FOT at VIR

FOT at VIR -- Gold Cup Races

June 10-13, 2004

Here is a site for the VIR Gold Cup Races featuring the Triumph Challenge and the Women in Racing Feature.

We drove I-40 from the Little Rock area to Winston-Salem and headed up 158 from there. This was a great photo op we came across at a truck stop on I-40 (this one's for you, Race Dad!).

We got to the site Tuesday night to see if we could stick around Wednesday and see the operation of the track on a non-race day. Unfortunately, 7 NASCAR teams had rented the track that day, I guess to test for Watkins Glen or something, and the track was very off limits. We got to the gate area about 10:30 pm and had just settled into one of the most peaceful, quiet nights of the year for us when the silence was shattered by Dale Jr.'s rig pulling in and idling all night. In the morning we looked out and saw a bunch of rigs!

Dale Jr. Schrader Penske Racing Bill Davis & Haas

We toured around Danville Wednesday and came back for registration and started getting the Triumph enclave set up. About 20 minutes after we pulled in, freeloaders started showing up (there was a pond nearby). Here is a pic of Fred Thomas feeding the very demanding visitor, with the Jack & Joe Road Show looking on in the background.
The first thing we did Thursday (Test & Tune day), was to help Tim Suddard out with his article on "wind-up" racecars, which will be featured in an upcoming issue of Classic Motorsports. Attending were (racecars) Fiat, Honda, Midget and my Tristan, and (street cars) Midget, Spitfire, and Fiat...
...as well as the infamous Grassroots/Classic Meyers Manx, which handily doubles as the photography platform.
As we were shooting in the skid pad area, the most beautiful tractor I have seen ambled by, so I waved him in and he came to visit. It turned out to be a Porsche diesel! It was IMMACULATE.
The event featured women in racing, and five famous female racers past and present were honored. There was a media event held Thursday at 11 am, where each of the featured ladies spoke about episodes in her racing career and then each of the 17 or so competitors introduced herself. From left to right: Audrey Zavodsky, Divina Galica, Donna Mae Mims and Suzy Dietrich.
Donna Mae was a hoot, replete in pink from head to toe, including heeled pink sneakers. Think Pink!!
Denise McCluggage, Grand Marshall, arrived a little late but still had plenty of time for some racing anecdotes.
Julie Allen, event director for VIR, was instrumental in getting this event together and raced as well, in her RHD Sprite! Her race team is DWD Racing (logo is DWD on a background of a lipstick print). If any of you have fussed about those "D*mn Women Drivers," you know what her team name means! Here she is with John Gardner, PR director.
The ladies had their own practice and qualifying sessions, and a feature race on Sunday. Here we are before our qualifying session. (Donna Mae had to leave early since her Corvette had broken down and needed to be towed out of Danville.)
Here is a pic of Brad and me on the grid. (I can't say enough about Brad -- he works his tail off to make sure I have a good car to drive and to have fun with! Thank you SO much!) The grid was covered for the first 32 spots, which made it VERY nice! The facilities at VIR are something else!
I had a great dice with Divina Galica, Senior VP for Skip Barber Racing Schools. She was in a borrowed Bugeye and we went back and forth during the whole race. What fun! Here we are with Denise McCluggage.
Late Saturday night the illicit activities began. We were treated to an actual competition between the Nitro gas-powered R/C Spitfire valve cover of JK Jackson and the rocket-powered Stag valve cover of Glen Efinger.
Two different folks from VIR security showed up and enjoyed the fun along with us. Glen actually told one of them rather peremptorily he would have to move his car away from the blast zone, and he did!