We survived the heat, driving and even the mosquitos (Page 1 of 2)

This weekend was so fun, and considering the last time I think we had like 3 or more rollovers and rain-induced carnage, this was very clean!  Just *@(%$#$ HOT.  Saturday we about incinerated our drivers by not having enough air flow, but we addressed that Saturday night and it was much better Sunday.

I think the mosquitoes depended on where you were, we had a few but not horrible. 

I hope the corner workers and safety guys had a good supply of cold drinks, what a weekend for an endurance race!  Congrats to all teams who toughed it out.

Big shout out to IOE winners in the VW Type 3, hey Monica see they really didn't HATE your little white VW after all!  It was fun meeting you after the battleship game.  Scott

It's this big...really?

Thanks to MSR & all those that worked the event.

Pandas dwell in the cool highlands!  G^(*&damn it was hot but still fun as usual.

I guess this is the semi-officialy thank you thread now, so I'll throw mine in now.

A huge thanks to all the organizers for putting on such a great event. This was our first race, and we all had a blast despite our engine dying after 6 hours on the first day and thus our weekend ending early. We hope to find another engine to put in our Audi, but upon first glance it seems like a cheap 20V is going to be hard to find...

I'd also like to thank the other Audi team for their help throughout the weekend, especially when attempting to diagnose our engine problem. Hopefully we'll keep our car together next race and we can have 3 Audi 90s in the top 20 to show all those E30s they aren't the only German ringer lemon

Also if anyone has any pictures/video of us, I'd really appreciate them. Ours was the white Audi with yellow/orange/red stripes (based on the old Ivan Stewart baja Toyota of the 80s). You can e-mail them to me at: halsteadfrost@gmail.com

Hal
Frost Racing

This was our first event and it was a doozey! Thanks to everyone for making this fun even when you only complete 14 laps!

Great event. It was hot, but the Dallas Hooptie was hotter.

My buddy Dave and I comprise Scuderia Ignorante, but as of yet our car is unfinished (or technically, unstarted), and so we beg, borrow or buy rides in the show.  Last race in Dallas we were signed up with Blue Oval Cult and we helped build a SHO-powered Mustang that made all of 3 laps before going BANG!  Dave and I finished that race with the Dirty Some Beaches in a Hawaiian-themed Honda.

For Houston we had higher hopes.  The ShoStang had a new motor, a new paint job, and several hundred more hours into the build.  Even better, garage buddies/teammates Los Bastardos de la Lemons were bringing out the much anticipated Renault Dauphine.  The 1957 model French car is dropped over a custom built tube frame and powered by a Mercury Sable V6 front-wheel-drive setup, now mounted behind the driver and powering the rear wheels.  Radical is precisely the way to describe this car.

The teams had trouble getting to the track (sunk trailers, bad bearings, etc. etc.) but did make it out on Friday.  Dave made it in about midnight from San Angelo.  I had server troubles at work and then crashed, and so ended up leaving at 2 AM and never did make it to the hotel that night.  I rolled into the paddock about 8:30 AM after dropping Ash with her friend in The Woodlands north of Houston.

Neither car had made it through tech yet, so I helped Bill work on the Renault while the ShoStang was getting a brake job.  Wiring, foam, brake lights, tow hooks, etc.  As it happened, both cars made it to tech about the same time, and about an hour or so after the race start.  The Mustang got a clean bill of health, the Renault did too after some minor remedial work.  The tech inspectors required the Renault be set on jack stands front and rear for a thorough look.  After some confused mumbling, they let it go on the track.

Tom took the Mustang out first, and Bill took the Renault.  The Renault came back in first, with smoke billowing off of it.  There wasn’t anything wrong, though, just a year’s worth of shop dust and build gunk working its way off the car.  It was just that Bill was done after working heroic hours to get the car there at all.  Driver swap time, and it went back out.

Tom showed up at the penalty box after spinning the ShoStang.  The judges decided that a proper penalty would be to repeat his spinning antics in front of the entire crowd, so we went in front of the grandstand and Tom gracefully spun in place to a boombox until the crowd gave him a thumbs up.

