Another learning experience at the Virginia International Raceway - TUDOR United SportsCar Championship - round 9 - 23rd to 24th August
The races in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship have beeb coming thick and fast recently, and this weekend is the ninth of the 11 round series that BMW Team RLL competes in. For this one at the Virginia International Raceway Andy Priaulx has yet another learning experience ahead of him in the team's BMW Z4 GTLM he shares with Bill Auberlen.
The season started in Florida in January, then went to California, New York, over the border to Canada, then back to the US for races in Indiana and Wisconsin and is now heading for Virginia, with the track near just half a mile from the border with North Carolina. Andy has embraced the US lifestyle as well as the racing, and will arrive at the track after a road trip from Wisconsin with the family that has included visits to Memphis and Nashville. "I enjoy going to new tracks, so I am looking forward to VIR which will be yet another learning experience. It's a new track for me and I’m told by many people in the sport it will require a lot of work. Its not quite as big as Road America, as it is three and a quarter compared to four miles in length, but has a lot of turns and a lot of content. So far this year most of the tracks have been new to me but this hasn’t been an issue so I’m hoping that I can be up to speed as early as possible. We have some work to do in the championship and need to start scoring big points like we did at the beginning of the year."
After a couple of disappointing races Andy and Bill, who race the black number 55 car, are joint fourth in the GTLM driver rankings on 221 points. Their team-mates, Dirk Muller and John Edwards in the white number 56 sister car are just behind them in equal fifth on 221 points.
The track is near Danville, Virginia and was opened in 1957, but then closed from 1974 to 2000. It has six different track configurations, but the one used by the USCC is 3.27 miles long, has 17 turns andy is known as the "Full Course". It has some sections that are legendary with the "Climbing Esses" viewed by many drivers as one of the most intimidating sections of track in North America, while the 'Roller Coaster" at turn 14 is a scaled-down mirror image of the famous Laguna Seca "Corkscrew".
This weekend there will be no Prototypes racing, so for the free practice sessions and the race it will be just the 29 cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. The first free practice will be on Friday (22nd August) from 14.50 to 15.20 for GTLM and GTD and then the second from 17.50 to 18.40. On Saturday there will be one further session from 08.15 to 09.45, followed by qualifying for the GTD class from 12.30 to 12.45 and the GTLM class from 12.50 to 13.05. On Sunday the 2hrs 45 mins long race, known as the Oak Tree Grand Prix, will start at 16.05. All these times are local, which is five hours behind BST.
