When: July 19-21, 2002
Where: Virginia International Raceway

Wed 7/24
Marshall decided to drive down to VIR with me, so he showed up in Boston around 5ish.  We moved all his stuff into the van and hit the road.  We took the Mass Pike to 84W and drove until about 11pm when we hit Scranton, PA.  We stopped for a motel...  I walked in to the office to get a room.. the TV was blaring channel 23 1/2 (all static) and I had to wait while the clerk tried frantically to arrange a room for someone in front of me.  When my turn arrived 10 minutes later, he asked me "Would you like smoking or non smoking?"  I replied "Non-smoking".  He said "I am sorry, but we do not have any available non-smoking rooms".  hmm..  this was going to be an interesting weekend...

Thurs 7/25
We got up around 7, had breakfast and went to K-mart.  We bought a cheap-o screened picnic awning to add to the cheapo K-mart unscreened picnic awning I already had.   We hit the road and had an uneventful drive.  We stopped at a go-kart place off 81 near Camp Hill, PA for a couple rounds of fun.  They have an outdoor track which had lame karts on it.. but they had a polished indoor oval with small modifieds.. so we had fun sliding them around the track.  After arrival in Danville, we stopped in at the Piggly Wiggly for some food supplies (and a Piggly Wiggly t-shirt) and went into the track.  We found a nice spot and set up shop.  We also took a track walk.   By the time 10pm rolled around, we were both pretty exhausted.  The air mattress called my name and I promptly obeyed for some sleep.  We were woken up by serious rain a couple times.  The outlook for weather was bleak.

Friday 7/26
Got up, had breakfast, and registered for the day of practice.  It had rained and everything was wet, so we went out on rain tires.  There weren't a lot of people at the track yet.  The first two sessions were a disaster for me..  and I wasn't happy about it.  2.25 miles and 17+ corners..  this was going to take some work.  The track is really fun.. good quality pavement, and lots of runoff room.   By the third practice, the track was dry, so we were back on slicks.  It all started to click.. and by the 4th practice, I was comfortable on the track, so I started adding speed.  My bike was acting up a bit..  I had been losing a lot of coolant into the cylinder at Mosport, and worked on the bike before arriving at VIR, but the problem was creeping back.  I kept having to add water, and the bike didn't want to run well at WOT.  After a full day of riding, Marshall and I took another track walk and ate dinner.  I put my spare cylinder head on the bike, and then promptly fell asleep.

Saturday 7/27
We were awoken to the voice of the announcer starting at 7am.  He was a really nice guy, but he was not making friends in the Fat Baby van with his cheery attitude.   After breakfast, we went out for our 2 morning practices.  Marshall was cooking.. he was starting to pick up some real speed.. and looking really good!  My bike was not running well at all however... I was losing a lot of water and the bike was really rough.  After second practice, my friend Julio had shown up from Fla... we hung out for a while until my GTL race came up.  I went out, but ended up coming in after the 7th lap.  The bike was really bad, and I couldn't see pushing on.. I wasn't looking for points.. and I decided to stop instead of seizing a piston or hurting the engine any more than I already had.  My first DNF.  since I hadn't crashed, I still managed to get a 26th place finish (out of 27!).  I had run 7 laps, and the leaders ran 10.  Julio helped me work on the bike a little, but there was very little we could do.  Marshall, Julio and I went out for dinner.  Julio took off from the restaurant back to his motel, and planned to head home on Sunday.

Sunday 7/28
Our announcer friend decided that playing revely at 7am over the PA system was a good idea.  If he only knew where I wanted him to put his cordless microphone, he wouldn't have been such a happy camper.  I got up and submitted paperwork for a race fee refund.  There was no reason to go out and race, since I had either a cracked cylinder, or a cracked engine case.  I figured I had pushed my luck running the bike as long as I did, so I thought I'd give it a rest.  I tried fixing a few things and went out in practice to do some testing... but the problem was getting worse.   Instead of racing, I played spectator (unfortunately, we didn't get transponders until after I retired.. but I'm guessing I was running high 1:40's).  I watched the 125 race from the upper deck at the restaurant.. and it was really cool to see a field of 23 125s going around the track.  It could have been a world gp race, and I wouldn't have known the difference.  Marshall had a really fun race.. he picked up 4 positions from the start and had some good battles.  Congrats!

After the race, we packed everything up and left.  We stopped for lunch at the Texas Bermuda triangle... where an hour slips away before you realize what's happening.. we drove until about 11pm when we hit Scranton again.  This time we picked a different motel, and managed to get a smoking room (though I think Marshall used reverse psychology and asked for a smoking room).  The NASCRAP race at Pocono had run, so there weren't a lot of rooms left.  We both slept well.

Monday 7/29
Up at 7 (thankfully without the announcer) and off to breakfast.  Then to K-Mart to return the screened in picnic awning.  It really was broken, though.. so it was legit   <G>.  We drove north up 81, and missed the 508/84 turnoff.. so we ended up about 100 miles west of Albany.  We hopped on 88 to the Mass Pike and arrived in Beantown around 2:30.  We lost an hour or so to the awry route.  We unloaded, packed up Marshall's truck and he was off.  Another successful weekend!