logic
20+ Year Contributor
- 921
- 35
- Jun 11, 2002
-
Berkeley,
California
What a day. 
There was a bit of discussion back at the beginning of the seaon about the first annual NASA Championships at Mid-Ohio Raceway in Lexington, Ohio over in Greg's thread, so I thought I'd post up some pictures and news from the event.
We left Chicago at around 7:00 PM local time on Friday night, and arrived in Lexington, Ohio around 3:30 AM local time, thanks to some unbelievable fog and a few wrong turns. We slept for a few hours, and dragged ourselves over to Mid-Ohio around 11:00 AM to catch some of the qualifying runs before tomorrow's competition. The only other road course I've been to is Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL, so I really didn't know what to expect; what we found was an incredible facility. Practically the entire grounds are open for spectators to wander, and there isn't a single piece of track that you can't find a good vantage point for. There were plenty of vendors set up on-site, and the parking lots were like a small city of campers, trailers, and tents with people working on their cars everywhere.
An autocross course was available for spectators to try their hand at tossing around the Mid-Ohio School Acura TSX A-Spec cars (and competitors could take out their own cars if they wanted). Today's spectators were actually faster than the competitors, by about a second, and considering you only had two shots at setting your best time, in a completely unfamiliar car, without the benefit of walking the course beforehand, that says something about the crowd at today's qualifying.
I managed a 28.59 second run (yes, it was a small course), which was just a few tenths off the third fastest spectator time of the day, so I was fairly happy. (Drive all this way, and not race something? I don't think so.) You can try your hand at it each day of the event, so we'll be back out there tomorrow; it's a shame we missed it on Friday.
Anyway, if you're curious about today's qualifying results, NASA has them online, along with video from the day (and live video when events are taking place). Since I spent most of the day playing tourist, here's a few pictures from the event. Enjoy!
There was a bit of discussion back at the beginning of the seaon about the first annual NASA Championships at Mid-Ohio Raceway in Lexington, Ohio over in Greg's thread, so I thought I'd post up some pictures and news from the event.
We left Chicago at around 7:00 PM local time on Friday night, and arrived in Lexington, Ohio around 3:30 AM local time, thanks to some unbelievable fog and a few wrong turns. We slept for a few hours, and dragged ourselves over to Mid-Ohio around 11:00 AM to catch some of the qualifying runs before tomorrow's competition. The only other road course I've been to is Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL, so I really didn't know what to expect; what we found was an incredible facility. Practically the entire grounds are open for spectators to wander, and there isn't a single piece of track that you can't find a good vantage point for. There were plenty of vendors set up on-site, and the parking lots were like a small city of campers, trailers, and tents with people working on their cars everywhere.
An autocross course was available for spectators to try their hand at tossing around the Mid-Ohio School Acura TSX A-Spec cars (and competitors could take out their own cars if they wanted). Today's spectators were actually faster than the competitors, by about a second, and considering you only had two shots at setting your best time, in a completely unfamiliar car, without the benefit of walking the course beforehand, that says something about the crowd at today's qualifying.
I managed a 28.59 second run (yes, it was a small course), which was just a few tenths off the third fastest spectator time of the day, so I was fairly happy. (Drive all this way, and not race something? I don't think so.) You can try your hand at it each day of the event, so we'll be back out there tomorrow; it's a shame we missed it on Friday.Anyway, if you're curious about today's qualifying results, NASA has them online, along with video from the day (and live video when events are taking place). Since I spent most of the day playing tourist, here's a few pictures from the event. Enjoy!
