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Of course I didn't realize this until Sunday, so I don't have
any Sunday video, either. And that's when I found 2 more seconds. Anyway, the final TT session Saturday went well enough, and I dropped down to a 1:52.616 on my 2nd hot lap (I made some driving mistakes on my first lap - the car was very twitchy and loose, and it took a lap to get the tires up to temp and settled down). And I'm glad I went out, because another TT3 driver slapped on some sticker Hoosiers in this session and dropped to a 1:53.330, for 2nd place. We had TEN cars in the TT3 class by day's end, out of 31 cars, so it was the biggest TT class of the day.
NASA time sheets for TT Session 2 (left), TT session 3 (middle) and End of Day Saturday Results (right)
I still didn't think the time was where I should have been running in this car, as the American Iron lap record was a 1:52.9 and I was barely beating that. The track was green from the recent rains, and the fastest AI car that day was in the 1:53s (Mike P's 4th gen Camaro), but that was still too close. I was hoping the first session on Sunday would seal the deal and we could push the TT3 record into the 1:49s or 1:50 flat range.
The best part of the weekend was still to come - the Saturday night NASA party! This time, instead of cooking the food themselves, the NASA region folks had the
TWS food service crew cook the food, who did a stupendous job. Fajitas and drinks and beer for everyone there, entrants, friends, volunteers and everyone. That's how NASA does it - everyone is invited. We heard a short speech from Dave Baligant, who announced all of the NASA Texas folks who went to the NASA National Championships at Miller. He noted that I was the only TT racer from our region who went, trying to push more of our group to go next year. We ate, we drank, and had a good time conversing with other racers, friends and other shops from our area (like the guys from Texas Track Works and Evolution Dynamics). I also had great burger at lunch both days and breakfast tacos Sunday from the same TWS cafe, too. For such an old looking building they worked out of, that crew cooked up some damned good food.
After the party we went back to Costas' place and I talked about my laps with Paul. He has a lot more time on this track than I do lately, running his tube framed "GT-1-esque" Camaro in the 1:43-1:45 range. He had some pointers and I thought about these as I drifted off to sleep with the beginnings of a headache.
Sunday - Day 2
I didn't sleep well (woke up with that headache) and Amy and I woke up early and watched the start and first few laps of the F1 race with Costas, then got ready to go to the track at around 7:15... when I started feeling even more sick. We got out in his front yard, were getting into the F-350 to head back to TWS, and I felt very very nauseous ... double over for a ten count and almost puked. Head was POUNDING and I felt terrible. Brushed it off and we got fuel in the truck, ice for the coolers and headed out for an 8:30 TT session 1. This massive headache and stomach thing was with me all day and I was far from 100%, but I tried to push it out of my head and wanted to get in my first 2 early TT sessions, when I knew the conditions would be most favorable.
Mike was seen installing some sticker Hoosier A6 tires for sunday's TT Session 1
Luckily my first session went well and I didn't puke in the car! That was my biggest concern, because my stomach was telling me that whatever I ate the night before was going to come up. I went out on the same A6s from the end of the day before (which was the same set we used at Miller), and the temps were ideal in that first session. I went out right behind Mike Weathers in his TT1 Corvette, who was gridded P1, and I was P2 for the rest of the weekend. On paper my times were within 2 seconds of Mike, but I knew he had a lot left in the tank. And sure enough, Mike had a sticker set of A6 Hoosiers mounted Sunday morning and he said his first lap was going to be his best - and I told him I was on the same tire strategy and would follow right behind him. So we both went out with minimal tire scrubbing and looking to put in our best shot on hot lap 1, then cool down and come right in on Lap 2. That's the A6 tire game in TT and we both knew it well.
Well something happened to change that; one of the instructors was delayed getting from his student's car to grid in his new F30 3 series BMW (gorgeous car, BTW!), got released from grid late, made a wrong turn in the pits, and long story short... he was almost 3/4 of a lap behind the field we we went green. Just bad luck for everyone, and not his fault - instructing is a lot fo work and makes it extra tough if you are competing or trying to get some track time in your own car. Mike's C6 Z06 was setting a BLISTERING pace (he said his predictive timer showed a 1:44 lap!) and I pushed as hard as I dared, trying to simply keep him in sight. My timer was showing a 1:49 predictive, far better than I've ever run in any car at TWS over the years, in any car I've owned, even the E36 LS1 Alpha car. These two lap times were not to be, however, as Mike caught the F30 BMW in Turn 10 and I caught him in Turn 12, and we both had to scrub our first laps getting around him.
It wasn't a huge deal, and he did his best to get out of our way, but we just got unlucky and caught him in bad places to try to pass and had to back off. So Mike took a 2nd hot lap and so did I, with him getting down to the 1:45.680 and me getting a 1:50.744. I knew there was more in it so I took a 2nd hot lap (lap 3) and managed a
nearly identical 1:50.75X, pushing even harder. The car was already sloppy and only got worse after that, as the tires had been overheating after the first lap. So I took a cool down and came in. Turns out I could have put it in the trailer then for the day, but I had no idea how anyone else was running, yet.
Sunday's TT Session 1 (left) and TT Session 2 (middle) were the only 2 I ran that day. Sunday End of Day times at right
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