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Old 04-22-2009
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Thumbs up Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

For those who've run VIR in the past... This year will be different. The entire event will be run on the north course.
Just past the bridge before the start of the esses there's a hard right turn that cuts up and across to the end of the back straight. Lots more laps and should be more physically demanding. No rest time dancing up the esses or running up the long back straight of the full course. Should be fun!

I've attached a downloadable PDF of the north course for anyone who'd like more detail.

Who's going and has anyone run the north course before?
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Old 04-22-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

The North Course features a very cool crossover section. I've done it in Star Mazda and IMSA Lite cars. It's been a while, but from what I remember, the crossover has a fast set of turns that require looking ahead and getting the car placement right.

Pat's also correct about the physical demands being higher without all the break time we're used to. The racing will be different, and more technically challenging. Getting a good exit out of Turn 17 will never be more important, but you'll have the opportunity to separate yourself in the crossover section if you can master the connected high speed turns. Even the entry into the crossover is a blind roller coaster ride, much faster than it looks, then the fast stuff!

I'll see you all there!
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Old 04-22-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Pat,
The north course is only second to the full circuit. Very challenging from the technical side and with the draft on the front striaght. I've driven many different cars there and all are fun (still nothing like going up through the essses in a big HP car however). Was able to do alot of testing there last week and the Greist's scored an FC pole and podiums in SCCA Nationals. Jeff Pietz also pulled off a podium finish through consistency in his first green flag SCCA National event. Plenty of smiles in Victory Lane!

North course really rewards "eyes up" in the sweeper approaching the old turn 14, may be called "Stevie wonder"?
And as Gerardo mentioned turn 17 is always extremely important at VIR.
Enjoy!!! I will see you at WGI in May.
BTW a GREAT Tank Museum in Danville if time to walk around.
JP
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Old 04-22-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Thanks Jim and Gerardo for great notes on the north course. Should be a terrific challenge.

You pretty much expect the Griests to be on pole and/or the podium... And once again they fail to disappoint. :-)

Big congrats to Jeff Pietz on reaching a national podium! Woo Hoo! All that hard work pays off!

Hope there are a few pictures of those podium smiles to share.

Such good stuff.

So we'll see Gerardo at VIR and both JP and Gerardo at WGI

Who else is showing up?
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Old 04-22-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Count me in. High time to get back in the saddle. F--- Wall Street, let's go racing boys!!

Will be my first time on the North course. Looking forward to it. Nothing like a good Southern bullring to tune up the ol' core.
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Old 04-23-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Great notes from Gerardo and Jim. I was fortunate enough with Mike Rand to design the cut-through for the North Course in 1998-99, before the track opened.

The NC Turn 7 (up the hill) is not only steep and relatively wide, it's significantly super-elevated (good camber gain) which contributes to good compression and encourages not over-slowing. It was inspired by T1 Road Atlanta. Right side wheel splitting the entry centerline (leaving the main course) is a good marker. Placing the car on a trajectory hugging the last few car lengths of curbing allows for the release of the wheel at a critical point. This dampens the lightness at exit and pays big dividends as you're climbing all the way through T10, the infamous "Stevie Wonder."

T8-T11 is just an awesome "rhythm" section, pulling the car to the left slightly after settling at the top of the hill (and using the Patriot excess just enough), then crossing to the right for T9. Allowing the transition to be dampened for a moment by placing the right side parallel with the grass after the apex curb at T9 and pausing, I've been turning earlier and earlier over the last decade for T10.

The elevation increase at turn-in for T10 allows not only simultaneous throttle and adding more steering input earlier, but allows you to turn the wheel less and draw a broader arc through the area you can't see. By sighting the worker station over the crest on the left, it leads your eyes in the right direction at the right pace as it comes into view.

