Mother Nature really smiled on NSXPO '98 today.  A few clouds were floating around early in the day but by mid afternoon it was beautiful.

Click on any image to view a high-resolution version...

The morning Country Drive through some great roller-coaster roads in the area started with groups of 8-10 staging in the Wyndham parking lot.  The groups were staggered 10 or 15 minutes to help keep them down to a managable size.  Dick Hackman and his young daughter Lauren did a supurb job of leading our driving group. Lauren knows more about the NSX and racing than most people I've met, even though she won't be old enough to drive for several years!

After a few minutes we were at the start of a truly spectacular series of roads.  Someone on the radio said "these roads were made just for this event," and everyone else seemed to agree. 

Our group seemed a little more speed oriented than some of the others.  A little less than half way through the drive we had passed another group, so we stopped at McDonalds for a little rest stop to let things get spaced back out properly. 

Don't be fooled by all the flat roads in these pictures; I was too busy driving to take any picturs during the exciting parts. A number of us were even airborn more than once as we got into the really good roads.

After we were back on the road for a little while we passed another group.  I'm not sure if we were ahead of schedule or they just spent longer than expected at the Ash Cave rest stop... so we stopped again and everyone got back in the correct order.

This entire weekend every group I've driven with had unscheduled police escorts for at least part of the way.  This sheriff is in the process of turning around so he could follow us from behind for about 15 minutes. Not long after he stopped following us a plane started circling overhead as we drove over some VASCAR lines painted on the road. I understand someone in another group got a ticket today but I do not know the details.  Luckily our group was incident-free.

After the Country Drive we headed to Dan Darby Farm for lunch.  The scenery was spectacular, the weather was great, and the cars were all given touch-up detailing as soon as we pulled up.

The buffet style lunch was great, as all the NSXPO meals have been.  Cars were still trickling in and everyone was milling around the parking area, so I decided to get a jump on the food and then come back and take a picture of all the cars while everyone else was inside eating.

Thanks to the friendly people working that day I was able borrow a pretty big ladder for picture taking; there weren't many good natural vantage points. You will probably see a lot of pictures that look much like this one; several dozen people had taken photos and video from the top of the ladder by the time we left.

After lunch we headed out to the Transportation Research Center.  There were three different driving events in the Vehicle Dynamics Area (a huge paved surface) that ALL owners were able to participate in at no charge; a 200' diameter skid pad, a short oval course, and a winding course (the latter two marked by cones).

They also took people on tours of the rest of their facilities, such as the SEVEN mile high-speed banked oval track.

Much of the tire tread people brought here didn't leave with them...

After the TRC event, which lasted the whole afternoon and into early evening, everyone went their seperate ways.  The people not going to the track on Monday and Tuesday mostly headed for home; most of those going to the track grabbed some dinner and went to a hotel closer to Mid-Ohio Raceway.

Stay tuned for Day One of the track event tomorrow...