Vipers for Lunch”
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“The New Bad Boys of Texas World Speedway”
TWS Motorsports Club Weekend – May 13-14, 2000
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Date: Sat, May 20, 2000 To: NSX@LISTSERV.NSX.NET From: Marc Weinberg Subject: Vipers for Lunch
Last weekend, a bunch of us SouthCentral members took our NSX'es down to Texas World Speedway for the Motorsports Club weekend track event. We had great fun toying with all the little defenseless Miatas and Vipers (the Viper club was in attendance that weekend) Now, among the track regulars, it was always those guys who were considered the "bad boys" of the track. Those types of cars have a reputation of being fast in the straights, dropping everyone, then having the rest of the field pile up behind them in the twisties. For the first time in recent memory, one of the old time track guys was overheard referring to "those NSX guys" in the same breath as "those Viper guys".
So, without further adieu, check out our new web page:
“Vipers for Lunch” -or- “The New Bad Boys of Texas World Speedway”
Located at http://www.1017.org/nsx/TWS0500.htm
See both in-car action shots, and professionally shot trackside pictures. See prominent members of the NSX community “smoking-out” in a hot tub. Thrill to the sheer excitement of Vaughn’s “thread the needle” maneuver Laugh as we recount our adventures Cry as it all comes to an end Sunday night. |
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The NSXCA south-central group attended the Texas Motorsports Club track event at Texas World Speedway on May 13-14, 2000. Members Doug Carlson, Marc Weinberg, Moazzam Ahmed and Vaughn Duarte participated in the driving portion of the event while members Karl Zimmerman, Brent Cobb, John Hanks came up to watch and provide support.
The trip started on Thursday when Marc and Doug drove down from Dallas to San Antonio to meet up with Brent Cobb. We had a decent drive down from Dallas and I can tell you that having radios makes a trip much shorter as conversation takes much of the boredom out of a drive. We meet up with Brent Thursday night and went to a great Mexican restaurant with killer margaritas. After some food we headed back to Brents place to get some sleep and get ready for the next day (after a couple hours of Speedvision races on video and a review of the NSX Files Vol. 3). Marc found out that mixing Margaritas and Benadryl was bad news! :)
We woke early on Friday and went to Gunn Acura in San Antonio to get Marc’s car aligned and meet the famous Tracy “NSX Parts Guy” Towsend in person. Augie (star NSX Tech) did a super job with the alignment and some other minor tweaking to Marc’s 94. He then helped Doug put up his car up for a quick pre-track peek and to bolt on my Dali Brake air deflectors (shameless Dali plug for a future Discount? ;^) ). We had lunch while Gunn finished Marc`s car and then headed back to Brent`s place to pick up our stuff and begin the drive to College Station so we could check in and reserve some good paddock space for Friday morning.
The drive to College Station from San Antonio is excellent on Route 21. It is a hilly, swerving ride that is amazingly well paved and tons of fun. We had some “ vigorous “ runs through the route and the natives are very courteous and will allow you to pass in the single lane sections. We arrived in College Station and meet Moazzam and Vaughn at TWS around 7:45pm. After a brief altercation (uh, I mean disagreement) with the guard we pulled in and got some choice paddock space for all four of the NSX together.
We had a driver education meeting for the first timers (ok, Doug only) and then got ready to grid. We were divided in our groupings. This was helpful we could shoot pictures and video of each other. We had 5, 20-25 minute sessions a day and had a great time. The most difficult part for me was riding with Karl in my first time on the track. I was freaked out by how the car held and had no idea what the car was capable of until then. All I could think of was “we are going to wreck, oh hell I can’t believe that worked”.
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We drove the 2.9mile course at TWS and had a ton of fun. a supercharger installed, and the cobble brake upgrade, Marc had improved from the previous October and was running in the very low 2 minute range. Vaughn was turning similar times with the brake upgrade, and race tires instead of the supercharger. We all were completely feeling what Doug Hayashi is talking about- this stuff can be very habit forming!
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Driving from San Antonio to College Station along route 21 was like a video game, with rolling hills and trees on either side, and just a enough slow traffic to pass so that it stayed interesting.
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Lining up for the first run…man, those Vipers LOOK mean!
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This is a neat view from Marc’s car, with Doug in front, and one of the Vipers in front of him. All ready to hit the track!
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Be veery veery quiet, Im hunting Vwipers!! |
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The Marc and Doug “tag team” running into a Lotus Super-7 taking a Sunday drive, although it was actually Saturday. |
Hmmm, what was that?? |
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We then headed to dinner and had a run of weird luck that started to worry me. When we sat down the waiter came over and dumped a full Dr. Pepper on the table. We had a quick dinner (at least the eating part not the service) and then as we finished it started to rain. Not a gentle drizzle but a torrential downpour. Bad omens aside we went to the hotel and found that our room was not available and were upgraded to a suite with a hot tub and sauna (was our luck turning?). The weather channel was telling us that the rest of the weekend was rain and storms. The “beep,brap “ warning of the severe thunderstorms on TV was not a welcome sound on the TV.
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Hey… smoking in the hot tub is hard. No clips so we found that a hangar will do in a “pinch” |
Proof that it is not what you were thinking in the clips ?? Right ??? |
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Oddly enough we awoke the next day and found that the weather held with heavy clouds and temperatures in the mid 70’s. It was excellent weather and added to the enjoyment as the day before was sunny and about 90. |
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Closing in on the little, unsuspecting Miata in the back stretch. Marc had to honk at this guy on the front stretch to get him to waive him on! |
Moazzam & Doug going into the carousel.
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Viper GTS TRYING to run away like a little girl to the carousel…...Vipers are fast in a straight line, in the turns you end up waiting for them to get out of the way. |
On his tail the whole way up to the main straight, where he finally decides to let us pass, rather than suffer the embarrassment of having us stay on his tail on the straightaway…he must have remembered that this is a supercharged NSX following him! ;-) |
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Vaughn’s infamous “thread the needle” maneuver. Hey where is the pass-wave(s), Vaughn ? |
Hey Vaughn, aren’t they supposed to waive you on to pass?? :)
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Little bit of traffic coming out onto the front straight. |
Doug makes his apex……
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Doug & the Vipers going into turn 1 about 110 MPH. Notice the radically different race lines into the turn taken by the front-engine Vipers and the Mid-engine NSX. |
And the result….. |
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Moazzam on the back straight
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The tag team in the carousel |
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Over the start-finish line at +/- 120 MPH, and still accelerating! |
And then I passed the guy like he was standing still!!!
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What 2 days of heavy track use did to the color of Marc’s front wheels!
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The “Usual Suspects”……the new bad boys of TWS! |
If you have not taken your car on the track you have no idea what the car is capable of. It is a must but all I can think of now is suspension, swaybars, and short gears. Is it a bad sign when you change your home page to DALIRACING.COM? I am racetrack sick now and can only look forward to my next outing.
Track your car, bring your friends, have fun... I have fallen in love with my NSX all over again.....
-Doug Carlson