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Five weeks ago, I broke a valve spring. The #5 intake valve, to be exact. What I knew when it happened was that the engine started running horribly rough, and I felt the need to shut down as fast as I could.

Once I got it towed to a shop, we ran a compression check. #5 cylinder showed 0 pounds, and the others were erratic. I had the tow truck guys tow it to my home, as I wanted to think about what to do next.

That met resistance. The shop manager said,
“We have a saying, mechanics I mean. If we fix it, it’ll be $80/hour. If you want to watch, it’s $100 an hour. If you want to HELP it’s $160.”
He continued,
“If you tow it home, and tear into it, and get stuck, it’ll take us longer to fix it than if we just kept it here and worked on it.”

The gauntlet was thrown. I smiled at David the shop manager and said,
“That’s fine. I’m just gonna take it home and pull the valve covers and see what I can find out.”

He grudgingly let me take my poor sick car home.

Once I got it there, I opened it up, and found the broken spring. It had not shattered, but had just broken, and was still in place around the valve stem, so the valve had not dropped into the cylinder. However, since the LS6 engine is an interference engine, there had to have been valve/piston contact. The next question was how bad. Also, there was a bent pushrod and that meant likely a bad valve guide. So the heads had to come off. Hoo boy.

Pulling the heads on an engine is a bit like open heart surgery. On the C5 corvette, on can do it without pulling the engine, just. Some of the working spaces are very small, and there are many, many bolts to undo.

I do not have air tools. I have not torn down an engine since I was in high school, and that project ended in tears. I did have a set of manuals, and Google. I did have a burning need to see what the engine looked like inside, and how it worked. That surprised me a bit. It’s an American V8, nothing too complex. And there was the fact that if I had taken it back to the shop, I’d have admitted defeat.

I started ordering parts. I needed head gaskets, exhaust and intake manifold gaskets, water pump gaskets, AIR tube gaskets, throttle body gaskets and gaskets for my gaskets. I needed tools. Some extensions for the socket set, a spark plug universal adapter, extra jack stands (I’d be using all four of mine for a while), some 10mm tools (all the bolts I’d be dealing with were either 15, 10 or 8mm) and a host of other little things. I also needed a machine shop.

I called my backup shop, not wanting to alert David and the primary that I was contracting something. I found a machine shop in Hutto that did good work and understood LS6 heads.

Now, I had to get the heads off, and get them to the shop.

June 21 Weekend

This weekend I’m back at TWS for a driving event. Two, actually. Lou Gigliotti is holding a driving clinic on Friday, and then Viper Days is doing a school/event on the weekend.

Friday was great. They opened up the track completely; you could come and go as you liked and get as much track time as you could stand. Lou’s school was OK, with the highlight being able to ride with him, in his Z06 Corvette. The man is crazy fast. Always on the edge of adhesion, working each corner.

Watching him teach class was interesting. He thinks in terms of margins, gaps and gauges. Most commonly used gesture was to put his hands up in front of his face, thumbs together and index fingers up, like the hands of a dial. Or the gauges in a car. “You want to narrow that time you spend in limbo” he’d say, and the fingers move towards one another, closing. “That time between lifting on the brake and getting back on the gas”. What he was teaching was the same old stuff, but his way of thinking about it is very much more competition focused.

The other thing Lou did that was interesting was reveal how much he knows about the physics of the cars. Suspension, oiling, fuel consumption, humidity and how it affects the performance of the car, and so on. Finally, he’s a consummate salesman. He’s always hawking the shop and the gear. It’s like a standing joke, but it’s how he makes money to go racing, so perhaps it’s more serious.

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It’s Saturday now. Was a wet morning, with standing water near the apex of several turns. I had to buy new tires yesterday, since my old ones corded in the last session. I don’t know if the back ones (I managed to get two fronts) I brought will last the weekend. I will swap the tires around to put the best rubber where I can. Brakes are fine, car is running fine.

I had to go through tech inspection too, for the first time. I pulled into the bay, and the inspector looked at the car, looked at me. Rubbed his head, under the cap, put the cap back on. He walks over to me, and pauses for a moment. “This isn’t a Viper” he says.

