Reply With QuoteAwesome! Sounds like it went well.
NASA at TWS event report
Well, while everyone else was out playing in parking lots this past weekend, I went down to Texas World Speedway and ran the 2.9-mile road course with NASA. We got to the track around 4 on Friday afternoon and several of us signed up for the 5-6pm "happy hour" open track session to dial our cars in. I swapped pads and tires, went out and ran about eight laps, came in and reset the tire pressures and cranked the front rebound up, then went back out and ran another eight laps. The car felt pretty good overall, with just a touch of steady-state understeer. The only bad habit the car had was a tendency for the back end to feel like it was wandering around a little bit under threshold braking, but it wasn't enough to alter my braking points or line.
I had forgotten just how much fun the 2.9 mile configuration is. This is a fast track - my average clear lap times were in the 2:06-2:09 range, which means an average speed of 83-84mph. This configuration uses the front straight and Turn 1 of a 1.5-mile high banked oval, where I was showing ~125mph on the speedometer Friday night. In the RX-8 I can run the entire track in the meat of the powerband with only 3rd and 4th gear (suprisingly, 4th gear in the '8 is good for a hair over 130mph indicated, while 3rd fuel cuts at 93mph indicated on my 255/40-17 tires). Several of the corners have deep camber near the apex, so once you learn the configuration you can enter these corners at a much higher rate of speed than you think, and the camber will suck you down to the apex and slingshot you out on the proper line. It's addictive.There is also a complex section of blind and cambered corners (turns 7-9 for those of you who know the layout) that you enter at ~100mph and come up over a blind ridge.
It's a great track, but not the most forgiving. I ran with the advanced HPDE/time trial group, and a couple of the cars went home on a flatbed Saturday night. One car lifted tracking out of 12 (a deeply cambered left hander that I track out 90-92mph), spun to the inside, and hit the vertical back of the curbing in 14 broadside. He wasn't moving very fast when it happened, but it messed up both right side wheels and bent the control arms on that side.
More significantly, an Evo went off in Turn 1 and hit a drainage ditch. The Evo was pretty modified, and was doing ~150mph at the end of the front straight. He turned in early on 1, hit a ripple in the pavement right after the transition down from the banking, and skated off to the outside. He got the car straightened out, but hit a shallow drainage ditch head-on at probably 80-90mph. The car was bent up... but it was still driveable! In fact, the owner drove it back to his hotel Saturday night, then limped it home on Sunday!
He had a small camera mounted to the grill in front of the intercooler. After the track closed Saturday night, several guys took a truck out into the field to find all of the parts that the Evo had shed when it hit the ditch. They managed to recover the camera, and it still worked! We downloaded the video to a friend's laptop, and it's some of the best track day footage I've ever seen.I'll post a link once it's up on the web.
If you need a bulletproof camera, look for a small SD-card camera on Soulspeed's website. Those things are indestructible!
Overall, it was a good weekend. I wasn't able to get any "official" lap times (I borrowed a friend's transponder for the last session, but the batteries were dead). Still, I was able to consistently run down all of the TTD and TTC cars out there (my car would fit into TTD if I ran time trial). I intend to go up to Hallett in June for the next event, and I'll run TTD.
As a side note, one of my good friends (27h2hc on this board) won his first race this weekend in PTB! He just got his comp license back in November, and he was running strong all weekend. Congrats to him!
Iain
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Awesome! Sounds like it went well.
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague longing for something salty" - Peter Egan
Great report! Thanks! Can't wait to see the evo footage.
Smile
93' LE #1136 - FM II
250k miles
NASA 4 Hour Enduro won OVERALL in SM Turbo
At the inaugural NASA 4 hour enduro at TWS, driving the development SM turbo "mule," I managed to win overall in a field of 31 total cars, including Spec Racer Ford, FM-based ASR, 2 BMWs, several AI cars, RX-8s, MX-5 Cup cars and tons of Spec Miatas. I did it on 6ULs and NT01s I bought from 949 Racing.
