Tarheel Sports Car Club and Triangle Z Club returned to VIR South course for its third annual high performance driver school and time trial, presented by the fine folks at Carolina Import Works.  This year was better than ever!  A big thumbs up to all of the organizers, students, and instructors who participated in the school and time trial this weekend. It was, as always, a wonderful event.  The forecasted thunderstorms stayed away, and the weather was a near perfect weekend at the track.

• Saturday results - by class
• Saturday results - overall
• Sunday results - by class
• Sunday results - overall

Some highlights and comments from folks who attended:

- Our Sponsor, Craig Gelston showed up in his SpeedChannel World Challenge Corvette and ran 1:14.9xx (it was a high 1:14).

- Karl Kauffman caught up to his competition both days, ending up with 6 TT laps both days (and bringing home the Catch-Up Award as well as CS)

- Michael Martin performed a spectacular spin in South Bend during his first lap of the time trial. Probably turned too early and lifted ... we all heard the screeching, looked up to see him loop it 360 at about 80 MPH, stay on track, and keep going. That lap was only 5 seconds slower than the next two!

- Some follks got to drive behind Matt Johnson, and observe his "rally line" around VIR.  Every time I watched him turn the steering wheel, I _knew_ he would either (1) roll, (2) spin, or (3) both. He never did. I also think he was at least +1 on every lap.

- Peter Guthrie's Sentra pulled off on the grass before turn 10 _twice_ in one session so his instructor could reverse gears on his lunch.  Spiral is a little tough on the stomach, eh?

Mark Vitacco:  "Many of the instructors and students came to see me and Stacy before they left. All commented on what a fun group of people we are and how well the event was organized and run. They very much enjoyed the "club atmosphere". We still need to compile the feed back forms but it looked like we got most of them back. Everyone was super cooperative and helpful. It make the event fun to run. The driving was excellent. Every student and instructor needs to take credit for that. Having Ron in the classroom is a big asset in that it stresses the importance of not only having a safe & fun school but a very sick sense of humor as well.

Mark Fredrick and I were walking through the pits on Sunday and commented that it looked like Car Guys from the "old days". At the very least it was a pretty decent car show. Some very excellent classic Z cars out there with the "usual" assortment of M3s, Porsches, Integras and just the right amount of Miatas. (as opposed to too many damn Miatas) The club is getting a bit 'upscale' ; there used to be a lot more VWs and Hondas, but the spirit is still there."

Matt Graham:  "BIG thanks to Mark V. and Stacey King from the Triangle Z Club for organizing the event. Thanks also to Jason Riddle, Walt Smith and Matt Merrill (who happened to be standing nearby when I was looking for volunteers to run the back-up stop watches) and to Kendra Whitney for adding a little bit of class to the timing crew (as well as keeping raw sheets)."

Don't forget to sign up early for our next two events at Roebling in September and CMP in October.