“Um, it isn’t? I asked the valet for one this morning…” I say. Standing joke, I’m thinking. He gave the car a once over, checking the harnesses for dates and my helmet for SNELL rating. It’s legal, but motorcycle helmets are frowned upon. I’ll need another helmet soon. He takes out an LED light and examines the brakes carefully. His fingernails catch in the cracks in the front rotors. He looks up at me, eyebrows raised. I shrug. The general rule is that if they are not cracked to the edge, rotors are good to run. The problem is that sometimes when they crack to the edge, they explode. He moves on, so I guess they are good for the weekend. The end result is that I get a tech inspection sticker and can go on track.

First session was good, but slow. That’s fine, as they are timing and gridding on that basis. I don’t care where I end up, but being at the back of the pack is a drag. Despite this being a “practice”, no one wants to listen to nor hang with the slow folks. So session two, I may try to hammer it a bit to see how I can do. I’m really trying to work on turns five and six, and will go whatever speed I need to for that purpose.

Saturday was good overall, with the highlight being an actual race. Viper Days host the Viper Racing League. There were around 16 vipers (and one very brave SRT4) on track, starting at the same moment, blasting down the front straight. It has to be a thrill to go from full bore down the front straight to turn 1, sharing space with the other folks on the track. Pretty quickly the leaders settled out, and the race (with no cautions to bunch them up again) devolved into the classic 1-2-3 fight and everyone else. Was fun to watch.

Mom also came down to the track for the first time on Saturday. That was fun, as Sheri brought her, and we got to show her around the event. She was favorably impressed, I think, and even got to go on a parade lap of the track.

I did fairly well Saturday, and felt my lap times were improving. I was passed by some VERY fast cars. The advanced group has a lot of the race guys in it, as well as some crazy super modified cars. It’s also where they put the faster Corvette guys, and the folks that know the track very well. At the end of the day on Saturday, there were five cars faster than I was: John Page in his vette (John set the fastest lap Saturday and Sunday), two comp coupes (a production race car build by Dodge; like a lighter faster Viper), one modified Viper on sticky tires and a super modified with 700 HP. I felt pretty good about that showing. My day ended when it rained out the last session, and I just didn’t have the oomph to change over to street tires and run in the wet.

Sunday dawned drier, and started out FAST! With a dry track and new tires, I was flying. Pretty sure I was faster than the day before, as I caught more people. John Page had a mechanical and had to split (car overheated; not sure why) and poor Chuck the instructor ran off track with his green student going 100+. They were fine because the student did the right thing and just ran straight off. Took them a while to stop though! It didn’t seem to rattle Chuck any, and he remains MUCH faster than me.

The Blue Car is not happy. We’re #3 in a four car train going into the turn 13 chicane. The lead car decided he wanted to pit some time ago, and slowed to 40. This means we’re dinking along behind two Vipers, both with 150 more HP than us. Better, there’s another behind us. I keep the RPM up and get ready to hit the front straight at half the normal speed I have here. It’s painful to climb up the bank at this speed.

When we climb up on the banking, and I put my arm out the window, knowing the pass is coming. My right foot is on the floor, and the Blue Car is howling her defiance. That doesn’t change the pass, as all three Vipers slither down the straight. I poke along down low, and pat the dash in sympathy. We’re not used to being the low HP car. We take the low line, as this is the second lap, and the pits are clear. Down in the flat part of the track, just above the marbles, we pass 120 going by pit out, still slow from the slow turn 15.

As we enter turn 1, things start to change. I cross the blend line, as the Vipers, who went higher, cross in front of me. Because my line is shorter, I’ve gained ground. My foot is still on the floor. I see the trailing viper, a black S Mod coupe, see me. The illusion is that I’m about to t-bone his car, but he’s crossing at over 100, so that won’t happen. Once we’re on the flat, I start to turn the Blue Car left, with my foot still firmly in the throttle. Gently, slow hands, and there is enough grip. If you lift while doing this, the back end will be too light, and the car will start to rotate too soon. I’ve not braked yet. With the nose pointed just right of the cellular tower I can see over the rim of the bog oval track, I straighten the wheel slightly, lift off the gas, and start braking.

The car shimmys as the front decides which way it wants to turn. The passenger seat slams forward. I’m hanging in the harness. This is why we don’t leave anything loose in the car. We also begin to oversteer since the wheel isn’t all the way straight. The black viper goes by on our right as my rear starts to come around to the right, rotating the car left, pointing at the apex of turn 2. When it’s pointing where we want, I ease off the brakes, and get back in the power. This is a moment of faith, when you have to believe that the rear will catch.

