24 replies to this topic

[MPR22]

The last NASA Texas race at TWS Race 1

Qual was a disaster, car went off on first hot lap under drying conditions, on second hot lap black flag all to let EV get to car. Lots of unhappy people.

1. Babot
2. Ross
3. McAllion
4. Rushing
5. Duarte


Race

1. Ross 01
2. Babot 99
3. Corley 1.6
4. McCallion 99
5. Rushing 99

Nope no parity here.

[MPR22]

Oh yeah. 50 starters, class is clearly in trouble.

[ppridday]

It's too bad that TWS didn't have consistent turnouts like this previously instead of everyone showing up because it is the "Last Blast".  Maybe then they wouldn't be closing..

 

Paul

[MPR22]

It's too bad that TWS didn't have consistent turnouts like this previously instead of everyone showing up because it is the "Last Blast".  Maybe then they wouldn't be closing..
 
Paul

NASA has had 40+ cars for at every TWS race for about 4 years. SCCA is usually 30+. It's not closing because of attendance.

[MPR22]

Race 2

Ross
Corley
McAllion
Babot
Rushing
Wisler
Palermo
Thomas

The Ross family was undefeated today. Ashlyn's volleyball team won all 5 matches today. Sad I missed 4 of them. Probably have to miss race tomorrow to watch the real athlete in the family.

[cam]

Glad to hear there is good turn-out.  What is the weather/track conditions and lab times?

[MPR22]

Oh yeah, the X-factor power is the real deal. Only passed once and that was my fault for not getting good exit out of last turn.

[Danny Steyn]

Congrats on the wins Michael - we've been waiting for them to start racking up. 

[MPR22]

Congrats on the wins Michael - we've been waiting for them to start racking up.

Thanks Danny, you know how hard the first one is. Once you've been there you know what it takes and although not necessarily easier definitely more comfortable.

[MPR22]

Glad to hear there is good turn-out.  What is the weather/track conditions and lab times?

Track very green and dirty from lots of people exploring the scenery. About an inch of rain at 7:30. Very warm 2nd race was in the 85 degree range. Fastest times were low 2:01s.

[Jim Drago]

Congrats Michael!

[MPR22]

Congrats Michael!

Thanks Jim.

[MPR22]

Everyone wanted to win today so badly, the entire SM field lined up in the paddock over an hour before Qual.  50 cars and 15 mins to qual nobody wanted to be left out of a prime spot on grid.  The grid workers sent their youngest but feistest memeber to tell us to go back to our paddock but it was too late, the entire CMC, Spec Iron and American Iron field lined up next to us and had us a trapped until they went to grid.  It was a good time to visit with all the competitors who were catching some shade under Kevin Pyle's RV canopy and swap stories of yesterdays races.  Once the muscle cars took the track, we rolled to the grid and it seemed nobody was interested in giving me a tow so I got to roll out first and set the pace.  I like to build up pace quickly but was worried about catching traffic so I slowed down a bit by turn 3 and took some time to bed in my new brake pads.  I picked the right dance partner in Trevor McAllion who is a pushing machine and we hooked up immediately coming onto the front straight.  Lap 1 was good, car had an unexpected push in right hand turns 3, 10 and 14. We adjusted the setp up a tick after warm up and it felt like we went too far.  Put my head down just did what i could in all the lefts and adjusted driving style in rights to get the car to turn in.  Lap 2 was smoking and going into the final turns i was sure i had nailed the pole.  Wanted it so badly i forgot the car hated the right turn and washed out a bit and messed up all the previous 13 perfect turns.  Very frustrating.  Let McAllion and Corley by on front straight and got ready for a regroup. Lap 3 was wasted by my pulling out and lap 4 had to be it, we were starting to catch traffic.  I let out the rope at the end of lap 3 and started to real the two rabbits in,  by turn 6 i had cut down over half the gap and the predictive was already in the green, got greedy and tried to make it all up in turn 7 turned in early and clipped the curb, no biggie, just stay in it and wheel your way out of it, edge of track coming up quickly, no worries I have held the edge a hundred times before.  Don't look right, look left dumb ass,  oh man just dropped the front right, now the right rear, track going away from me....were the hell is this car headed????   Off at turn 7, cars don't return from the pit of doom on the back of 7, where do i steer, what do i aim at, never been here before, time to lock it down and pay the piper.  Car yaws to the right under lock up and then the whoop d doos begin.  Big air and a hard landing later, I am restarting the car and headed back to the track surface.  I am sure the car is bent, get on track huge vibration, not good.  Take the saftey road to the oval and just hand my head in shame on the way back to the paddock.  Run into Chris and tell him, I think i bent the car, he says ok, tell Michael (Johnson) and Cricket and get it on the pads.  Let them look the car over, and 20 mins later they declare I am one lucky SOB.  The vibration was the 30 lbs of mud i had struck in my wheels. 

