Yahoo Autos Lightning Lap Results 2006 to 2018: Every Car, Every Lap Time
Our little event is growing up. If Lightning Lap had been a kid who’d started first grade all those years ago, he’d be graduating from high school now. We can’t help but reminisce about the ups and downs of more than a decade of lapping sessions at Virginia International Raceway and those devilish 4.1 miles and 24 turns that comprise its Grand Course. 2017's rain-delayed event was a low point. As a reminder that Mother Nature has greater concerns, it rained the night before we went hot lapping again in 2018 (hence the wet cars on the lead image).
High points have included the Mosler MT900S setting the lap record in Lightning Lap 3; nothing could touch it for six years. Then a Porsche 918 Spyder rolled into class, like that transfer student in eighth grade with an earring, and crushed the Mosler. While that record stood for a while, the rest of the field has steadily been closing in. And our event has grown bigger, from just a handful of C/D employees with a couple of toolboxes to an army of staffers, along with factory-supplied coaches and support squads bearing more spare tires than a Rascal-scooter meet.
Through it all, VIR has proved itself the ultimate test of modern machinery, a North American Nürburgring. To be quick around VIR, a car has to be nimble enough to negotiate tight hairpins and inspire the confidence to tackle triple-digit esses. Also, horsepower doesn’t hurt.
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