The only goal is to draw a straight line between the middle of the T10 curbing closest to the worker station on the left to the first third of the T11 curbing on the right immediately after the crest. This allows you to open the wheel at the exit of T10 and keep the car straight as it unloads. I delay substantial turn in to the right (to catch the end of the second right hand curb, apexing T12) until I can feel the compression after falling down into the dip. In just about any quick car, you can develop and be comfortable with a relatively high slip angle left (through T10) and right (through T12) as long as you have slow hands...

There was a jiggle in the end until the first AMA race in 2001 and then a paved addition on the right was added to create a BIG braking zone. It's a snap to carry good speed out of the T10-T12 complex and still have good time to strategize your braking on the "table" or leveling out of T14. A lot of people do the same thing as on the full course, though, and overcook T14A entry, ending up left of center for the turn in to T15.

Hope to see folks up there this weekend. My Driver Development Studio, with full A/V (data and video review) and simulators is being constructed in VMTP right now and opens the beginning of June.

Daly, going to be there? I'll buy you a beer!

Gerardo, VERY glad you're ok after Justin's car conflagration at Sebring. I got some disturbing pics from the workers, enough to have advised everyone I know to review their safety gear!

The forecast is wonderful and I know people will enjoy the track!
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Old 04-23-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Hey Peter,
Didn't know you were so intimately involved in the cutoff. Thanks for the comprehensive notes and yes I'll be there! Looking forward to seeing you and VIR again.
Pat
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Old 04-23-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

I am in! Time to get back into the fun stuff!
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Old 04-23-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

I will be there doing Lead Follows from Wednesday thru Friday and Radio Coaching for the Races.
Been doing a few laps on iRacing and it looks to be fun.
It will be good to catch up with all.

Cheers,
Rob
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Old 04-24-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

I'm there....

Staying at the Lodge along with Dr J Norman.
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Old 05-06-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

So far ... no results ... no photos ... no reports on the Skippy site. (What's up with that? They usually at least post the results fairly quickly.) Anybody with news on how the Summer Series began?
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Old 05-06-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Thanks for asking Ted... It was a wonderful hard fought weekend with two groups of RT's and one group of MX-5's. We ran the 2.25 mile North Course that is a very technical circuit offering only one clear passing opportunity into turn 1.

Kerry reports new scoring software may delay posting of results to the SBRS website until the end of the week, so I've attached the overall and Masters RT points files I received from Kerry. Perhaps someone from the MX-5 contingent (Jim Craige) could post their MX-5 points xls file as well.

As much of the East and South endured severe weather we dodged every bullet. Overcast much of the time and a few brief rain drops but the track never got wet the entire week and we were truly blessed considering the intense bad weather all around us.

The original group running order was RT, MX-5, RT but they decided to run the RT groups back to back which made it intense for those of us doubling in RT's. Sunday the original order was restored and we had time to catch our breath between runs.

The fast kids in the RT's were Spencer Pigot, Nick Andries and Kevin Title with first time Skippy racer but experienced Brazilian karter Marconi Abreu showing impressive pace right out of the box though he struggled with clean runs.

In G-1 R-1 Spencer Pigot and Kevin Title took P1 & 2 while Jim Craige snagged the final step on the podium with his usual strong run. I grabbed 4th, Al Carter was 5th after an early 4-off with Marconi taking 6th. Dom Bastien had a 4-off that dropped him down the charts and Brian Skinner had a stuck throttle going into turn 7 causing contact 3 laps from the end that, due to VIR's slow hook crew, caused the race to end under yellow.

Jim Craige did the masters proud by setting fastest lap and new track record in G-1 R-2 but unfortunately had a 4-off that pushed him down the final charts. Spencer Pigot won with Kevin Title and Al Carter standing beside him on the podium. I was 4th again, Jim Norman 5th and Justin Lafever, who had impressive lap times all weekend, was 6th. Dom, Harsha and Brian Skinner all had misfortunes that hurt their finishing positions.

