Day 5 - Carolina Motorsports Park & BMW Performance Center

Well, it has been a heck of a day!  The Carolinas are treating us well as far as weather is concerned: 70s and sunny skies.  Now I remember why I came down here for college. :)

This morning, however, was a bit brisk so I opted for the heat in a corvette to work on the blog...

Upon entry we received special wrist bands... I was a bit salty they were pink but I got over it once I saw the track.  :)

This morning started off a bit rocky on the track.  The Mitsubishi Evo went through a tire wall and required a tow off.  This crash resulted in some delays but nothing crazy.  Luckily, the driver is fine but the car not so much.  Supposedly he lost it in the "kink" but I didn't see it.  He ended up joining back in the second session by the grace of God and an offsite repair shop. 

Before Dave went out, we unloaded and prepped the car.  He decided that it was time for a brake pad swap since this track takes a serious toll on brakes.  It amazed me that he was able to do this in less than 10 min... That guy.

 

We have to share a quote from our buddy Pete this morning.  We couldn't stop laughing.  Usually, we steal a few fruit items from the hotel continental breakfast to provide actual nutrition value throughout the day.... Pete: Fruit wasn't at the hotel this morning so I went for the next closest thing I could find... Fruit Loops.  Dave:  Seriously? What did you go by?  Color???  Oh Pete... What a goof!  He and his brother, Matt, provide us great comic relief.

Dave had a lot of fun on this track but it was definitely a challenge.  Here are some pictures from his runs:

I was even able to FaceTime with Annemarie (Dave's wife) and their baby Violet to let them watch!

The track layout was switched for the afternoon run so that (among other things) contributed to some lap time shifting.

After the second session we packed up and hit the road with Luke and Victor again.  BMW Performance Center was about 2.5 hours from CMP.  

We arrived safely at BMW Performance Center... Wow is this place high class.  All the BMW workers were super helpful in directing us where to go.  It was a bit more chaotic than we are used to at other tracks simply because of the lack of room for staging and parking.

Dave said the track was a lot like a long autocross with many elevation changes.  He had a blast out there.  Too bad he only got to run it once (3 laps)!

We had 5 whole fans show up today!  One at CMP and four at BMWPC.  We were so pumped and spoiled at that!  David brought us cold water and fruit kabobs for CMP and the Barry Family showed up with cold drinks, homemade cookie bars, paper towels, and brake fluid!  Holy cow were they a blessing!

It was really fun to see Madelyn (4) and Ben (1) root for "Mr. Dave" from the sidelines!  They are too precious.  Thanks again for visiting!!!

Onward to Danville, VA for the night before heading up to Virginia International Raceway!  At least the drive is only about 3.5 hours; we should be in bed at a decent hour compared to previous nights.  Sleep tight friends!