Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-26

[Bruce H.]

Chin Motorsports are holding their excellent high performance driving school events there again, and I'd like to see if there's interest in putting together a Viper Mini-Meet as part of that. http://www.chinmotorsports.com/

The Supra community did that at Road Atlanta with a Panoz Track school and it was a lot of fun. I think there was close to a dozen cars doing the track school and a couple of dozen others that put on a bit of a show in the parking lot. A local speed shop offered their facility for a dinner and attendees purchased a ticket for the food that was catered. I thought this would be a good opportunity to get these new Vipers together to experience them in their natural habitat, and to allow all Viper owners and enthusiasts a chance to get together for some fun.

All I'm looking for at this point is a show of hands to see how many are interested in coming out to a meet, how many might be counted on to participate in the actual driving school, and at which tracks that would be. I'm suggesting these two dates as they are just a couple of days apart, both are iconic tracks that belong on everyone's bucket list, they're not that far apart from each other, and guys like myself may be more willing to drive great distances to experience them both. And it's a good time to start planning summer holidays!

Bruce

 

[DrumrBoy]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

I'd be interested in the RA one....don't have a Gen 5 though

 

[VENOM V]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Bruce, you know I'd be all over this if those tracks weren't 2,700 miles from me

 

[Bruce H.]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

I'd be interested in the RA one....don't have a Gen 5 though

Great! I'll probably post a thread in another forum where all Viper gen owners and enthusiasts will hopefully see it depending on reaction here.

 

[Bruce H.]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Bruce, you know I'd be all over this if those tracks weren't 2,700 miles from me

Sounds like you'll need to fly out and do it in a Hertz rental car! Road Atlanta is top 3 bucket list quality.

 

[dmann]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Bruce, My plans this year is to hit road atlanta the same time you had mentioned. The only catch is that I'm living off
savings and they are beginning to run lower than what I had planned(buying the viper didn't help )
With that, If I land a job before then I'm in.

What is the deadline for getting slots?

Thanks,

-David

 

[Bruce H.]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

What is the deadline for getting slots?

Thanks,

-David

Registration probably won't even open for another couple of months. When it does I'll be sure to post in this thread, and you should watch Chin's website for registration info as well. Good luck with the job search!

 

[TowDawg]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Sounds like you'll need to fly out and do it in a Hertz rental car! Road Atlanta is top 3 bucket list quality.

I know that was a joke, but I saw an awful situation with a rental car last year at RA.
I race with NASA and there was a guy who flew in from CA (and brought a personal "instructor" with him) to drive RA. He rented a new BMW from Hertz and was in one of the HPDE groups. Well, his "instructor" (not a registered NASA instructor) was driving during one of the sessions and went wide in turn 1. While bouncing through the grass, the airbags went off and while he couldn't see, shot back across the track and head-on into the inside wall. Nobody was hurt, but that guy's wallet wasn't feeling good. Considering you can't take a rental car on the track (per the rental agreement, not NASA), he had no insurance coverage on a brand new 3-series (it was definitely totaled). To add insult to it all, he wasn't even driving, and to really top it off, since the airbags deployed, it sent out the SOS signal and ambulances showed up to the track.
The lesson here? If you're flying to a track without your car, rent a RACE CAR through an "arrive and drive" outfit. It might cost a little more than renting from Hertz, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying out of pocket for a totaled Hertz car!

 

[TowDawg]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Oh yeah, in terms of track time per $, you cannot beat Chin. Mark is a great guy and they run a quality HPDE group. Usually pretty nice cars and people, and you generally get one 40 min session, three 30 min sessions, and then 1 hour of open track "happy hour" each day.
I ran pretty much exclusively with Chin before getting into w2w competition.

 

[Bruce H.]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Oh yeah, in terms of track time per $, you cannot beat Chin. Mark is a great guy and they run a quality HPDE group. Usually pretty nice cars and people, and you generally get one 40 min session, three 30 min sessions, and then 1 hour of open track "happy hour" each day.
I ran pretty much exclusively with Chin before getting into w2w competition.

So can we count you in for RA?

 

[TowDawg]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

With a full race weekend (3-5 days) every month of the year except Jan, my track time is pretty well taken up now. I'll be there the Thurs-Sun the week before, so I doubt I'll make it back down on for 21/22. I'm sure y'all will have a blast though!

 

[VENOM V]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

I know that was a joke, but I saw an awful situation with a rental car last year at RA.
I race with NASA and there was a guy who flew in from CA (and brought a personal "instructor" with him) to drive RA. He rented a new BMW from Hertz and was in one of the HPDE groups. Well, his "instructor" (not a registered NASA instructor) was driving during one of the sessions and went wide in turn 1. While bouncing through the grass, the airbags went off and while he couldn't see, shot back across the track and head-on into the inside wall. Nobody was hurt, but that guy's wallet wasn't feeling good. Considering you can't take a rental car on the track (per the rental agreement, not NASA), he had no insurance coverage on a brand new 3-series (it was definitely totaled). To add insult to it all, he wasn't even driving, and to really top it off, since the airbags deployed, it sent out the SOS signal and ambulances showed up to the track.
The lesson here? If you're flying to a track without your car, rent a RACE CAR through an "arrive and drive" outfit. It might cost a little more than renting from Hertz, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying out of pocket for a totaled Hertz car!

Holy crap, that was the mother of all nightmares! I shouldn't laugh but I was, and loud

Same thing happened a couple weeks ago at Laguna Seca. A guy totaled a Mustang rental.

I'm at the opposite end of the risk spectrum. I use a HANS, harness and track day insurance every time.

 

[FrankBarba]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

What type of mini meet are you talking about ? Beers & Brauts, special sessions for vipers only, please explain.

 

[Bruce H.]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

The track part is completely set by Chin Motorsports, and those wanting to participate in that would simply register for the event. Others will want to come out to see what it's all about and enjoy meeting others doing the same and doing the event. We can plan a dinner at a restaurant, at a local vendor's, or wherever. How about drinks at a local bar? This is the basics of what I had in mind, and it could be expanded to include whatever else would make it a success. Doing it at Road Atlanta would work particularly well because that event is held on a weekend when more people would be available for participating in the track event or meet.

I think it would be great if others had a chance to do some laps in a Viper, and I'd be happy to do that. I'll check with Chin to see if solo advanced drivers are permitted to take non-registered passengers.

Lets get some suggestions on what members would like to see, and we'll go from there, and a local member or two may be required to help pull it all together.

Bruce

 

[TowDawg]

Re: Viper Mini-Meet and track event at Road Atlanta 6/21-22 and Virginia Int'l 6/25-2

Bruce, as long as you're signed off "solo" with Chin (which it sounds like isn't an issue), you can take passengers. They just have to sign a waiver and get a "passenger" wristband (I think it's $10-$15). That will let them ride with anybody who is allowed to have passengers, so they can probably hop into a few different cars. A lot of people are willing to have passengers, so finding a ride shouldn't be an issue. I loved giving rides in the Viper because I had a blast with the people's reactions and also because it slowed me down by about 1-2 seconds a lap and lessened my chances of hurting myself too. lol