TWS 3-day trackday weekend

[bigmack]

Having a fantastic time at TWS (Texas World Speedway) with a 3 day long track day weekend. For those that aren't familiar with this track, its an old Super Speedway in Texas that's about 90 miles North of Houston. They have a 2.9 mile road course that we run in a counterclockwise direction. A lot of people come up from Houston to participate and they hold several SCCA, BMW, and Porsche club races here. On Friday, I hooked up with an instructor who's raced for some 20+ years with sponsorships, etc.. We took turns driving the car and I kept resorted to keeping the car in 4th gear the entire time and driving the car like a big go-kart. That's the real beauty of the Chevy V8. I had a pretty spectacular spin coming out on cold tires through one turn. Came in a little too hot and went for the brakes through the corner and we spun into a 180. Pretty cool. Glad there was nothing behind me! ha. By the end of the day I was squeeling all four tires through every corner and cavitating the fuel pump through two corners under extreme cornering speed. I only have a right tank now and this happened through two real heavy lefts that had quite a bit of banking to them. I'd lose fuel pressure when the tank was below half filled. I may have a way of feeding a fuel pickup hose inside the tank to the very back of it. We're working on that. I also need a little more camber out of my right front tire. Working on that also. Its so important, as a novice driver, having good instructors in the car with you who can show you the racing line and point out visual cues like trees and water towers. My instructor ran the car at the limit through the corners the entire time. In fact, it was interesting b/c he would purposefully go over the tire limit to see exactly where the limit was. We got a little sideways with some missed shifts he made, but after a while he got the hang of the shifting. We'd go out, run the car pretty hard, and then come in and talk about what I was doing. My thing is that I'm not using up all the braking power in the car through the braking zone. I'm also turning in to the corner too early and so I'm having to overcorrect on corner exit. Luckily I'm still not going fast enough to use up all the steering. The instructor absolutely loved the car. He'd really like to see a set of slicks on it, but said it was very predictable and a fantastic car to learn with. All this driving takes it out of you though. I got pretty tired by the end of my first day. Ankles and shins are a little cramped. The installation of a dead pedal would help that we think. He also impressed upon me the importance of using the crotch straps with the 6 point harness. As a physician, he's studied it some and seen quite a few people rupture their spleens in accidents without them. His only complaint was that mine would be hard to get out of in a fire.
All in all it was a pretty awesome day! I'm looking forward to getting back out and continuing with the lessons. This car's is really something else out on the track.
Cheers from College Station, Texas!
-Mack

[bigmack]

The end of a long 3 day driving weekend and I'm beat down tired. This stuff really takes it out of you. I have no idea how guys do 12-24 hour enduro races. By Saturday's end, I got to go out at the back of the pack with the advanced drivers group. They were all pretty fast and some were running slicks or DOT-R's. I had no problem staying up with any of them down the straights. I never got left behind on the straights the entire weekend come to think of it. I thought this was pretty impressive considering I came out of the last corner before hitting the straights in 4th gear which is really a 2nd gear corner. On Sunday I got into 3rd through the last "esses" before hitting the long straight and that's when the party started! Woohoo!
Overall a great weekend. Looking forward to getting back out there again.
Cheers!
-Mack

[Fast BMW 7]

Thanks for the update Mack. So glad to see you enjoying the car in its element-the track!
Keep the updates coming.
Harry.

[bigmack]

Made good friends with a corner working at the track who took a ton of photos of the car this past weekend. He mooned me while chasing a buddy into turn 4! Ha. He sort of mislabeled my gallery as a GTR, but we'll forgive him for that. Was hoping he got a photo or two of my spin in turn 3, but he never heard it. Oh well.
Enjoy!
www.corndesignsphotography.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=8
and some more of my friends black Ford GT that I got a ride in on Sunday.
www.corndesignsphotography.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=9
Cheers!
-Mack