TMS Recap - 2019

[Sook]

OK, this was a crazy event. The Texas Motor Speedway oval is huge, driving through the tunnel is fantastic. All the race groups would run the oval with a chicane on the front straight, and the infield section off the back straight. The HPDE and TT groups would only run the infield portion, I assume for safety in uncaged vehicles. The front straight chicane would get taken out on the first lap of every session, which eventually led to the organizers widening the chicane to the point of not even requiring a lift. From entering the oval on the back straight all the way the infield off the back straight would be full throttle at top speed. This track is HARD on brakes and engines.

Saturday AM starting with a two car wreck in TT warmup, S2000 and an S550 Mustang - both very banged up. I was helping with HPDE 3/4 for the weekend. Being tied up with all those HPDE meetings and students all morning my first lap of the track was in Qual, which was cut very short due to a blown up car. We got maybe 1-2 hot laps.

There were cars touching the walls, another HPDE car wrecked - both ends this time. At some point during the day the timing loop failed, which led to a multi hour delay adding to all the other delays earlier in the day. Eventually the track gave up and used the front straight timing loop for the racers, and the HPDE and TT folks (running the infield only) would not have any timing at all. Due to the significant delays the rest of the schedule was cut short, Thunder had one 40ish minute race which Michael won, Records second, and I think our new rookie Mike Urbanski took third. Coming off the oval and into the infield on lap 1, I overcooked it big time and in an effort to avoid Records and Michael I spun it into the tire wall. Really good awareness from Records and Michael to anticipate my... mistake. With R1 being so long, I was able to get my car back to the garage and pull on it with my truck enough to get it ready for the next day before the end of the race.

Twist: Will sent out a late night email to the registrants saying that HPDE and TT would be cancelled for Sunday, and the schedule shortened to get out of there as early as possible - mandatory driver's meeting at 8AM. At the meeting Will assured us that the wrecks from the previous day are not the reason for cancelling HPDE/TT. The claimed reason was that due to the cut through on the infield, there's a very high speed corner which points cars at one of the NASCAR lights and that if one of the cars were to hit that light TMS would not be able to get a replacement in time for the NASCAR event later this year. Will also said there are two dates available for TMS in 2020 that are not in August.

Without HPDE and TT going on, everyone was able to focus 100% on racing. Warmup was uneventful for me, I was able to finally turn laps on the track. Pranav had a pretty bad diff noise and was able to R&R the whole differential assembly and gears between warmup and R2 (2 hours!), really amazing effort there and a few of the guys lent a hand where they could. Michael and I were tailing each other in Qual and were able to set some very fast times.

The standing start for R2 was smooth with me on pole and Michael second. The flagger started us pretty close to the rolling start group so it was less than a lap before we were dealing with out of class traffic. Tough, hot race where I raced Michael hard and was able to pull out a win. Felt good after a terrible Saturday.

In R2 Martin had a brake caliper failure on his stoptechs which took him out for R3. Records decided to save the fuel and sweat. Mike Urbanski started R3 on pole, Pranav second, Michael third, and me fourth. Taking the green, Michael's car killed the alternator and he pulled off. I got passed Mike and was on Pranav's bumper. Pranav hauled ass for a few laps where I was struggling to make a move while also managing water temperature, all the way up to 250F. I was eventually able to capitalize on a brake lock-up and make a pass on Pranav and hold him off for another win. The car doesn't cool very well on the oval, I think the high speeds force a lot of air over the car rather than through the radiator due to under-hood pressures.

Overall a bad/good weekend for me, looking for a body/frame shop in Houston if anyone's got a suggestion.

Who's running NOLA?

- Josh

[Sook]

One other stupid thing that happened was my truck blew a hose off the radiator on the way back, super not fun to deal with on the side of the road. At least it wasn't split hose or radiator I guess.

- Josh

[drecords]

I had the best feeling car setup wise I've had in many events, and am really happy with the changes I've made. Car was fast in R1, got Pranav on the start and was managing the pace with Michael in P2 when the ignition quit again and put it in limp mode. Managed to hang on behind him reasonably and was flipping the ignition switch on and off in braking zones trying to get it to go back to normal. It finally did and I was able to run him down but couldn't pass in R1.

R2/3 were as Josh described with more ignition/electrical issued for me. After another hot and frustrating R2 I decided to pack up #34 and get home earlier. The speed and danger of TMS Isn't worth putting a car on track that isn't at least running in top form.

