Event Journal

Thursday,  May 4th:   Well, Mike is off to the airport...headed for South Bend, Indiana.  From there he will be picked up by fellow Volkswagen enthusiasts, Rob Slayden and Shelli Adams and taken to his hotel in South Haven, IN.  Sue and Enrique drove from Minnesota on Thursday as well and were expected to arrive at the hotel in Indiana around dinner time.   Mike seems to be really anxious to drive the car.  We have been sending box after box loaded with goodies for months now and finally he will get to drive it.   
Yahoo!  He arrived safely at the hotel after an hour and a half drive from the airport.  He will need to be up at 6am to make it to the Track Time School they are enrolled in at Gingerman.  Until next time...Kristen Potter, Virtual World Parts

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Friday, May 5th, Entry #1: I got my early morning wake up call (he's 3 hours ahead) from Mike who was definitely on an adrenaline rush.  He had just gone out for the first few runs on the track at the official One Lap Track Time School.  He is so psyched!  He says it really is set up nice.  "The car has a lot of power" he said.  They put some stickers on cause they had some time to burn.  Saturday they are doing stickers and at 4pm Mike will be qualifying.  Then he will race the first race at Gingerman on Sunday.    The got some stickers on today and got registered for the race.   Once on the track today the instructor was saying stay smooth and your fine, just save your tires.   Everyone was commenting that Mike was balls to the walls.    He had an hour of track time total and he said he needed to learn the car quick so that he can get himself ready for the other tracks.  The car is so "on" he said.  "The first run I went mellow then by the end of the last session there is a straight away that everyone was saying be mellow in the turn, because if you don't brake your going to spin, but I decided to push the envelope to see what the car could do.  The brakes on the car are insane.  This one turn in particular there were 3, 2, 1 braking markers. I started braking at 10 feet before 1 and in 4th gear and the car just went around the corner no problem.  It didn't push, but I did get into the dirt once. I just took it way too tight and was too wide and hit the dirt.  The tires stick and  the suspension is tight.  It's a hair bit tailhappy if your not right on but you can control it if you keep your foot on the gas.  The pelodiff is incredible."    All in all, I got the impression he is ready for tomorrow after today's track time.  So after a nice dinner with the team and a few other one lappers, he is off to bed.  Tomorrow they will begin around 9:00 am.  This will be the last time they will sleep in for several days.  Ahhhh...won't that feel good.  Especially since Mike is still on West Coast time.  Until next time...Kristen Potter, Virtual World Parts

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Friday, May 5th, Entry #2:  All went well during our Track Time training at Gingerman.   We had one small problem and fortunately we caught it before it got really bad!   Towards the end of my second track session I felt the car squirm a bit and something started making noise, almost like I had gotten a flat.  I couldn't figure it out, so I pulled in to the pits and got out and checked the tires.  Everything looked fine, but I didn't feel comfortable so I pulled in to the paddocks to check it out.   We checked all the tires and decided that it was probably a piece of rubber we had picked up.  So when Mike's next session came up, he drove off and a couple minutes later he drove back in.  He felt the same thing.  So we took a look at the front left wheel and we were MISSING one of the lugs and the rest of them were loose!!!   Fortunately I had brought some extra ones.  We pulled the wheel off, checked all the threads, put in some new bolts and everything seems okay now!  We will be checking them a lot during our trip just to make sure.  We are a lot faster than last year and were able to run with every car in our class!  Things are looking good!   Mike even ran a few laps in front of a Corvette, who could just not catch him.   I talked to the driver of the vette later and he was really impressed!  Well that's all for now!  More to follow soon... Enrique Ramirez

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Friday, May 5th, Entry #3: Here are some pics that were taken today (5/5) at the Track Time School, Gingerman Raceway, Indiana by Dale Steeley who is in the Turbo Neon.  The yellow Type-R that you will see was driven by Rob Hogan who drove down in the caravan from Minnesota with Enrique and Sue.  There are more pics to come as this race unfolds.   Qualifying is tomorrow at 4pm where they will get one practice run and one run to get their best time.  This will rank them overall and in class.  Right now they stand 86th overall and 3rd in class.  Let's see where they end up tomorrow....Where do you think they will end up?  KP

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Saturday, May 6th, Entry #1: Spoke with Mike and everything went very smooth today. Stickers are on the car and qualifying is over! They placed 3rd in class out of 22 in Mid Priced Sedan Class and 48th overall out of 114 entrants. Not bad to start off eh? There is a BMW and an Altima in front of them. It all starts tomorrow. They are both back at their hotels right now getting their mail and sending me some pics from today so I will have more up soon! Until then...Kristen

