This is the long overdue experience report from the Mid-Ohio round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Be warned, wall of text incoming 😊
First of all, thank you
@JackRyanWMU who gave some invaluable tips to the track in the Weathertech thread, those made the experience much better!!
Now, onto the report! To preface the experience we had at Mid-Ohio, it’s worth mentioning my previous track experiences:
- 1998 Hungaroring, FIA GT Championship (yes, I did see those glorious GT1s in person), spectator
- 1999 Hungaroring, FIA GT Championship, work, spectator
- 1999 A1-Ring, F1, work
- 1999 Hungaroring, F1, work
- 2001 Hungaroring, FIA GT Championship, spectator
- 2003 Hockenheimring, Sport Auto Tuner GP (wasn’t an actual race weekend but an event)
So, it’s been a while… Anyway, I knew from the get-go that to truly follow the racing action but to soak up as much experience as I can. Basically, a few days after the calendar came out last year, I booked the hotel (traveled a lot for work earlier, still have a lot of points at Marriott). My family wasn’t particularly excited about the topic but that’s alright 😊 (ultimately it was only my wonderful wife and me, she’s really great putting up with me for over 20 years now)
My hotel choice (TownPlace Suites, Mansfield) was completely fine, got a Volvo S60 T5 from Hertz for the weekend (don’t like to take my own car for longer trips). I’m 6’/183 cm tall but man, it was tight… I sat in the lowest possible position and don’t have long legs and my head barely had room. Otherwise the car was OK, had 60k miles on it, no issues whatsoever. The trip was about 7 hours one way from PA.
One of the best decision I made about the weekend was to buy the infield parking for $40, great investment. We could park the car in shadow and could move around easily without the need to take the cooler with us, we could just walk back to the car, sit down, eat a sandwich or snacks (I have food allergy, no chance with the food vendors, even though everything looked and smelled good) – all the while watching the action at turn 11. I also recognized myself in the Peacock broadcast standing at the car 😊
Over the 2 days we walked around. We didn’t walk up to the Keyhole but otherwise we went everywhere within the infield (from turn 4 to the outside mound overlooking the Carousel) and checked out the grand stand, too. We also walked around the whole paddock, did the pit walk, the autograph sessions with the MX-5 Cup drivers and the MPC one, got a bunch of free swag, spent a lot of money on merch, pretty much everything we could think of. Walking through the paddock was incredible. I remember that we could do more or less the same during the FIA GT races at the Hungaroring but it still amazes me. Getting so up close to these cars, one could literally touch them (wouldn’t do that, of course)… it’s a bit of a wet dream if I’m honest – same with the pit walk, didn’t realize that it has a gradient at Mid-Ohio.
There was a lot of action during the weekend, let’s take it by series. A lot of my impressions are around the sound experience, something the broadcast can’t fully channel through:
- FIA TCR World Tour: this was a surprise as I didn’t know they had a US round, admittedly, I’m not following the series, which is a shame, given that Norbert Michelisz is one of the top drivers there and we’re from Hungary originally. I’m also not exactly a FWD fan, I was already a BMW shill during the Supertouring era back in the ‘90s but the TCR cars were a very positive surprise. I know I state the obvious here but on TV I can’t really appreciate the speed that these car achieve. Let’s not even mention the sound! Yes, the most bland engine, inline-4, turbocharged that typically doesn’t help but these are animals in the best way possible, really enjoyed them – same true of course for the TCRs in MPC.
It was also impressing to hear that the BHA Elantras driven by Gottsacker and Wilkins were the same cars used in MPC, so the BHA guys did a helluva job converting them back and forth between the sessions.
We decided to skip most of the second race to go to the FIA TCR paddock to catch Michelisz, which was a successful endeavor. We had the chance to congratulate him to the weekend, shake his hand and take some pictures. Just that was probably already worth it! It was also funny to talk to my brother-in-law living in Hungary while at the track. I told him during Saturday that yeah, Norbi is here, watched the first race with some other Hungarians we met there and he was like: dude, I watched that race on TV. I knew that you are at a race event but didn’t realize it was that 😊
So, all in all, the TCR World Tour was a welcome addition and an absolutely positive experience.
