Project Update for May 2, 2012 - Part 2: This entry will cover the NASA Time Trial race we attended in the Mustang test mule last weekend. The lap times were somewhat mediocre for most of my sessions with the Mustang only making about a dozen hot laps all day, but we had fun and learned a lot. This entry is sort of long, just so I can keep track of all of my thoughts for a later date. If that unimpressive opening hasn't put you to sleep, then keep reading.
Couldn't find a decent track map of TWS so I made this from a satellite image - click to enlarge
We had planned on only running one day for the NASA 3-day weekend, since we had
just done a long and tiring 3-day race weekend the week before and had other plans on Sunday (a non-race event, for once). Originally we planned on bringing two cars: our TTD E46 (for Amy to race - and this car is finally ready for TT use again, after a long hiatus from NASA events!) and the Mustang (for me to race), which was now bumped up to TTS class. This was due to the massive tire, power and aero changes since our last TTB event in 2011. With our little 36' enclosed trailer we cannot fit 2 cars inside, but I found an open trailer to borrow - just not a second truck. We could rent one, then drive 2 trucks and two trailers down... twice the fuel and driving? Nah. Amy has
never run the TWS 2.9 mile course and had only run the smaller infield-only TWS course back in 1994? I told her about the speeds she'd see on the 2.9 and she decided to pass on TWS in the E46 and just go along to help drive the trailer and take pictures. So I got a track helper and towing buddy, yay!
Vorshlag picture and video gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...SA-TWS-042812/
It's now 4 days after the event and they still don't have results posted yet (color me shocked, heh). I can only go by the printed results sheet from session 2 on Saturday that I "liberated" during the event (it was an extra!). I have learned over the years that if you want to ever see class results for a NASA Texas event, you
have to take matters into your own hands. For a group that runs such an awesome event, maintains schedule, and has excellent safety, they have crap results. Even after they are eventually posted (via the "MyLaps" site), you won't see all of the info that these results sheets show. I've bemoaned the poor NASA Texas race results before and will continue to do so until it improves, as a sort of Public Service Announcement.
Sat, TT, Session 2 Results: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...12-ses2-X2.jpg
Amy and I arrived at the track late Friday (after 9 pm), due to leaving late and hitting 5 o'clock traffic in Dallas. I said 'hi' to a few folks, unhooked the trailer, then headed to dinner and the hotel. Saturday morning we got to the track at 7, unloaded the car and had it annual tech'd. Afterwards, I went to an instructor meeting at 7:30, the TT meeting at 8, and HPDE meeting right after. Since I was only there for Saturday, I got switched to a Saturday-only HPDE1 student, who also had a 2011 Mustang GT. Luckily she knew the track well, but not having run with NASA before it was an automatic DE1 placement (I signed her off to HPDE2 after 3 sessions).
Our Mustang had several changes since our last NASA outing, where we ran it in TTB. This time we had the new stupid-high-mega-wing, the LS splitter, new 18x11/18x12 wheels and still-somewhat-fresh 315mm Kumho V710s (that we ran at the ProSolo). It was so far past TTB prep that it moved all the way past TTA and into TTS - which is the first of the "power-to-weight" classes in TT, so at least we don't have to nit-pick every point per modification. There were some other Mustangs in TTS already, including David Armstrong's well prepped Boss302 on AST 5200s and a real Boss302-S race car.
Relearning Texas World Speedway
After seeing the track briefly while riding along with my HPDE student in her first session, I quickly realized that I had forgotten all of my visual cues and lines from past outings at this track. Grass had overgrown the curbing, the surface was very different from my last time on track, and I had forgotten everything. Thinking back I really haven't run this track much in almost... 20 years? I co-drove the E36 Alpha car for 2 sessions with Hanchey back in 2008, where we got check out rides to get our TT Comp licenses. Before that I had run it a bit in the mid-1990s, but it was a completely different track configuration where Turn 3 joined with Turn 10. In the late 1980s/early 1990s I had run this 2.9 mile layout while still in college, but man... that was a LONG time ago.
Allan and Ken's tandem E46 M3's were both fast, equipped with AST 4200s + Vorshlag parts and prep work
I knew it would take a bit to blow out 20+ years of cobwebs, so I gridded up behind AI speed demon Mike, from AST/Moton. HE knew this track very well so I figured I'd follow him for a few laps and... WHOA! He took off like a freagin man on fire, right on the warm up lap. So I got some heat in the tires, look back, and the E46M3 TTB Terror Twins KenO and Allan Page are right on my bumper. OK, OK, you guys go around... I'll follow them for... dang, mirror has more cars behind me, etc. Just trying to get my bearings but these TT guys are ready to RACE, like right NOW. I spent the first few laps of this session letting people go around me as a rolling roadblock and didn't get a single lap in unobstructed from the front or back. By lap 4 the car felt really loose on slow speed turns, and I smelled gear oil smoke and had a traction control fault, so I brought it in. I felt like an idiot out there, fumbling around trying to find some sort of visual cues on each corner. Ran an abysmal 2:01 best lap, which gridded me way back in the pack for session 2. Great.
Here I am - the rolling roadblock, holding up the field 
The first TT session was at 8:40 am and the sky was overcast, so the track was still stone cold. Turn 3 had no grip due to a Spec Miata that popped a motor there on the Friday 3 hour enduro, and it never felt good all day. Turn 10 (the carousel) was slippery as always. But the rest of the corners was mostly just... my crappy driving and generally terrible memory. Also, with completely new track set-ups and radical parts changes you inevitably have teething problems, and I quickly found one.
As I pulled into the paddock, the car reeked of gear oil. I jacked the rear end of the car up and it had gear oil all over the right axle tube, fuel tank, right muffler, and right rear tire. A-ha, that's why it felt squirrely and was smoking! We had just rebuilt the TractionLok the day before and the old "loop of hose" that was attached to the OEM axle vent wasn't enough to keep oil from filling the hose and coming out, especially after just topping off the 75W140 the day before and running on the insanely steep banking at TWS. Oil + tires = no grip! Talked to other racers with stick axle cars who had seen similar problems before - "keep driving it and it'll burn off enough fluid eventually!"
Luckily the Session 1 times for TT don't count for anything other than grid spots in Session 2, so I cleaned off the mess as best as I could - managing to get most of the gear oil on me. Ahh, gear oil - the world's worst perfume. I had to burn that shirt. Then I hopped in my student's car for her 2nd session and afterwards I went out in the Mustang again in TT session 2. This time I was gridded 16th out of 28 cars when I went out, and behind cars I know and was faster than before when we ran in TTB on street tires. Ugh, this session was going to be some work. I got some heat in the tires on the out lap and the car was responding better to the increased track heat (10:45 am) and a
little better driving. I quickly caught and passed several cars gridded ahead of me (hence faster than me in session 1). My in-car video, a compilation of a few "offs" from other cars + my best lap (lap 4) is shown below.
Video from Session 2
continued below