G-2 R-1 Nick Andries had a walkaway as he finished with almost a 12 second lead. Al Carter was next across the line with stormin' Jim Norman taking 3rd. Brian Skinner then handed me a gift by pushing Dom off track at turn 14 on the final lap. Brian was penalized back to 6th for his indiscretion and I passed Dom for 4th as he finished in the pits on the last lap. During the race young Ben Jopling and I had continuous battles for position the last half of the race with both of us running side by side on multiple laps from turn 1 thru 3. We were told we provided good entertainment for spectators and instructors alike, and if we'd had the presence of mind to run together we'd have run down the cars in front of us but testosterone flavored red mist guaranteed that never happened. Ben eventually slid off in turn 4 and I again finished P4 after Brian and Dom had their pod meeting.

G-3 R-2 (G-2 reverted to G-3 on Sunday) Nick Andries, Al Carter and Jim Norman ran together from the start and Dom got around me on lap 2 which allowed the lead pack to slowly pull away from us. Al had an off that put him to the back but Spencer Pigot starting DFL was most progressive passing everyone but Nick to finish 2nd. Smokin' Jim Norman finished 3rd and after our a side by side battle from turn 1 thru 3 I squeezed by Dom to grab 4th place for the fourth time of the weekend. Dom was 5th, David Cheng 6th, Brian Skinner 7th and Al Carter fought his way back to 8th.

Lee Carpentier was the dominant gene in the MX-5 pool as I know he won R-1 and I think he took R-2 as well. Jim Craige had the lead for a while in R-2 but had a 4-off that ended that bid. Lots of good racing action and lots of smiles at the end of the MX-5 battles.

Others will have to fill in more detail about all the races as this is just one mans opinion.

Everything ran like clockwork as Kelly, Kerry, Keith, Nick Nick and all the usual suspects from the instructor core made this another memorable Skippy weekend. RB, Jason and Murph tested the cars. Lead-follows with Rob and Keith, computer car with Jonatan Jorge and Phil Lombardi. The mechanics, who were exhausted from the tropical heat and stress of wrenching the National event the week before rose to the occasion and kept the RT's and MX-5's easily in their performance windows and despite our best efforts at crunching fenders and tearing off corners there were plenty of cars for everyone.

I came back on Monday and was truly sad leaving The Lodge monday morning as turn 5 & 6 of the track we'd had so much fun racing around the previous day and week now sat dormant shrouded in fog. Ahh well, the chirping birds were a nice touch.

Quote:
Originally Posted by WatertownNewbie View Post
So far ... no results ... no photos ... no reports on the Skippy site. (What's up with that? They usually at least post the results fairly quickly.) Anybody with news on how the Summer Series began?
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File Type: xls SBF Master Summer.xls (17.5 KB, 27 views)
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Last edited by dalyduo; 05-07-2009 at 01:05 AM.
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Old 05-12-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Nice coverage, Pat. Thanks for the update... Sounds like a good time had by most. gdr
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Old 05-13-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
Kerry reports new scoring software may delay posting of results to the SBRS website until the end of the week ....
The usual links finally appeared on the Race Series page, but ... when I press on Race Recap the result is a message telling me the thing is in preparation (even though it can be found on the separate News page) ... when I press on Photos I get a link with nothing more recent than Sebring in April ... and when I press on the Results button I get a message telling me that the page cannot be displayed (tried this three times with the same result -- recalled Pascal's definition of insanity and quit).

Remember when "new and improved" actually meant better?
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Old 05-13-2009
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Re: Who's going to the Skippy Regional opener at VIR?

Thanks Ted,
I've already sent an E-mail to Kerry alerting her to the absence of content.

Quote:
Originally Posted by WatertownNewbie View Post
The usual links finally appeared on the Race Series page, but ... when I press on Race Recap the result is a message telling me the thing is in preparation (even though it can be found on the separate News page) ... when I press on Photos I get a link with nothing more recent than Sebring in April ... and when I press on the Results button I get a message telling me that the page cannot be displayed (tried this three times with the same result -- recalled Pascal's definition of insanity and quit).

Remember when "new and improved" actually meant better?
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