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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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