Texas World Speedway, Oct 2014

Liked the track, it reminds me very much of Roebling Road in Savannah, GA. Long straight away and lots of fast sweepers. Since it was my first time here and all the other SE30's bailed, much of the weekend was burned up learning the track... in the rain. I ended up having them reclassify me from SE30 to PTD in order to have a few other cars to race with in class. I was in the lightning race group with PT cars and thunder roadsters. 

Saturday's practice was wet... great way to learn a new track. I ended up missing qualifying after finding an issue with the front shocks and having to fix them during the qualifying session. Starting from the back of the grid gave me an opportunity to pick up the track in the first race. I ended up third in class (out of 5) with a fast lap near 2:12

Spec E30 #168: Texas World Speedway, October 2014 from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.

Saturday's second race was based on an invert of the first race finishing order. Definitely a hectic start, but after settling down I was able to find a 2:08... I was leaving time on the table, but starting to get comfortable.


SE30 2014 Oct @ TWS Sat 2- Inverted from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.

After an early practice Sunday morning, the rain returned with a vengeance. I happened to be working on the car right before qualifying when the sky opened up (after much of the group was on grid). So I put rains on and headed out a little late and put down a 2:33, good enough for the front row. 


SE30 2014 Oct @ TWS- Sun Qualifying from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.

The pole sitter didn't race so I got bumped up to the pole for the wet race. A few of the real fast guys (thunder roadsters) that missed qualifying came out on rain tires and blew by the field on the start. In the end, I ran a 2:29 during a race in pretty challenging conditions. I finished first in class, and with the exception of the thunder roadsters (much lighter) put down the fast lap of the race. I'll take it.

SE30 2014 Oct @ TWS- Sun from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.

Wendy also got a shot of the start of the race from the pits:


SE30 2014 Oct @ TWS- Sun Race Start from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.


I left before the 4th race on Sunday (had to get home). Good race weekend, I met some great folks. It sounds like there are quite a few folks looking at Spec E30 which is good and at least one more event at TWS in April 2015.



Logsheet

Ballast Installation

After nearly being disqualified at the COTA race, I worked with Pranava Works (https://www.etsy.com/shop/PranavaWorks) here in San Antonio to cut and drill some 1/4" steel plate to be able to be used as bassist in the car. Attached are a few photographs of the installation.

Texas Trifecta

Texas Trifecta at Circuit of the Americas and my Spec E30 debut here in Texas. Very nice facility but in this environment, not the most specter friendly.



Friday practice and qualifying was spent primarily learning the track. It took a little while to pick up but out of the five car Spec E30 field, I was able to get the pole ahead of Allen Garner. Turn 1 at the start was very interesting. I was able to make it through clean and break away from the pack for the win. This was the only race my camera worked for, and was mostly driving around by myself.



Texas Trifecta- Sunday Enduro Start from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.





Saturday consisted of practice and two sprint races with qualifying set by fast lap of the prior race. It ended up being a cutthroat back and forth with Allen. It was a great race... I ended up finishing in second place just behind Allen, but did set the fast lap at 2:47:001 and the pole for the feature race. After the race, I weighed the car to get a baseline now that I had lost weight (Driver @ 165 pounds). It was the following with a full tank of gas and full cool suit cooler in the trunk:



2720 Pounds



LF: 772 RF: 691

LR: 630 RR: 622

Front- 1463 53%

Rear- 1252 46%

The second sprint race was the feature race. The first few laps were once again back and forth with Allen. My tires began to fall off and after a pretty scary slide coming onto the front straight I backed off a bit and focused on not crashing the car. Post race, the entire Spec E30 class was impounded. I came in at 2697 pounds (within the 5 pound variance), but unfortunately Allen ended up being DQ'd for being underweight. Not a great way to win a race.



For Sunday, there was a 1 hour endurance race. While I had a set of new tires, I didn't want to break them in for the enduro and ended up going out on the old RR's to continue to learn how they behave as they wear. I ended up cording two of them in the race, but was able run a 2:50.37 on the second lap. I believe they do not like drift angles as high as the RA-1's. While my camera broke, I did get the first couple of laps:





Texas Trifecta- Sunday Enduro Start from Kelly Childress on Vimeo.

