Road Race / Lapping Weekend at Texas World Speedway
6/30 - 7/1, 2001 with NASA Texas

On the weekend of June 30 - July 1, 2001, I went to Texas World Speedway (TWS) just outside of College Station, TX for a lapping weekend with the NASA Texas club. Jeff Watson, of ToyotaWorld.com, was in attendance with his Supra that he races in the ITE class of SCCA club racing. Jeff came out this weekend as an instructor for NASA, and he gave me some good tips on how to negotiate the turns of TWS faster. He also won the NASA race on Sunday with consistent fast laps in his Supra. Rich Baratta and his son Vinnie from New Orleans also came out to the track in their white BPU Supra, so we had a pretty nice Supra turnout on the track this weekend.

When I started the sessions on Saturday morning, I wasn't very fast, as TWS is a very tricky track with a few banked corners that you can take a lot faster than you may think. My starting times on Saturday morning were about the same as my times from this same track about two months ago -- 2:10's. Even for street tires like I run on the track, that was pretty slow. (One really cool thing about NASA is that you can rent a transponder and get all your times after each session.) After a few sessions of really learning the track and seeing how much faster I could go through some of the more hair raising corners, I managed to improve my times to a best of 2:05 by the end of the day. Click here for a good introduction to the TWS 2.9 mile road course. Jeff Watson was definitely a big help here, as he knows this track from a Supra TT perspective and he advised me on what lines to take and how much faster I could take certain corners.

On Sunday morning I started out in the 2:05s and worked from there. My third session was my best one, where I cut a best time of 2:01.460 on street tires, with a passenger and full weight (nothing removed). In my final session, I was pushing even harder and probably could've done better given perfect conditions, but the weather conspired against me and it started sprinkling. I still managed to cut consistent 2:03s to 2:02s with the rear end trying to slide a bit more on the slightly wet asphalt, but when it started raining harder I pulled it in as the session was almost over anyway and I didn't want to risk something bad happening in the last session, especially since I had a 200 mile drive home and the Supra was my only transportation.

All in all it was an awesome weekend and I'm thrilled that I was able to improve my times from last time by a whopping 9 seconds. The car performed beautifully, with no fade from the Hawk Blue front brakes, no heating up from the motor no matter how many balls-to-the-wall laps I ran in a row (as long as I had the heater on), and a very nicely balanced suspension and tire setup. I do think the car is capable of a sub-2 minute lap on street tires with some more practice and some more balls going into turn 1. I can't wait to go back.

Note that, at least for TWS, my cooling issues are finally resolved. As long as I followed my regular road racing precautions for cooling (i.e. fans, heater, richer fuel map), there was no number of consecutive balls-to-the-wall laps that would cause the temperature needle to even think of moving from dead center. See my cooling tech article for more information.

NASA Texas, run by Jay and Shannon Matus of Austin, is the Texas chapter of the National Auto Sport Association. From all the events I've been to with various clubs, I had by far the best time with the NASA TX club and would highly recommend them. I will definitely go to NASA events again.

P.S., please remember that DE and lapping events are NOT contests of speed and aggression. I hate to see bad stuff happen in events like this, but sometimes you get a hot dog type driver on the road course who thinks he's Michael Schumacher and won't let you by. Case in point: this weekend there was a guy in the DE group driving his Corvette very agressively. I was driving in the DE group for some extra track time a bit this weekend, and when I came up on him he tried to hold me off for a whole lap.. ok no problem, he finally waved me by at the beginning of the main straight.. except he didn't ever let off. I made up a couple car lengths through the straight but was still about 2 car lengths behind him in the braking zone. Since he had given me the signal to pass at the beginning of the straight, I outbraked him on the inside and made the pass. I watched my rearview after that but after another half a lap I never saw him again.

I went and talked to him afterwards in the garages, and told him he has a nice, fast car, and he needs to let off when letting people pass. His response was "I'd've thought that Supra was faster than that, but it seemed to me like I was pulling you on the straight. Why should I let you pass? If you can't make it around me on the straight there's no reason for you to pass me. I haven't been passed all weekend except for you, and you ruined a good lap of mine when you went in under me in turn one and I had to brake to wait for you." After trying to explain to him the etiquette of lapping and how if somebody catches you they're obviously faster and you should let them by, I gave up and told him he's a danger to himself and others on the track. He got pretty mad and became very rude and offensive to me after that, so I wished him good luck and walked away. I did tell Jay he should probably keep an eye on this guy on the track.

A few hours later, here's what the tow trucks pulled off the inside wall on the exit to the main straight:

Moral of the story: don't drive too aggressively at DE/lapping events. You're out there to learn the limits of yourself and your car, not to drive beyond them just to show off try to keep others from passing you. And if somebody catches you and you wave them by, do let off for a second so they can pass, unless their car is much faster than yours on the straight.

Comments? Questions? Email me at andi@airmail.net