NASA Texas Road Race / DE Weekend at The Motorsport Ranch February 2-3, 2002

Click here for my track weekend report

"Did You Say Off-Camber?"

On February 2-3, 2002, I had an exciting weekend of road racing at The Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Tx. (click here for directions). Since this track weekend was hosted by NASA Texas, it was one of the most packed events at MSR I've seen -- cars parked everywhere, even on the skidpad and grass around the driveway. They sure do know how to attract an audience.

The Motorsport Ranch is just an hour from my home, so I try to go there as often as I can. I love the place -- it's, in my humble opinion, a much more challenging and rewarding track to drive than TWS. It's simply a lot more technical and tricky -- and the fact that over half the corners here are off-camber certainly makes it interesting. My favorite corner is the Horseshoe -- it's a blind, uphill, off-camber left-hander switchback that never fails to stir the soul. The perfect line through it involves just a bit of throttle steering, although my favorite and most exciting line certainly contains gobs of throttle and opposite lock. ;-)

Since my friend Eric M. was kind enough to lend me his spare transponder (Thanks Eric!), I was able to get lap times this weekend. In the past I'd been able to do consistent 1:26.5's here on street tires (g-Force TA KD's) in 60 degree weather. Since KD's were on back order and I had to replace them before this weekend, I had to buy a set of AVS Sports last week. I knew AVS Sports wouldn't be as grippy as the KD's, but I was curious about how big the difference was. Although I didn't get lap times on Saturday, the Sunday lap times told me what I wanted to know...

The morning session on Sunday was slightly damp and extremly slick -- what a great opportunity to go out and do some sliding! :) Ergo the slow lap times - 1:35's in the morning session. In the afternoon sessions I got serious about going fast, and brought my times down to 1:27.1's. Considering that I was trying a bit harder and driving a bit better than when I ran the 1:26.5, I'd say there's about a one second difference between the KD's and the new AVS Sports. That's not too bad -- what I'm worried about is how the AVS Sports are known to lose grip as they wear. My last set of AVS Sports (245s and 275s back in the summer of 2000 - lasted me 5k miles) went from holding traction in 1st gear when new to lighting up in 2nd gear when fully worn -- absolutely nothing like the KD's that did consistent lap times track weekend after track weekend. I hope BFG starts making the 315 KD's again soon..... sigh. Either that or I need to save up some $ and get some Hoosiers.... ;-o.

On a more Supra related note, my recent suspension setup experimentation finally paid off -- the handling was absolutely perfect. The car's balance is neutral enough that I can make the car tend towards either oversteer or understeer with just shocks and tire pressures. I had the car setup to be pretty neutral, as I hate understeer and like to throttle steer the car.

I also had the pleasure of switching cars with Keith Verges (red Viper RT10 on R1s) for a session. Keith said that everybody spins it and I would too; I said I wouldn't, so we had a little bet going. I lost. Damn, that thing is twitchy. It's fast if driven perfectly -- in fact, I got the hang of drifting the Viper sidways in the Horseshoe after ~5-6 laps -- but it's nowhere as easy to drive as the Supra. That was an experience I'll remember for a while.....

See ya'll next time!