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Fair · 10-10-2013, 06:10 PM

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Vorshlag Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...SA-TWS-092113/

I do have a lot of good history at TWS other than as a recent NASA Time Trial racer: as an employee during an oil company test that spanned two years driving (of all things) 5.0L Mustangs around the oval for 50,000 miles. As a corner worker with PCA in the 1980s-90s, as a volunteer track worker during a few Pro races they did manage to hold in the 1990s, as an HPDE driver at many events in the 1980s-1990s, and as an officer in the Texas A&M Sports Car Club (TAMSCC) when we rented the track 3 times in the early 1990s. I have driven many hundreds of laps here on virtually all of the various configurations since my first track event there in 1989. I guess it a love-hate relationship, because as good as this track is in some ways (the higher speeds, unique layouts, central location for Texas) the facilities and track have declined for a couple of decades. And you know me, I am not "politically sensitive" and usually say what's on my mind...

What I'm saying is, it doesn't take a keen eye or 24 years of history here to know that this track has seen better days. When you look at the bathrooms, garages, grand stands, the vehicle tunnels under the track, the man tunnels under the track (which have spent years being flooded), and the TWS scoreboard above (picture was shot in April) that looks like it should have a post-apocalyptic Charlton Heston standing under it yelling, "You damned dirty apes!"

This is the lone track that is on the NASA Texas schedule twice in each year, too, and in my humble opinion there are newer, safer tracks we could race at twice a year, all of which have been built in the last 13 years and have nicer facilities. So basically TWS is not my favorite track, because of the added dangers there and the generally declining facilities, but I still enjoy the once a year or so race there.

So that was my list of reservations about another race weekend at TWS, and this weekend in particular (with the Nationals 2 weeks earlier + bad weather). If this race wasn't on the schedule I would have stayed at home and slept, a lot, at least for one day. But I made a promise last year to compete in every NASA Texas race weekend in 2013, and I'm going to stick to it. I have also been trying to bag every TT3 track record this year, and already had the TWS record for the Clockwise 2.9 mile track back in April. Amy was ready to sign up at the event in TT3 if we didn't have 5 in class, to help somebody win Hoosiers, but she was tired enough herself that she wouldn't mind sitting this one out and just helping me that weekend. So likely I would run both days and we'd concentrate on getting me as much track time on this Counter Clockwise 2.9 mile course as possible to put in our best lap time for TT3 track record attempt number 7 for the year.

Last year, in April 2012 when I ran the Mustang at the same 2.9 mile CCW NASA race weekend, we had car problems from the word "go". The high G left turn off the banking and into Corner 1, coming off the high banks at 150+ mph, was causing oil to sling from the axle vent onto the right rear tire. The higher speeds seen here were overworking the plate style limited slip and apparently boiling the diff fluid. The lube was at first just spitting out of the right side axle vent, but later turned into a steady spray of oil. Going into a 150 mph corner with diff fluid spraying onto the loaded outside rear tire is NOT FUN. After fighting massive high speed oversteer for a handful of sessions on the first day, and a failed attempt at a track side fix, we packed up and headed home Saturday afternoon before ruining the weekend for someone else. All I could manage on some fresh 315mm Kumho V710s was a lousy 1:56.7 lap (nearly 4 seconds slower than the AI record), and it was a slip-sliding, scary mess.

Our TWS 2.9 CCW race weekend in April 2012 was a dud, with gear oil pouring on the back tire and slow times

We learned a lot from that event, and have since made 3 revisions of a custom rear diff fluid catch can system on the car, with the current version being ready to turn into a production kit (when we get time to do that). The aero package on the car is also much better now, the suspension more sorted, the tire strategy is better, there's a Torsen T-2R diff in the car now, the Watts link over the previous Panhard rod, and the car is better classed in TT3 vs the TTS class we ran last year. So I was hoping I could stay ahead of the growing TT3 field that seems to be steadily getting faster, and maybe, just maybe, redeem my poor showing on this 2.9 CCW TWS configuration from last year. I had to beat that high 1:56.7 time, for sure, and was hoping to scoot in between the two closest records to TT3 on the books (TT2's record of a 1:50.2 and AI's record of a 1:52.9).

Saturday - Day 1

We got to the track early and it was still spitting rain, so the first few scheduled morning sessions were wet. Amy and I unloaded the car and got everything ready, we went to the TT meeting and handed out the Vorshlag created TT maps (below) but when the first TT Warm Up was scheduled it was still spitting rain. Like at Miller, with no wet tires I wasn't going to risk going out, so I stayed in the paddock. In hindsight, this was a mistake, which I will explain.