The rear end locks onto the road and we head for the apex. The vipers have not truly finished braking, as I see lights still, bright red. The Blue Car roars under full power towards the apex in 2, gaining now.

Going into three, the Vipers are sorting things out. The lead car has now been passed by both of the trailing guys, so I set up my own pass between turn three and four. Once again, I can stay in the gas longer and brake later by virtue of having a lighter car. He doesn’t especially want me to go by, but he overcooks three, and so I turn inside him and he has no choice. I miss the apex of three a little, so the back end is sliding more than I want when I hit track out. Luckily there’s a cross road there, so extra pavement to place the back left wheel on. In the throttle all the way down the small hill, across the other road in the infield and JUST before turn four, with the suspension all the way compressed from the road hump, I brake, turn us in and hammer the gas towards the apex. The two cars leading me have done it right as well, and I’ve gained nothing between four and five.

Going into turn five, an odd thing happens. The Vipers swing wide, brake a bit, and turn in. we narrow our line to apex five, which spoils the angle for six, but I have a plan. The gap closes. I’m thinking towards a pass between turn nine and ten, but I have to get close to them now, to let them know we’re back there. Going into six, I stab the brakes (Chuck taught me this one) trail brake and dig out of the apex at 80+. The Vipers, black following silver, are going through differently. They braked down MUCH more, but have the torque to almost break their wheels loose at track out. 500 or more horsepower, each of them. On the turn six to seven straight, I lose ground, as they go WOT.

Turn seven in a viper must be a thrill. They brake down to under 100, which is too slow. I’m at 105 going into 7, and I don’t brake, just lift a bit, get turned and hit the gas again to slingshot past the apex and up the hill. Tight track left, I see the black viper is swinging wide, and once again, it looks to him as if I’m pointed at the numbers painted on his driver’s side door. I’m smiling at him.

With a wider angle, his line is very fast through eight, but we’ve cut off quite a bit of track, and am able to hold track left through the turn, which sets me up for a full bore power drift through turn nine. The black viper is slower than me now, and I see his helmet tip up, looking in his rear view. He gives me the pass as we go down hill heading for the carousel. He’s pointed me by on the right, to the inside.

Going into the carousel inside and fast is a good way to spin out, but I figure, Lou did this yesterday with me in the car, so I can give it a try. We brake down after I pass the black viper and trail brake into the carousel. The car rotates right, then begins to push as I give it gas. I open the wheel up slightly and dance with it; trying to hold the right side wheels on the curbing and manage the understeer. It holds until I get the wheel straight, for just a car length, and we’re balanced for turn 11, to the left.

As I turn left, I leave the black viper behind. He’s flat out, but even 600 horsies all pulling together can’t make up for the line he’s driving. Too far outside, too far off the apex. Next up is 12, and I note that the silver viper is crawling, likely pitting in. He gives me the pass between 12 and 13, and I have free track all the way to turn 1!

This time, we come out of the chicane at 90+, sliding somewhat sideways, catching fourth just as we get onto the front straight. There are no Vipers behind or before, and for a moment as we pass start-finish, we’re all alone at TWS in the sunlight.

Went back to TWS this weekend, with Driver’s Edge. This was a bit of an odd weekend, as we absorbed another motorsports club. The track, Texas World Speedway, ran its own driver education club. Wit the death of the track owner, and his promotion of the club, it started to shrink, until there were not enough signups to make the track minimum. Driver’s Edge absorbed the 20 or so folks that would have otherwise been denied track time, and held the event.

We packed up Friday night, and drove down Saturday morning. This saves us a little cash, as we don’t have an extra night of hotel fees nor house sitter. The roads are also very clear at 0500!

Our little driving group (AustinSpinDoctors) was well represented, with around 10 folks coming to drive. The informal group is getting more solid, which is nice. Edgar and his wife Angela came in the STi, Josh of course, John with his ‘vette and a couple of newer folks that were part of the TWS club also joined us.

Saturday started off slow for me, and I found the back of the pack pretty fast. This is depressing, but I was not confident of the tires I had, so was struggling. I ended up following around a white C6 for a bit and I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was taking it too easy. So the last run on Saturday, I put on the two new tires I had (front; the backs could take care of themselves) and put the fucking hammer down. Much better! Sometimes, you have to just go out and do it. I managed to hold position pretty well, and was not a hazard to the other drivers.

