Rockingham Speedway Road Course
28-29 May
No, we didn’t plan it that way, but track availability conspired to compress the schedule. All three tracks have well known names.
Virginia Section hosted the 28-29 May event at Rockingham Superspeedway. This 1 ¼ mile banked oval has a challenging infield road course of close to a mile. It is more challenging than it looks on paper, and it had not been repaved since I raced there in 1979.
Virginia Section President Don LaBar got about 40 cars together, including several Mercedes-Benz. There was even a GLE towing a Corvette race car. The Corvette lost its clutch, so we suggested he continue with the GLE. He declined that, but he did join MBCA.
I made the mistake of telling my students that I was able to take the banking with no braking at full throttle in my showroom stock AMC Gremlin all those years ago when I noticed everyone braking for the oval turn. My second student was able to accomplish this is spite of the bumpy surface. I was a bit tense, but he was at about the same speed I was 43 years earlier. Of course, the right seat feels like it is 20 mph faster.
Everyone learned a lot and had a great time. No one crashed and no Mercedes-Benz had a mechanical problem except mine which needed a new battery.
When I drove 22 miles up the road to Aberdeen, I realized the Pinehurst concours was in progress. We need to combine these events next year to give our members a more varied event.