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Saturday, May 6th, Entry #2: We did a lot of hurry up and waiting today. We got the lug bolt problem fixed, thanks to Kristen next-day-airing the new bolts...just to be safe. We also got the rest of the stickers on today...looks like a fast billboard. Once the qualifying got under way (at 4pm) we were #86 to start, so we waited quite a while. One re-con lap and then one timed lap. I drove today and qualified in 48th position with a time of 148.544, right behind a C5 Corvette...Wow! So tomorrow we will start off mid-pack and hopefully climb up a few more sports. We are 3rd in the mid-priced sedan class out of 22. In front of us is are a Nissan Altima and a BMW 325 (M3 motor) with a VERY good driver. Tomorrow we go to Gingerman in the morning and off to MIS in the afternoon where Enrique will drive. Then a long trek to Road Atlanta covering 700+ miles, ugh! I'll write more soon, Potterman 

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Sunday, May 7th, Entry #1: I spoke with Potterman briefly today. He was already at Michigan and Enrique was getting ready to run (after a brief rain, so the course is wet). They got the times already from the race this morning at Gingerman. Potterman ran and ended up 2nd in class and 42nd overall. It looks like they're moving up in rank after only the 1st race. Great news! I will post more when I get pics and comments from them. Jim Buck, writer for Driver Magazine (put out by Volkswagen) was there today taking pictures and interviewing them. Looks like an article is going to end up in there. Until next time...Kristen

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Sunday, May 7th, Entry #2: The results are in!  Enrique ran the Michigan race today and was lucky enough to avoid the rain.  By the time he got on course it was dry!  They ended up 43rd overall and 3rd in class after this event.  Mike says it has everything to do with the Altima being so fast in the long straight aways.   So far so good though.  Jim Buck was nice enough to take home the digital pics they took yesterday and send them to me.  So here they are.   Enjoy and until next time...Kristen

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Monday, May 8th, Entry #1: I spoke with Potterman today in Atlanta and Enrique was running the event. There were 2 events there. The first one they placed 41st overall and 3rd in class. The second one we aren't sure yet because there are no times posted yet. They are right on the Altima's tail though and we are hoping they can pull on them at the race tomorrow in Florida. Mike will be racing for that event. They all seemed pretty tired when I spoke with them. They still had 600 miles to go and it was 7:30pm their time. They probably won't make it to a hotel until at least 3:00am. At least they will get to have a real bed and a shower. At this point I am sure they need it :-) I will post more soon!

Until then...Kristen

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Tuesday, May 9th, Entry #1: Well, they made it to Florida (Sebring Race Track). Mike was just loving all the love bugs and other various bugs at the track. Guess he should have brought the bug spray :-) 

Sebring was Mike's today. He ran the morning run and finished 38th overall and we still aren't sure whether they are 2nd or 3rd after that event. He called me after the second event and he said he could tell he was a whole lot faster than the morning run. They had to get back on the road before the results were posted so we are waiting for the update on the site. 

There was some bad news today though. Kim, the one I mentioned before that was driving the Grey Bullet with Silver striped Viper got in a wreck last night. A truck driver had just finished writing in his log book and didn't look before pulling out onto the highway. Kim was unable to stop fast enough and plowed right into the back of him. Ouch! The Michelin guys drove up right after the accident and they were sure they would be pulling bodies out of the car, since it looked like a sardine can. The good news is they are fine and signed waivers at the scene of the accident that they didn't need to go to a hospital. The bad news is the car is totalled and they are out of the race. What a bummer because he was in the top ten for sure. Thank God for roll cages and air bags!!! They had a drivers meeting today with a pep talk to all the drivers to be mellow on the roads in route to each race track. Their strategy so far is a pretty good one. They set cruise control 9 miles over the speed limit and just cruise. They have been getting hit by radar a lot and they have yet to be stopped. Great news for me since last year Mike got nailed in Texas with a ticket, thus adding a point, in turn losing our good driver discount. I begged him to be mellow this year! Thanks Mike! They told me tonight that they had some pics they will be sending when they get to the hotel.

Until then...Kristen

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Wednesday, May 10th, Entry #1: Enrique was driving today at Virginia International Raceway. He wasn't as fast the first event as he was the second one. They are in 3rd place now in their class and guess what? Even though it's a real bummer for the BMW;-)...he blew up his motor. He of course will keep his points but he will lose his position in 1st once a few more events unfold. Now it's just us against that Altima! I am sure they can take him in the next few events. Enrique will drive at Lime Rock tomorrow and then Mike will finish the last two events in Nelson Ledges and Gingerman. It should be interesting in the next few days to see how it all shakes out! Stay tuned! They haven't had a whole lot of time with a land line to send pics so I am hoping for tonight sometime and I will get them up as soon as I get them!