So my turn in the car.  Unfortunately, Tom is something like 7’3”, and built the car to fit him nicely.  I had some trouble reaching the start/kill switch and had to shove foam under and behind me to reach the switches.  That worked well, but also ended up putting my head high enough to block the mirror.  Fun stuff driving the car with no rearward visibility.  I was –slow- due to not knowing the car or track, and couldn’t see the fast guys coming, but it was a good time.  The car handled wicked, and we found out why later.

I ran for about 45 minutes and had to come in.  It was really hot, and we didn’t have the time to put in a cool suit unit or any hydration equipment.

After my turn Dave went out, and he had some good laps too.  After about an hour the heat got to him too, and he spun the car.  We didn’t see any black flag, but he pulled in anyway.

When our next driver tried to go out, we were informed we had 3 black flags and were on a mandatory 3-hour hold (with 2 hours left in the day).  After some discussion at the judging table, it turned out we had picked up 2 black flags on the same lap that Tom spun on, and we just didn’t know it.  Add those to Dave’s and we’re done for the day.

That let us focus on the Renault, which had been on and off the track.  Several folks had driven it and all loved the car, but it was having teething issues.  Specifically, it was puking transmission fluid and melting plastics in the engine bay.  Bill and Randy and everyone else dove in and worked on it to make it better.  The heating problem was eventually traced to the exhaust not exiting the engine bay (fixed with a sawzall), and the transmission fluid problem was reduced with Lucas Oil miracle stuff and tightened clamps.  There was also a fuel delivery problem – as in, there was no fuel to deliver.  Oops.

Sunday was more of the same, thrashing on the Renault (now with periscope-powered driver cooling).  The Mustang had the custom-built clutch disk come apart in the first stint, but it was handling much better once Randy reminded us to check the air pressure in the tires.  48 in one rear and 26 in the opposite front makes for ‘interesting’ handling.  Chuck pulled competitive laps, and he feels the car will actually be a contender when the bugs are worked through.  It certainly sounds great and has good power and balance.

The team decided to park the Mustang until the closing laps and then have Tom get out there to finish the race.  It would shift by rev matching, it just had to be started in gear.  Mara and Randy and Bill and (Bill’s brother) got to drive the Renault on Sunday.

I had to leave before the end of the race to get back north.  Dave and Tanner headed west to San Angelo.  Judging from the time sheets, Tom did get the Mustang back out to finish the race.

In the battle between the teams, the Mustang won with 59 completed laps with a fast lap of 2:08.8, and the Dauphine made 54 with a fast lap of 2:06.1

Good times!  Thanks to Blue Oval Cult and Los Bastardos for letting me hang out.

We had a great event and like everyone else your like to extend our thanks to the staff and corner workers as well.

I think this was one of the cleanest races I've seen with very little significant contact.

The weather was deceptively hot.  I think the heat index may have been higher the ECR.

I couldn't make it through the whole day in full gear on Saturday like I did at ECR.

We had a great time and look forward to doing again.

Congrats to all the Winners too.

We had a great time. Many thanks to Jay, Phil, Sam and eveyone else for a super event. Kudos to MSR Houston for keeping the track & facilities in such nice condition. See you in February!

I'll echo doctawife's thanks, and add one final team I really appreciated getting a bit of help from-- Tetanus Neon stalled during the post-checker parade lap, and the final driver for the Not So Fresh Racing BMW 318i (972) was kind enough to use their car to push me back to the pits. Thanks a whole bunch for that, whoever you are!
Find me at a future event for a thank-you offering of a tasty beverage.

I hope that wasn't us.We are the ones with no doors. Our first driver on Sunday didn't say anything about hitting anyone. If it was us, sorry.

There was some pretty clean racing out there. No flipped cars. I saw one car to car contact.

I hope the corner workers and staff enjoyed the 3 12-packs of Shiner. The paddock parking was much better than ever. Orlando and crew rationed the spaces very well.

Next year I bet the race will be in October like before. It's still boiling hot here.