- Mustang Challenge: I mean, what to say here really??? I drove a few S550 GTs as rentals, NA V8, manual gear box, sounds incredible, great action and just awesome to listen to the downshifts after the long straight. I know, they have autoblip, no heel-and-toe needed (something I have to learn myself) but still. I can imagine that it must be great to be a gentleman driver and just get some great racing action with these cars.
- Mazda MX-5 Cup: another no-brainer here. In the paddock I talked to another spectator at the Mazda area where they had a Cup car and a Safety Car on display about trying it out. It would be great for sure but I wouldn’t fit into the cage 😊 Never had the chance so far to try the MX-5 (probably will rent one on Turo for a day or two) but the race car isn’t for me 😊 Back to the action, again, similar to the TCR I was very surprised about the sound experience. Those 2 liter engines sound great, actually quite close to the TCR cars apart from the turbo whistle that you can hear there. Also, as they’re always in packs, they sound like an angry beehive chasing Winnie-the-Pooh for stealing their honey. I liked them before, like them even more now.
- VP Challenge: I leave the GT4/GSX to the MPC section, so just about the LMP3s. First time seeing any LMP prototypes (arguably, the end-of-90s GT1s were prototypes, at least the CLK GTR and 911 GT1 but they still kinda resembled street cars), looked great, were the fastest over the weekend if I’m not mistaken and those NA Nissan V8s sounded even better. I can see why the category is quite popular around the world. Not sure if I’d buy one as a track toy if I’d hit the jackpot, as probably I wouldn’t be able to get in but must be a hoot to drive them.
- Finally, the MPC, the GT4 cars: or rather first a difference between the GT4s and the TCRs I didn’t really appreciate enough before. I spent a little while around turns 8 and 9 and was great to see how the TCRs lift the right rear wheels in turn 8 while the GT4s go through planted there. So, now the GT4s – I mentioned multiple time on the GTPlanet forums that I’m partial to Porsche and BMW, so take everything I write with that in mind.
- Aston, AMG: if I’m not completely mistaken, they use the same turbocharged V8 engine, or at least they’re quite similar. I can’t say they’re bad cars, I mean they took the first 5 positions at the end but they’re very underwhelming and uninspiring from the spectator perspective. Not being an AM or Merc fan doesn’t help but they were just barely louder than a street car. I mean, every TCR car was much better sounding. From what I heard on videos, the AMG GT3’s NA V8 sounds magical, too bad the GT4 got a smaller turbo
- The McLaren Artura was a touch better – again, not a bad car, they took the pole, just not my cup of tea (I don’t care about their street cars either – not like that would interest McLaren as I’m not exactly in the position to buy one 😊)
- Toyota GR Supra: I may be the only one in the world who thinks that the J29 Z4 Coupe is much better looking than any other Supra, its proportions are great, a classic sports car. However, its BMW-sourced turbo inline-6 is just as uninspiring as the aforementioned turbo V8s. Why is that surprise? Because…
- The G82 M4 GT4 was the biggest surprise of all. It was loud and good loud, very distinct sound. I’m still not a fan of the beaver grille but in person the cars looked great, especially the Turner cars, they had quite a few of them on hand, made a picture of the Fanatec wheel, of course 😊Especially, when 2-3 followed each other, that was a symphony. Also, I think the GT4 looks better than the GT3 version, Jimmer and Steve must have a blast in theirs
- The Mustang GT4 delivered what one expects from them, great NA V8 – although I dare say the Challenge cars sounded better. Personally, I prefer the S550 look vs the S650 but nobody asked my opinion 😊
- The king for me was the Cayman without a doubt. By far the best sound from the screaming flat-6, very metallic, very overpowering
When these 3 were near each other, yeah, that was a true symphony…
Some other notes: next time if we go to such an event, we need to get a small portable gas grill and a canopy to make it easier. I’d love to get something like a Grom to zoom around the area but that’s not gonna happen. Nevertheless, so many people brought their scooters, small bikes or ATV… I was also kinda jealous for the people sporting infield parking season passes. I was also good to see all kinds of setups from people, we were truly first timer amateurs 😊
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