VIR aims to put region in the fast lane


South Boston News

Josh Lief has reason for optimism about the next ten years at Virginia International Raceway.

This lavish motorsports-country club — already home to NASCAR Sprint Cup testing, a stunning variety of racing, both professional and amateur, car club activity to the max, and a host of special attractions and features — is also helping drive the regional economy, especially in added tourism and specialized technical motorsports research.

VIR, which officially kicked off the tenth anniversary of its rebirth in March, takes its mission to a much higher level this weekend with the Bosch Engineering 250.

The track hosts the highest level of professional motorsports to visit Halifax County this year, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, which will feature its signature class, the powerful Daytona Prototypes, in a noon race Saturday.

Harvey Siegel and Connie Nyholm brought VIR back to life in 2000, and now Lief, the track’s general manager, is to make the motorsports-country club even more sustainable in the long term.

VIR also plans to maintain and grow its role helping the regional economy in the next decade.

“VIR will continue to push for and help to bring businesses to our Raceplex and the Virginia Motorsports technology park. The track owners have invested heavily in it as have the local governments to an extent, and we think that motorsports is an economic engine creating jobs in a real important way for this area,” said Lief.

Lief pointed to a variety of business concerns that have moved here since VIR’s rebirth, including Synergy racing, Sasco Sports, TMI Auto Tech and more.

“We have some very exciting things on the horizon,” said Lief.

Lief also expects to sustain the major events the track has now, including the Grand-Am events, AMA pro racing, and the other signature events on the schedule, including the SCCA pro racing events.

“I’m very pleased with where we are today. I think that … after ten years, we have a lot to be thankful for.

“In any business… you have to keep moving forward,” said Lief, pointing to the efforts to add features like the new skeet range at VIR.

VIR is continuing to build on the amenities here, working to grow Camp Motorsports and expand the effort to grow the track’s mid-week business opportunities, in addition to weekend activities.

The goal is to bring people to Halifax County’s motorsports jewel all week long, and not just on the weekends.

VIR, which bills itself as ‘America’s Motorsport Resort’, has added a variety of attractions, features and improvements. These include the popular luxury ‘Villas at Southport’, as well as other amenities. VIR, which has a heavy track rental, is also trying to boost its mid-week business as well.

VIR continues to be a player in the overall economic development in the Southside region.

Lief cited a recent economic impact study that showed VIR creates a $73 million economic impact around the immediate area, Danville and Pittsylvania County, along with Halifax County.

Spreading that impact beyond those horizons pushes that figure to between ninety and 100 million, Lief estimated.

“VIR started as a club track. It was Harvey Siegel’s and Connie Nyholm’s vision to bring club racing back to this area,” said Lief.

From there, VIR has expanded to both professional and amateur racing, but there are so many different aspects to the track, including new lodging, that mean VIR is now doing business almost every day of the year.

VIR has become a haven for club events, professional races, and much more. VIR gets tremendous exposure (and revenue) from the frequent NASCAR Sprint Cup testing.

Teams find they get good data on VIR’s North Course. “They run that track and that translates really well into Watkins Glen and Infineon, where they race (on Sprint Cup),” said Lief. The track will have a NASCAR Sprint Cup test session open to the public.

Lief, said the track celebrated its tenth year anniversary of being open on March 17.

The ownership and management “are really excited where we’ve come in ten years. When you look at where we started, to where we are today, we’re very pleased with the growth.

“We think we still have some growth to go, some new additions like Camp Motorsport,” said Lief. “We’re always looking to add some things” to promote jobs in the area.

The idea is to create new jobs and economic activity in Halifax County and Southside.

Lief and the VIR staff are in overdrive preparing for the most important weekend of the year at the motorsports country club, including special events for the entire family. Tourism in the region should also get a major boost this weekend, especially with both VIR and South Boston Speedway, which has a full race card this Saturday night, in full swing.

The weekend includes two feature divisions, the Daytona Prototypes and the Grand Touring Series.

Former Sprint Cup regular Scott Pruett and his co-driver, Memo Rojas, are the hot commodity at the moment in the signature Daytona Prototype Class.

Rojas and Pruett dominated the field in the Porsche 250 before an estimated crowd of 25,000 at Barber Motorsports Park April 10, the previous appearance in the national touring series.

Pruett and Rojas have won two DP races in a row in the Daytona Prototype class heading into the Bosch Engineering 250 weekend.

Pruett, now 50 years old, appears to be as tuned in as ever heading into the Rolex weekend at VIR. Rojas and Pruett lead the points in the Grand-Am Rolex Series driver points standings with 102, with Ryan Dalziel second with 91 points and John Pew and Oswaldo Negri Jr. tied for third with 81.

The series has had a fascinating year, as an unsponsored team won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, followed by the domination of the veterans like Pruett and Rojas.

There are other supporting series. Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato won the Rolex Series GT class in the Porsche 250 at Barber, giving them two straight wins and four in seven races dating back to 2009.

The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup series is also competing in VIR, with young drivers racing for the opportunity to step up in racing. These eco-friendly cars are wicked fast, and should provide plenty of excitement in the huge racing weekend here.

And there is so much more to do this weekend, for the fans, with a variety of special attractions packed into the schedule.

There’s plenty of racing, with a full schedule of practice and qualifying tomorrow, a full day Saturday, featuring a noon start for the Rolex Grand Am action, and a wrap-up Sunday afternoon, with four races. Events will be run rain or shine.

The schedule starts at 8 a.m. Friday with practice for the VW Jetta TDI series, and then there’s a complete slate of practice and qualifying for the weekend events.

Saturday’s slate includes the headline event of the weekend, the start of the Bosch Engineering 250 for the Rolex Sports Car Series (2.75 hours) followed by the Continental Tire Challenge race (2.5 hours), beginning at 3:30 p.m.

The Skip Barber developmental series has its first race of the weekend Saturday at 9 a.m., and the VW Jetta TDI series also goes green with its first race at 10 a.m.

On Sunday, four races are planned. The VW Jetta TDI cup races at 12:30 p.m., followed by the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge at 1:40 p.m.; the Mazda MX-5 Cup at 2:45 and the second event of the weekend for Skip Barber at 3:40 p.m.

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