A weekend at TWS, part II

Yes, I've been bitten by the "road course bug"... I just attended the October school. After the last TWS drivers school I was ready to hand over a check to pay for the next event. I'm ready for next March too. :- )

Nick and I arrived in College Station friday afternoon and went to the track to help Rick and Oscar (the event coordinators) set up for the weekend. Lots and lots of cones to setup and lots of opportunity to see the track up-close and personal... it looks very different on foot. After all was done Nick and I got a special treat for helping out -- several fast laps around the TWS oval. Very cool and kind of like driving in a fish bowl.

Saturday morning Jason Palmer and I were asked to be "newbie shuttles" and take all the first time attendees slowly around the track with Oscar in the lead to help them get a feel for the correct line. This was great for me as it offered yet another opportunity to see the track at low speed and put the car where it should be on the track. I was suprised how much info stuck in my brain from the event 6 months prior.

With better knowedge of the track and the correct line (btw, knowing the correct line and driving the correct line are two very different things) made this past weekend much more relaxed as I could concentrate on driving smoothly and driving the correct line. I learned that I could enter turn one at over 90 mph under power without a problem and how hard I could push in the rest of the course.

One other tidbit... I learned not to try to keep to up with someone running racing tires (Comp/TA R1s in this case) when you are only running high performance street tires. I was behind Warren Wang ('98 A4 2.8 30V QM with sway bars) for a few laps and was able to keep up with him for a while... until, that is, my tires got too hot and began to get slippery. I had to back off and let him go... my car just wouldn't stick anymore. After that particular session an inspection of my front tires revealed that I had run them too hard and they had started to "chunk". "Chunking" occurs when rubber actually tears from the tread because it has become too soft from excessive heat.

**Video from Texas World Speedway**
	This is one lap around TWS. Most of the track is 3rd gear (exception is the straight) with a substantial portion of it above 5,000 RPM. Looks like I'm going slow but the entrance to turn one is 90+ MPH as is the long, full throttle, nearly drifting, back section. The audio is a bit noisy--saftey requires you run with the windows down so wind noise is high. One Lap (948K)
	This is a quick run through the slalom. 3rd gear, at about 65 MPH. The cones are 100 feet apart... but it sure doesn't feel like it. Slalom (314K)
RealVideo format. Download the free RealPlayer here if you are not so equipped

I averaged 7.6 mpg for the weekend and consumed just over 3/4 tank of fuel per day... down from my usual 21.6 mpg. Yes, full boost sucks a lot of fuel. Warren was averaging 11.6 mpg with his chipped 2.8 30V.

The highlight of the weekend was a 25 minute ride in a Porsche 911 RACE CAR!! Full roll cage, race tires, fire suppression system, F A S T... PURE RACE CAR. A rollercoaster has nothing on the ride I received.

It took about 3-4 minutes to secure the harness and my helmet. Once the harness was correctly fastened I could not move my torso because I was strapped in so tight. As we slowly went down the pit lane she (the driver) told me if I started to get sick to look as far down the track as possible... if that didn't help to just say something and she'd back off the pace. <gulp> She took a warm up lap to get the car and the tires hot then she dropped the hammer and turned on "race mode" for the next 23 minutes. Ok, remember I said I was strapped in so tight with the harness I couldn't move? Well, even with both feet pressed firmly on the firewall my body would pull away from the seat when she got on the brakes. Unbelievable! Over the weekend I gradually worked up my entrance speed into turn one. On our first "hot lap" she came in to turn one 40-50 mph faster than I was entering, hammered on the brakes (pinning me against the harness), turned in and jumped on the gas (pinning me to the seat). INTENSE!

The other 10 turns were just as thrilling. After our session I asked how hard she was running... she though for a second or so... "Oh, probably 7 or 8/10ths." Amazing, still more to go.

5 minutes after my ride it was time for me to take my own car back out onto the track. It felt like I was walking even though I was doing 80+ mph.