 

Dad walks by and says," nice air son",  no chance you are touching the new vette.  My shame.   Then he says your still P2.  Sweet!

 

Qual 2

 

Corely  1:59.751

Ross 2:00.110

Babot 2:00.112

McCAllion 00.126

Palermo 00.281

Gabriel 00.444

Ferranti 00.480

Thomas 00.831

Rushing 00.915

Wisler  01.039

 

Nice lap by Corley in the 1.6 drafting the 01 and the 99.

 

The 40+ minute race was shaping up to be another battle.  More later.  Time to spend some time with the volleyball side of the family.

[trimless]

Congrats on the two wins Michael, your driving has improved over the last year and your car is no slouch either. Seems to be a good combination for you!

[John Babot]

Sunday TWS final was one of the closest I’ve ever been in.

Ross drove near flawlessly the first 2 races  leading most of the laps.  I did take the lead early in the first race paid for it.  The only chance I had was to push Ross down the front straight to gap Corley and see if I could work on Ross alone.  Didn’t quite work out.  Ross was holding a clinic on defending position.  So when I attempted a move going into the carousel I paid for it by watching Corley take my inside line. 

 

Sunday’s start had me in P3, inside line behind Corley (Pole) with Palermo behind me.  Ross outside Pole with McCallion behind him (bad combination for me).  At green I slammed into Corley and then got slammed into him again from behind.  Thought Corley miss shifted and lost 4-5 spots so I had to muscle my way through Turns 1 and 2 to salvage the start.  By lap 4 I got around Corley as he started to slow (he posted on Facebook he’s looking for a new head core for his 1.6).  At this point I managed to settle into P4 with Brett Gabriel P3, McCallion P2 and Ross P1.

 

About half way through the race we had a comfortable gap on the field when the safety car came out to bunch us back up. By this time Wisler is formed up on my tail.  Out of “Larry Curley & Mo” the pace car shoots back into the hot grid (at a very acute angle I might add) and the green flag goes.  I got a bad jump and screwed Wisler as he gave me a tap of encouragement to get going.  Of course that killed his momentum causing him to be passed by Duarte, Palermo and Agha.  Back to green my tires were a bit cold and I struggled to keep a hard charging Duarte behind me.  He got around but I was able to regain position once my tires came back.  I got back on Gabriel’s bumper and tried to make a pass but was unsuccessful so instead of fight we needed to catch the leaders Ross and McCallion.  We worked together for awhile but it was clear Gabriel’s car had suffered to much (Gabriel’s car was damaged BAD in Race 1) to keep the pace so I got around him at exit of Turn 6.  Amazing what these cars and drivers can do.   

 

Second to last lap to go I get a run on McCallion out of Larry-Curly-Mo, I pop out twice on the front straight (just to make sure a white isn’t thrown….flags were an issue all weekend) see no white and decide a pass won’t be as productive as pushing McCallion.  McCallion carries the speed inside turn one holding Ross outside allowing me to slip in.  Ross tries to defend inside of turn three to keep me back, as I exit turn three I see McCallion’s car start to over rotate.  Not really a big deal as I’ve been behind McCallion before watching him drive sideways and not lose postion….Not this time.  Since I had to over-slow the corner to allow Ross room I was able to get on the throttle hard with a fair amount of steering input to go around McCallion.  The next lap around we go white with Ross in P2 and McCallion P3.  I hold the inside of Turn one as Ross and McCallion carry the drafting speed up.  Mid way through turn one Ross’s car starts to rotate and looked like he’d have a hard time catching it.  By exit of turn two McCallion had gained P2.  As I exit turn three I see lapping traffic just clearing turn four.  Not good.  As I/we approach turn eight I see the blue flag waving for the lapping traffic and hope they have their heads up.  By the time I enter the Carousel I am on both lapping cars and see the corner workers, hands in pockets enjoying the show.  Great!  As I exit the Carousel I try to use a bit of draft to get as much speed as I can to clear the two lapped cars before Larry-Curly-Mo.  I clear one but McCallion and/or Ross clear him, too.  As I set up for the last set of critical turns before final exit I see the lapping car in front of me misses the proper entry by a good 12 feet.  I carry as much speed as I can through entry and try to accelerate around the lapped car, unfortunately for me he begins to track out.  Rather than jump the last segment of grass and mud, then climb up the bank, I scrub speed and go inside and around the lapped car.  Of course McCallion sees my initial move and is already going inside, as is Ross on his tail.  At this point it’s looking like this race is lost.  As I move left to clear the lapped car McCallion is just coming up to pass me, had he had another 6 feet on me he would have been able to pin me behind the lapped car and that would have been it.  As McCallion was pulling by me to my left, the 49 car held his line on my right and did not move up the track to give us more room.  This gave me just enough room to fit my car between both cars giving me the benefit of a side draft on both sides.  All the while Ross is utilizing the three wide car line-up to sling shot down to the apron.  Across the finish it was just about as close as it comes.  What a race.  It’s always a pleasure racing with such competitive drivers.  And of course, thanks to Ed Gilfus and all the crew at Gilfus/MDG for taking car of my car.

