NASA Texas Road Race / DE Day at Texas World Speedway July 28, 2001

Click here for my track weekend report

"May the Boost be With You"

Saturday, the 28th of July on 2001, was an excruciatingly hot and sunny day in College Station, Texas. Yet that didn't seem to matter to any of us at the NASA Texas Driver Ed / Lapping / Racing event at Texas World Speedway. Not even when it rained for an hour in the afternoon and then the heat dried the track right back up again. (Don't you just love Texas weather? sigh...)

Since this was basically a full track weekend condensed into one Saturday due to low turnout and high track cost, we had to get up extra early and run till extra late (driver's meeting was at 7:30 and cars were on the track until 6pm). As promised, every run group still got their five 20-minute sessions, and I actually ended up getting seven because of two times I went out in the DE group (more on that later). What more can you ask for in one track day? :-)

This particular track weekend, I went to TWS with Peter Blach, a fellow Supra owner with a sweet single turbo setup that recently put down 700rwhp at 29psi. In road race trim configured for 15psi of boost pressure, his car puts down just over 500rwhp, on pump gas of course. I wish I had that kind of power.. but I digress. All I can say is that Peter's car was an absolute beast on the track, eating up the straights like nothing else, and was no slouch in the corners either with Toyota's excellent double-wishbone suspension and wide Fikse 18's shod in premium BFGoodrich street tires.

For those of you that follow my road racing articles, you may recall that last month I ran a best time of 2:01.640 on my BFG street tires, and was determined to come back this month and beat that, maybe even break the 2 minute barrier I was hitting. With Peter riding with me to get a feel for what the track is like in a Supra at the limit, I set out on my first session of the day. The car felt good and the weather wasn't too hot yet (about 85F and humid), so I was just concentrating on getting back into the rhythm of the track and being smooth. Then, in the middle of my second lap, I noticed that my car was losing power. A quick check of my boost gauge confirmed that something was wrong -- my boost pressure had dropped from 16psi to 12psi. I stayed in it and made the best of what I had, not wanting to waste track time just due to a horsepower drop. By the end of the session, my boost had dropped all the way down to 4psi, and my straightaway top speed had dropped from 135mph to 110mph. What is this, a Miata? Ah well. At least I still had a session to get back into the rhythm and to show Peter around the track. I pulled into the garages hoping for the best (boost leak) but ready for the worst (blown turbo). Thanks to Jay Lopez lending me his floor jack and jack stands, I had the car up in the air in no time and found the problem. The hose coupler between the front mount intercooler inlet and the hard piping had simply dry rotted and split, making for a nice big boost leak. This leak has been months in the making and I suspect it's the reason why my Supra's been feeling slower than usual on the street when warm for the past few months. Peter was kind enough to give me a ride to the local parts store, and amazingly O'Reilly's auto parts carries metal reinforced rubber hose connectors for big turbodiesels, and in just the right size. :-) We replaced the pipe coupler and lowererd the car, not putting on the plastic front intercooler undercover because of the lack of time before the Peter's next session (since I was riding along). Peter had learned the track fast and was doing very well by this time. I look forward to seeing him in the advanced DE / "lapping" group next time. :-)

Once we got back from Peter's session, we went out in my car for my session.. until I heard a dragging sound on my warm-up lap. Turns out by not bolting the front cover back on, I had left the front lip of the engine undercover dragging on the ground. Not good.. so I pulled it in and somehow convinced Peter to let me drive his car in my session. :-)))

