I was talking to National this morning and they have a total of 18 participants. Called Paul Lewer, one of the eventmasters, and got the thumbs up to arrive first thing Monday morning so Marko and I are looking to make the 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive in the wee hours of Monday morning. Paul's open to changing the track schedule from the traditional DE format to something more one on one with more track time for everyone. The event is now less than 3 weeks away and has 20 drivers which means a crazy amount of track time for anyone who participates. Anyone else interested?<ul><li><a href="http://www.audiclubna.org/content/view/29/55/">http://www.audiclubna.org/content/view/29/55/</a</li></ul>

coming up.....

VIR would be a new track for me, without it this would be the first year since I caught this sickness that I haven't done a new track. It is, however, quite a bit further than Barber. We made the drive from Naperville to Barber in 9 hours last year at a fairly rapid clip. Barber is unlike any other track I've ever been to in that the accommodations are incredible, but the several people I've talked to who've done both tell me VIR is like Barber on steroids and that I definitely should do VIR. Oh the difficult decisions I have to make...

Hard asses will make it to Mt. Tremblant, which is a better overall situation (track, town, everything), which is 923 miles or four hours more than Barber.

Tremblant is an easy drive, as the Trans-Canada highways are great (most side roads are iffy at best, though).

If I were recommending a "drive" to a great event, I'd put them in this order:

1) Tremblant - Track and town are incredible. Fevin, Brian and a few others, as well as Leslie and I, vacationed there post event.

2) Watkins Glen - The track is just awesome and upstate NY is so pretty.

3) VIR - Mark Nguyen puts on a great show. Great and cheap lodging at the "Lodge at VIR", great restaurant onsite, etc. Track is pretty nice, but not as strong as the above two IMHO&gt;


Cheers,

Mike S

numbers have to justify the costs (fuel alone).

Cheers,

Mike S

3.42 mile track 2 long straights = enough time to embarrass anyone in a large family size sedan or wagon!!! :D :P

I'll let you know when we're leaving as soon as I know. Gonna be fun!

days of wide open track to play on. Hmmmm, how can I pull this off?

I knew that they had to be struggling with entrants becuase they've been email blasting the $hit out of that event...

too bad the car I have I don't trust to track, and don't have the fund or time to put my trust into it...

You can borrow my car for a session if you get tired of the high performance golf cart.

.... be lots of track time. We'll have to see if I come up with a car.

cars total....hmmmm

made an offer on a 944 Turbo. It's not a 911, but will make a fun track car for the summer. And I have a lot of parts for it already- chips, springs, a couple of wheels, harnesses, and torsion bars somewhere if I can find them. Just need two front wheels, track tires, and sway bars plus maybe a good seat and I'm ready for this summer. Then over the winter either really mod it, or keep looking for the right 911. Heck, if I can make it light enough, maybe I can tow it with the allroad.

They have DE's to door to door sprints and enduros at each event. Really, really, REALLY a well run organization.

Mike S<ul><li><a href="http://www.viperdays.com/schedule.htm">Link to them!</a></li></ul>

You're a nice guy, Mike. You went way above the call on that one.

Cheers and enjoy that new toy!

Mike S

..... he was having trouble pooping.

I was headed back to the office Monday and I saw the SSP rig parked with flashers on so I stopped to see if he was broke and needed a ride somewhere. It turns out that they couldn't get the rig into the parking lot of the vet.

The good news is that Otto pooped after the vet lubed him up a bit. Funny line from the vet after Otto did the deed.... the vet had to look at it and commented, "8 years in college and I get to go inspect dog crap...."

....2 miles from teh dealership.

Yep, happened to me years ago. All was going well, moved lever from 2nd&gt;3rd and...........nothing. Black Hole. "Yes, we have no available gears!"

Coasted to a stop, flagged down a passing motorist for a ride back to the store, they flatbedded it back in. Oops. ;-)

Oh, and DIBS on a test-drive of yours!!! ;-)

.. hopefully this one works out.

strained his back very badly juming a four foot guardrail at pace. He sort of crash landed and we didn't realize he hurt himself so badly.

The next AM, we found him in the truck main room sleeping in an upright position! Yes, sleeping siting up. He could not lay down.

With his not eating, not being able to lay down (he tried), not standing up well, not eating, not pooping and whining in pain when he moved, we thought he had a gastro-intestinal blockage. Considering they are fatal, we rushed him to the doggie emergency room in Northbrook from Autobahn at 7:30am on Monday. We were to shoot the lotus event, but we had to pull out. Sucked but we had his interest at heart, of course.

He is eating and pooping fine now, and his back is getting better slowely. He is more mobile and in less obvious pain.

Thansk to all who asked.

Mike S

like he was freezing, but it was 75 degrees. he was definitely in pain. and he'd try and lay down, but couldn't stay down for more than a minute before he'd get up. he was so uncomfortable.

glad he's recovering, but it was very scary.