[Purist]

Well, I thought I'd try to buck the trend of last-minute (or no) race threads.

Anyway, for the second GT-only outing of the season, we have the standard 8 entries in GTLM (2 each from BMW, Corvette, Ford, and Porsche), as well as 10 for GTD (2 Lexi, 2 Acuras, 1 Mercedes, 1 Audi, 1 Lamborghini, 1 Ferrari, 1 Porsche, and 1 BMW).

It seems like we've gotten a few late entries in some rounds previously this year, and it would be nice to see the 18-car field make it to a round 20. And yes, I miss Risi, too.

This weekend's race will be on the, perhaps not as developed as some, but likely the most pristine natural-terrain road course on the IMSA calendar. The original, 3.27-mile layout at Virginia Int'l Raceway offers up a height difference of 130 ft around the lap, 17 numbered corners (though it's really more than that when you get down to it),3 long flat-out stretches per lap, and some high-speed corners that won't lose in terms of pucker factor to any turn at any other venue in the series.

For my part, I kind of think of VIR as the bigger, older sibling to Road Atlanta; there are a number of similarities in the layouts and the types of section sequencing we see around the two laps, but whereas Road Atlanta opened in 1970 and was 2.52 miles (now 2.54), VIR opened in 1957 and is 3.27 miles around.

Finally, part of why I'm doing this now is because, I'm headed out of town. One of my traveling companions has business in Knoxville late in the week, and then we'll be headed east from there...

Assuming weather, and whatever other factors, hold out, this will be my first visit to VIR. In the last 15 years, I've made it to Heartland Park (2006 SCCA Runoffs), Kansas Speedway (IRL), Road America (ALMS, CCWS, GA, IMSA), Indianapolis (F1, IMSA), Mid Ohio (ALMS, IndyCar), Watkins Glen (GA, IndyCar), Lime Rock (ALMS), and Sebring (SCCA).