No one else drove the mule. I had no radio.
I did have and am very grateful for much-needed help from Rich Noguera and Team MER to refuel, which is all the car needed (I was more worn out). With short-shifting I was able to do it in 3 stops, sucking fumes a bit toward the end and running in 5th gear only (and still turning 2:04s). I used Nitto NT01 full tread depth tires and they made it, although the rears were exciting. Given the lack of communication, I was shocked to find I was first overall, especially after being passed on track many times by the sports racer of Team Parr.
110 laps, 100% green flag racing, with a one-lap margin over the nearest car.
The Turbo SM ran flawlessly with absolutely no mechanical issues at all and decent fuel economy, as it could be nursed for 1 hour stints.
Keith Verges
Turbo SM #79
Congrats Keith, that's awesome.
Smile
93' LE #1136 - FM II
250k miles
Congrats on the enduro win, Keith! I saw you cruising the pits in the turbo mule on Sunday, but didn't get a chance to say hey.
How did the rest of Team MER fare? Their RX-8s and Cup cars looked fast out there!
Iain
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
MER's MX5 and RX-8s were fast, but they did driver changes and had some fueling issues, so they fell a ways back. Team MER2 finished 12th OA and 3rd in E1, 3 laps back from me
Keith, we've never met, but I'm a friend of David Rierson's and Iain. :) Congrats on the overall enduro win, especially as a solo driver!!! I did my first 40 minute race on Sunday, which went well, but I couldn't imagine doing 4 hours solo!
Those RX8s were plenty fast. I certainly couldn't catch any of them on Saturday.
Billy
98 Prelude - track car
Former 99 Miata owner
Rierson pulling you into Honda Challenge, eh? He is a fine and sporting driver - stick with him. But SM Turbo is pretty enticing, too and has proper rear wheel drive
Said video of Evo crash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y033Wdd8Fis
VW Bug in running shoes
M Porcupine sedan
M Porcupine coupe
Crusty old e46 beater
Battery Powered appliance car
That car has some awesome acceleration! Too bad he doesn't know what an apex is........ OK, so he finally got a couple of them on the last lap. I think the one at turn seven scared himOriginally Posted by CosmosMpower
92 Sunny 214k, 95 Dimples, 93 James Bondo, 92 SM (Speedie Jr)
Shelley, Apex, Tigger, Max, Baby(cats), Fluffy, Spot, and Peanut (mini horses), Cinnamon & Bitsy(dawgs)
MSR #1001, SCCA #208822Let's go racin'
Glad to see that some of you guys are getting to the track this year. I haven't been so lucky.
Sounds like the RX-8 is doing well for you, Iain. Glad to hear it.
Congrats on the big win, Keith. Your yellow and black turbo miata is quite cool. I'm glad the car held up with no major issues. That's a lot of hard driving on a turbo track car.
I've heard about how that is a horsepower track, and I agree. Not a friendly track for an N/A miata. I would not enjoy waiting for my 123whp car to try to accelerate down that bank straightaway.
I'm not particularly impressed with the EVO driver. It's a shame that he went off, though.
I've heard stories about guys wondering how bad it would be to go off there. I now know the answer.
John,
The key to that track is MOMENTUM in a low HP car. Even with a restrictor plate, Speedie would haul thru there rather quickly. Turn six is much faster than you would think, and seven is a "never lift" corner to get up the hill...... I've been off at the turn-in to the infield several times, and it can be an exciting ride. My only bad crash came from there, but it was my fault. I had gotten an awesome start from P3 and pushed David Daugherty's 240SX(P1) into that corner and hit the rev-limiter in fourth, so I went for 5th and got 3rd. Immediate spin and I was a passenger in a pin-ball. Got hit and/or I hit four different cars before coming to a stop just where the EVO went off, nose to nose with a Neon.
Merv
92 Sunny 214k, 95 Dimples, 93 James Bondo, 92 SM (Speedie Jr
Shelley
MSR #1001, SCCA #208822
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