TWS Double Sevens

[u-turn]

Great day of racing was had by most here at TWS.Its amazing every time we come back here and the lap times keep dropping,some ubber fast cars.Last time I checked Malice in Blunderland had the fastest lap of 2:02 in their v8 RX7.

podium was 1.Team Driver Education miata

2.Namco Racing miata

3.Saturn Art Car saturn

We had a pretty good race finishing 4th.Yesterday we thought the cars transmission was on its last leg.but after deciding to put the car on the track after replacement tranny deal feel through,the car had good speed and shifted fine,although still make some really strange noises at times.

A 50% chance of rain tomorrow,so the racing might become very interesting!

[Jeff G 78]

Great job Saturn Art Car guys! u-turn, did the Saturn team run the Gold car too, or just the Art Car? They traveled to TX from Michigan, so I wasn't sure if they found a two car trailer or not.

[Craig]

Both cars ran. The gold car was sidelined for over an hour, dunno what broke. Judging by their lap times, they would have been challenging for a podium place if they'd stayed out.

[Jeff G 78]

Thanks for the info Craig.

[kent merkle]

Way to go you Michiganders!!!!

[u-turn]

Great job Saturn Art Car guys! u-turn, did the Saturn team run the Gold car too, or just the Art Car? They traveled to TX from Michigan, so I wasn't sure if they found a two car trailer or not.

Sorry about not getting back to you Jeff,just got home from the track.Like Criag mentioned they ran both cars and were very competitive,although i can't say i raced with them during my stints.I think its really cool they made the trip and hpoe they had fun.

I would like to thank the Chump staff and the great volunteers for a super smooth run event!

[Jeff G 78]

No problem U. Thanks!

[TBone]

Anyone know why the 11 was classed as EC today?

[Craig]

I don't know. I could hazard a guess, though. (I'd imagine you could hazard a guess too.)

If anybody wants their lap times, PM me with the team/car number and destination e-mail address.

@Jeff, the Saturn gold car got a podium today. The two Saturns were running nose-to-tail for the first ~1.5 hrs of the race.

[Jeff G 78]

Thanks Craig. They are a very well organized team with lots of fast drivers. It's amazing what they can do with their Saturns.

[Craig]

Day two podium:

1. Don't Tread On Me (Miata)

2. Saturn Gold Car (Saturn)

3. NAMCO (Miata)

Other awards

#84 Zee Guys (Z31) got one for going up to Dallas Saturday afternoon, thrashing on the car that night, and making it back to TWS for the green flag on Sunday

#15 Wheels of Steel (5.0 Mustang) got "On The Hook" for getting towed in so many times (but they finished both days!)

[kent merkle]

Congrats to all TWS winners and finishers! And super job to those Mich.Saturns Stealing some hardware from all those Texas cheating Miatas! hehehe

[Rumrunner]

Had a great time. I'm sorry our Trans decided to not play. We lost 2nd, 4th and reverse about three hours into day one.

Cant wait for 2013.

[TBone]

I don't know. I could hazard a guess, though. (I'd imagine you could hazard a guess too.)

Benefit of the doubt and all that.

We had a good weekend overall. 5th on both days (6th overall each day, with an EC car ahead of us). Saturday we had to do a 4-tire change. We started on used rubber, and by the end of the next to last stint, they were done. We did get chastised for initially having >5 crew members over the wall. As many times as I've read the rules, that rule just never reserved a neuron, I guess.

3 whole months to get ready for the next race. That's never as much time as it sounds like.

[Craig]

Benefit of the doubt and all that.

Which is why I didn't hazard a guess, even though, as I said, I could.

[Craig]

There was more excitement on Sunday than there was on Saturday, as the pace car rolled on two different occasions. The first was for the diesel Volvo, which went off and rolled between 7 and 8 (I assume at track out from 7). The second appeared to also be for something between 7 and 8, maybe oil dropped in the track out area from 7---that's what it looked like when I drove by it.

I spent quite a few laps both days following other cars. Saturday, first it took my five or six laps to figure out how to get by the EC #97 Miata, then it took me another five or six laps to figure out how to get by the EC #6 Miata---I thought it was funny that, in each case (and on Sunday, too), I was figuring I'd pass either between 3 and 4 or between 9 and 10, yet I wound up passing between 7 and 8. Then, Sunday, I spent about 10 laps following the #3 Minata Miata, but they were close enough to me in pace that I never did get by, although I got right up on their bumper through 8 and 9.

It was a relatively uneventful weekend for us. Our alternator went bad sometime on Saturday, but we still were able to finish the race. We had some surprise fuel slosh issues (never been a problem before), leading to a couple of fuel stops in the last hour Saturday, including one with ~4 minutes left that I figured might get us a boobie prize. Oops. First stop on Sunday, it had started bogging through the carousel, but only took 10 gallons when we refueled. Conclusion: Suck it up and keep going because there's still a lot of gas left. So when it bogged on me ~1:40 into my stint, I just backed off through that turn, and had no further issues.

Was there anyone close enough behind me to catch my big spin and off in 2 on Sunday? It would have been around 1:45 pm.

[Guest trimless]

Anyone know why the 11 was classed as EC today?

Our forth driver cancelled at the last minute. We were classed in EC because we only had 3 drivers and the rules state that 4 are required. So now you all don't have to guess

Great racing this weekend. Congratulations to Don't Tread on Me for their 1st place finish Sunday, well deserved. Congrats to all the podium finishers.

[u-turn]

Trimless.you should of came by our pits.i would of gladly ran a stint in that rocket ship (along with about 50 other drivers). I don't think the speculation on your cars performance is over.