Until next time...Kristen

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Thursday, May 11th, Entry #1: Words from the Potterman...

Well it's been a few since I wrote but what little sleep we can catch has been priority for now. We are now at lime rock in Conneticut. Tuesday we were in Sebring, FL...that was a fun course. I did catch a little dirt on turn five...going a little hot into the corner. We jumped ourselves into the high 30's from that event. We made it to VIR...man was that course big!! We faired okay there...still holding position 39. Now we have completed the 1st event at Lime Rock today and are waiting for results to be posted. A lot of people showed up to cheer us on...Rob Heckel, Chris Franson, Josh Wyte, Bill Karerle and Jeff Atwood. Enrique's brother and parents here too all the way from Mexico. Last night a few one lappers had some trouble with hitting a pipe on the road and so we stopped to help them out since both cars had 2 bent wheels each from hitting the pipe. That was a real bummer! I ended up falling back to sleep and woke up at a big house. Where are we I say? Well, it's the only thing around so I guess this is where we will sleep for a few hours anyway (it was 4am at this point). We were with another group too who also got a room. After sleeping in a real bed and having an incredible breakfast we went to check out and found out that the rooms are $275 a night. Ouch! So Enrique went into the "we were only here for 3 hours and we are Racing for the Children..." Okay says the man...$100 per room. And off we went. We told him we would give them a plug, so here it is...Troutman Bed and Breakfast in CT - $275 a night. Spectacular old restored home. Each room has it's own bathroom and shower emmaculately furnished. Worth the money! Go there is you are ever in CT.

We are off to Nelson Ledges in Ohio tonight where I will run. I am ready for the track and hope to gain some edge there and at the final event at Gingerman. That's all for now.

More soon, Potterman

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Thursday, May 11th, Entry #2: Words from Sue and Enrique...

We just finished our second run at Lime Rock and it was significanly faster than our first one. We are still 3rd in our class and 39th overall as of this morning. We are tired but still energized. We had to stop to help three fellow one lappers on the highway last night, and they were all able to make it to the track today to run. We're always glad to help when we can.

We are off to the Cannonball Pub in New York for a check point and then on to Nelson Ledges in Ohio. This leg of the trip will be the shortest of them all (only about 550 miles). We are hoping to catch a couple more hours of wink at a hotel tonight. The most we would have so far.

We will try to send another update tomorrow night. We're on the road again...

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Friday, May 12th, Entry #1: I spoke with the Potterman several times throughout the day. They had a bit of rain today. This was his course to run today and he did exceptionally well. He placed 36th overall in the first event and 46th overall in the second event. They promised me journal updates so I should be posting more soon along with some pictures. As of now they are in 3rd place in class and it is probably where they will end up. The good news is, they will get a trophy and be mentioned in Car and Driver Magazine as the 3rd place winner in Mid Priced Sedan. Would you believe that the BMW had a flat bed truck waiting for him the other night after the race and they were able to get a new engine in and made it to Nelson Ledges to run the event. So needless to say he held his position and will finish in 1st. Mike said that after he ran the morning event he was looking at the times and the guy in the Altima said "Who's driving the VR?" and Mike says "Me" and he says "Geez bud your smokin out there!". So Mike is pretty convinced that the second run he went out there and used his NOS on the back straightaway. He must not have used the NOS in the first run. Oh well! The team is kicking A**! That's all for now! More later...

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Saturday, May 13th, Entry #2: Mike called from the awards dinner at the track and you won't believe it....

THEY TOOK 2ND PLACE IN CLASS!!!!!!

Until then...Kristen Potter/Virtual World Parts

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Saturday, May 13th, Entry #3: Words from the Potterman:

Well... I went against Brocks advice at the drivers meeting and did my braking when I saw God!... and it worked! All I can say at this point is yahoo! We got 2nd in class (out of 21) and 41st overall... (look how many M3's we beat). It was a long week but just as last year I'm ready to do it again. Between lack of sleep and not knowing ANY of the tracks I'd say we faired pretty darn good... who needs a Turbo when you can drive ;-)

Well I'm off to have a few more beers to celebrate and we should be back in action by Tuesday. Thanks again to all that showed up to support us at the tracks... you were appreciated! I only hope we put on a good show for you.

Potterman

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