Overall I love that track. Going into turn one flat on the throttle and painting that white line is like no other track we go to and as a pretty huge NASCAR fan was absolutely a dream to get to do in my own racecar. The infield course is fun but simple and the whole track is pretty raceable with lots of opportunities to draft and run side by side. If we have TMS, COTA, ECR, NOLA, Hallett and the MSR twins next year it'd be a hell of a schedule.

[ShadowBolt]

If we have TMS, COTA, ECR, NOLA, Hallett and the MSR twins next year it'd be a hell of a schedule.

With COTA and TMS being $2200.00 weekends for just practice, garage, entry fees and tires. Well maybe $2800.00 for COTA.


JJ

[michaelmosty]

The track was definitely more fun than I had expected. NASCAR 4 starts getting quick at speeds around 115 mph. The tri-oval goes very quickly and then with able to go flat through the chicane we were entering NASCAR 1 around 130 mph. If you went in without lifting it usually pushed you up track about a car width and was a nice pucker moment. It seemed like the best was to lift slightly and then get back to full throttle until the brake zone. The feeling was unlike anything from the previous tracks we have raced.
I will say, due to the speeds through the banking, car prep is crucial for running the track. It is scary to think what would happen if a hub failed through the banking.

The infield was nothing special but I did find it tricky to get the correct braking / turn in points as there were no reference markers.
I also thought the grip was terrible on the infield and I wonder how much of that was due to the high temps or just maybe bad driving, haha.

Also, the Right Rear tire takes a beating. I didn't rotate my tires and now my RR is bald, even with running only 4 full sessions, 1 very shortened qual, and virtually nothing of the last race.

If we run the track next year, would be neat to have a full field!!

[RichardP]

I will say, due to the speeds through the banking, car prep is crucial for running the track. It is scary to think what would happen if a hub failed through the banking.

Or a tire. When the Corvette C5R was there racing, they lost a tire exiting turn four. They were live on the in-car when it happened. You heard the pop and a half a second later the car was in the outside wall hard. It punched the windshield out through its clips. No visible input from the driver. It just happened too fast. Completely totaled...


Richard P.

[Pranav]

I installed new C7 hubs and aged out my rear axles, made it a point to run on brand new tires because of these stories.

I think the chicane, despite being wide, helped slow things down a little.

This even was fun, A+ would recommend again.

Now to rebuild me rear end; broke the end off carrier housing when we had contact on the LR wheel while I was on the gas on Saturday. Thought it was a loose panhard bar mount saturday night, but sunday morning the rear end kept making the same noise then started grenading in warmup.

Thanks to John and the new guy with the green camaro we were able to get it rebuilt with my spare r&p and diff, and on track in 2 hours!

Now if I could find a T2R again...

[ShadowBolt]

I broke a hub at Hallett. How in the world can you make sure a hub does not fail?

JJ

[drecords]

I broke a hub at Hallett. How in the world can you make sure a hub does not fail?

JJ

How old was it Jerry? I'd consider changing them before TMS.

[drecords]

For those of you who missed it. This is what it looked like.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7_A5QbSX8_E&feature=youtu.be

[centerville]

Here is my take on an awesome weekend.

I did comp school on Friday and received my provisional license to go racing. WooHoo!

Saturday morning warm up went ok. Didn't feel great about it but I was glad to have the stress of comp school over with. Qualifying I decided to just work on a couple corners as rookies start at the back no matter what times you run. I felt better about 3 and 7 after the session. R1 first standing start, don't miss a shift. I didn't but the t5 is worn so 2-3 is horrible. When its over I finished 3rd. One heck of a first day racing.

Sunday morning warm up went out and tried to pick up time as the temps were down. Picked up speed almost everywhere. Qualifying just went out and tried to stay in the gas all the way into 1-2, crazy fast and I slightly lifted. Again as I rookie I am supposed to start last no matter how I qualify so I come in early to be ready for the R2.

R2 for whatever reason I'm not at the back, I'm in p3. No problem just don't miss a shift. 2-3 did not work this time at all but Pranav did not run me over. Thanks. When its all over 4th place and picked up a bunch of time from Saturday. R3 is an invert and I did not know that, nor were grid spots posted. When I pulled into grid I am told to go to p1. So much for rookies starting at the back. lol First rolling start and things went well. Finished 8 seconds faster than my Saturday times and in 3rd place again.

Outstanding weekend and I can't thank everyone enough for guiding me through my first weekend and all the noob questions. I can not wait till MSRH. I have quite a few things that need to be addressed before then so no NOLA for me.

[ShadowBolt]

How old was it Jerry? I'd consider changing them before TMS.

I'm sorry I misspoke. I broke a spindle at Hallett.

