Virginia International is a great track with many challenging turns and elevation changes. The track is in a park like setting, and is billed as America's Motorsports Country Club. It is always a pleasure to race there.

PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

The BGB Motorsports team came ready to race. We had tested the car for the first time a few weeks ago and the crew had gone over it thoroughly prior to the race weekend.

I was impressed with the Mustang right away. The handling was much better than what I had expected given the 3300 pound minimum weight that we were required to run.

We had a test day on Thursday. The first session was damp, but the Mustang was surprisingly easy to deal with in the less than perfect conditions. You would think that all that torque would make it a handful in the wet, but it was really quite forgiving.

We didn't make any significant changes based on the first session as the weather seemed to be clearing up as the day wore on. The last two sessions of the day were dry. There was no official timing and scoring, but we were timing some of the quicker cars and we seemed to be right in the mix.

Prior to the last session of the day we made a spring change. There was no real effect on lap times, but the handling of the car was certainly a lot different. The car had been rolling too much initially, so we went with a stiffer spring package in an effort to stabilize the platform. What we gained with a more stable platform, we gave back in other areas so it was a tough call as to which setup was better.

Friday afternoon was the first official practice session. It was wet and there were some black flags that ended up keeping me out of the car. The second session went similarly although I did manage to jump in at the end and do a lap or two.

The shortened sessions and my limited time behind the wheel meant that there wasn't an opportunity for me to get much of a read on the car. The weather forecast showed rain on Saturday, which was race day, so we decided it would be safer just to go back to the baseline softer setup.

Saturday morning was qualifying and since Jim was starting the race he did the honors. The weather did it's best to confound everyone in the paddock prior to the session. It was drizzling, but there was a dry line, so everyone waited until the last minute to make the call on tires. Grand Am rules prohibit teams from changing tires once qualifying begins so it was that much more important to guess right. As always seems to happen, we sent Jim out on rain tires and the rain abated. A lot of other teams made the same mistake and they qualified near the back of the field along with us.

THE RACE

The race start was scheduled for 1:50pm with a two and a half hour time limit. Once again, the weather picture was a mystery. Once again, we waited until the last possible second to make the tire decision. In fact, we waited so long that we missed the reconnaissance lap and had to start at the back of the field. Since we were already near the back of the field this didn't really matter. The important thing was that we sent Jim out on rain tires and it actually rained! The infrequency with which this actually happens makes me think all race teams should employ a full time meteorologist.

Once the green flag dropped Jim started moving steadily through the field. As the race progressed, the rain stopped and the track began to dry out, although not enough to pit for tires under green flag conditions. About twenty minutes into the race the first of six full course cautions arrived. We brought Jim in for a tire change. Unfortunately, we were having radio issues due to the rain and when Jim arrived in the pit lane our teammate's (Cosmo and Mark Plummer) Porsche was already in the pit box. Jim had to drive through the pit lane and back out on track. By the time we got him back in and finished the tire change the race had already restarted.

The result was that Jim was almost a lap down when he went back out. The overall race leading Mustang was being driven by Scott Maxwell and he was catching Jim. Luckily, the unfortunate turn of events lit a fire under Jim and he started turning some of his best laps of the weekend. He manage to stay ahead of Maxwell long enough to catch the next full course caution and give us a reprieve.

It took some time for Jim to catch back up to the field under yellow because he was almost a full lap down. By the time we got him into the pits and finished with the fuel and driver change we were at the back of the line yet again. There were sixty-five cars in the field split almost evenly between Grand Sports and Sport Touring cars. The track had a dry line, but everything off line was still wet, which made passing a little more difficult.

I started through the Sport Touring field after the restart. This was harder than it sounds because I could really only pass them on the straights, which limited the number of cars I could get by each lap. I was finally starting to get to the Grand Sports cars a few laps later when the rain started again. The quick change in conditions brought about a predictable full course caution. Most of the field took the opportunity to pit for rain tires. I couldn't come in right away because we only had one pit stall for two cars so I had to do an extra lap before coming into the pits. This put me back to the rear of the line for the second straight time.

On the subsequent restart I began passing Sport Touring cars all over again. The conditions continued to alternate between hard and light rain, and the track stayed wet throughout. The cars were pushing the water off the line so the track was even more treacherous off line, which made passing all those cars even more difficult. The Mustang was a lot of fun to drive in the rain because with all that torque it didn't take much to end up sideways.

At one point as I was passing another Sport Touring car under braking at the end of the back straight, a Mini Cooper that had gone off course pulled back on and crossed the track right in front of me. I missed hitting a parked car while going about 80 mph by less than a foot. Luckily, that was about the only close call I had the whole race.

There were a few more full course yellows, which bunched up the field and helped me reel in a few more Grand Sports cars. Prior to the last restart I had worked my way up to about fifteenth position. The race stayed green for a few laps and I was able to move up to eleventh before the final full course yellow arrived. Appropriately, the race ended under yellow.

An eleventh place finish wasn't what we had hoped for, and if we had a little more time we may have done better, but given all that happened we were happy with the result. The BGB Motorsports crew did a great job and we learned a lot about the Mustang over the course of the weekend, so I think our future results will be more representative of the team's abilities.