At the behest of the TT Director Vorshlag makes a TT Track Map for each NASA Texas race showing the bunch up and "go green" spots

When the next and first "official" timed TT session was scheduled, the track was mostly dried out, so I pulled into grid - at the back, since I didn't have a previous time from the Warm-up to rely on. Again, the Warm Up is mostly run just to get the cars some times to use for gridding purposes for the upcoming "official" TT sessions. So I was stuck in the back for TT session 1 and figured I'd need to make several passes in this session to be able to get a time good enough to move me up on grid for TT session 2. By my rough estimation our Mustang should be about 2nd quickest of the 31 TT cars entered, but I was gridded about 20th. Oh well, how bad could it be?

I was gridded poorly for the 2nd TT session (first official session), due to missing the Warm Up

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Fair · 10-10-2013, 06:11 PM

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As you can see in the video below, pretty damned bad, actually. The tires we were using in these early Saturday sessions were some of the 315mm Hoosier R6 scrubs I picked up at Miller from the Hoosier trash pile, and all 4 had a LOT of klag (balled up rubber) glued to the carcasses. So on my warm up "out lap" I was aggressively trying to get the rubber off by slaloming hard on the straights. Most of the time on a TT out lap we're doing about 50 mph, and until we get to the "bunch up" zone (marked on the map) we can swerve and brake and do what we need to get tire heat, brake heat, oil heat, and scrub off klag like on my set of tires. I thought I had done enough... but no.

That's my first hot lap and yes, I had an off at Turn 6. The car was very loose exiting Turn 3 so I should have been ready for anything, but it was calmed down in Turns 4 and 5, so I started turning it up by Corner 6. I did my normal turn in for T6 and the rear washed out VERY QUICKLY. When it did I think the right rear tire caught some of the still damp track surface off line and it REALLY stepped out some more. I like to think I have pretty fast hands, and can usually catch a spin like this fast enough. Nope, not this time. I got into a classic tank slapper and shot straight off the exit of Corner 6 like a bullet. I could have gone of sideways but figured "go off straight" was the wise choice.

The times from Saturday's TT Warm-Up (left, which I skipped) and TT Session 1 (right, where I had an "off" and a subsequent DQ)

The "off" didn't do anything bad to the car, as the stiff aluminum plate splitter just mowed the grass - you could clearly see the path I took in the outfield. I felt like I should go back and do the edging, since I did so much mowing. Luckily I didn't go very far off track and missed any ruts or big bumps while in the dirt. I slowed down, waited for a gap, and got back on track when it was safe. Once back on track (in between a safe gap of cars) I immediately pulled off line (track left) on the straight and waved several more cars behind me by, until I could check the gauges, brakes and tires to see if I could get back up to speed. Once I was up to Turn 7 the car felt and looked fine, so I sped up and started planning for a hot lap on lap 2. I knew that now this TT session 1 was was going to be a DQ (offs or spins = automatic session DQ in Time Trial), but my times should still count towards gridding for TT session 2. And I needed to move up the grid more than I needed to worry about my fastest official TT time at this point. I took 2 more hot laps with lots of traffic (mostly passing cars I let by when I had the "off"), and got down to a 1:55.564 in traffic, then noticed engine temps shooting up so I took a cool down and came in. Turns out the new mesh grill we added to the lower fascia opening was PACKED FULL OF GRASS, so no air was getting to the radiator. But it still took 2 laps to get hot, so I guess the ducted hood was still pulling some air through the rad, somehow. I wiped away the tall grass clippings that I had mowed and got the car ready for TT session 2, after lunch.

These grey wheels have the R6 tires, and were only used in TT session 1 on Saturday

I went up to check the grid sheet after lunch before TT session 2 was to begin and they had me gridded in... 26th. Huh?? There was apparently some mistake in T&S and they hadn't gridded me by my Session 1 time, which they should have. Oiy, what a mess. But hey, weird stuff can happen when you DQ a session, which was my own damned fault. Since we only had 2 sessions left on Saturday and we all knew it was only going to get hotter, and I had some fast TT3 drivers already breathing down my neck, I went ahead and made the call - switch to A6s now. I was hoping to wait until Sunday morning to make the A6 move, but I wasn't going to risk losing on Saturday by leaving the fast tires in the trailer. So I ran the scrub R6 tires for all of one session, and they never felt very good, but I was buried in traffic the whole time so who knows?