Sheri was doing very well on Saturday, and got the word that she would check for solo status on Sunday, in the second session. That was good news for her, as a goal of hers has been to solo. Thus, Saturday ended well.

Dinner with Derrick, Josh and Edgar was good. Decent seafood in College Station. Weird.

But the big event of the weekend was that Sheri soloed! She finally turned off her active handling and got a whole new view of her trusty Corvette. She had a blast, and was giving me advice on the harder parts of the track by the end of the weekend. Congrats to my lovely wife!

Sunday saw our only two bad incidents of the weekend. In the first, a green group driver ran off after a fast right hander and overcorrected into a roll. Both driver and passenger were shaken, but fine. In the second, a blue group driver found the armco near turn four, and ended up nose down in a ditch. No serious injuries, thank goodness. I think it’s been ten or more years since Driver’s Edge has had two such things happen in one day. Very sad.

Those two incidents bring up the subject of risk. Motorsports are dangerous, no denying that. I do risk analysis as part of my vocation. It’s natural that I should apply one to the other. I do all sorts of things to mitigate the risks I’m taking at the track, but it’s not foolproof. However, most of the time, I feel like I’m safer driving at the track than I am on 183. I wonder if that’s true? Lesee…. Risk can be quantified as the severity of an event, multiplied by the liklihood that it’ll happen, multiplied by the ability to detect it. The scales you use are arbitrary, but I generally use 1-4 for each range, with 1 being inconsequential/unlikely or easy to detect, and 4 being severe/very likely and impossible to detect. The higher the resulting product, the worse the risk. So let’s take two events: Having a wreck on 183 vs. having a wreck on the racetrack.

Severity
Track: 3. If it happens, it’ll be bad because the speeds are higher. However, I don’t rate this a 4 because of the additional safety measures taken at the track (firesuits, run off room, harnesses)
183: 2. Most wrecks on the road happen at 35 MPH or less, and the car is designed to handle that, mostly.

Likelihood
Track: 1. There are many, many fewer cars on this track, and I drive there only once a month.
183: 3. I drive it every day, and with a gajillion other cars and trucks. Sooner or later…

Ability to detect
Track: 2. I can see most everything coming, as there is excellent visibility and there are additional safety systems that alert me to issues that can hurt me (corner workers, radio, etc.)
183: 3. I can’t watch everyone, and my ability to react to an incident is sharply limited by the vehicles around me. I can see only one or two cars behind me.
Total
Track
3x1x2 == 6
183
2x3x3 == 18
Higher is worse, remember. I could possibly downgrade the detection of the event on 183 to a 2, based on intense familiarity with the traffic patterns, and track experience, but even with that, it’s still more dangerous than the track. Interesting calculation.

Heading to Driveway this weekend for an autocross (autox if you’re cool) training class. I figure, it’s better than NOT driving…

Autocross is way, way more common than road course driving. The speeds are lower, and there’s only one car on course at a time, so there is a perception of more safety. We’re lucky to have Bill Dollahite and his driveway in town to practice.

The Driveway is aptly named. It really is the circular driveway to Bill’s house. It’s 0.8 miles long, surfaced and curbed like a racetrack, and on top of about a 3 foot road bed. It’s actually a very nice course, just very short.

Bill is an ex-CanAm racer and team owner. He’s an excellent driver and has interesting friends. The LCC has adopted him and his driveway, so we’ll be out there alot, I hope.

The car is ready. All I have to do is swap tires and the seat and load it on the trailer and I’m good to go. Last time I went, I was on street tires. This time, I’ll use up the rest of the slicks.

The list of little detail items that I need is growing. A video cam. A probe pyrometer. Oil catch can. T1 sway bars. 04 shocks. Wood for the trailer. Paint for the truck. Going to have to make a list and prioritize.

Been watching video from Road Atlanta. I’m going there, because my lovely wife bought me a gift cert! So cool. Will be a nice vacation, but have to start prep now. Getting the car there wil be interesting. Not sure Sheri is ready to stop for gas every two hours, but that’s what towing the car is like.

We’re back in the gym again, this time to stay. Sheri’s knee is worse, and we are finally out of options and forced to actually exercise. Sheri is swimming, and doing exercises that her therapist assigned. Feeling better already, and I have slipped back into the eliptical/weights routine like I never left. It hurts though; my arms felt like they were going to fall off for a couple of days. The only hitch is that we have to wake up at 0515 to get to the gym. Ouch!

