Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Va - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

LancePearson · 01-25-2013

MGG, yes, I know that is true but these guys raced all the time. I stood when they were on the track at the starting line just off pit row there and watched back towards the Hog Pen corner where the long straight into the turn #1 hairpin is and one guy with two following him that was being timed by the crew standing there by me and he rocketed past me at 175 mph then braked to do turn 1 and powered around from there. I heard and saw him coming and he still frightened me with the speed and sound of it. I don't doubt that some of these guys are hard on the brakes. How can you not be at those speeds? I rode one session with a pro driver in a GTI with 200 hp and automatic to see how he handled the straights and the turns as passenger and that little thing flew...he hit 130 mph and I saw 7,000 rpm on the tach. What he did was keep his average rpms and average speed substantially higher in just about every corner. The BMW M3/4 guys didn't like him because they couldn't catch him and they had 200 hp more than he did. He knew how hard to push the GTI in every corner so their straight line speed did not allow them to keep up with him. Good driver.I went back out in my car the next session a couple hours later and took a minute off my lap times then almost another minute the last session so i did learn but my 76 is stock l48 running as configured about 210 hp and I was unwilling to push a 37 year old car as hard as he pushed the new GTI.

Lance

01-25-2013	#22
LancePearson Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Chester, Virginia Posts: 457	Re: Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Va MGG, yes, I know that is true but these guys raced all the time. I stood when they were on the track at the starting line just off pit row there and watched back towards the Hog Pen corner where the long straight into the turn #1 hairpin is and one guy with two following him that was being timed by the crew standing there by me and he rocketed past me at 175 mph then braked to do turn 1 and powered around from there. I heard and saw him coming and he still frightened me with the speed and sound of it. I don't doubt that some of these guys are hard on the brakes. How can you not be at those speeds? I rode one session with a pro driver in a GTI with 200 hp and automatic to see how he handled the straights and the turns as passenger and that little thing flew...he hit 130 mph and I saw 7,000 rpm on the tach. What he did was keep his average rpms and average speed substantially higher in just about every corner. The BMW M3/4 guys didn't like him because they couldn't catch him and they had 200 hp more than he did. He knew how hard to push the GTI in every corner so their straight line speed did not allow them to keep up with him. Good driver.I went back out in my car the next session a couple hours later and took a minute off my lap times then almost another minute the last session so i did learn but my 76 is stock l48 running as configured about 210 hp and I was unwilling to push a 37 year old car as hard as he pushed the new GTI. Lance