 

Here is some video of the last 2 laps, or so.  

[Pat Ross]

Gale,

 

That was an awesome pass you made going thru Turn 1 yesterday when you passed both John and Trevor.  You sure made your car stick down low while the '99s washed up.  Sorry that you lost your fan belt shortly there after.  Had that not happened I am sure your would have been in the middle of the melee at the finish of the race.

 

For those not there, John, Trevor, and Mike crossed the finish line at the end of 18 laps with a total of 0.013 seconds difference between 1st and 3rd.  John Babot won (congratulations again) and Trevor and Mike finished in a dead heat.  Race Monitor showed a gap between Trevor and Mike of 0.000 seconds.

 

Pat

[MPR22]

Sunday TWS final was one of the closest I’ve ever been in.

Ross drove near flawlessly the first 2 races  leading most of the laps.  I did take the lead early in the first race paid for it.  The only chance I had was to push Ross down the front straight to gap Corley and see if I could work on Ross alone.  Didn’t quite work out.  Ross was holding a clinic on defending position.  So when I attempted a move going into the carousel I paid for it by watching Corley take my inside line. 

 

Sunday’s start had me in P3, inside line behind Corley (Pole) with Palermo behind me.  Ross outside Pole with McCallion behind him (bad combination for me).  At green I slammed into Corley and then got slammed into him again from behind.  Thought Corley miss shifted and lost 4-5 spots so I had to muscle my way through Turns 1 and 2 to salvage the start.  By lap 4 I got around Corley as he started to slow (he posted on Facebook he’s looking for a new head core for his 1.6).  At this point I managed to settle into P4 with Brett Gabriel P3, McCallion P2 and Ross P1.

 

About half way through the race we had a comfortable gap on the field when the safety car came out to bunch us back up. By this time Wisler is formed up on my tail.  Out of “Larry Curley & Mo” the pace car shoots back into the hot grid (at a very acute angle I might add) and the green flag goes.  I got a bad jump and screwed Wisler as he gave me a tap of encouragement to get going.  Of course that killed his momentum causing him to be passed by Duarte, Palermo and Agha.  Back to green my tires were a bit cold and I struggled to keep a hard charging Duarte behind me.  He got around but I was able to regain position once my tires came back.  I got back on Gabriel’s bumper and tried to make a pass but was unsuccessful so instead of fight we needed to catch the leaders Ross and McCallion.  We worked together for awhile but it was clear Gabriel’s car had suffered to much (Gabriel’s car was damaged BAD in Race 1) to keep the pace so I got around him at exit of Turn 6.  Amazing what these cars and drivers can do.   

 

