This was my first trip to beautiful VIR, and a first in an Audi S4. The track was fun and technical. The rain made it even more of a challenge. This turned out to be a very wet and wild race weekend!

During both practices and qualifying we had a fuel pick up problem. The team was very thorough in trouble shooting the problem and got it sorted out for the race. We qualified 10th in class. Not where I would like to be, but under the circumstances it would have to do.

It had been raining all day. Our race started at 5pm, and there was no change of the weather in sight. As soon as we started the parade lap my windshield fogged up, I mean really fogged up! I had no choice but to pit, missing the start of the race. I was lucky just to make it around the track!

We wiped the shield only for it to completely fog up as I went through turn 1, having to navigate blindly around the track to pit again. I had to do this a total of 5 times in a row! I got on the radio and said that we are not only endangering ourselves but the other racers as well.

I asked for a rag on a stick so I could wipe the shield as I went down the straights. The team finally put one together but it was not long enough to wipe the right side, (most all the turns go to the right at VIR) so I asked for a longer one. I radioed to Neil and said lets just do whatever it takes to finish this race, we will never give up! It was just survival out there.

The team had a good coat of Rain-X on the shield, so we are still trying to figure out what went wrong. They also tried soap. The blower did nothing; we even added a vent, which was also ineffective.

After getting the longer rag on a stick I got into a rhythm of going through the corners, short shifting, wiping, shifting, wiping, through the corners, reporting in on the radio, and so on. I was laughing at how insane it seemed to be. I got interviewed by Speed TV and said that it was a good thing that women are great multi-taskers.

The S4’s four-wheel drive made all this a lot easier in the wet. But to make matters more challenging, the radio went out about 1 hour in. I could hear them, but they could not hear me. I pitted for a driver change 1 hour and 45mins in, handing Raff the car and the rag on a stick with instructions.

It was tricky, holding the stick between my legs and going through the corners, it was just long enough to move back and forth in front of my vision. You had to laugh. Raff had a time of it as well. After the race we compared notes. It was funny. The stick got stuck in the window net, and the threads from the rag got caught in the right doorpost, around the shifter and various other places. Pretty distracting, thank God neither one of us dropped it, otherwise that would have meant more pit stops.

Other than that the car ran flawlessly. We brought the Audi back clean with an 11th place class finish, 19th overall. I think that was pretty darn good under the circumstances.

Raff the team owner of R.A.C.E. Team and his crew were absolutely wonderful to work with. We all had a great time together. All in all it was a successful wet and wild weekend of racing!