Updates From VIR!

Friday

Perry qualified in 15th position in his first race at VIR in the #30 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup car. The day started at 6:00AM (3:00AM Pacific Time!) with a drivers meeting and a walk around the track. The rest of the morning was spent in meetings...and more meetings. At 11:30 the group went out for a practice session - the first time out on the track for may of the drivers, including Perry. There were no major problems with practice.

After practice the drivers met with coaches and then they caught a quick lunch before going out on the track for the first qualifying session. In the session, Perry had to avoid a few incidents as one car in front of him went off track and another car spun. But he had clear track for most of the session after getting by the incidents.

After qualifying the drivers went back in to (you guessed it) another driver meeting. After the meeting the drivers had time to grab some the famous VW waffles and ice cream before they went out for the next qualifying session.

Saturday

The first race of the weekend started off without any problems. Perry jumped a few positions at the start and as the race went on and the field spread out a group at the front pulled away from the rest of cars. Perry was at the back of the front group of about 11 cars. He worked his way up to about 10th place and was at 9th place but started to drop back when his tires started to loose grip. He went a little off track at turn 16 but was able to get back into the race. He ended up in 13 place - not bad for his first race in the VW TDI Cup.

- Bruce Richardson