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NASA COTA the forgotten race

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#1
MPR22

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NASA Texas held an event at COTA over Memorial Day weekend.  The field was on the smallish side and didn't have names like Haldeman, Drago and Steyn attending but it was a very fun and well run event.  

 

Sat Qual: 

 

(99)    Daniel Williams (X-Factor) 2:44.759

(VVT) Lee Thomas (X-Factor) 2:44.985

(VVT) Mark Drennan (other) 2:45.239

(1.6)   Danny Soufi (X-Factor) 2:45.514

(1.6)   Vaughn Duarte 2:45.527

 

I didn't know how I would feel after a night of celebrating my birth week so I didn't sign up for the practice day.  This translated into a less than stellar qualifying effort.  I could not string together a clean lap and pressed too hard to make it happen, on both of my best laps coming into turn 11 I didn't pump the brakes enough and my pedal went to the floor both times.  We rarely race on a surface that has rumbles we cross on both sides of the car, this leads to kick back on both sides and requires serious pumping to get the pedal back.  Excuses aside I managed a solid P10.  

 

Sat Race:  Starting 10th in a 30 minute race wasn't the worst thing in the world but it wasn't going to make my job easy.  By lap one I was in 8th and lap two i was in 6th. Starting to get a feel for the track and how it would race I was getting much more comfortable.  Unfortunately Daniel Williams had no pressure from the start and managed to pull about a 2 second gap on Drennan and a further 2 second gap to P3 which by lap 5 of 9 was me.  I put my head down and tried to run clean laps but without a push I wasn't making headway on either of those two excellent drivers.  We were all doing DE laps, Drennan and I were hoping that lapped traffic from the 944s would bring back Williams but it was not to be.  

 

Excellent drive by Dan Williams in the X-Factor rental!! Up to this point the 04's worst finish in any race has been a p3.  Chris put this car together in a week and half just before NOLA.  It was an SM that needed a complete refresh and it appears it has the heart of champion after its buff and polish session.

 

Forgot to mention my entire family was at the track this weekend and we even had my daughters boyfriend and father in town from Tupelo, Mississippi. They were visiting UTSA and Texas State football coaches and found time to hang with us at the track. 

 

Sun Qual: 

 

Determined not to be out of the race before it started I was very focused on driving smooth in this session.  The grid order for qual was set by fastest lap in Saturday's race and I was starting p3 behind Drennan and Williams.  I was out with my good friend Trevor McAllion and hoped we could put up a good lap by working the draft and some pushing by Trevor down the straights.  

 

We left a gap and started to push late on the out lap.  I almost immediately dropped Trevor and on the first hot lap and as I crossed SF saw that I was in P1 and was gaining on the two rabbits without a push I just kept it as smooth as i could and hoped the time would be good.  As I came to SF on hot lap two I knew i had a great lap going and was anxious to finish it cleanly.  I had gained about 5 length on the two rabbits and was sure I was a solid P1 and pulled back to help push Trevor.  All my smooth went out the window once I tried to be too perfect and missed a shift out of 11 and missed the opportunity to help my team mate.  We both pulled in and I felt my time was as good as I could get.  I was over .4 up on p2 when I came in and went was thinking I was all that!

 

Ross 2:43.400

Drennan 2:43.470

Duarte    2:43:813

Williams    2:43.840

Crickenberger 2:43.931

 

Drennan stayed out the entire session and managed to pull off a flyer on lap 5 that was right there with me.  

 

The race was about 2 hours away and my entire family was going to be there to root for their favorite driver who was on pole.  No pressure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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#2
LarryKing

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How much was the entry fee?


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#3
Johnny D

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How much was the entry fee?

 

Looks like $1199 for both days

 

https://www.nasapror...com/events/2531

 

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#4
MPR22

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How much was the entry fee?

It was steep but NASA is a for profit business and they chose the more money vs more racers route.  I think if they had it to do all over again they would soften the entry fee and get a bigger turnout.  Also this event was running head to head with an SCCA Majors race at TWS so that further diluted the entry pool.  In case anyone is wondering the NASA event was much more well attended than the SCCA event.  


