[Fot] VIR Wild Hare race report

[Tony Drews]

 Last weekend's race at VIR was another excellent event.  We had the
usual Triumph "Ghetto" set up on top the hill, and had quite a number of
Triumph folks there.  The paddock paving project hadn't made it quite
that far yet, so I was still able to use the normal tent stakes to hold
down the canopy - may be the last time for that at VIR, though.  The
Triumph bunch had their usual Friday night party, and it's great to get
all of the Triumph guys bench racing over a beer or three.  The Triumph
gathering is one of the things that makes that race special.

The newly repaved track is fast, smooth, and grippy.  The esses are still
FASSTT and a test of your intestinal fortitude.  I ended up set up next
to Randy Williams, Mark Wheatley, and Leo Oddi.  We spent a good portion
of the weekend figuring out carburetion on Mark's car - finally getting
it right for the Sunday feature race, so he and I had an awesome battle
in that race - video link below.

In the Friday afternoon practice, an Elva lost power on an un-sighted
part of the track forcing Randy to take evasive action and he ended up
running into the side of Dean Tetterton's TR-4 as he was sliding back
onto the track surface.  Sad to see.  Both drivers were able to continue
the weekend though.

The Friday afternoon Wild Hare pursuit race was my first chance to run
the car flat out after a couple of break-in practice sessions.  Runs
really nice, new tranny guts are sweet to use.  That race was cut short
by a lap or two by a couple of S-2000's getting together on the way in to
Oak Tree (which now doesn't have an actual Oak Tree at the apex due to a
storm last year).

In Saturday afternoon's race, with Mark still battling carb issue I
managed to ease out a nice lead over all of the TR-s in my group, but we
ended up with a full course caution due to a grass fire outside turn 1
which closed the field back up.  I was napping on the restart and Randy
managed to get by me as I was blocked by an Aston Martin with 2 laps to
go.  On the last lap, I was kinda closing in on Randy but the same Elva
that caused the incident on Friday passed me going into turn 1 and then
proceeded to get all kinds of sideways in the corner.  I had a better run
out of it but he slammed the door on me so I followed him into 2.  In
turn 2, he managed to completely spin.  In my avoidance of the Elva,
Randy got a comfortable lead that lasted until the checkered flag.  This
allowed Leo to close right behind me for the remainder of the last lap. 
Leo used an "insider" trick of knowing that the finish line was 100 yards
or so from the checkered flag to pass me between the flag and the actual
finish line.  Neat trick that he won't be able to pull again!  :)

By Sunday's race, we had guessed at some better carb settings for Mark
which turned out to be pretty good.  We spent most of the race following
each other closely, drafting by on the straights, and at one point we
went through turns 1 and 2 side by side - I edged him on the inside of
turn 3 to lead through the esses.  Unfortunately, dropping oil pressure
force Mark to ease off for the last couple of laps.  I got passed by the
Aston Martin and tried Leo's trick at the end of the race - but the Aston
didn't let off enough for me to sneak in that pass.

I had a hoot, Mark really enjoyed the race with me, the car's running as
good as ever and I'm good to go for Eagles Canyon.

In-car video from Sunday group 3 feature race:
http://youtu.be/8Q5BqfxZGaE

Tony Drews