Location:Circuit of the Americas

Off Season Maintenance

Changed Oil
Replaced Engine Mounts

BMW Club Race

Before moving to Texas, I was able to do one more event at Road Atlanta. This is the third event on the new Toyo RR's. In the endurance race on Friday I lot my O2 sensor. I put a bolt in the hole to finish the weekend.

In Saturday's qualifying race, I broke a wheel finding the big hole track right under the bridge. Starting from the back, I was able to come in 2nd in the race. Camera broke, so no video :(

Sunday I was able to take both the pole and the victory ahead of Robert & Chuck.































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Road Atlanta

Savannah Sizzler

No video as my camera was having issues all weekend 

Saturday, I qualified 8th... Herrington got by me between 4 and 5 on the first lap and made his car pretty wide for the first half of the race so I fell as far back as 9th. Chuck bobbled in two and we both got by, halfway through the race I used out of class traffic to get by Harrington, and then caught up to Lako with a few laps to go. He does need an engine, but my tires we're pretty slick by then and he always got a good enough run out of the carousel onto the front straight that I couldn't capitalize. A thunder roadster pitting as Lako tried to take turn 9 leading onto the white flag lap caused him to lift and gave me an opportunity to get by and secure 6th for a set of brake pads (Thanks Bimmerworld!!!)

The bunny race Saturday evening was fun... staggered inverted start meant people we're spaced out and slowly grouped together. I put on an OLD set of severely heat cycled RA-1s and skated around a bit. Towards the end, the pseudo inverted three wide standing restart (in hindsight) may not have been the best idea in the world. It resulted in a side/side bang  Nothing too bad... it'll buff out ... Thanks to Geno's Garage for putting it together. 



Sunday's qualifying (for me) was not good... I could not find the fast line and get the car to stick to save my life. After holding up Lako and a couple other folks I let them by and settled for what ended up being 10th place. After noon on Sunday all eyes went to the weather as everyone tried to forecast whether or not the (large) storm would make it before, during, or after our 45 minute race... Team owner (Wendy) made the dry tire call, Julio & Eric went wet, and most everyone else went dry. While we saw some sprinkles in the race, nothing heavy enought to impact grip... good call Wendy! Unfortunately, lap one turned double yellow as Herrington, Robert Patton, and Sumpter got together through with all three ending up track right. At the restart, I ended up in a group behind Lako & Julio. It was interesting to see head to head differences between the RRs and the RA1s... Julio held on for a while but I eventually worked my way by and using traffic settled into a comfortable 5th place finish. 

My first road trip with the new truck & trailer... I definitely liked the setup, especially packing up after the race (in the rain). Also, it was great meeting some new folks (to me) in the series.

Pot of Gold Rush

First event back after almost a year off with a broken leg.

Saturday was interesting trying to get back into the car after that much time. Throw in the new tire compound just to add a little spice. I ended up qualifying 7th, not bad. Went for a ride up the hill in 1 on the first hot lap of qualifying... apparently the RR's need a little more time to warm up. Post qualifying the car weighed in at 2708 with ~ 1/4 tank of fuel on the gauge (~ 1/2 tank). The race was fun... no major incidents in Spec E30 but it was shortened due to a car getting stuck at the exit of 5. Part of me was glad it ended under yellow as I'm not sure how much more I had in me. Finished 4th making up some ground when Stoops went off allowing me to get by both him and Robert. Post race weight was 2718 with ~1/3 tank shown on the gauge.

I positioned myself well for qualifying Sunday, but ended up 7th (again). Another great race with Robert & Sandro working our way through traffic. Unfortunately the race was shortened after a 1st lap incident in Turn 5 with a Spec E30.

I want to thank Tony Bush, a friend of mine that hung out and helped with the car this weekend. Wow did having someone to crew really make a difference. Hope you had a good time, I sure appreciate the help!!!

Saturday's Race (front camera didn't record):


Sunday's Race:
Front Camera:


Rear Camera (Thanks Brian!!!):



Another view of Saturday's Race from #401 Chuck Taylor