My first visit to Virginia International Raceway (VIR). 

Really a fun and challenging track! Nice elevation changes, very technical turns (up the S’s and through Hogpen…) A bit slickery like Mid-Ohio. Very nice grounds and facilities, though bathrooms were very sparse (FYI). Beautiful drive into VIR through West Virginia.

This was my first event running with Track Advantage. Seemed very well run without being overbearing. The run groups were split into three groups: Beginner & Intermediate, Blue (advanced) and Red (racer/SCCA or vetted guys). 

Not having been there, I ran the blue group. Traffic on day 2 was well driven, but there were more participants as a few folks moved up from their intermediate groups from day 1. Clean laps were at high premium. I managed a 2:03.19 on the last full lap of session 1 on day 2 with my tires at 40psi :/. My optimals were high 2:01’s for the whole day but I couldn’t put the pieces together with the aforementioned traffic. In spite of that, I had a great time driving and hanging with my buddy Todd G who put down a 2:01.12 on ragged-out SC3R’s in his ZL1 1LE.. He was on fire!

Weather on day 1 started cold (40F) but warmed quickly to mid 60’s and sunny. Perfect. Day 2 was a bit warmer on both ends 50F to high 70’s and sunny. We were blessed. 

The track in general was in good shape, with some slick spots in the tighter corners. This track with fresh pavement would be sick! If you’re running hard, VIR Full will require you to use a lot of the curbing. It was medium intensity (not as rough as the outer band of Road America for instance) but takes a bit of getting used to. 

Driving: Todd G led me out on day 1, session 1 and apparently forgot that I asked him to ease into the speed to give me some time to learn the actual track (I had run VIR Full on iRacing a bit). He forgot.. The minute we got past the opening yellow flag laps (2), he took off. Lol. Ok. It was on the rest of the day and event. Good times. No giant pucker moments but a lot of big deep breaths running the uphill S’ at speed. 

Equipment of the day: The first 3 sessions were run on 4 track day old PS4S ZP’s (stock Z51 tires). That proved a good idea given the temps, the relative slickness of a cold VIR surface and my inexperience. That said, during the cool 2nd session, I really wished I had some Hoosiers on! Lol. I swapped to new 275/315 18” R7’s after session 3 and ran the remainder of Day 1 and Day 2 on those tires . Brakes were G-Loc R16. I love the G-Loc feel, but the C8’s closed calipers seem to shorten their pad life significantly (vs an AP perhaps). I had to replace pads after 9 sessions. Had I known that I’d be tracking the C8 for 2 or possibly 3 seasons, I might have been smarter to have put a BBK from AP on initially.

Track Advantage drivers are pretty quick and well mannered, but I’m not sure I loved the spillover from the well-intended but slower intermediates. 
Car note: I was getting full power early in the sessions on Hoosiers, unlike Mid-Ohio. Not sure what changed but I was able to run quickly from the jump once the tires had previous-session heat. 

Running mod list: ‘WolfpaqC8’ is a 2022 C8 Corvette Z51 and has magnetic shocks/PTM. Mods from ‘Factory Stock’: Lowered ¾” front and back on Paragon collars, GM-spec track alignment, GM brake ducts (now removed) Girodisc rotors front/rear, G-Loc R16 track pads front/rear and SRF flush. New Hoosier R7's and to-new brake pads for this event.

Off to Road Atlanta (first visit) next week with MVP! Yippee!