor.  At one end of the tent is the garage where the TMI guys prep 3 cars at a time for the next event (practice, qualifying or a race) and at the other end we’ve got a number of tables and chairs placed for the drivers meeting, lunch and general hanging around.  It’s here where the drivers are standing around in groups talking about their last few laps on the track and how they can improve their next few laps.  There are drivers from all over: the east coast, Connecticut, and Delaware; west coast California, and the locale boys, Ohio and Virginia.  Dr’s, Lawyers, developers and successful businessmen, these guys range in age from 18 to their late 50’s with a common thread of all wanting to be the top dog at the end of the day.  Being a spec series the only real difference between the cars is the driver. So there ARE a lot of bragging rights on the line.

Oversteer through Turn 1 = Fun.  Keep y'r foot in'r boy! Get'm

The weekend, Saturday and Sunday, is broken into 2 separate events with each beginning with 3 - 10 minuet practice sessions, one qualifier and a race at the end of each day.  Lots of track time.

Pre event, there is a lot of activity around both the cars and drivers; mirrors are being adjusted, tire pressures set and drivers buckled in.   The smell of race fuel and adrenalin is in the air.

Mike had a lot of learning to do for this weekend, with both the car anf=d the track to figure out..  It was off to a slow start for the entire field as the weather was cold and overcast.  Improving every lap, Mike did manage to figure out the track and the car, talking to other drivers about gearing and the lines of the track….he was 4^th fastest in the rain but ended up only qualifying 10^th in the dry.

The cars are equipped with telemetry so every lap is filmed from a cameras mounted on the car pointed at both the track and the drivers. …G-force, speed, shift points and a few other things are recorded on a chip that can be downloaded to a laptop. All the times are posted live on various televisions throughout the padock area so you can see who is doing what.

Mike did a great job moving up to finish 4^th overall.

Looking forward to a great day tomorrow.

Mike is all smiles during debriefing with his favourite engineer Janson

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Wow it’s a great day already....the sun is out and it’s a bit closer to “normal” temperature in the low 20’s.

We have just completed the first practice and to me the best part of any race event is the huge smiles on the drivers faces when they take their helmets off.  And you should see this group…ear to ear smiles.

Looking along the Grid for Sunday's race.  Mike's #65 car in the foreground.

Like yesterday there were a few practices qualifying and the final race of the weekend….wow I have never seen anything like this…..guys were spinning off all over the track, smoke constantly coming from locked tires in the corners we could see (1 to 5).

Included in the spinfest was Mike as he touched the grass on the outside of turn 3 trying to pass the guy in front of him in 3rd and spun off the track….and then again in turn 4 on cold grass covered tires (but not loosing a position).  What Mike did not know was the guy in second had also spun out and was now back in the pack.

Mike made it up to 4^th position but finished in 6^th. 

We had a great weekend of new and old friends and great racing on one amazing facility.  If you ever get the chance you have to drive one of these fast, great sounding cars! 

Thanks Mark, Dave and the TMI boys!!!