AMA Superbike Races at VIR

The weekend of August 15 & 16 I headed to Virginia for the AMA Superbike races at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). I got rolling around 7am Saturday morning and made it to the track around noon. Shortly after arriving I met up with my friend Hanna who used to live in Columbia but now lives in Raleigh. It was really good to see him again, and we enjoyed watching the racing action and checking out all the sights throughout the afternoon.

Cool thing about AMA racing this year is that fans can wander amongst the bikes prior to the races.


A few actions shots; several more are in my photo album linked to at the end of this post.










Lots and lots of bikes there.


My next car. ;-)


Always fun to wander amongst the pits and see mechanics working on the bikes.


After leaving the track I took the long way to my hotel and explored a bit. I found some neat curvy back roads, a few new post offices for my photo collection, and a great barbecue joint in Danville called Short Sugar's. I spoke to the owner and inquired about the name, and he explained that 3 brothers who served together in WWII decided to open a BBQ restaurant when they got home, and that they did. Two days before it opened, however, one of the brothers (nicknamed Short Sugar) died in an automobile accident, so the other two named the restaurant in his memory. Two possible explanations for his nickname is that he was short, and a girlfriend called him her "short sugar;" the other is that he worked in the kitchen while serving, and the sugar supply was always coming up short, leading some to believe he was swiping some to use in making moonshine. :-) Whatever the case, the food and service were great.



Sufficiently stuffed I continued meandering toward my hotel and in the process drove over the Dan River at the site of a dam built in 1876.


I got to the track Sunday morning and watched warmup action from various vantage points and also checked out a display of old bikes; one of them was running while belching smoke and dripping oil, but it was cool to see and smell it run.


I left the track around 5:00 Sunday afternoon and got home around 10:00. Great weekend of racing action!

Here are all the photos that I took.