So many changes! Since last time I went on track, three months ago, much has changed about the setup. I bought a truck and a trailer. A race seat went into the car, after much adjustment and cursing. Money was spent in great bunches. Now, I feel like I’m pretty much set for the next couple of years, except for consumables. Total for the truck and trailer rig was $5300. Seat was $100 (great deal there!) and the mounts for it were another $445 (had to have them modified, as the back of the thing wasn’t low enough.

The track was TWS, counterclockwise. Sheri almost went with me, but had stuff to finish up before GDC this week, so missed out. I had one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time, though I wish I could have had my wife along.

To start with, Josh, Edgar and John all went in and helped me buy a trailer. My budget for such was $1500. I found a trailer but it was too expensive. I lamented this fact to my friends. Next thing I knew, Josh had contacted the seller, negotiated the price down and then tapped Edgar and John to help him make up the difference.

Truly, I have the best of friends driving with me.

One of the biggest changes in the last few months is in my friend Josh. He used to spin all the time; running hard on the edge of what his car could do, and frequently over it. He’s through that gauntlet and is now crazy fast. He’s turning out to be a good driver, and growing into his modded corvette very well.

Edgar is driving his Subaru like he stole it. He’s moved into Yellow group, and is loving it. He’s another one that has really got into the sport and is now lugging his tires to the events and changing to race rubber. He’s amazingly fast and fearless for a yellow student.

John had our only mechanical issue this weekend. His power steering pump went out, and it’s not an easy thing to get repaired. He went home on Saturday night, which sucked. John is the most like me in terms of driving style. He’s methodical, careful and fast. I missed him on track.

There were many Corvettes there this weekend, as the Big Boys came out to party. They are John Page (21st Century Muscle Cars), SW, and Ryan from Austin. All are very wealthy, and have been driving cars all their lives. They are very, very fast. They drive whatever they like, but have settled on Corvettes for the most part. John is a (perhaps the only) licensed Ligenfelter installer and shop in the country, so his choice is obvious. SW (an Indian man with a history of making money on real estate and cars) drives a regular looking red ‘Vette that is anything but. Ryan has a yellow one. They go to TWS so much that they should have parking plaques. When I see them coming on the track, I give them a wide berth, as they are generally much faster than I (more horsepower and about a zillion hours of seat time will do that). It’s fun to watch them though, and John throws a mean cookout.

Ostentatious wealth example: SW broke a timing chain Saturday, so he goes back to Austin and brings the backup car: The Ferrari. Yowza.

I had a “big moment” on Saturday. In the second run of the day, after the track was warm, a yellow race-converted Corvette spilled coolant all over turn 12. I was three cars behind and didn’t see it happen (unlike oil which generally smokes when it spills, coolant does not). I was at full throttle and just at the apex of 12 when I started to slide. Not much to do save run off, sideways. I went all the way around in the dirt, 360 degrees. Both feet in as the car swapped ends (save the transmission!) and was able to get back underway quickly. My biggest fear was getting smacked by someone else coming through the same stuff, but I was able to get going and to the pits (I always check the car after a full off road excursion like that) for a check.

Normally, an off like that would rattle me, but this time, I was quite calm. I knew what had happened as soon as it was starting to go, and saw I wasn’t going to hit anything. I had all the time in the world to decide what to do. The only nerve wracking thing about this one was that I had become part of someone else’s problem. I think that this is the biggest danger of driving anywhere (road course or to work in the morning). It’s a good life lesson as well. Sometimes, you have to just put both feet in and ride out the spin.

By far the most fun was on Sunday. I got back into the rhythm of the track and steadily turned faster and faster times. It was a little like a dance that gets faster and faster as the song goes on. Finally, at the end of Sunday, I got in a group of cars that was going about my speed. We had a Porsche Boxter, a BMW M3 Roadster (highly modified), me in the Z06, and a modded C5 Corvette. We were so close to the same speed that the margin was whether one of us hit an apex six inches off, or dead on. Breaking a rear tire loose on the carousel was a critical mistake. We swapped leads about as many times as we turned laps. All too soon, the checkered was out and it was time to pack up and head home. I could have gone just a few more laps anyway, as the car was about out of fuel! I burned almost a quarter tank in the last session.

