NASA MA at VIR in March

It is 8am and the final hour at home. I sit at my computer station trying to pass the time until I leave. Finally....10 am comes and I can wait not longer. Passing the time sitting at the gate of VIR seemed much more inviting. As I depart and begin my drive to VIR, I am all smiles of anticipation and lingering thoughts of what the level 2 instructors clinic will be like and the large chance of rain for much of the weekend. I have the GPS on and the left turn towards Milton, NC plugged in. Cruise control is on and knowing that I have more then enough time I keep the trip within the legal limit. The scenery is as usual. Houses, cows, stores and the same curious space ship. Then I see it. The first sign of VIR. I know its not far now even though one of these days I am going to find the way in that I use to come out. I think it saves me about 10 minutes of travel time.

I pull up to the gate of VIR. Probably the one of the few chances I have to be first at anything, so it is a bitter sweet victory in my mind and I laugh about it. I have much to learn and time on my hands as far as that goes. But its been a fun journey so far. No sooner then I pull up and park, I hear sounds of a car heading my way. A Formula Mazda passes right in front of me and sparks my attention. I can hear similar sounds inside the track as what I think could be more of them.

The time comes...entry into the track is granted with the advice to please stay clear of the team that is testing. The drive down the road and headed to our teams predetermined location to set up proves to be a very wise choice as our normal spot was occupied by the team that was there. I get parked in the spot and start placing out markers to stake out needed ground for incoming participants. I start setting up the 10x20 tent for 2 cars and the extra pop up and get them into place. Next comes off the car and a switch from trailer tires to race tires. All I have are the full tread 888's to work with so I don’t have to worry about which set of tires I need to put on. As the members of the clan begin to trickle in...more and more tents go up and gear gets settled in to create our grand paddock of grassroots drivers looking to make our way to something that we spend our many weekends preparing for. We all run through tech to prepare for the upcoming day and settle into our quarters and listen to peaceful sounds of other drivers coming in for the Fridays events and getting set up.

Friday morning starts to waking up with the track dogs and making coffee, checking email and various other things like Facebook and NOAA. Looks like the track dogs are going to curl up with each other and continue sweet slumber as NOAA predicts a slight break in the weather as the day goes on, but then settles back into the rain as the day goes on. At this time all the drivers were on site. Most of the crew where here and things were starting the get under way for the day. I myself prepared for a day long Instructor 2 clinic and most of the rest of the team prepared for open practice runs. What was fun about this whole thing is that all of us would be running in the same group on the track, even though we would be doing different things. It was a good chance for all of us to have fun with each other.

The classroom sessions with Dan proved much more involved this time. In the first clinic, the focus seemed to be on our basic preparation to become instructors and what we represented. In clinic 2, it seemed to focus more on what we need to do with the students as instructors in a larger scale. It was a lot of information packed into one day and we still had 4 sessions on track. One of the sessions was role play. So I paired up with Anthony again and this time instead of his 510, we took my miata. We had a lot of fun acting out our parts and driving like them. I drove first and then Anthony second. I had to give him a quick bit of advice about the car and the difference between our cars. Anthony commented how light the controls were and how much more responsive the braking was. When the day was done, we were all tired and ready for a big weekend. Relaxing in the RV we watched to videos of the day. My favorite session ever on track playing cat and mouse with Folis brought back the days we all ran karts together.

Saturday arrives and starts off with a light on and off sprinkle but finally quits. Morning coffee and a quick email check before heading off to the showers. After some breakfast and some morning preparations we head off to the all hands meeting and then to the instructor meeting. We all eagerly looked to see what we had for students. Folis had an S2000, Doug had a miata which turned into a wagon which was driven by Steve Wu from OG Racing and a group 3 check ride in a Honda and I had a Cobalt SS and a Supra TT. All of our students were great. My Supra TT must have decided not to drive in the rain and never showed up. On my warm up for TT I went out and made a few laps and was doing fine until I hit a patch of mud on the track after 14 and spun on the track. All 4 wheels stayed on the track and I turned around and kept going. At Oak Tree I was black flagged and came in. Jon quickly came over and explained what I did wrong. Off track or a “significant loss of control” and I should come in as my session was over and counted as a DQ. Lesson learned. My second session proved to be better and I took my time, kept my eyes alert and made my laps without any problems. Even though I proved to the world that I really was as slow as I said…it was enough to get 3rd place. I can thank the rain for that. Because that’s the only way I could have kept my time since Sean ran in the pouring rain. The day winds down and I make my way to the awards party to find out many of my friends did very well in their races. While I was waiting for things to start I was talking to my student and his friends and recounting the days activities. We all talked about the fun we had on the track and were having so much fun that we never even noticed the awards had started. Sean came and grabbed me and said “Do you want your trophy”? I was in a bit of shock at that point. I make my way up to the front and Chris says “And here is Stringer, finally made his way up here”. Between the shock of actually getting a trophy and Chris actually calling me Stringer…I forget most of the rest of what happened. The moment I had hoped to one day get to was here and done in a split second in my mind. I don’t even remember what the trophy girl looked like. The one thing that did come to mind though, one Kart Enduro win, two Kart Enduro Seconds, First place in an AutoX and a third place in Time Trials all have one thing in common. My mom was not there to see me get my trophy. I am going to have to figure out how to fix this.

Sunday arrives much like it always does. Coffee, checking email and a trip to the shower. As I am installing the camera back into the miata I here my favorite song on the load speaker. I know it is going to be a good day. We all noticed this massive ball of fire in the sky, the sun, such a welcome site. All hands meeting and then the instructor meeting. Back to business. I go out with my student and have a good warm up session. Build up to it, take your time, feel things out. My student did well and demonstrated great skill and awareness. I made my laps in my first warm up and did the same. After that I made my second run and did my best time for the weekend, 2:37.9, still slow for most people but I was happy with it. After a break I took my student out with me to kind of show him a couple of things I was talking about on Oak Tree. After that I turned him loose and told him I would be watching from the balcony at turn 3. I watched and was proud. I watched him keep up with a stock car the whole session. After he came off track, I walked over and thanked him for letting me work with him this weekend and how impressed I was with him and his car. It was a good weekend for sure.