First off let me say that it is crazy that we are starting off the third year of Miata Challenge. Normally the weather at MSR-H in January is cold to say the least. Previous years saw 0* weather early in the mornings along with rain as it warmed up. This year we were given great weather, sunny and 65* all weekend.

We had entries in every class this time at MSR-H. To top it off every class was trading spots in TT or TXMC through out the day. Plenty of epic battles to keep everyone on their toes. We had the turbo vs LSX battle in Unlimited, turbo vs supercharger in Super Mod, Spec Miata vs DIY in modified, and 3 guys sharing a car in street to keep it super spec. We had two of our TXMC entries running TTE and trading places all weekend.

Now for the battle details. ZXTEX has been crazy competition since this all began and I knew I better be on my game. ZXTEX would be a second faster in our sessions, so I would come out each session after with a game plan to shave that time. Every effort I made to hold ZXTEX off was answered with another second shaved off his previous best. I was going to go for a hail mary on the last session and either crash or win but sadly my down pipe cracked off and allowed me to drive home with a car in one piece and second place points. Congrats to John Roberts (ZXTEX) for his well deserved first, first place trophy in TXMC. I'll be making some changes for the next round so watch out TEX.

In Super Mod we had the battle forum arguments are made of. We had Double086 in his supercharged beast and Hustler in his turbo lady stallion. Sadly, double86 got the dreaded knock in the block that no one wants to hear. Hustler with his meticulously prepared turbo miata sealed the win with a time that even beat the spec miatas on the new Hoosiers. Unfortunately Rlogan blew his 5spd. in practice on Sat. His E85 tuned turbo NB should keep hustler sleepless many nights to follow as his times were lookin' pretty good Sat. morning.

In modified we had Rharris19 in his almost completed Spec Miata battling Ckearns in his super clean 1.6 Xida car. Rharris19 from Pearland, Tx has 100's of laps at this track but showed up with a car that had positive camber in the rear. Ckearns has built his car to destroy the class pairing up with 949racing to get Xida's on this car for 2012. The battle was close all day with Ckearns edging Rharris out by 1/10 of a second in the final session. Props to Ckearns picking this track up so fast on his first weekend there. Robert better show up with an alignment next time

In street class we had a car owner (subishufflin), the car builder(jacob300zx), and uncle all competing in the same miata for a chance to have epic battle of spec proportions. It came down to Miata experience this time with Jacob300zx winning street again for his third time in a row in a fresh car built in December. He also lost to Ckearns on the last session of Saturday in TTE, as Jacob300zx took a nap at the hotel Ckearns turned to driving up to 11 and beat him by .5 seconds. Jacob300zx woked up from his nap with the dreaded text that he only got second. On Sunday he woke up with a fresh hangover to barely beat Ckearns by .04 seconds in the third session of the day. He already is trying to talk the car owner subishufflin into some Xida's.

I want to thank everyone for coming out to our first event in 2012. I hope anyone reading this thats on the fence will come out and run with us at the next event. Looking forward to the epic battles coming.

And the results:

Unlimted class:
1st place: John R. (ZX_TEX) 1:44.53 10pts.
2nd: John Z. (spoolin2bars) 1:45.653 8pts.

Super Modified class:
1st place: Trey R. (hustler) 1:49.13 10pts.
2nd: Steve P. (doubleO86) 1:54.9 8pts.

Modified class:
1st place: Chris K. (CKearns) 1:57.46 10pts.
2nd: Robert H. (Rharris19) 1:57.562 8pts.

Street class:
1st place: Jacob G. (jacob300zx) 1:57.41 10pts.
2nd: Kevin K. (subieshufflin) 2:01.34 8pts.
3rd: Mike K. (xxxxxx) 2:08.73 6pts.

 

Awesome day!

 

Chris did a great job with the track having been only his 2nd day out there. Ryan, Mike, Kevin, it was very nice to meet you guys and I hope to see you guys again at future events.

The spec miata suspension is not the most friendly suspension to very low cars. When I started out the day I was on the bumpstops almost the whole time in the rear, but the 3/4" rear raise really helped that. This was a great ride height testing day and I think now that I have that figured out, I should probably get an alignment. I just made sure I had 0ish toe front/rear and brought it out.

Jake where is our picture?

 

Last weekend was pretty bauce, another TXMC revival weekend.

 

Such a great weekend! Thanks JZ for the great write-up, can't wait for Cresson.

 

I want to see grass in all four tire beads at Cresson. lol

 

Lol, I can't promise that that won't happen...

 

I was so lost on the track! Can't thank the instructors enough for their time and ability to explain it to someone much slower and older.

Scott, Monica, John, thanks to all three.

MSR-H is quite a lesson compared to TWS.
Overwhelming, that's it in a word.

I see now how the wheels could double as landscaping tools
Probably should have remembered to place the divots I suppose...

Thanks again to my nephew Kevin for the invite to abuse his very fine Miata and to Jake for his expertise in all things Miata.

Everyone is very helpful. Looking forward to another event.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Someone post some flippin' photos! Gosh!

 

Oops, OK

I posted to Facebook, does that count?

 

Hey alright more track buddies on miataturbo, I'll call JZ and have him edit the post. Robert, pm zxtex it was his camera that took the group shot.

 

Stolen from ZX-Tex:

 

Has anyone seen my GHB and chainsaw? I either left them at the track or the hotel. We need to figure out how to get some "new participants".

 

How's the car?

 

Do I even want to know why you had a chainsaw at the track?

 

To dispose of "things" quickly.

 

We need a side-bar competition. Whoever brings the strangest thing to the track wins a prize...and that prize is that each participant must pose for a picture while holding it. lol Then again we could just stick with driving fast and drinking heavily,that seems to work best for me...the drinking part.

 

Currently, the 0086 is resting comfortably at Gas Head Motorworks in Houston, awaiting a donor shortblock.

On the bright side, I'm currently in Second Place in the new Super Modified class!

 

Tex, can we get a better res shot of the group. That earlier one is poopoo. 0086, does your car have an afr gauge, oil cooler, and ducting?

 

Nope, nope, and nope. That stuff is for cooling, and the 0086 is already cool.

Actually, I do have an Innovate air/fuel sensor that talks to my E-Manage Ultimate, a big Mishimoto radiator with the stock fans wired together, and a coolant re-route.