Mid Ohio trip report, longish

["Brandon Hull" <brandon@cardinalventures.com>]

Just a quick report on the Mid Ohio Quattro event:  Fantastic weather:  Cool
and dry on Monday, with an instructional shower late Tuesday, when everyone
was at their best.

My run group (novice) was disappointingly scheduled for a lot of classroom
and exercise time on Monday (only two track periods).  However, the
instruction, conducted by the MidOH driving school professionals, was really
great, reiterating the basics but also emphasizing specifics of how to get
around MidOH quickly.

Camaraderie aplenty:  Andy Schor from the 20V list was there on Monday with
his pearl CQ.  Rick Houck, also on the 20v list, drew me as an instructee,
and entertained many with rides in his lightened and very stiffened
pre-production CQ.  ( I asked Todd Candey, driving one of his tweaked A4s,
had he seen Rick's CQ, he responded, "barely, I was too busy trying to get
out of his way.")  Todd displayed several radical A4s and lots of luscious
looking hardware.  I couldn't resist, and came home with a porsche/brembo
kit for the ersatz S2.  Keith Anderson brought a transporter full of cars,
but mostly ran his Audisport-liveried urq.  He pulled into the hot pits
once; the pit director asked what was the problem; Keith replied, "nothing,
I'm just waiting for some traffic."  Two 911s entered the straight and he
shot out again.  My cousin, who came east from Chicago in his 325i had been
at a BMW event at Elkhart the prior weekend, and commented multiple times on
how much more relaxed and approachable the Audi community was.  He says his
next car is an A4.

The local P/Audi deal, Fred Baker, was an event sponsor and really did a
great job, maintaining a service bay both days, and sponsoring a barbecue at
the go-kart track Mon night.  (you want the aqua kart with the white stripe)

A run group of very serious Viper drivers provided an alternative if one got
tired of looking at Audis, and enough Porsches stayed over from the prior
weekends' PCA races to add some variety to the run groups.

A couple incidents:  a 5K, on the first lap of the first run, somehow wound
up head-on into a wall, thankfully no one injured. (but car totaled)  A 944
turbo, attempting to catch Dave Rousch in his Miata, threw a rod.

Which brings me to the weekend's most poignant observation:  I rode shotgun
with Rousch for one session, and learned, if I had ever doubted, the
relative importance of driver and car.  No one, and I mean S4s, Carrera 4s,
911s, 944Ts could keep up with Dave driving a basically stock Miata, unless
they were still close enough at the beginning of the back straight.  What a
ride.

This was the first track event for the ersatz S2, and I  had a blast.  I'm
sure I would've learned more in a stock CQ, concentrating more on braking,
weight transitions and the proper line, but the sheer joy of getting the
apex in the crosshairs, and rolling on the throttle often overwhelmed other
considerations.

All in all, well worth the 8+ hour drive from NJ.  Sorry I didn't bring a
camera, but I know others will post some photos.
http://www.midohio.com/

Brandon Hull
'91 ersatz S2