marshall_mosty
09-29-2013, 09:53 AM
As the days start to grow shorter (and cooler) in Texas, the Texas region of NASA lay claim to the historic ex-NASCAR track that is Texas World Speedway. This weekend promised to bring out the best and worst of both man and machine, and was made even more interesting with an unknown weather pattermmoving thru the area late in the week.
Friday afternoon brought a recurring theme in the Texas region... Mini-enduro racing. This race was made all the more exciting by both being run in the evening (yes, lights were required) as well as lots of rain. AI veteran Frank Robertson piloted his #132 SN95 Mustang Cobra thru the "mess", only to run off-track and tear the front splitter off the car. Power steering issues also hampered Frank's abilities during the race.
Saturday brought a whole host of cars. With a dozen AI and over a dozen CMC cars registered, the weekend was bound to be exciting. Unfortunately, there was a common theme among the AI/CMC ranks this weekend (as with most other race weekends), mechanical carnage... Several AI/AIX cars were out early... Mike Stacey with a broken front balljoint (courtesy of Miller's curbing during the Nat's event a few weeks back). Frank struggled Saturday to source and replace his ailing steering rack. Casey Holdway also retired early with motor issues.
TWS also brought new faces and new cars. Corey Reuth brought out his newly minted SI #13 and Bill Swensen unveiled his ex-team Zippo FR500 S197 AIX car. To generate more car count, both Bill and Corey were re-classed in AI for the weekend.
However, once racing was underway, the competition was tight. R1 saw newcomer, Dave Kagan with the win. Veteran, Mike Patterson just ran out of time to chase Dave down.. In CMC, it was the Mosty/Proctor show with good racing mid-pack as well.
R2 inverted the grid from R1's finishing position.
The CMC battle was epic, as it ended with Jerry Jordan leading the racing and holding off the "trophy girls" from snatching the win from Jerry. Post race brought an "ice water bath" as a celebration. Needless to say, Jerry's breath was taken away twice in one day! Congrats to Team Jordan for their first CMC win.
Saturday night brought the normal "party" to the track with akegs of beer and good ole Mexican food. The bench racing went late into the night for those who didn't get kicked out at 10pm with the TWS "gate call".
Sunday brought the "twist" as qualification was removed to allow for a 35 minite R3. Numbers were drawn from a hat to set grid. This led to an interesting mix of cars from the "normal" grid positions. One of our Vetrans, Randy English, was given "honorary pole" for R3, as he is leaving our region for a reassignment to London with work. We'll miss you "Old English"!!! Randy took his first green flag from pole! During the flying split start in AI, Dave Kagan got a monster run down the front straight, gaining no fewer than 20 car lengths on the field and going from last to first before hitting the apex of turn #1. Mike played cat and mouse with Kagan and was able to do an over/under going thru T9 and get in front of Kagan on the last lap for the win. R3 in all, ended up being a shortened race, as CMC's racers Craig McCormick and Team WWR got together after T6 and called out the emergency crew to flat-tow both cars back to the pits. This led to a 2-lap shootout for the checkered!
R4 was a inverted grid from R3 and had good battles in both AI and CMC with Mike Patterson and Jerry Jordan winning their respective classes. Congrats to Jerry for win #2!!
TWS was indeed one for the record books and everyone now gets to prepare for ECR in November. See you guys in six short weeks!!
https://vimeo.com/75700883
Friday afternoon brought a recurring theme in the Texas region... Mini-enduro racing. This race was made all the more exciting by both being run in the evening (yes, lights were required) as well as lots of rain. AI veteran Frank Robertson piloted his #132 SN95 Mustang Cobra thru the "mess", only to run off-track and tear the front splitter off the car. Power steering issues also hampered Frank's abilities during the race.
Saturday brought a whole host of cars. With a dozen AI and over a dozen CMC cars registered, the weekend was bound to be exciting. Unfortunately, there was a common theme among the AI/CMC ranks this weekend (as with most other race weekends), mechanical carnage... Several AI/AIX cars were out early... Mike Stacey with a broken front balljoint (courtesy of Miller's curbing during the Nat's event a few weeks back). Frank struggled Saturday to source and replace his ailing steering rack. Casey Holdway also retired early with motor issues.
TWS also brought new faces and new cars. Corey Reuth brought out his newly minted SI #13 and Bill Swensen unveiled his ex-team Zippo FR500 S197 AIX car. To generate more car count, both Bill and Corey were re-classed in AI for the weekend.
However, once racing was underway, the competition was tight. R1 saw newcomer, Dave Kagan with the win. Veteran, Mike Patterson just ran out of time to chase Dave down.. In CMC, it was the Mosty/Proctor show with good racing mid-pack as well.
R2 inverted the grid from R1's finishing position.
The CMC battle was epic, as it ended with Jerry Jordan leading the racing and holding off the "trophy girls" from snatching the win from Jerry. Post race brought an "ice water bath" as a celebration. Needless to say, Jerry's breath was taken away twice in one day! Congrats to Team Jordan for their first CMC win.
Saturday night brought the normal "party" to the track with akegs of beer and good ole Mexican food. The bench racing went late into the night for those who didn't get kicked out at 10pm with the TWS "gate call".
Sunday brought the "twist" as qualification was removed to allow for a 35 minite R3. Numbers were drawn from a hat to set grid. This led to an interesting mix of cars from the "normal" grid positions. One of our Vetrans, Randy English, was given "honorary pole" for R3, as he is leaving our region for a reassignment to London with work. We'll miss you "Old English"!!! Randy took his first green flag from pole! During the flying split start in AI, Dave Kagan got a monster run down the front straight, gaining no fewer than 20 car lengths on the field and going from last to first before hitting the apex of turn #1. Mike played cat and mouse with Kagan and was able to do an over/under going thru T9 and get in front of Kagan on the last lap for the win. R3 in all, ended up being a shortened race, as CMC's racers Craig McCormick and Team WWR got together after T6 and called out the emergency crew to flat-tow both cars back to the pits. This led to a 2-lap shootout for the checkered!
R4 was a inverted grid from R3 and had good battles in both AI and CMC with Mike Patterson and Jerry Jordan winning their respective classes. Congrats to Jerry for win #2!!
TWS was indeed one for the record books and everyone now gets to prepare for ECR in November. See you guys in six short weeks!!
https://vimeo.com/75700883