Talladega Report (looong)

["Eric Renneisen" <renneie@hlthsrc.com>]

So, the R8s weren't the only Audis on the track last weekend. 
This is a long one, but Dan H. asked for it...

For me, the trip started with a quick run down to Atlanta to 
meet up with a small caravan of Audis headed west. After years 
of e-mail and phone conversations and a couple of near misses, 
I finally met Christian Long in person. He isn't nearly the dork 
I expected him to be.  :^)

On our way to the rendezvous site, we were assaulted by a pearl 
flash. That flash turned out to be Chick Wells in his newly 
facelifted CQ. His B4 hood looked great, but unfortunately the 
postal service had smashed both of his RS2 projector headlamps, 
so the transformation is still incomplete. No matter, the DOTs 
work just fine in daylight.

We waited for the others to show, but Ed Kellock, Elliot Potter, 
and Chris Woodward were all running late. We found out later 
that Tom Saltino whizzed by in his S4 while we were still there, 
but he thought we'd surely have abandoned him by that time.

So the caravan would be just the three of us. After Christian 
and I got used to Chick's driving style, we began to make some 
serious time down I-20. Let's just say that at one point where 
traffic and road conditions permitted, the rate of speed closely 
resembled the moniker of the freeway. Not the smartest thing 
I've ever done, but the insanity was short-lived.

We reached our diversion point into the Cheaha state park. Chick 
said that this was a really nice twisty road, and we were not 
disappointed. Traffic was light, and Chick set a mean pace out 
front. On several blind curves I nearly ruined a perfectly good 
set of underwear, and I'm used to driving mtn. roads. This one's 
a real challenge.

When we finally made it to the other side, we found ourselves 
driving past the track on the way to the hotel. We had plenty of 
time before the drivers' meeting, so we stopped to take a look. 
T'was nothing fancy, but it was nicely laid out. Now, don't make 
the mistake of thinking that this is, or has any affiliation 
with, the Talladega superspeedway where the infamous 200Q set a 
high-speed endurance record. This is a small road course on the 
side of a two-lane highway in the middle of nowhere. Apparently 
it is mainly used as a motorcycle track. In fact, there were two 
bikes (cruisers!?!) making laps when we dropped by. The surface 
was much the same as the public roads in the area--rough, 
cracked, patched, etc. There was plenty of grassy runoff area to 
keep our minds at ease while pushing the limits.

At the hotel, we found that we were only the 3rd, 4th, and 5th 
to arrive, with only Tom Saltino (eventmaster and SE club pres) 
and John Gross ahead of us. The rest trickled in as we did the 
obligatory hood-popping and bench racing. The typical cautionary 
pep-talk and overview meeting was accompanied by some 
questionable hors d'oeuvres, but the Applebee's next door 
satisfied most.

Saturday was beautiful. Chris W caught a hole in a tire on the 
way to the track. While the waving of a $100 bill failed to 
entice the monkey-lad at Wal-Mart to get an early start, a local 
garage saved the day. The A8 brought down by the guys at Audi 
Performance and Racing in Auburn became a harbinger of things to 
come. The instructors took laps while we were in the morning 
class. As we emerged from our schooling, we found the A8's left 
front a bit shy of rubber. In fact, the tire was virtually naked 
along the outside edge. This place was going to be hard on tires.
At least most of us had better rubber than Eagle GAs.

The skidpad here was more of an off-camber grinding wheel, so we 
skipped that exercise, but the braking runs and slalom introduced 
us to the pavement. Tom's S4 did quite well on the very tight 
slalom, but if he tries really hard next time, maybe he can take 
out _all_ of the cones!  ;^)  We began our rounds after lunch.

Christian's A4 and Tom's S4 were a joy to watch in the first 
group. They both did really well in the turns (Sachs kit on S4, 
factory sport on the A4), and of course when the boost kicks in 
on the straights... I was proud to see Chris Woodward and Chick 
Wells upholding the honor of the 7A by ripping up the course. 
Chris' new Eibachs and Boges seemed to really do the trick, and 
Chick's scorpion was making music. The CQ may not have the HP, 
but she can blow through the turns with the best of them. Other 
cars in that group were a 10V 90Q, Henri ____'s A4QT, John Gross' 
ur-q (mech. probs, I believe, but beautiful nonetheless), 
Autobahn's V8, and APR's A4.

Now it was my turn. The few laps with my instructor left no doubt 
in my mind that he knew some fast lines and fully intended for me 
to learn them. Once he could see that I could reasonably control 
the car, he began to encourage me to use my car's strengths to 
their fullest. Before long, I had fallen in love with turns 1-2, 
turn 3, and two successive 90deg rights. The feeling of getting it
almost 
perfect on turn 2, then 3, and hitting the rev limiter on the back 
straight was intoxicating.

Others in my run group included Ed Kellock (the CGT sounded 
_great_ down the front straight!), Elliot Potter in the V6 90, 
Charles & Charles' A4, APR's A4 again and a 200Q. About midway 
through my second round of the afternoon, I shredded the hydraulic 
pump belt. Let me tell you that I'm really glad I replaced the bomb 
last year. My brake assist lasted almost long enough to get me to 
the Advance Auto, 20 minutes away. Luckily, they had a belt listed, 
and it was the right one. The Bentley couldn't make up it's mind 
whether it should be 12.5 x 882 or 992. It is 992.

It rained all night, so I had to put the belt on the next morning 
during the first runs. Unfortunately, by the time I was done, the 
sun was out and the track was dry. The phrase of the day was "tire 
management." Everyone was hurting--some even made a quick trip to 
Sears the night before for some relief. Tires were frequently 
rotated. Chick graciously loaned his speedlines to Ed K for a few 
runs. I spent much of my time at 50-75 percent, trying to study 
the lines and learn smoothness on the controls without killing my 
rubber.

Everyone was tired by the end of the day, but happily satisfied. 
The event was a definite success. The only real yardwork was 
performed by instructors (Ed's minor infraction ignored). I 
personally had a great time. I want to publicly thank Tom Saltino 
for all of his work putting this together, as well as anyone else 
who had a hand in it.

My 'racing-iron' was tired as well. I sacrificed my A/C belt in 
the interest of time (not that the A/C worked before), my D60A2s 
are shot (I was ready for something new anyway), I fried the 
cheap-o relay for my low beams (I kinda like the strobe-light 
affect), I blew my alignment on a track edge drop-off, but it was 
partially straightened out by the large animal carcass I hit on the 
way home (didn't see it in time because I was running with fogs 
instead of the strobes). She loved the track, though. Temps were 
all normal, and the engine sings at WFO.

I'm sure I've missed some names and details in this (too) long 
account, and for that I apologize. The best part about the whole 
event was getting to spend time with people who share my 
affliction. I made some new friends, and met some old ones from 
the virtual world. I'm already looking forward to the next event. 
Maybe some of you Yankees will come down to share the fun?

Eric Renneisen
'90 CQ 20V  -  my 'driver-educating-iron'  ;^)
Chattanooga, TN