VIR - Virginia International Raceway

May 10

Story and Photos by David Sugg

Let’s see… today is Wednesday, this must be VIR.

Why are these guys smiling?

Sleep deprivation is not a lot of fun. Brock Yates told us at the drivers meeting that we would wonder what the hell we were doing here at some point during the week. He was right! But he said if we persevered, we would be glad we did. That remains to be seen… I did question my sanity last night when Doug was driving and we were dicing with the Mallett Corvette at *** (Ed: speed not disclosed to protect the guilty!) on I-95. I hope none of my bankers or family are reading this, however. The positive side of that is it gets us to the next track sooner and gives us a few precious minutes of extra sleep.

So, to an update. As you all know, the Superformance Coupe dropped out at Gingerman due to a blown motor. We thought that that was the end of them. However, the Olthoffs are racers and nothing was going to keep them from an event. So, Dennis and Mark drove 12 hours home and they all spent the next day building an engine and installing it in the car. To everyone’s surprise and delight, they met us at the Carolina Rod Shop after the Atlanta event. They came to Sebring and are here at VIR. True racers, like the Olthoffs, are amazing people, willing to go to extraordinary lengths to do what they love. I feel privileged to know them.

Superformance Coupe in racing trim

After the "curse of the cones" in Michigan, things are getting better for the Sugg/Reed entry. We did well at Road Atlanta being in the top 10 for both events. At Sebring the next day were were again 9^th overall in the first run and then 8^th in the second event. As a result, we have moved from 27^th to 11^th overall in the standings as of this morning. Our goal of a top 10 looks achievable. Considering the quality of the cars here, that would be a very good finish for the little Mk III. We all agree that to have a top 5 car, it needs to be 600 HP+ and have a "pro" driver. Everyone says that the level of competition has increased dramatically from last year to this. There are a number of "factory" teams here with direct support form the car manufacturers and tuners. 

Bad Boy, Mallett Corvette

Clay Gould and Barry Nacquin keep running well and they are neck and neck with Barry Kline and Jim Roxbury in the standings. Barry had some car problems and did a great job getting it fixed so he could continue the event. I think that, in a large part, that is what the event was conceived to be. Overcoming problems and adversity to finish the event.  

Current Leader RennTech  Mercedes SL600 $250,000 plus cost of pro driver

I guess you can figure that I am running low on sleep. We are going to keep going and finish this thing just to do it. The lack of time, electrical power and telephones at the tracks are limiting the amount of time I can do this, but I will continue as circumstances allow.

Now, all I’ve got to do is find a phone and try to get some sleep before we run again.

VIR Photos by Bob Olthoff

#3 Superformance Coupe From the left: Mark Ray and Dennis Olthoff - drivers Bob Olthoff - engine builder Geoff Blandford - car engineer, builder, developer

	#70 Superformance Mk III Driven by, from the left: Barry Naquin and Clay Gould
	#1 Consulier GTP Even less attractive than the Raptor (last years winner)  - and that is hard to do.  Also not as fast  - and that is easy to do.

#26 Lister Corvette by Beck Driven by Ed Dellis and Greg Martin Handsome and fast, it was in 4th overall before a DNS/DNF in the first run at VIR. I believe that is the #4 Mazda RX-7 in the left background.  It is currently running 7th overall.

Results and Commentary by Mike Stenhouse

VIR #1

Absolute the best run yet for the Superformance team.  The Olthoff/Ray team is coming up to speed with a 6th place finish.  The Reed/Sugg team posted another top 10 finish putting two Superformance cars in the top 10!  The Gould/Naquin team posted its best finish at 29th.  Unfortualtely the Kline/Roxbury team DNS/DNF'ed (did not start or did not finish).

VIR #2

Not as good as the first run.  The Olthoff/Ray team still finished in the top 10.   The Reed/Sugg team came in in 14th.  They made some suspension settings changes and apparently they didn't work out.  Both the Gould/Naquin and the Kline/Roxbury teams DNS/DNF'ed.  The Gould/Naquin car had a rocket arm nut back off in the first run.  They couldn't locate the problem in time to make the second run.   However, it is fixed now and they are back on track.

Classic American Class After VIR

The superformance teams still have 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in class.  The positions have switched as the Olthoff/Ray team has jumped into 3rd place ahead of the Gould/Naquin and Kline/Roxbury teams.

Overall After VIR

The Sugg/Reed team remains in 11th overall, only 15 points out of the top 10.

The Olthoff/Ray team has jumped from 66th after Sebring to 45th.

The Gould/Naquin team dropped back from 43rd to 52nd.

The Kline/Roxbury team dropped back from 43rd to 66th.

Commentary

The Superformance Coupe is a brand new car with no development time.   It never turned a wheel under power until the day it went on the trailer to leave for this event.  The development team at the factory never drove the car.  It is competing against cars from manufacturers with billion dollar development budgets, multi-year development programs, and million mile road test programs.   And many of these cars have been extensively and expensively modifed for additional performance.  I suspect that the RennTech modifications to the 1st place Mercedes-Benz cost more that the entire Superformance Coupe will cost when it goes into production.  The guys that built the Superformance Coupe obviously did a hell of a job.

The #26 Beck Lister Corvette, which was in 4th place overall after Sebring, DNS/DNF'ed the first VIR run.  They were back with a vengence in the second VIR run with a 2nd place finish.  Nevertheless, they  have dropped out of the top 10 overall. With 430 points seperating the top 10 overall and a top 10 finish in an event worth 520+ points, a single bad run or DNS/DNF will keep a competitor out of the top 10 overall.

VIR was the mid-point of the event.  Eight events down and six to go.   Endurance and consistancy are becoming the keys to victory.

On to Lime Rock...