JJ

[Suck fumes]

That’s the first time I have seen the track let anyone use turn 1 and 2 banking. They used to make us use the flat area on the bottom of the banking for turn 1,2 and then we could use the bank for the other side of the track for whatever reason. So with turn 1,2 banking this track just got a whole lot faster haha and brakes even more critical!!

[RichardP]

I'm sorry I misspoke. I broke a spindle at Hallett.

JJ

To be fair, looking at the failure surface, it seems likely you actually cracked your spindle at Cresson when you broke the strut. It was probably difficult/impossible to see with your eyes at the time. If you had done a crack check at any point between then and Hallett, the failure would have been obvious.

For anyone that takes a big hit, doing a crack check on suspected parts is pretty easy. I give a class on fatigue failures/crack checking for my DE students. There isn't an equivalent outlet for the racers but I'm happy to give the class if someone wants to see it...


Richard P.

[drecords]

That’s the first time I have seen the track let anyone use turn 1 and 2 banking. They used to make us use the flat area on the bottom of the banking for turn 1,2 and then we could use the bank for the other side of the track for whatever reason. So with turn 1,2 banking this track just got a whole lot faster haha and brakes even more critical!!

Definitely, that braking zone into turn 3 was really tempting to try and push it back, but you come in there at vmax and even a slight bit of lockup would result in overcooking into the turn or missing it all together. Really fun when you get it right.

[Sook]

Definitely, that braking zone into turn 3 was really tempting to try and push it back, but you come in there at vmax and even a slight bit of lockup would result in overcooking into the turn or missing it all together. Really fun when you get it right.

I can vouch for T3. Brake early, brake hard.

- Josh

[centerville]

Great corner, never got it right. There is always next year.

[Al Fernandez]

Teething pains of NASA running there notwithstanding, it sounds like you guys had a great time and will be eager to go back for future events. That's excellent

[64GunPilot]

So you guys were running flat out through the entire oval section? Top speeds of 130mph ? How did your cars feel? Did they feel like they were on the limits of grip or had plenty to spare on the turns? Wish I coulda been there.

[Sook]

It felt like you had unlimited grip, until you didn't all of a sudden - especially coming into NASCAR 1. The cars want to climb the bank when they get loose.

- Josh

[mach1]

It felt like you had unlimited grip, until you didn't all of a sudden - especially coming into NASCAR 1. The cars want to climb the bank when they get loose.

- Josh

Sounds awesome!!!

[drecords]

So you guys were running flat out through the entire oval section? Top speeds of 130mph ? How did your cars feel? Did they feel like they were on the limits of grip or had plenty to spare on the turns? Wish I coulda been there.

So on Saturday I was able to keep it WOT but didn't because it would rub the RR pretty hard. Post weekend inspection shows swaybar links bent to hell which explains why the car tightened up for Sunday and needed to lift until the car took a set and then you could go flat again. AIM says Sunday we were sailing off into 1 at about 132.

[Supercharged111]

Parts don't fall off at 132?

[Sook]

Parts don't fall off at 132?

They do, ask Michael about weight after R2.

[RichardP]

They do, ask Michael about weight after R2.

I thought that was COTA. Did it happen again?

Richard P.

[Sook]

I thought that was COTA. Did it happen again?

Richard P.

Nothing fell off I don't think, burned a lot more fuel than expected.

- Josh

[michaelmosty]

R2 at COTA lost the exhaust, was DQ'd for being under 9 lbs.

At TMS, I was 28 lbs over after the race on Saturday so decided not to add fuel for Qual on Sunday. Ended up staying out the whole session trying to catch Josh and burned 33 lbs so 5 lbs under limit. Qual time was dropped. :^(

[drecords]

R2 at COTA lost the exhaust, was DQ'd for being under 9 lbs.

At TMS, I was 28 lbs over after the race on Saturday so decided not to add fuel for Qual on Sunday. Ended up staying out the whole session trying to catch Josh and burned 33 lbs so 5 lbs under limit. Qual time was dropped. :^(

I can't wait until I'm not 100+ over.

[Supercharged111]

I can't wait until I'm not 100+ over.

Add power or subtract 'Murica cheeseburgers from diet?

[drecords]

Add power or subtract 'Murica cheeseburgers from diet?

One never subtracts 'Murica

[Supercharged111]

One never subtracts 'Murica

Guess it's time to break out the timing light and fuel pressure gauge.

[Al Fernandez]

Yep...walking the car up the hill sounds exactly like it was at the California Super Speedway when socal nasa started running there back around '03. Parts don't fall off at 130, but at about 120 the wiper motor doesn't have enough balls to pull the wipers back down the windshield.