Road Trip – VIR

Yesterday I traveled just across the NC border to Virginia International Raceway (VIR) where the Tar Heel Sports Car Club (THSCC) was holding its first track event of 2008. 

It was a beautiful day, weather wise.  Nice and sunny and relatively warm, hitting about 75 degrees by mid-day. 

Perhaps the nicest part was coming to the entrance of VIR and driving to the pit area.  The rolling hills of this 3.27 mile course make you feel more like the track is a country road with plenty of elevation changes and lots of hillsides covered with grass.

It was nice to meet a few old friends as well as get to know some new faces.  These events provide a wide variety of cars, but everyone is sociable and friendly.  This is not a competition event so people share information and advice. 

There are several run groups that are divided up by levels of experience and it is a busy day for beginners and experienced drivers alike.  Instructors ride with all but the advanced level drivers to help the others learn the course and how best to improve their driving technique.  There are class activities where many aspects of driving are discussed as well as opportunities for questions on what the drivers have discovered about VIR.

There will be other track days put on this year at VIR and other clubs will be sponsoring the events, but it is nice to get to the first one and have such great weather.

Here are some photos from the day.