MSR Houston Race

[Fbody383]

Hopefully the only chrome in the field will ward off danger as long as possible.

Just love seeing that car on grid...

[kbrewmr2]

saw the #80 in the paddock on Friday and just drooled - nice piece of hardware for sure!

[rleng1]

I get to give a race report! Woo hoo! Ok......lets be honest I'm more like the cart that follows the elephant during the parade but here goes...

First thing I had to change an upper coolant hose cause it was old and crusty and I had lost the top two bolts to the map sensor so those got put on.

9:30 dyno, car won't start. Have to dyno with a battery charger hooked up, figured out that I did not put a resistor inline with the "sense" wire on the alternator and fried it. The charging post came completely out. Not sure wether my issue caused it or just bad rebuild. So problem fixed!


First run, super excited! Went out with warm up and got black flagged half way through my first lap for smoking like crazy. Got back to the pit über frustrated and figured out I have a oil leak at the back of the intake. Sean has the genius idea to switch my fresh air line to the vacuum port on the throttle body. Bye bye oil leak.

Made it through all Comp school exercises no problem and in the mock race ran a 2:07. Made a goal for myself of 2:00 flat for the weekend.

Got to finally run with the family the last race of the day. Got lapped by AI but managed to pull out a 1:59.33! Still not happy with it though.

Could not break into the 2:00's at all the next day and was getting very frustrated after the ENTIRE field lapped me. Figured out with Mike Patterson's help that I was trying to go fast. Who knew that was a bad thing?! Worked on corner entry and fast exits and left the day with a 1:59.67.

So in review......I made it into CMC with a running car that did extremely well for not going over 10 mph before hitting the dyno and the track no less. Now to start doing car and driver development. Thank you guys for all the support and encouragement over the years. SO proud to be part of this group officially!!!!

Ross, excellent job. Just remember, set goals and seat time. Listen and follow.
My first weekend 4 years ago was msrh and I was 15 secs off the leaders and got lapped my everybody..everybody. But then again I am 57, survived a heart attach and have stent. Just saying,hehehe.
Last year I lead 4 laps at Hallet. You will do it. At least I don't have to take Viagra........yet. Keep diggin.

[Rsmith350]

Thanks Randy, attitude is everything!

[AI#97]

First, I want to thank all of the racers this weekend for making me feel welcome and for not hitting my car in it's second weekend in 2 years. Hopefully the only chrome in the field will ward off danger as long as possible. That said, I have every intention of fighting through the pack in upcoming races as I learn to push the car closer to its limits. Dave and I were chatting about the engineer-driver dilemma, where the engineer in me wants to preserve the car and the driver wants to push it to 10/10. This weekend taught me that I need to grow bigger balls and bigger shoulder muscles to really get this piece of sixties frankenstein engineering to the top of the field. Mechanicals were perfect and, short of some lightening, all the upcoming work is with the driver at this point. I also learned about my fuel gauge's accuracy, causing me to bail towards the end of R4 with low FP warnings as the pump sucked fumes. My weekend best was 1:50.8 in R3 and I know where I'm weak, so I'm already thinking about the next event I can attend at TWS.

Beautiful Car! Also, if you are looking for some coaching, look at the TWS PDS schedule. I'm available along with a couple others who can help get you up to speed!

[Suck fumes]

Didn't someone post a link to pictures someone had taken of the weekend?

[Bacook]

Here you go. I think they are getting purged end of the week.
http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=127410