So, I took Peter out for a session in his car to show him what the car can do on this track, and also because I was curious how the spool of this big single turbo with HKS 264 cams would affect road course driving. I'm happy to say this setup is very nice, with full boost hitting around the low 4000RPM range in 3rd gear. The only corner on the whole track where I even noticed the slightly higher lag (compared to my stock twins in TTC) was the horseshoe, where I simply downshifted to 2nd and was able to rocket out of the corner with ease. On the other hand, I just leave my car in 3rd gear through the horseshoe as the TTC torque curve is good enough from 3500RPM on up to exit the corner. Damn, I wish his car would've had the transponder it.. but judging by feel, I'd say I probably ran as low as a 2:10 in his car. I was taking it easy on the tires since it wasn't mine, and was being a lot more conservative in the hairier corners than I am in my car.. but I'm sure I made up a bit of ground over my car on the main straight. Even with less exit speed than in my car, I hit 140mph in his car before braking early, compared to 135mph in mine before a later braking point. I know Peter is very anal about not letting people drive his car, so I'm very grateful he let me race it around the track for whole session. Thanks Peter! :-)

After that session I jacked my car back up and put the engine cover back on. Argh, could Toyota have put more bolts in that thing? I think I worked through two racing group sessions just putting that damned cover back on. LOL. :-) But at least my car was now fixed and making solid boost again, and felt more powerful to boot.

After lunch, the weather took a turn for the better or worse, depending on whether you prefer sizzling heat or cold rain. I prefer cold rain. All of a sudden, it just started pouring. As the rain slowed down and became a sprinkle, it was time for the into drivers ed group. Peter didn't want to drive in the rain, so I took his place and went to play in the wet. I couldn't even convince him to ride with me in the rain though, which is a travesty as it would have made for some sweet video. TWS is an immensely fun track in the wet, especially if you pitch the car sideways in the horseshoe and power your way out and all the way down the next straight sideways. Not that a responsible driver like me would do anything like that.. ;o) But like I said it would've made for some badass video footage. ;)

I of course went right back out in the next session as my group was up, and as the rain stopped, the hot sun worked quickly to dry the track. As the water evaporated and traction was returning, I found my laptimes dropping from full wet 2:20's to a best of 2:04 in the next session. That was still no 2:01 like I was shooting to beat, but the track still had some wet spots so I knew I could improve on that. I still had one session left. To top it off, at the end of this session I was chasing Dr. Martinez' red Viper on Hoosiers and was of course working very hard on my street tires to stay on his ass and try to pass him. Then, just my luck, the car started cutting out hard as I had run out of gas. LOL!

So, after going out and filling my car up with gas, I was back at the track and ready to continue this little on-track battle. ;) But before then, Curtis Ward kindly offered me the keys to his 370rwhp ZR-1 on Hoosiers to take out for a couple laps in the intro group just before my session, to see what his car would be like. Wow, what a sweet sounding and torquey car. Thanks Curtis!

Now it was the moment of truth. I got in my car, and with a full tank of gas and Peter in the passenger's seat filming, I set out to beat my previous best time and maybe break my 2 minute barrier around this track. I lined up behind Dr. Martinez again in his red viper with GTS 01 vanity plates, and gave it everything I (and the Supra) had. The Viper and I played for a whole lap but as soon as the green flag dropped and he was passing slower traffic, I think he missed a shift as I blew right by him. Damn. So now it was just me and about half the track free up ahead. I was smooth and deliberate, and I braked harder and later for turn one than I ever had before, and lap after lap we got some sweet in-car video of my best laps and some sweet cars getting passed. Peter made an asinine comment along the lines of "watch this, I bet you'll get a 2 minute flat lap time since you're shooting for a 1:59." That bastard. :) Turns out he was right, my fastest lap time was a 2:00.433, with 3,900lbs race weight and street tires. Sigh. A bittersweet victory -- I beat my previous best and was so close to a 1:59 but I'm not quite there yet. Next time. :) At least I was consistent -- my lap times in the last session were 2:22 (warm up), 2:00, 2:00, 2:02, 2:00, 2:00, 2:02, and 3:14 (cool down). I know that I had to wait for traffic for a little bit in at least a couple of those 2:00's, so the car can definitely do a sub 2 minute lap. I just need to throw a good lap together with no traffic. All the more reason to go back and try again, right?

Wow, that was quite a tome wasn't it? Sorry for the long read, I get carried away sometimes. Just goes to show you, track events like these with NASA Texas are both educational and incredibly fun. See you at the next one on August 25-26!