The story of how I became known as "Cooperman"
All I can say is "wow"!! Wow, what a track. Wow, it was cold and windy on Sunday. Wow, I drove like crap on Friday.
Wow, I can't wait to go back again.
Traffic in green on Friday was bad and the cones really distracted me... I couldn't get my eyes to look past them and smooth out the line. I hate those damn cones. I was relieved to see them gone on Saturday, and I drove much better without them. Also, by Saturday everyone figured out the track was more than big enough for all 30 of us in green... the traffic problems went away.
By Sunday I was getting smoother and quick enough for me to question the sanity of coming out of the climbing esses at 100 mph! That is just nuts. The really disturbing part is that despite the speed, I never felt uncomfortable or scared. When you are pretty much on line your car feels safe and controlled. Great track!
On Saturday, Tony took me for a ride in 411 (aka 11). That was fun. The speed he was able to carry up the esses really left an impression on me -- hopefully his right seat has dried out by now! Tony is so smooth and keeps the car so settled, you barely feel the speed. But when you glance at the speedo...
On Sunday, Jason took me for a ride in blue in my car. He made some good suggestions on adjusting the sway bars to get rid of the nasty understeer I was having in T1 and the uncomfortable tail wag at the entry to T17. Hopefully I'll have the car set up a bit better next time I visit VIR!
Oh yeah... I call myself 'Lucky' for a lot of reasons. The more recent and track related reasons are:
1) I spun in T9 @ SP last fall, hit nothing (but did destroy my street tires),
2) I tried to buy new street tires last week (before the long drive to VIR), but couldn't find the desired make/size anywhere, and
3) At VIR I won a set of Cooper's new high-performance street tires!!
So now, y'all can call me Cooperman.
It was nice to get to know Bill, Jason, and Tony a bit more... just wish more Dorki could have made it. Maybe next time.
One last thing... I had Dirk Dekker as an instructor and found him to be excellent. He really knows the fast and safe line well and worked hard to get me onto it. I know his stomach must have been turning on Friday with my lousy driving, but he never let on and was always patient and understanding. If you get the chance to have Dirk in the right seat, you are "Lucky".