I switched wheels to run the the A6 tires for Saturday's TT Session 2, with help from Brian Matteucci (striped shirt)

By now my old college racing buddy and former roommate Brian Matteucci had arrived and he helped me and Amy swap the tires over - and because of the swarm of people coming by, we needed the help. With a freakishy good paddock spot and the "hard to miss" changes to the car, we had 100+ people come by on Saturday and ask questions about the hood, splitter and flares, as this was the first NASA Texas event where anyone had seen the front aero mods. But we don't mind talking to folks - that's why we're here.

Matteucci was here to watch a NASA event, as he is building a top secret TT car that should debut next month at the NASA @ ECR event (Nov 2-3).

Getting gridded up for TT session 2 took some "wheelin and dealin"

My lap time from the DQ'd session should have put me in 5th place on the grid, but the official sheet showed me way back at the back again. After telling the nice grid workers my story about the mistake on the grid sheets, and talking to some competitors gridded ahead of my, I begged my way into 10th place on the grid (most of the folks didn't want "the big red Mustang that just drove off track" right behind them, heh) and I was ready for Session 2.

So in that session I started in 10th and got some passes done in the first few laps and finally got in a quick, mostly traffic free run on hot lap 4. The best time I ran on this 4th hot lap was a 1:54.369, which was the 3rd quickest time in the session. Vorshlag customer Allen Page was on fire in this session and cut a 1:53.893 in his TTB car, the quickest car out there this time! Mike Weather's was 2nd quickest in his TT1 car, still clearly in the TT1 lead but he wasn't even running his good tires yet (didn't until Sunday).

Allan Page (left) was the quickest in TT session 2 in his TTB E46 M3, while Mike Weathers was fastest of the day, running a 1:50.480 in TT Session 1

My lap time was still way slower than I wanted to see, but was good enough to move me up to P3 on the grid for the final TT session , TT Session 3. Mike was clearly in the TT1 lead and didn't want to bother with the added heat of the last session of the day, as was Allan in TTB, so I ended up leading the pack out for the last TT session. More importantly, I finally had the first bit of clear track all day, and what I thought was a full battery on the vidcam and lap timer. So here we go, in the video below...

As you can see if you watch that video (up to 1080P rez available) there were a few video and timing equipment faults. First, the data logger got all out of sync and we lost data about halfway down the straight away for my first hot lap. Brandon has been trying to coax the TrackMate software to work with the native output of my Sony HD video camera. Long story, but the data was borked so we cannot see speeds or the g-meter data on my hot lap. He has finally figured out how to sync this stuff, when the data isn't corrupt, so we'll keep trying. Next, the battery on the vidcam died about 3/4 of the way through my first hot lap.

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Fair · 10-10-2013, 06:11 PM

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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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Fair · 10-10-2013, 06:12 PM

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We had beautiful, sunny weather on Sunday, which meant that Session 1 might have been the golden attempt. Ambient temps and track temps were up in TT Session 2, so Mike blew off going out in this one (he knew he had already seen the fastest session of the day). This meant I was gridded in P1, so I set the pace on the out lap at about 50 mph, and we had some stragglers but they finally caught up. I got in a good first lap and dropped a whopping tenth, down to a 1:50.675, for the new TT3 lap record (TT2 is a 1:50.2, but I couldn't get there in the growing heat). The car felt better than that, but the ambient temps were rising and times were slowing down to match. It is common for many TT racers on gumball tires set their fastest runs on the first Sunday TT sessions, once they have learned the track, as this can be the best track and tire temperatures. I tried another hot lap after my first but it slowed down a lot, then I started catching the back of the field. I took a cool down and came in.

Today my times were closer to where they needed to be. This 1:50.675 ended up being the winning time in class and the new TT3 track record, but I wouldn't know that until the end of the day. I felt like total crap so we loaded the car up before the 3rd TT session (after lunch) and headed back to Dallas by 2 pm. With the splitting migraine and other symptoms, I felt like I was coming down with something and didn't want to be out on track with my body nowhere near 100%. Leaving early put us home by 5:30 pm and we took a relaxing evening to eat, rest and catch up on TV shows and the like. We did, however, watch the MyLaps Race Monitor app during the TT session 3 and 4 on our drive back to Dallas, and as the temperatures rose the lap times did indeed slow down, and my time was safe. Whew!

