VOAIllinois
08-04-2014, 12:05 AM
Longest Day Has Best Weather Ever
It was that time of year once again… we all head out to become sleep deprived for a jam packed weekend of Viper fun, also known as as our annual Longest Day! Well, this year did not disappoint. Most everyone headed up to South Haven, MI on Thursday evening. A few people even made it up in time to grab a nice dinner at Clementine’s, which was amazing. This was followed by the traditional trip over to Sherman’s… a place that boasts the biggest ice cream portions around! It was a gorgeous night great for standing around (enjoying our different concoctions) and chit-chatting into the late hours. Once we all had enough sugar to send us into diabetic shock we sauntered back to the hotel (after all we needed to burn off some of the calories we just ingested). Most everyone called it a night after that.
Friday morning came far too quickly and slowly but surely everyone made it over to our first location… GingerMan Raceway! Now, as many can attest too, our group has terrible luck with this track. The current counter is that four of the last five years were hindered by the appearance of rain. Everyone was on edge checking their respective radar apps and making bets as to what the day’s odds would be. We are happy to report the naysayers lost this one… the day was PERFECT! Not a drop of rain in sight and barely any clouds. Everyone had a blast and competition was fun as rookies and veterans alike worked to take home the trophies. There were victories and, unfortunately, a few car troubles. Luckily, our wonderful club members worked together to come up with a viable solution. We were able to wrap up the day right on time around four. We had a nice little congratulatory moment for the top performers then headed off on our next leg of the journey to Kalamazoo.
Once we arrived at our hotel and got a quick moment to freshen up we headed out to a local brewery/restaurant, Latitude 42, for a great end to the day. The food was good and they had a nice selection of local beer and wine. Of course everyone reminisced on the day’s successes and obstacles. Fun and laughter were abound and before we knew it, it was time to head back and hit the sack. Once again, after little sleep, the alarms went off bright and early.
While we can’t decide if it was the drinks at dinner Friday night or the general lack of sleep, the end result was everyone dragging a bit when it came to getting things going at our autocross location, Wings Stadium (due to scheduling issues we were not able to make it to our usual autocross spot, Tire Rack). Things were set up and check in was getting going, unfortunately we started a bit later than originally planned. Once we were up and running; however, the day went great! Our first runs out were seven laps each! This gave people more than enough opportunity to learn the course. This was beneficial as there were some tough corners that took a lot of abuse throughout the day. All in all we made it through two runs before breaking for some lunch. After everyone finished eating we were able to get one more run through the groups totaling 19 runs per person for the day. There was an opportunity to run open laps for a bit while our resident timing expert tabulated the weekends results.
Times were tenths of a second apart and the competition was tight. Everyone had a blast and congrats to all that took home the trophies…. special mention to Chris Bond, who won the award for the overall Longest Day champ! We also want to send a special thanks out to everyone who pitched in to get things cleaned up quickly, picked up cones throughout the day, and pitched in to make this awesome weekend possible. As many know our race director and our president were unable to make this event. They are typically the one’s who spearhead this stuff but with teamwork and extra effort everything went off without a hitch. Great job everyone! We look forward to seeing you at the next event.
If you would like to see some photos from the weekend or the full results and lap times please head on over to the original post! http://www.illinoisvipers.com/longest-day-has-best-weather-ever/
It was that time of year once again… we all head out to become sleep deprived for a jam packed weekend of Viper fun, also known as as our annual Longest Day! Well, this year did not disappoint. Most everyone headed up to South Haven, MI on Thursday evening. A few people even made it up in time to grab a nice dinner at Clementine’s, which was amazing. This was followed by the traditional trip over to Sherman’s… a place that boasts the biggest ice cream portions around! It was a gorgeous night great for standing around (enjoying our different concoctions) and chit-chatting into the late hours. Once we all had enough sugar to send us into diabetic shock we sauntered back to the hotel (after all we needed to burn off some of the calories we just ingested). Most everyone called it a night after that.
Friday morning came far too quickly and slowly but surely everyone made it over to our first location… GingerMan Raceway! Now, as many can attest too, our group has terrible luck with this track. The current counter is that four of the last five years were hindered by the appearance of rain. Everyone was on edge checking their respective radar apps and making bets as to what the day’s odds would be. We are happy to report the naysayers lost this one… the day was PERFECT! Not a drop of rain in sight and barely any clouds. Everyone had a blast and competition was fun as rookies and veterans alike worked to take home the trophies. There were victories and, unfortunately, a few car troubles. Luckily, our wonderful club members worked together to come up with a viable solution. We were able to wrap up the day right on time around four. We had a nice little congratulatory moment for the top performers then headed off on our next leg of the journey to Kalamazoo.
Once we arrived at our hotel and got a quick moment to freshen up we headed out to a local brewery/restaurant, Latitude 42, for a great end to the day. The food was good and they had a nice selection of local beer and wine. Of course everyone reminisced on the day’s successes and obstacles. Fun and laughter were abound and before we knew it, it was time to head back and hit the sack. Once again, after little sleep, the alarms went off bright and early.
While we can’t decide if it was the drinks at dinner Friday night or the general lack of sleep, the end result was everyone dragging a bit when it came to getting things going at our autocross location, Wings Stadium (due to scheduling issues we were not able to make it to our usual autocross spot, Tire Rack). Things were set up and check in was getting going, unfortunately we started a bit later than originally planned. Once we were up and running; however, the day went great! Our first runs out were seven laps each! This gave people more than enough opportunity to learn the course. This was beneficial as there were some tough corners that took a lot of abuse throughout the day. All in all we made it through two runs before breaking for some lunch. After everyone finished eating we were able to get one more run through the groups totaling 19 runs per person for the day. There was an opportunity to run open laps for a bit while our resident timing expert tabulated the weekends results.
Times were tenths of a second apart and the competition was tight. Everyone had a blast and congrats to all that took home the trophies…. special mention to Chris Bond, who won the award for the overall Longest Day champ! We also want to send a special thanks out to everyone who pitched in to get things cleaned up quickly, picked up cones throughout the day, and pitched in to make this awesome weekend possible. As many know our race director and our president were unable to make this event. They are typically the one’s who spearhead this stuff but with teamwork and extra effort everything went off without a hitch. Great job everyone! We look forward to seeing you at the next event.
If you would like to see some photos from the weekend or the full results and lap times please head on over to the original post! http://www.illinoisvipers.com/longest-day-has-best-weather-ever/