R8 at Daytona with Audi Club

[MotherTucker]

The Ohio Chapter of the Audi Club sponsored the 2008 Frank Beddor Nationals track event at the Rolex 24 hour course at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.

It was a very well-run 3-day event with 125 cars, lots of catered meals, and a host of other goodies including several famous pro drivers. You could pay $20 to have a pro driver take you out in your car for 3 hot laps. The pro drivers included Michael Galati and Chip Herr among others.

I had a really great close encounter with Chip Herr. He's currently running an A4 in the Speed World Challenge Touring Car series, and has raced Mazdas and Corvettes professionally. I was out on the Daytona track, and looked in my mirror, and saw a black BMW M3 that seemed to be really going hard. It was a fairly modified M3, with a roll cage, slicks, etc. So I played hard to get, and pushed it pretty hard. I had no idea it was Chip, and he was trying to chase me down. He went thru the first horse shoe in a full slide, and goes sliding at about 30 degrees off onto the rumble strip and grass - came within inches of losing it. We did about 2 full laps of the 3.1 mile course together. I could out power him in the straights, we were about equal in the turns, but he would brake late and hard every time, (and he's a pro driver!) so he kept up. Finally, I eased up just a bit and he passed me after a massive brake from 160 MPH. It just so happened that he parked his motor home next to mine, and that night we were hanging around the campfire and he came over. The M3 had a video camera running, so we got the video out and both watched it at the same time there in the RV. He said he really enjoyed that chase, and loved the sound of my car. He said I was really hooked up, and he couldn't catch me. I said that he sure could brake very late and very hard while I'm more conservative in the braking zone, and he said - get this - "yeah, I'm not driving my own car!!" To give you an idea of how good a driver he is, another R8 owner paid to have Chip do laps in his R8, and he got it to 172 MPH on street tires. I made it to 160 MPH on slicks. It's all about the braking zones, he would accelerate until way late, and then stand on the brakes. He really wanted to try an R8 with slicks, but I declined to offer mine...

The owner of the M3 said he'd post that video, I'll add a link here when he does.

So anyway, it was a tremendous experience. The 31 degree high-banked oval is truly dizzying, half the people I took for rides got nauseous. It's that intense! If you get the chance, go next year.

Here's a link to the video:

R8 at Daytona Video

Be sure to select "watch in high quality" if you have that option there in YouTube.

And a few pictures

[R84ME]

Awesome, enjoyed the comments in the video too!

[Stewart W]

Awesome, enjoyed the comments in the video too!

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Great driving...thanks for sharing the video.

[wolfie]

Great video, what the M3 that you mentioned the v6 or v8?

[MotherTucker]

Don't know, didn't happen to ask. Still waiting for them to post the video, hopefully they will do that.

mt