Second to last lap to go I get a run on McCallion out of Larry-Curly-Mo, I pop out twice on the front straight (just to make sure a white isn’t thrown….flags were an issue all weekend) see no white and decide a pass won’t be as productive as pushing McCallion.  McCallion carries the speed inside turn one holding Ross outside allowing me to slip in.  Ross tries to defend inside of turn three to keep me back, as I exit turn three I see McCallion’s car start to over rotate.  Not really a big deal as I’ve been behind McCallion before watching him drive sideways and not lose postion….Not this time.  Since I had to over-slow the corner to allow Ross room I was able to get on the throttle hard with a fair amount of steering input to go around McCallion.  The next lap around we go white with Ross in P2 and McCallion P3.  I hold the inside of Turn one as Ross and McCallion carry the drafting speed up.  Mid way through turn one Ross’s car starts to rotate and looked like he’d have a hard time catching it.  By exit of turn two McCallion had gained P2.  As I exit turn three I see lapping traffic just clearing turn four.  Not good.  As I/we approach turn eight I see the blue flag waving for the lapping traffic and hope they have their heads up.  By the time I enter the Carousel I am on both lapping cars and see the corner workers, hands in pockets enjoying the show.  Great!  As I exit the Carousel I try to use a bit of draft to get as much speed as I can to clear the two lapped cars before Larry-Curly-Mo.  I clear one but McCallion and/or Ross clear him, too.  As I set up for the last set of critical turns before final exit I see the lapping car in front of me misses the proper entry by a good 12 feet.  I carry as much speed as I can through entry and try to accelerate around the lapped car, unfortunately for me he begins to track out.  Rather than jump the last segment of grass and mud, then climb up the bank, I scrub speed and go inside and around the lapped car.  Of course McCallion sees my initial move and is already going inside, as is Ross on his tail.  At this point it’s looking like this race is lost.  As I move left to clear the lapped car McCallion is just coming up to pass me, had he had another 6 feet on me he would have been able to pin me behind the lapped car and that would have been it.  As McCallion was pulling by me to my left, the 49 car held his line on my right and did not move up the track to give us more room.  This gave me just enough room to fit my car between both cars giving me the benefit of a side draft on both sides.  All the while Ross is utilizing the three wide car line-up to sling shot down to the apron.  Across the finish it was just about as close as it comes.  What a race.  It’s always a pleasure racing with such competitive drivers.  And of course, thanks to Ed Gilfus and all the crew at Gilfus/MDG for taking car of my car.

 

Here is some video of the last 2 laps, or so.  

Thanks for posting that John.  Great clean racing with you this weekend.  I love how the lapper is pointing you by and in true DE style not lifting!

 

Only tactical mistake i made all weekend, lost sleep over it last night, is thinking i had enough gap on both of you not to take the low line to defend inside 1.  I was sure i had plenty of room to keep Trevor out so I decided to go for the absolute fastest line and see if I couldn't break you two off right then and there with a perfect lap.  Huge mistake and I paid the price.  Going into the carousel I locked up the front right when you defended inside braked accordingly.  The front right Toyo couldn't take the heat and was toast as you see from then on every left hand turn the car washes out on me.  I was hanging on for dear life at the exit of 2 can't believe i saved it.  

 

At the time I thought I pulled off the miracle comeback win but had no idea until they came down and told us how it finished.  Still too much fun for grown men to have.  And that is why we do it. 

[MPR22]

Special thank you to Chris Haldeman of X Factor Racing and Pat Ross and Karen Ross (sponsors)  for putting me in a damn fast car that can compete at the highest level.  When I don't win its because of the driver not the car.  

[Bench Racer]

Watching the video showed some very intense driving, great job guys. Only wish my skills were there.

 

Sarcasm ON:

To those that like to call out and piss and moan about the lappers, F off, we lappers pay the same ticket price you big kids pay. Did you take the time to explain to the lapper that hand signals through the rear window are more easily viewed?   I was out yesterday and lost two laps to a whatever class Porsche and one lap to the FAST SM drivers and the fast SM drivers lost a lap to the Porsche. Makes the fast SM guys lappers, correct. Found out latter the Porsche was a Fall Line at $280,000.00 car, bigger kid than you guys ay.

[MPR22]

Watching the video showed some very intense driving, great job guys. Only wish my skills were there.

 

Sarcasm ON:

To those that like to call out and piss and moan about the lappers, F off, we lappers pay the same ticket price you big kids pay. Did you take the time to explain to the lapper that hand signals through the rear window are more easily viewed?   I was out yesterday and lost two laps to a whatever class Porsche and one lap to the FAST SM drivers and the fast SM drivers lost a lap to the Porsche. Makes the fast SM guys lappers, correct. Found out latter the Porsche was a Fall Line at $280,000.00 car, bigger kid than you guys ay.

David to be honest I admire you for getting on the track and doing your thing at your age.  Me and about 3000 SM drivers know that racing is way more intense than just lapping in a high hp car.  Wish dad fit in a SM so I could take him for some joy rides.  He doesn't like me driving his big HP cars from the passenger seat as he seems to think i might hurt them and him.  Maybe in a miata he would feel more comfortable. 

 

I actually had no problem with them and how they handled themselves.  I never saw the point by until i just watched the video, just thought it was funny myself.  If I was John, I would have slowed down and got side by side with the lapper that pulled over and let the other lapper clear the last turns keeping my friends behind me.  Working traffic is part of the game and I enjoy it as I have lots of hours racing chump car.