John Potter's column: VIR shows why GT stands for Great Tradition

For those of us from the Rolex side of the merger, we haven't been to Virginia International Raceway since 2011, and it was great to be back.

It's definitely one of the more unique courses out there. Even though it traditionally acts as a "club" circuit during the year, one rebuilt several years ago to begin the trend of "country club" style racetracks, it's an excellent place for racing. It also has a great history to it that dates back to the 1950s before disappearing for some time and then being rebuilt.

Drivers enjoy it because you have every combination of corner. Hard braking, fast sweepers, right/left combinations, and elevation changes that lift the front off the ground... all the things that require a little bit of bravado and precision. Virginia as a whole is also a very picturesque place. If you ever have the time to stay for a few days the circuit is only a few hours from a number of historic sites that helped shape the country.

Unfortunately, even though the track has a lot of runoff, the grass doesn't really do much to slow you down if you go off course and that has caught out a few people over the years. We all remember the massive accident that Eduardo Cisneros had last year when he tangled with Marco Holzer and, unfortunately, it's common once you lose all control. Once in the grass, you're a passenger.

During Saturday practice this caught out our good friend Richard Lietz, who spun in someone else's oil and ran hard in to the tire wall, followed by a big hit from Jan Magnussen who followed suit. Jan wasn't cleared to race for Sunday, but Richard suffered the worst fate with a fractured left arm.

Our best wishes go out to Richard, as he has a rich place in the history of Magnus. He was with us for our very first race at Daytona in 2010, and would continue to run in each of the following four years, including taking the checkered flag for the team during the 50th running in 2012. He's actually far more of a character than most people realize. I'm not quite sure what his road to recovery is like, but everyone here wishes him well.

As for the weekend at VIR, my biggest point to make is how much I enjoyed a return to two-class racing. If I'm being completely honest, one of the reasons I enjoyed racing in the Rolex Series over ALMS was the simplicity of the format. Two-class racing is significantly easier to follow, easier to explain to guests and sponsors, and far easier to follow on television.

I understand the switch to four-class racing was a necessary evil as part of the merger, but the GT-only race at VIR reminded me of how much I enjoy the two-class format. I seem to be in the minority, but I think in an era where we're trying to sort out how to capture more fans and generate outside interest, one of the biggest obstacles is trying to explain it in two sentences or less. This weekend at VIR, we were able to do that. At events where we have to explain the reasoning for two prototype classes, one of which has two very distinctly different car types, and then how to tell apart the very similarly looking GT cars...you've already lost their interest.

VIR was a throwback to what I enjoyed and what I miss about sports car racing: simplicity for outsiders.

The race itself was pretty average for us. My opening stint was decent but because of the one-hour minimum drive time, I spent most of the time concentrating on saving fuel so that our car's fuel cycle could go long enough to meet my minimum drive time. A yellow came out just as we were running out of gas, and that created a bit of a cluster as we had to take an emergency service, and then had a little confusion with the series on when we were allowed to make a "full" stop for driver change, etc.

Andy did his best in his stint, but our pace was only going to get us so far, and the last hour was focused on saving fuel until the end. Sixth wasn't bad compared to our last few races, but not particularly special either.

COTA should be an interesting venue, I expect the more GT3-oriented cars to be strong and it's tough to say how we'll stack up. Either way, we're just keeping our heads down as we try to finish the year as strong as we can.

-John