New TT3 racer Jeremy Johnson (E46 M3 shown above) was fast and he is one to watch in 2014 in this class in Texas, as is John Robert's LS1 Miata (he's supposed to have his newest chassis built and ready for ECR). This was Jeremy's first weekend in TT, after his check ride on Saturday, and I'm sure he will get faster once he learns the "TT tricks". He still can add aero, A6s and more. Very clean car, well done cage, Motion Control double adjustable dampers with remotes, etc.

Aero Improvements Worked

The ease at which the car cornered at the handful of higher speed corners (T1, T2, T7 and T12) at TWS means that the aero changes we made after Miller worked. Lopping four inches off the front of the splitter brought the front to rear downforce balance to a perfect feel, once I got the car onto decent tires. The brakes, tires, motor, trans, and everything else worked perfectly. This was the car's 7th TT3 track record for the year, but I could have driven better both days and felt like I left that 1:49 lap out there.

Big thanks to Amy for coming and supporting me and the car on this race weekend, and to Matteucci for helping lend a hand on Saturday. I didn't ask Ryan or Brandon or any of our crew to come down to TWS, due to the lack of hotel rooms and recent haul to SLC for the big race. So the pictures are just ones Amy shot with our Nikon, and not Brandon's normal high end photo work. We also lacked the tuning help of Ryan, but I fumbled along well enough for the win.

Once I woke up that next Monday morning I was showing all of the symptoms of the flu-like thing that had been going around, and I was sick for a solid week, but luckily not enough to miss any work. This bug went around our shop and I was one of the last ones to finally get it. Everyone that went to Miller from Vorshlag got sick, so that explains the weird headache and nausea on Sunday. I did manage to take a day off the following Sunday, not going to the shop once, and took care of some long overdue home improvement projects and a bit of a lazy afternoon. With the racing season starting to wind down I can hopefully recharge my batteries for next season, which starts in January. Well, after about 3 more autocrosses, one more NASA Texas race weekend, and a couple of HPDE events planned in November and December.

For some of you that know me and/or are from NASA Texas specifically, there is a big topic stemming from events after this TWS that is obviously missing from this write-up, which I have written but decided to keep out of this build thread. It involves the track management at TWS, but I'm saving that for another time - this thread doesn't need any more drama. I'm hoping some people come to their senses, act like adults, and these issues can be resolved privately.

What's Next?

We're still trying to sell the 2013 GT, and have removed the AST 4200RR coilover remote reservoir shocks and the 18x10" wheels. And before you ask, THE SHOCKS ARE ALREADY SOLD. Removing these two "big ticket" parts makes it a more affordable Mustang, but it still has the upgraded 14" front Brembo brakes, the custom front brake ducting, the Whiteline adjustable Panhard Bar, and Whiteline rear relocation brackets. We've re-installed the OEM shocks and top mounts but added Ford Racing 5300-K lowering springs, and installed the OEM 19x9" wheels and Pirelli tires from our red 2011 GT, since the stock 18x8" wheels won't fit over the bigger front brakes. The price dropped from $35K to $29.5K, and the ad is linked below.

Updated CraigsList ad: http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/cto/4114930040.html

FFS, somebody please buy this car. If we can move this one I might be able to keep the red 2011 GT, which we would continue to use to develop more S197 parts. There's still a long list of parts we'd like to tackle, which having a car on hand would help with. I really need your help here, so please spread the word. Beautiful car, low miles, some covert track upgrades, great price. Thanks.

Other events that are upcoming (some already completed) include:

Camaro vs Mustang Battle Autocross - this was the event we put on October 5th, and my write-up is coming soon.
Goodguys All American Sunday Autocross - October 6th at TMS, also working on this write-up
SCCA @ TMS Road Course Autocross - Oct 13th. Amy and I are signed up and will be racing the TT3 Mustang in this annual "road course" autocross event. Lots of fun, and we'll be giving rides on every run
NASA @ ECR - Nov 2-3. I am already signed up and Amy will drive as well. This is our home track and I am hoping to clinch our final track record of the year here, but it won't be easy! TT3 clas sis hugely popular and it is anyone's guess who will win that class on this weekend. We have a ton of new TT and new to HPDE drivers we've prodded into entering this event, so it should be a blast.

Stay tuned and we'll have more racing action coverage of the TT3 Mustang soon, more S197 parts development, and other interesting bits chronicled in this thread.

Thanks for reading,