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