VIR Thread

[Monty M]

Heading into VIR this weekend, Mr. Bamford is managing a narrow, 7-point lead over Sam Beasley and David Grant – three good teams, three good drivers, three different cars. (Also, the rest of the field!)

Should be a fun race weekend. Who is coming out?

[sixpax]

Heading into VIR this weekend, Mr. Bamford is managing a narrow, 7-point lead over Sam Beasley and David Grant – three good teams, three good drivers, three different cars. (Also, the rest of the field!)

Should be a fun race weekend. Who is coming out?

I'll be there all weekend in spectator mode ...

[Steve Bamford]

I will send out some updates over the weekend. Brandon Dixon was on the list but I believe isn't able to make it out now. Will be great to see at an event soon.

[Steve Bamford]

Qualifying gets underway at 10:30 & Race 1 this afternoon at 4:50.

Forecast is HOT & Sunny so far but who knows if a late afternoon thunderstorm will make things interesting.

Currently in practice sessions Beasley is leading with the Mygale followed by Grant in his Spectrum.

[Steve Demeter]

Sam is flying it would appear. The apple did not fall far from that tree.

[Steve Bamford]

Sam did a great job after his car would not start on the grid he had to start at the back and drive his way up to 1st spot once again. Congratulations to him and Legacy Autosports.

[NPalacioM3]

Some onboard for you guys:

https://youtu.be/dRxM-SurCmY

[Steve Bamford]

Some onboard for you guys:

https://youtu.be/dRxM-SurCmY

First start was waved off, Nick you kept going for a while. Not sure if you had radio from your guys or not but that is why some backed off.

Good job in the race.

[NPalacioM3]

First start was waved off, Nick you kept going for a while. Not sure if you had radio from your guys or not but that is why some backed off.

Good job in the race.

Chas was all the way down on the hot lane and was one of the last to be told what was going on, hence my confusion there when you were getting by. Then he told me very shortly after you got back in line. Sorry about that, Steve. From the video, only about 3 people it seems knew what was going on, the rest were on it and I followed suit.

Sorry again, nice job in the race as well.

[Steve Bamford]

Chas was all the way down on the hot lane and was one of the last to be told what was going on, hence my confusion there when you were getting by. Then he told me very shortly after you got back in line. Sorry about that, Steve. From the video, only about 3 people it seems knew what was going on, the rest were on it and I followed suit.

Sorry again, nice job in the race as well.

No worries about that, I actually wasn't sure of the wave off after the leaders kept racing either.

[problemchild]

No worries about that, I actually wasn't sure of the wave off after the leaders kept racing either.

Yellow flags at every flag station on lap one nearly always means there was a wave off.

[BURKY]

It's hard to tell...Was the debris at the start from the pace lap?

[NPalacioM3]

Yellow flags at every flag station on lap one nearly always means there was a wave off.

There wasn't a yellow until after the bridge. At that point, I think most of us thought the yellow was out for an incident behind us. The officials hadn't made it down the pit lane to tell us all over the radio what was going on until I was nearly back at the esses on the next pace lap.

[problemchild]

There wasn't a yellow until after the bridge. At that point, I think most of us thought the yellow was out for an incident behind us. The officials hadn't made it down the pit lane to tell us all over the radio what was going on until I was nearly back at the esses on the next pace lap.

I hope you are kidding. One and a half laps? It was dangerous and a waste of over 5 minutes of track time. You can only learn from mistakes if you acknowledge them.

[NPalacioM3]

I hope you are kidding. One and a half laps? It was dangerous and a waste of over 5 minutes of track time. You can only learn from mistakes if you acknowledge them.

Kidding about what? I was saying I wasn't aware of what actually happened (start being waived off) until that point because they were coming down the pit lane letting everyone know to radio in to tell us. Chas was all the way down the pit lane near pit in, I was likely the last one to get the call on the radio. If everyone should have just known what was going on, the officials wouldn't have felt obligated to come down and tell everyone, clearly many of us didn't know and missed the waive off. Hence everyone up front continuing to run until the yellows came, which again weren't until after the bridge. I was following suit, not leading the charge.

[Steve Bamford]

I heard well before turn one from the radio call I received. I doubt the officials told my crew at that time and are guessing they were watching the starters stand themselves.

I was on the radio asking them if they were sure as a couple of cars kept racing. it did take an extra lap to get it sorted out which some how we should have figured out before hand. I guess in future we need to make sure teams are positioned to see the green flag if the drivers are not watching for it.

[Will Velkoff]

Most if not everyone has radios (all should have radios per the rules but that's another topic for another day). If so, your crew member will either call the green over the radio, or tell you it's a wave off. If for some reason you don't have a radio, you need to be watching the flag stand, simple as that. Either way, not one driver should have missed the call. Phil made it very obvious by putting the flag behind his back and giving a very defined shake off.

I was astonished how many people didn't catch the wave off, cars racing through almost the whole first lap, passing under the double yellow, and not allowing cars to get around and rejoin in their original starting position.

This is supposed to be PRO racing, not Regionals. No excuse.

[cooleyjb]

Most if not everyone has radios (all should have radios per the rules but that's another topic for another day). If so, your crew member will either call the green over the radio, or tell you it's a wave off. If for some reason you don't have a radio, you need to be watching the flag stand, simple as that. Either way, not one driver should have missed the call. Phil made it very obvious by putting the flag behind his back and giving a very defined shake off.

I was astonished how many people didn't catch the wave off, cars racing through almost the whole first lap, passing under the double yellow, and not allowing cars to get around and rejoin in their original starting position.

This is supposed to be PRO racing, not Regionals. No excuse.

This is a problem with the flag stand at vir. I have no clue why they thought putting it just around a corner was the right choice. I can see people who weren't in the front row would go as a response to the front row. The view of the starter is mediocre at vir.

[problemchild]

This is a problem with the flag stand at vir. I have no clue why they thought putting it just around a corner was the right choice. I can see people who weren't in the front row would go as a response to the front row. The view of the starter is mediocre at vir.

No one was blaming anybody for the first wave-off, or even racing for the first few corners. People kept racing for a lap and a half despite yellows at every station and mid-packers battling for the lead. Crews select pitlane locations where they can see the starter or send people up the pitlane for the starts and restarts. Scanners are required so smaller team crews will pit beside teams with scanners, etc. It was just a mess caused by a few people either sleeping or caught up in red mist. The commentary here was very tame in relation to the colorful comments in the paddock afterwards.

[Ben Beasley]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5L...ew?usp=sharing

[Steve Bamford]

Ben,

Thanks for posting that. That was a great drive by Sam. Congratulations once again on a great weekend.

[DaveW]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5L...ew?usp=sharing

Ben,

Thanks for posting that. That was a great drive by Sam. Congratulations once again on a great weekend.

I watched that, also. Impressive, to say the least. Car was working great, and the driver wasn't too bad, either!

[Bob Wright]

Now THAT is driving... And nobody in that race was going slow either, when you look at the lap times.

Well deserved win from the back of the grid.

[Scott Gesford]

I always felt Anders Krohn was the fastest guy I ever saw in F2000. think Sam is faster. great race.