Chump Car Texas Twister 24 hour race
 

Almost 7 hours in, and 2nd place, 12 seconds behind the leader, and running + /-1 second from the leader.

2nd place, 5 seconds back.

Who's on first?

Cold wheels, hot steel lugs... How much torque during a tire change?

Not sure but they are in a Miata.

1st and gapping.

Johnwag just drove a 1 lap lead!

This ---- is getting intense.

More intense then you taking a poop?

Shiitts ways easier with a big gap.

30 minutes to go,cruising in 4th, 5-lap lead.

We win!

Congrats! Who's we? Surely you not texting and driving again...

It was pretty funny after the race. We were protested for a coolant reroute and the official responded, "they can make that out of ---- from Home Depot". I also wish I could have seen the look on their faces when they got under the car with brake cleaner trying to clean paint or whatever off the springs and shocks of our car since we were running Autozone garbage shocks on cut stock springs (both 2nd and 3rd had Bilsteins). These guys were all over our car looking for something to protest, we won fair and square with solid drivers and a good strategy.

David ran a 2:03.9 in a shitty, $500 shitbox Miata with a junkyard engine and Autozone shocks with stock cut springs. The SCCA SM record is a 1:59.xxx, hahahaha.

We where never formally protested for the coolant reroute, but they just had a few questions about it. Once we explained how we did it, then they didn't say anything else about it.

The car felt great and very neutral. We had no problems with the heat except for slightly increasing tire wear. No mechanical issues in the race other than the lights needing to be reaimed at night to actually be able to see.

John Phillips Car 43, Don't tread on me, had some very good drivers and they few that I talked to seemed personable. A guy named William Keeling (I hope I spelled that right) was talking to us for a while on Friday about getting into spec driving and through the weekend about other random crap. This team was going at with us a lot and after 600+ laps we where only 2 laps ahead until they had a mechanical problem. They pushed us and I hope we pushed them.

Our drivers where amazing and our crew even better. Every single time we where in and out of the pits in the required five minutes and no more. People underestimate how important it is to have a great pit crew that is on the ball for everything and that is exactly what we had.

Overall I learned a lot and had a hell of a time. There where some talented teams out there that we had fun driving with and really made the race exciting. We decided at the last event we wanted to take one seriously and go for the win and it happened. The whole team was unbelievably stoked and I can't wait to get back out there.

You're a bit more professional about it than I am. I did not appreciate the attitude at the end of the day; I know its part of the game though.

It's crazy how so many things have to go right from the first lap to the 24th hour, every single step of the way. We won with headroom, without that last caution we still would have been in the same position, but we'd be fighting for it. I don't know that I could stomach a sprint-race to the finish, the last two hours of cruising was possibly the longest two hours of my life. I love endurance racing up until about 6am, then my mantra is "endurance racing sucks!!!".

I didn't sleep for 36-hours. On the way home my GF claim I was sleeping and asking "how are the tires?" "Fuel check!" lol

Nice! Wish I could've been there to see it!

Congratulations

Congrats, so advice for somebody who wants to protecipate in the next couple of seasons? Doing some research on it I see that you have to be apply, was that difficult?

I didn't drive but I will say that you should be prepared to drive beyond your abilities when requested. If someone told me before the race that we could consistently run 2:06s in that car, I'd bet a serious amount of money against it. Then, everyone did it and someone even busted-out a 2:03. Targeting lap times and "running defense" is complicated.

Now that I helped with strategy in the twilight hours, I really don't understand what guys on TV mean when they say "run your own race!!!" I think the only people really doing this are the ones more than 10-laps down. There is no way any car can really be the fastest all the time because you'll have things like tire life cycle, driver fatigue, track temp, and fuel load to deal wtih, you gotta learn when to manage them and when to punish the tires to position yourself for a trophy.

I'm looking for a junior team to learn w2w with in the near future. There is a Hallett race in July...time to start whoring myself I guess.

Unfortunately there are no miatas around here to be had for 500, Probobly end up in a civic or something.