Wicked Weasel

Heading down in a couple of weeks so figure I ask what is the best way. I am leaving on a Sunday morning so hopefully traffic will not be too bad.

racerbob4

Cross the bridge and get on rt. 95 south. Follow 95 thru Baltimore and around Washington, DC. down to Richmond, Virginia. South of Richmond get on rt. 85 going west until you get to rt. 58 just north of the North Carloinia line. Follow rt 58 west until you get to rt 62 just east of Danville, Va. Follow rt. 62 thru Milton, NC and watch for the VIR sign just barely past the second bridge. This is on the edge of Milton. Follow this winding road a couple of miles and turn left at the next VIR sign. You will see a guard building and you are there.

There is a slightly shorter road off of rt 58 but I dont know the number and this is an easier way to follow back toward Danville to your motel.
If you have a tractor trailer rig you need to follow the race truck route which is a short distance past the second Milton, NC bridge.

Have fun, its a great track with really nice staff.

Wicked Weasel

Thanks we have been there before I was hoping for a way to avoid Richmond but if that's the best way we will go that way.

jaa1992

Well one of the ex wives mother lives near South Boston.
Many moons ago when we would go to visit we would go around town (forget the name of the road) and it would get us on 360. 360 crosses the Dan river in South Boston just after the speedway, then you hit 58 towards Danville. Never did it towing, IIRC the exit off 95 is a little funky Its not too far into Richmond and really goes west and south. Avoids going all the way thru Richmond. Haven't been that way in 7 years so the memory is fading - thank god.

Another possibility would be going thru Charlottsville and down to 58 maybe on US29

I'm always comming up from the south now so its fresher in my mind.

jlutherva

Wow, I'm confused. I did 5 yrs of hard time in NJ and relative to that the traffic in RIC is nothing and then there's Baltimore and Washington DC.

I live on the west side of Richmond and I take the US 360 to South Boston route. Upside is that it is shorter and smoother. Downside is that there is always at least one radar trap.

To avoid Richmond via this route, take I95 S to I295 W to I64 W (10 miles) to 288 S (2 miles) to US 360 (15 miles??).

Which event are you going to attend? I'll be going down for the Chin Motorsports event on Oct 30-31. If that's the one you are going to, good luck with hotels since that's NASCAR @ Martinsville.


Jim

sothpaw2

Baltmore sucks. Traffic is murderous at rush and when that's just over they shut down lanes to continue construction (on-going for 5 years) so there's still healthy back-ups. Construction is on every highway that can be used to go N/S to get around the city: 95, 895, 695, 295, 195(ramp). Speed cams at all these locations to bill you if you do 70.

TRACKMAN2

how do u get to VIR practice,man practice

jlutherva

What about 301 around Baltimore and DC? That used to be a reasonable alternative.

Jim

Wicked Weasel

Trackdaze in Nov running Full and Grand courses which is why we are going.

Staying at the track side rooms as usual. Always great to wake up on the track and watch the sunrise.

sothpaw2

301 is still there but that's south of Baltimore, still have to get through the bottleneck.

Really the best way is to take the Key bridge (east side of beltway) to 295 and hope they don't open a draw bridge for some God forsaken reason. A few years back they closed the bridge for 12-15 hr which covered 2 rush hours periods because this guy threatened to jump. In the ensuing chaos there was another guy who had a heart attack in the jam and passed away since nobody could get to him.

Take the Key bridge anyway...still get caught in some of the 295 mess but if it's not rush hour should be ok.

DOUG @ ECS

Cant find your way to VIR? No wonder you cant find your way around the track either!!


Sorry Bob, you left the door wide open for that one.

racerbob4

Since you are going down on Sunday you won't see the major traffic jams. Rt. 360 is ok but last time I was on that road it had traffic lights and did go thru a lot of western Richmond. Rt 85 is like 95 but a lot less traffic and no stop lights or small towns to navigate thru.

We go down from Arlington, Va. and go out rt 66 west to rt 29 south and take a nice ride thru the mountains. There are traffic lights and towns to go thru and always radar but its not a big hassle with traffic.

r.hillenbrand

From there NJ go through or around Philly to Toll Road 76 follow until outside of Harrisburg PA, exit and take 15 South to Fredrick MD then take 340/15 to Leesburg VA continue to drive through and then exit to 15 South follow until 29 south which will take you to Alton VA or VIR,all roads will keep you out of major cities

waddisme

Going to be doing the full course thing there on that Monday. You sent me a vid about 4 yrs ago of you chasing the green vette around there. Was a great learning tool for me when I started. Looking forward to seeing your Z in action!

Wicked Weasel

This coming from someone who has only gone straight for the last 2+ years. In case you forgot the steering wheel turns left and right

jlutherva

You'll have a lot of fun on the Grand Course. I ran that last year with Trackdaze (they run a good event). Beware of the braking markers going in the Bitch, the 180* off of the back straight. Unlike the rest of the braking markers on the full course, these are a little tighter!

Have fun!

Jim

Wicked Weasel

Thanks. I was thinking of heading out that way to get on 81 which is what we did for summit but 81 seemed a but out if the way for VIR. 15 seems to cut the corner better.

Wicked Weasel

Come over and say hi. We will be in the garages.

Wicked Weasel

Thanks for the advice.

argonaut

I live in Harrisburg area and the way I've gone to VIR in the past is south on I81 all the way to I64 (Waynesboro, VA) and then getting on secondary roads. This gives you about 208 miles of on I81.

I hadn't thought about going down route 15 before. When I map out Harrisburg to Danville I see that this route is indeed shorter (331miles to 348). But, because you spend so much time on secondary roads, according to google maps it takes about 30 min longer. Pretty close though - "six one, half dozen the other". I will say that I81 sees very heavy traffic and, when accidents occur, the backup can be lengthy. Last time I went to Summit Point I got stuck in 45 min jam coming home due to a big rig turned over. Stop and go traffic with a very stiff clutch really bites. Maybe I will go down 15 next time