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#5
LarryKing

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Looks like $1199 for both days

 

Did that include a "reach around"?


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#6
Lee Thomas

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The difference in laptimes between SCCA and NASA can be attributed to the extra large orange road titties (or whatever they are called). The SCCA race had the MotoGP ones which we could drive over.  The NASA race had the standard ones used in F1.  I discovered this during practice when I did a wheelie off the one sitting at the apex of T9.  Ouch.  Much less usable track!  

 

Great event...well run.  Too bad we didn't have a field worthy of that track.



#7
Johnny D

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Video_MAIN_2_jpg_677x1000_q100.jpg

 

Here we see Winding Road Team TFB ace Mark Drennan driving a 45 minute NASA sprint race at Circuit of The Americas. Mark, for reference, is the 2015 NASA East and NASA West national champion in Spec Miata. He shows several things in this video. The first thing is that he runs the car at, and thus sometimes over, the limit of adhesion (note that Mark reports that adjustments to the car after qualifying "went a little too far toward oversteer"). When you have excellent car control skills, you can do this. As a result, he is running the car about as fast as it can go, rather than over-slowing and giving up speed to gain comfort and smoothness.

 

The second thing we notice is that Mark backs up during the race and this doesn't seem to phase him. What may not be obvious is that with two laps to go, Mark drops his lap times by about 1 sec per lap. This puts pressure on the front of the field, and they get in a little trouble and as a result, Mark wins the race. There are no guarantees with this strategy, of course.

 

We should also say that Mark's fellow racers -- Michael Ross (P2), Danny Soufi (P3, age 13!), Vaughn Duarte, Dan Williams and Trevor McCallion -- show some fine pace. This was a tight and exciting race, and we tip our hats to them for making it fun.

 

Hand signal guide:

Karate chop -- line up and bump draft
Raised open palm -- What was that?
Closed fist -- WTF?

 


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#8
MPR22

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After watching Mark's video I am even more sick about the loss than I was that day. Babied that tranny for 3/4 of the race and with a little more than one to go she bit me.
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#9
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Dare I say, that's ^ poor race prep Mr. Ball Buster.

 

Now a serious question, what's the "A" with the dot under the "A" in Mark's windshield drivers side. Is it saying, this here's the number one Dude? Or is that a NASA thing of some sort?


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#10
MPR22

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Not poor race prep. I am without a doubt the worst shifter in the history of spec MIata. If we raced sequential gear boxes everyone would be racing for second place.
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#11
Jim Drago

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After watching Mark's video I am even more sick about the loss than I was that day. Babied that tranny for 3/4 of the race and with a little more than one to go she bit me.

If the trans is not spot on at COTA you are dead.. 


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#12
MPR22

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If the trans is not spot on at COTA you are dead.. 

100%, that is why I was very happy with my drive that day.  I was losing third gear synchro a few laps in and started loosing the ability to downshift into second about half way in.  I think i twisted the shaft on down shift early in the race and from there it was a matter of degradation lap after lap. 


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#13
MPR22

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Congrats to Mark on staying with it and winning, can never count him out.  

 

Congrats to Danny Soufi on P3.  13 and real talent, not that hyperbole crap some wanabe racer dads put out there hoping kids is the next F1 wunderkind. 

Congrats to Daniel Williams for the win Saturday and a great drive on Sunday as well.  

 

Thanks to Chris, Squirel (Michael Johnson) and Cricket (Chris Bermudes) of X-Factor Racing for getting the set up spot on out of the trailer.  Would have been a rough weekend if we were chasing setup and making me learn the track all at the same time.    


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#14
Bench Racer

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Michael, empty your mail box.


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#15
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Michael, empty your mail box.

Done, thank you for pointing it out to me. 


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#16
Jamz14

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Did that include a "reach around"?

Do you have any idea what the daily track fee is to NASA?


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#17
MPR22

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Do you have any idea what the daily track fee is to NASA?

I have been told it is north of $50,000.  SCCA paid $150,000 in 2013 for three days.  I don't know if its true or not but word was COTA wanted a piece of the profits.  


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