continued from above
So we were ready for TT3 and maxed out on the power-to-weight. How would we fare at MSR-Houston? Honestly, I didn't have high hopes. We would be running heavier than ever, and I don't know that track well. I've driven it twice before, but once was in the rain on street tires at stock power levels and the second time was last year at TX2K12, where we had massive tire problems (some used Hoosiers I brought kept popping internal cords and coming apart) and still nowhere near the preparation level the car had in mid-2012 to now. There were nine people signed up in TT3, the biggest TT class so far, and I was hoping to crack the top three if I put in a good run. The old TTA track record for MSR-H CW was a 1:44.3, but I couldn't remember what we ran there before going this direction. The tires we were taking were dead though, so I was very unsure of the performance potential. We were also going to share the car, with me driving one day and Amy the next, so we would only get about four sessions each. Time would tell...
NASA @ MSR-Houston, January 19-20th, 2013
NASA ran MSR-Houston's 2.38 mile course Clockwise this race weekend.
After making some new number and sponsor/product graphics for the 2011 Mustang GT, we loaded up the trailer and Brandon (Vorshlag's uber-photographer), Amy, and I left Dallas on Friday afternoon and towed 5 hours to the south end of Houston. We arrived at the track late, unhooked the trailer in the pitch dark, and headed to the hotel a solid 20 miles away.
Sunday, Race Day One
Next morning we got in before dawn, unloaded the Mustang and went to tech to get our 2013 Annual Tech sticker and renew our logbook ($10 for the year). We had NASA decals to apply, two transponders to mount and test, and a hundred other things. It was quite chilly, with temps in the low 40s, but the weather outlook was warming for the afternoon and predicted to be warmer still on Sunday.
Vorshlag photo gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...ouston-011913/
The guys from
Evo-Dynamics brought four EVOs and a GTR down from Dallas and hung out with us at the Vorshlag trailer all weekend (see our "foggy paddock" above). We had shade, lots of chairs, and lots to drink. Lots of fun was had with these guys all weekend, both on track and off. That's half the fun of a NASA race weekend - hanging out with fellow competitors and friends between race sessions, shooting the bull, bench racing, talking a little smack, and having fun.
The morning was pretty hectic for me, as I was both competing in Time Trial as well as instructing, which meant I had to go to three meetings that morning: instructors (missed it!), Time Trial and HPDE, to meet my students. I had an HPDE2 student driving in a beautiful and well prepped Porsche Cayman S. I rode along with her for three sessions then picked up a 2nd student later that day and Sunday.
I was so rushed that morning that
I forgot to turn on my transponder in my first TT session, which meant I got no time. Normally that's not a big deal, as the first TT session on Saturday in NASA Texas doesn't count for competition, just for gridding. So this meant I was at the
back of the grid, mired in slower traffic, for all of TT session two. Never got even a remotely a clear lap, but was quick enough to move up to grid position 10 out of 44, based on those session two times. Then in TT session three I was quickest of the group, which was mainly because the TT1 guys sat out, which moved me up to P2 in TT session four. So surely now I could get a clean lap or two without traffic...
Click above to watch in-car video of two laps in TT session four, in 1080P.
So TT session four wound up being perfect for getting fast laps, eventually. After chasing John Gross' TT1 C6 Z06 for part of the first lap, I watched him take the "agricultural line" into the Diamond's Edge corner, while I was giving Josh's TT2 car a point-by. Diamond's Edge is a tricky, fast corner where I enter in 5th gear, tap the brakes at the brake markers, turn in, let the car corner hard, then get back on the gas and brake for the tight 2nd gear corner at the end of the sequence. Then you touch three curbs through a wiggle at the end and accelerate back down another long straight. There is a lot of time to be made or lost into the braking zone in this corner sequence and John just got a little overzealous. He wasn't the only one using more than the track allowed that weekend, but luckily I didn't add my name to that list.
Saturday Results: http://www.nasatx.com/resultspoints/...aturday_TT.pdf
Old track records for MSR-H (CW is slower than CCW):
http://www.nasa-tt.com/Texas_Track_R...6_articleid/11
Of course, there was no contact or crashes of any kind in any TT session (there never is), and the only real carnage was John's ZR1 splitter (now a "6 piece unit") and a couple EVO motors were served up to the Gods of Boost. Some dirt and grass was killed, but nothing bad. There were a lot of E46 M3s in TTB (and one that got bumped to TT3), with KenO leading the pack once again, but winning by a mere tenth of a second over Allan Page. Three of these M3 racers all run the same AST 4200/Vorshlag camber plate set-up and a 4th entrant has our plates - and he wants shocks. All of these M3's are driven to the track and are still street cars. Very cool.
So my fourth session went well and I got a couple of clean laps, finally. After chasing Josh for two laps, I busted off a 1:42.1 and 1:41.5 laps, then caught the back of the field and came in after four laps. The tires were DONE and I didn't want to risk a spin and get a DSQ for the session. So when I came off track I was told to head to the tech shed for a weighing. No problem, I should be fine. Errr... the fuel level was lower than I had planned and I missed weight. Damn! That DSQ'd the session, but my times from previous sessions (1:42.0) were still fast enough for a class win, still with a nice margin and new track record. We went and re-weighed a few times that afternoon and added enough extra ballast in the car to be legal for Amy on Sunday. We overshot by 50 extra pounds, "just in case".
continued below