Event Report: BIR! (long post)

[Tom Vandervoort]

The Quattro Club USA event held at Brainerd International Raceway under the
management of the Glacier Lakes Qclub last Monday-Tuesday, 4/30-5/1 was an
unqualified success in all respects.  A record number of 92 cars were
entered for the Drivers/Safety School event.  The four run groups were made
up of 2 groups of drivers with track experience ranging from no events to a
few events, one intermediate/advanced group and the instructor group.  The
evenly divided groups ran well on the 3-mile BIR road course.  Event Masters
Keith and Kent Anderson and many volunteer instructors and helpers deserve a
BIG vote of thanks.

The PCA prequel

A huge number Pors*hes (150+ at the high point) ran Friday through Sunday in
VERY windy conditions.  A number of participants are also Qclub members who
ran in both events.  A few of us showed up Sunday afternoon and watched the
last of 'em run.  One QC instructor said his 911SC
was running at 125+ on the mile-long front straight at one point, a BIG gust
hit and suddenly he was was doing the same speed at least two feet to his
right!  Scary stuff.

The Quattro Club event

After an informative, sociable Sunday evening drivers meeting, everyone
showed up at 7 am Monday with clearing skies, reasonable winds, low 60's and
a drying track with LOTS of water just off the track.  The morning was
devoted to Susan Anderson's informative classes and the instructors running
braking, slalom, and lane change exercises for all three run groups.  The
most interesting was the decreasing-distance-between-cones slalom run for
the intermediate/advanced group.

BIR is a 3-mile largely flat road course with the mile-long straight ending
in a big, slightly banked at-speed sweeper to the right flowing into another
high-speed right before entering a 90 degree plus big braking sharp right
hander which flows into a series of four back-side esses ending up in an
accelerating high speed right into a medium length straight which makes a
wide 90 degree right turn onto the front straight start/finish.

By Monday afternoon, the track was dry and most run groups got two or three
runs in.  The two  groups with no-to-some experience were an impressive
bunch right out the starting gate according to most instructors.  Driving an
impressive group of S4tt's and A4's along with a number of 4000's(including
Jenny's Eurotrash Princess) two Coupe GT's, Ur S4's, an elegant A8L, a Saab
Turbo (Jenny's Brit BF), an SVT and more, these two groups did a great job
Monday PM and all day Tuesday.  Some of those running in these two groups
had a certain amount of experience (including our two coppers -- one U.S.,
one Canadian), but even those at their first event demonstrated more
confidence and skill very quickly.  Student after student commented on how
much they learned from the QC instructors as well as how much fun they had.
Whether in a car with no mods or one with more mods, people truly felt they
were learning how to drive well, brake well and handle their cars safely.

The intermediate/advanced group was very cohesive with a number of cars
running safely and well together both days.   This group included a number
of well-driven urS4's and urS6's, an A6 2.7tt, as well as S4tt's and nicely
modded A4's plus a pretty red 90csq, an M3, an SVT and a hot awd turbo Eagle
who was great fun to run my eS2 with as we collected an UrS4-6 or two in a
widely spaced train a couple of times.

Naturally, when the hard-working instructor group wasn't instructing (which
was most of the time), they ran fast and well.  Susan Anderson's new RED
modded A4 was fast as were a number of other Audis and Pors*hes, a strange
NASCAR-like composite body winged Pontiac race car with vinyl decal
headlights and my favorite, Paul Hantleman's 20v CQ with the super
suspension.

Running the eS2

Running my eS2 in the intermediate/advanced group was a blast.  A warm-up
run with QC instructor and Glacier Lakes QC Prez Mark Searls reminded me of
BIR's idiosyncracies.  The car ran flawlessly thanks to tuning work from
Anderson Motorsport.  The new beefy rear sway bar from Anderson (more on
this in another post) worked extremely well -- this car drove FLAT in the
turns!  The car braked well for the entire event, but we nearly went through
a set of Pagid Blues on the front and Min-Tecs on the back (which got used
due to the Tilton proportioning valve) helping brake the car flat to set up
for acceleration into the apexes.

The wonderful Sumitomo HTRZ II ZR 16 street tires saw their last track event
at BIR.  OK, I give up, no more street tires on the track -- they just wear
too fast especially on the left front due to those many, many right turns!
The eS2 will be shod with Kumho Victo Racer V 700 16's by the time of the
6/10 Glacier Lakes Qclub regional event at the St. Cloud track.  I gotta
admit that that decision was made easier because I won the drawing for the
$500 certificate toward a new set of Ronal wheels!  A set of new 17" HTRZ II
street tires will go on the new wheels.

BIR -- what a great place!  Quattro Club members -- what great people!
Thanks, everyone!

Tom
e//S2 II