[Basil Weenie]

Was a great weekend of racing. Thanks to all the Chump and TWS staff for a great event. I never ceased to be amazed by the talent and ingenuity you see at Chump. Look at the lap times of the 11 car chasing the 43 at the end of Sunday race. BTW there was 9 seconds gap after 7 hours! 8 laps in a row under 2:04...amazing.

The Nucking Futs #81 guys did an amazing job Saturday night building a motor on the spot. Great bunch of guys from Dallas area.

Alas, we didn't finish on Sunday. Seized motor after running dry on coolant. Bui Friday practice and Satruday race were great. It was fun while it lasted.

See everyone at Hallet.

Basil Weenie Racing - EC06 to be 6 in 2013...

[Guest trimless]

Trimless.you should of came by our pits.i would of gladly ran a stint in that rocket ship (along with about 50 other drivers). I don't think the speculation on your cars performance is over.

In hindsight we would have found another driver to take a stint for us. Our 4th driver who cancelled was as fast or faster than any of the 3 drivers we had there so it was not really an advantage to us running only 3 drivers but the rules are the rules.

The 94 R package is totally stock, you can speculate but we met the rules per the $500 car list. The stock bottom end has about 100K miles on it in addition to the 24 hour race we ran earlier this year. The head was rebuilt prior to the 24 hour race. No go fast parts added, just some decent SM drivers that know TWS really well. Any of the Phillips team drivers could have jumped in and ran similar or better times.

The rules for 2013 will be revised as I understand them that will require the 94 R package to be AIV'ed. You can't find ten 94 R's for sale much less anywhere near $500. So our car has seen it's last chump car race.

[firehawk]

We came Saturday with an untested motor that was bad. Rod bearing failed, which damaged the crank, rod; piston then hit the head. We replaced all parts mentioned. Fortunately I had all the parts in my shop, along with a new set of bearings. Sunday, we took an untested motor, and ran all day We had to stop to replace rotors, then repair the fan. Hopefully this car is now sorted out.

[TBone]

I didn't spend any time behind the 11, but I did behind the 43 and the 60. Those 2 aren't fast because of straight line speed. I gained a bit on the 43 on the front stretch, but he was just a better driver than me. Those guys drive the crap out of that car, lap after lap. Our best driver passed the 60 and was faster than that driver for most of his stint. But when their slowest guy was just a touch slower than our fastest, that's not good over the whole 7 hours.

We've got our car reasonably well sorted. But after 8000 racing miles, it's time to freshen it up some. And more importantly, as the team's slowest driver, it's time to work on getting me faster.

[TBone]

And good job by the Saturn guys who came down from Michigan. I would not have guessed a Saturn could be that fast. Kudos for making the long haul.

And also to the 54 team, our neighbors in the pits. They made the trip down from Kansas City for the race. Super nice guys; hope to see you at Hallett.

[lonestarrpm]

We had an up and down weekend.

Overfilled the oil on Saturday morning and had to dump the catch can on lap 3.

Then later had a leaky oil line connection, of course it was in a very difficult place to reach with tools.

Off track maybe 35 minutes for both incidents -- but that was enough to

drop us to 20th not counting ECs.

Sunday was looking promising -- we had been as high as 9th, 7th if you discount the ECs.

But then we rubbed a hose onto the alternator -- didn't notice the missing coolant until

we blew a head gasket :-(

It amazes me the track times we are seeing.... 215 was competitive last year, 210 was competitive in the Spring,

you had to be 206 or faster to have any chance this weekend.

Our fastest driver clocked a 207.9, I had a 208.2 -- that's 10 seconds faster then we ran the 18 hour last year,

5 seconds faster than the 24 hour earlier this year.

Our car was running great and handling superb. We just need to get better at driving (and avoid

the hiccups we run into being a once a quarter race team :-)

Mike

#85 Flat Out Racing (Red Porsche 924S)

Big shout out to our new Chump buds -- the Turbo Diesel Volvo --

We had a ton of fun before, during and after the race hanging with these guys.

Sadly they had a spectacular roll through the fields Sunday morning -- but driver

was fine -- Had their motor mount not broke during the episode -- they

might have been able to pop some tire beads and soldier on.

[Guest Packard Goose]

#11 would have been listed EC earlier in the day Sunday (along with the #83 car) except for my oversight. My apologies for the confusion and speculation. Both of those teams ran very good, clean races and good lines.

I spent some time out at the corners watching for, among other things, driver lines. Please believe me that I say this with all love and affection, some of you need to attend an HPDE or two. Having thousands of laps on the 2.9, I can honestly say that I saw some lines being driven that I didn't know existed nor would have explored, personally!

I know that for a lot of drivers out there, TWS was new. Or the driver was a noob. Or that the extent of racing experience on the part of some is a handful of ChumpCar races (which is really a lot of seat time, potentially!). I'm not downgrading anyone's driving, everyone can improve and should, myself included. But when the discussion comes up where a car's speed is in question, often times the car in question is merely a decent car driven by a team that [A] knows that car well and knows the track well and [C] are all fairly good drivers. Staying on the fast line, consistently, is part of being a good diver.

Good job on the part of a couple of teams, cleaning up their act a little on Sunday. Yeah we were eyeballing you. Also very nice job to all on leaving the garages and paddock clean!

Start making plans now to go to Hallett in March. I can't say it enough - Hallett is a true diamond in the rough. fun, fun layout, lots of elevation change, challenging and flows really well. Much like TWS but more trees (well off the surface)!