Chapter 193 March 2012
Witchdoctor Motorsports
Tx2k12 DAY ONE -- TIME ATTACK ! !
Day TWO = DYNO DAY (next chapter) +++ Day THREE = Drag Race Test-n-Tune (didn't go) +++ Day FOUR = DRAG RACING (chapter 196)
** Lots of pictures are from Fair's camera, he got some great snaps!, the official Vorshlag Pics here **
So the "Time Attack" portion of the event is hosted after an all-day track event that is a basic HPDE/open-track event. The attendees are split up between beginners and advanced and rotate on track all day. At the end of the day, the top 5 advanced drivers all get a 3 lap shootout to put down the fastest lap time and the top three get trophies. Last year the Time Attack portion was cancelled when a car rolled and shut down the event right before the Time Attack and I won by virtue of having the fastest qualifying lap. I was fortunate I did a 'fast' session as I had been taking it easy the majority of the day. Full story on this website at Chapter 178.
First thing to know about this event is I spun Scratcher. Ug. First time I've done that in this car. Lots of drivers spin quite frequently but I typically don't. However, in this instance I was just starting a second lap on the first session on my oldest tires and the fronts had warmed and the rears hadn't. Track was cold and green with heavy rain the days prior to out event. Add in that I focused a bit adjusting the brake bias down the straight and when I got to the corner I had a lot more speed in hand and needed to brake hard and turn a bit. Yeah, wasn't going to happen. Lazy spin, no damage, just mowed some grass. With all the recent rain the grass was a very lush, green, and tall...and mud still lurked underneath.
LAZY SPIN VIDEO HERE: https://vimeo.com/44211628
So I come back in to clean up the car a bit and swap to my tires that are only from last year and get ready to go again. Fair has the '100mph grass mowing splitter' pic on Facebook before I can get my helmet off! Heh!! :-) Took off the two year old tires, put on my one year old tires and cleaned out the grass. While I did take quite a bit of video at this event, I sadly left the quality on 'low' from when we did the CrapCan ECR race when we needed to fit 2 hour stints onto the memory cards. Argh.
My student did well and was quick and smooth on track. After a few sessions I let him go solo and then rode the last session to brush up on what we learned that day. He was in a new body style Mustang and spent some time chatting with Fair about parts to buy. Fair brought the red dragon and really drove hard, putting down a LOT of expensive hardware in the Vorshlag Mustang. In the end, he ran out of soft tires to play on and had the SCCA National Tour to head out to anyway, but he was pounding out the laps when he could.
I took Anna for a few rides in Scratcher and she had her iPhone out snapping pics and taking vids. Too cool. I had some family attend and we had a great time. I really wasn't taking the event too serious, just happy that Scratcher was running well and having fun with our group. I was at the top of the time sheets with the Forged Performance GTR close behind. It is a GTR kinda like Scratcher is a Camaro :-). Clean car though and driven well.
VIDEO OF ME TAKING ANNA FOR SOME FUN LAPS: https://vimeo.com/48857808 (again, sorry for the poor quality, I forgot to reset it after the crapcan race!!)
The track day portion went well. LOTS of different cars on the track and even more that cruised down to watch. Several cars spun here and there, but nothing remarkable happened (we had that last year) and the event ran very smoothly. Yes the pictures are big, but I didn't want to crop them down too much...the cars were just too nice!
And now, the Time Attack portion. This was a bit odd as the Forced Performance GTR nipped me in the last 'open' session so he would start first. They'd gap the top 5 of us by 15 seconds and then we'd get three laps, fastest lap wins. I launched hard and actually was pretty close to the FP car and saw him go under the starter stand. I ran a pretty hard lap and was closer to him when he crossed the line to start his second lap and during that lap he went 4 off and came back on in front of me and that botched that lap. I instantly figured it was over since in most Time Trial events when you go four off those session times don't count. I wasn't really thinking and should have dropped the hammer but I didn't. Had it been NASA, SCCA, NARRA, etc, the FP car would have been out, but this is more of a 'fun' event and I was definitely not focused on setting my fastest laps. Somehow (??) his first lap was a touch (like .08) faster than mine and he ended up winning. They never uploaded mylaps times and I never saw a real printout, but it is what it is. A 2nd place trophy was brought back to the trailer and I'll play 'for real' next year :-) The event was very laid back and fun, and I'm looking forward to next year. I beat the FP car in 2011, the FP car won in 2012, we'll see if 2013 is my year to win it back. :-)
All in all a GREAT event and if you're in the area you should make plans to attend next year. Very laid back folks, very serious cars and a great time! www.tx2k.com for more info!!
