Life Goals and Oak Trees

My journey towards driving heaven on Earth

1y ago
10.4K

I hate job interviews. It's not so much the pressure of impressing the person interviewing you, it's when they inevitably ask some variant of my least favorite question of all time: "what are your goals in life?", "where do you see yourself in five years?" or something like that. I've never really had much of an answer for those questions. But one goal has been persistent in my mine for over a decade now - and this weekend I was able to fulfill that goal. I finally drove on track at Virginia International Raceway.

It's been a very long road to get here. Ever since my very first autocross back in 2008 at Langley Speedway, I'd dreamed about getting on track.

In 2009 some friends and I made our first pilgrimage to Hyperfest at Summit Point and watched in awe as drifters and track cars tore it up all weekend.

In early 2010 I did a circuitcross event on Patriot Course at VIR. It was a rough introduction to the road course world, as my alternator decided to die on the way home, stranding my dad and I on the side of the road - more than 2 hours from home - in the rain.

Not to be dissuaded, I made another road course attempt in the fall of 2010 - this time a Hyperdrive session at Summit Point. I made it all of 8 laps in before a leaky head gasket displaced my coolant with compression and I got black flagged for dropping fluids.

After two back-to-back failures leaving me either stranded, or very nearly stranded 3 hours from home, I pretty much gave up on road course racing and stuck to autocross. It just didn't seem like it was meant to be. For a time...

In 2016 we made another pilgrimage to Hyperfest - but this time instead of being at Summit point, it was at VIR. Even though I wasn't driving, I was reminded of how amazing that place is. It was that year that I made the life-changing decision to ride as a passenger in a friend's Miata as he did laps on VIR's Full Course. I was instantly and unshakably hooked.

Within a year, I sold my Cressida wagon and bought a Corolla with the explicit intention of turning it into a track toy.

Less than a year after getting the car, I started running trackcross events at nearby newly-opened Dominion Raceway, with HPDE to follow soon thereafter.

It was awesome to see myself gain confidence in the car, as well as watching my friends skills improve at the same time.

Once I acquired a tow vehicle, whole new realms of possibility opened up. I was finally ready to brave the trek back to VIR and signed up for my first HPDE in March 2020. Unfortunately fate had other plans. When the COVID pandemic started, the VIR track day got pushed back over and over until finally the only date left was in October.

The extra time was used wisely however. I bought a very cheap, very rusty used trailer and spent over four months restoring it.

The trailer was completed a week or so before the big day. It was an insane amount of work, but the freedom to tow my car wherever, whenever was more than worth it.

It was a bit surreal following Eric and his Miata down to the track, as it was that very car which I had ridden in years before that was the inspiration for all of this.

We set up our spot in the paddock and I retired to my room for the weekend - an air mattress in the back of the 4Runner. This setup was actually a key factor in choosing the 4Runner as a tow vehicle. The combination of the roll-down rear window and fold-flat rear seats makes for a great camper.

The next morning brought a beautiful sunrise over a cold, dew-damp track. Unfortunately those conditions lead to a few crashes in the first few sessions of the day with some higher-horsepower cars.

Not particularly eager to follow suit, I sought out some air to raise the tire pressures which had fallen in the cold.

Then after meeting my instructor, Rick, in grid - we were out on track. Finally, after all these years I was finally driving at VIR.

This track was everything I hoped for. The Rising Esses, Oak Tree, Roller Coaster, it was so surreal to finally be driving through these turns I had seen before in video games or from the passenger seat. I only wish I had been able to do it sooner, before the Tree fell in 2013.

All the prep paid off in a big way - the car performed flawlessly with zero mechanical issues all weekend. The only real negative was when I (along with several others) accidentally missed one of the classroom times on Saturday and had to sit out a session. Lesson learned there.

After a check ride Sunday morning, Rick gave me approval for going out solo for the rest of the day. Being able to finish out the weekend solo and set my personal best time was just icing on the cake.

Speaking of personal bests, here's the best lap I managed - a 2:32.02 (based on my iPhone's not-that-accurate GPS feeding the TrackAttack app). I also got a chance to roll across the scales and found out the car is roughly 200lb heavier than I originally thought - 2197lb without driver. I need to get more weight out of there!

I know that was a very long, roundabout way of talking about what was essentially just a track weekend, but to me it was so much more. It was the realization of decade-long goal, and it could not have gone better. In conclusion I'd like to leave you with a quote that sums up this incredible place more eloquently than I ever could:

I know that was a very long, roundabout way of talking about what was essentially just a track weekend, but to me it was so much more. It was the realization of decade-long goal, and it could not have gone better. In conclusion I'd like to leave you with a quote that sums up this incredible place more eloquently than I ever could:

"If there is a heaven on Earth, it is VIR."

-Paul Newman

Additional photography by Dylan Dupee and Eric Madsen

Join In

Comments (1)

    1