Hampton Roads Club Mini

Hubby was invited to drive the Daytona, FL track next weekend.  Not in the MINI though.    So we'll be leaving out Thursday trailing the Shelby, otherwise known as the Red Headed Step Child.  After his time on the track we are going to ditch the truck and trailer with a friend and head off to The Keys for a few days.  Hubby really looking forward to this.  Have any of you drove any of the track days there?  I understand it's huge.  I've only been to Langley and VIR.  Should be a blast!!!  I may be lucky enough to catch a cruise on the track with one of the hubby's forum friends who has a outrageously modded out Shelby GT500.  He's warned that his passengers usually get sick.

When to the 24 hours a couple of years ago.  I've raced at Charlotte and Rockingham (road race) and like Dale said the NASCAR portion of the track is boring but in anything that can do 150mph or more those blanks come up fast.

If the modded GT500 you are referring to is the one the older gentleman drives that's been pushed to 800HP, that will be a real treat.  It is truly one tricked out sick ride!

Made it back home safely last night. We did way too much  , and then some track  , followed by even more to make our way to the FL Keys.  After a few days in The Keys we had to back track the entire trip with more  .  I'll have to check out total amount of mileage on the truck today and add the 250 miles hubby put on the Shelby while at the track.  Any guesses?  

Our Daytona track weekend was last Saturday and Sunday.  It rained it's butt off the Friday before and Bill didn't get any track time in.    He made up for it beginning early Saturday morning being the first group on the track   around 8:30am, in the rain.   He didn't push it but used this time to get a feel for the track and test out some pointers other drivers had been giving him over the last day or two.    The smile on his face upon his return to the garage area after his run told the complete story.    Later the track dried up and he was able to have a very enjoyable two days of way too much fun   on the Daytona track.  On his last run Sunday he did experience a problem during his very last lap.  He was getting really comfortable with the whole experience and was in the bank at about 160 when he blew a oxygen sensor in the exhaust.  May have damaged the cats.  Not sure until he drops everything later this weekend and gets a better look.  I'll post a link to his thread on StangMafia if anyone is really that into reading about his entire track time.

There was actually a Mini Cooper running with us. I was so excited to see him there.  He ended up reserving the garage space next to the hubby and I.  We had a blast welcoming him into our Shelby GT500 clan. He fit right in,  :045:well sort of.    He ate the inside of the track up, but didn't fair as well with the other high performance cars on the straight aways.  He had an excellent time right along with the rest of us.  

Here is a sampling of the high end autos we shared our track time with...
A matching pair of Ferraris
A bunch of Porsche's
Lots of Corvettes including a ZR1
Audis including a R8
A GTR
A CTS-V
A few Mustangs, including GT500s and Super Snakes
A Lotus
Ford GT
Roush 427
etc...

We'll be checking out all our pics and posting soon.  Until then, here's some pics from another friend that was there taking some excellent pics... (hubby's car is the red w/white stripes Shelby GT500 mixed throughout all the pics)
http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii61/greggreen50/Daytona%202009/?start=0


If any of you care to read it, here's the link on StangMafia (the hubby's car forum) that explains his experience much better.  Excuse all the post whoring and fun they have among themselves with all the teasing.
http://www.stangmafia.com/forum/f47/daytona-2009-a-6557/index3.html