I know this is my sport because at the end of the weekend, I felt recharged. Sometimes, you come back from a weekend of exertion, and are simply tired. It feels like you haven’t had a weekend at all. Not this time. I loaded up the car, hopped in the truck and drove back to Austin smiling all the way.

TWS is my favorite track. It’s for sale now, following the death of the owner, Dick Conole.
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=27994
I only met him once, at an event in 2005. He loved the track, and the folks he hosted there.

I hear that his kids do not want the track. Of course, it is likely that they are facing down a huge inheritance tax hit, so selling it is the only realistic option. I hope that it’s sold to an entity that keeps it as a racetrack. It may very well not be, as it’s in a growth corridor for College Station. We shall see.

Part of why I write this blog is to practice writing. So, you are going to read a description of TWS.
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The best time to see TWS is in the morning. You drive in along highway 6, from College Station. The highway is always under construction, so the exit that takes you to the track is always different. The landmark is a Lonestar sign, a big tall one that stands on the front of the track property.

You turn east across an overpass and notice the backside of the grandstands. It looks like a big hill, with a structure on top of it, set way back from the road. You can’t see the bleachers, as they are built into the opposite side of the hill. There is a chain link fence near the base of the hill. Tall, unmown grass covers the field in front of the hill, and ignores the fence as it climbs to the top. It’s a pasture without cattle. It may have been meant as a parking area, but there are not any other clues.

The sun comes up over that hill, but since it’s still low when you get there at 0630, it’s not yet in your eyes. You drive up a road to a small gate house that guards a break in the fence. Past the gatehouse, and only visible as you near the house, are two tunnel entrances. A sign informs you that no bulk fuel is permitted. This is the driver’s entrance. The tunnels lead you into the infield. There is another entrance someplace, one that leads to the stands, but I’ve never been to that one. The tunnels are egg-shaped in cross section, and they are different sizes. Another sign tells you the dimensions of the tunnels. There are watermarks on them too, as the tunnels flood when it rains hard. You have to sign a waiver at the gatehouse to enter the infield. The tunnel takes you down and through the hill. When you emerge, you come up and into the sun. There’s nothing to block it now.

There’s a sharp left turn in the road, and now, looking back to your left, you can see the enormity of the grandstands and the size of the place. Texas Motor Speedway is larger, but this place is pretty huge. It seats many thousands of people. The stands are not especially safe now, and wasps are the only spectators on that side of the track. The structure at the top of the hill, the control tower and elite boxes, is in disrepair. To your right, you can see the large leaderboard/display system. You’re now well inside the main oval racetrack, headed for the pit area. To your left is the banked front straightaway. The grandstands march down to the edge of the track, and end in a concrete wall The wall is adorned with “Texas World Speedway” and painted in a red white and blue theme. There is a checkerboard stripe at the start/finish line, under the flagstand that projects out over the track.

On the nearside of the straight is pit row. There are stands there too, covered as the grandstands are not, and in similar disrepair. These are used however, as they give an excellent vantage point for the whole of the front straight.

The track started life as an oval superspeedway; heavily banked at the narrow ends, and on the front straight and flat in the back straight. The roadcourse uses the front straight and then turns downhill inside of the end of the oval, then straight at right angles to the back straightaway, then turns to make a back lobe of track (and a fast back course) and then turns back infield to get back onto the other end of the straight. There are diagrams of the track at the website. There are also other possible layouts, but the 2.9 mile road course is by far the most common configuration these days.

Pit row is not used for track days. The cars pit in the large paddock area in the infield. There, three huge covered garages sit. There are 90 or so pits here, with long worktables to hold your gear. There’s power but no wireless or network connections; this place was built before those things. There is a concession stand near the front entrance, in a building of its own. They serve surprisingly good coffee, hamburgers for lunch and breakfast tacos that we eat with hands already black from car servicing in the morning chill. An old mexican man and his wife run the stand.

The place has a sad feeling to it, faded glory. Still, the asphalt is always kept in good repair, and the surface and drainage are maintained. It’s the largest track that’s regularly available to amateur drivers in Texas. I think that rather than arriving at dawn, we’ve made it just before sundown, so we’ll enjoy it while it’s here.

El Jefe started his professional life working for the City of Austin, general motor pool, in 1991. He came to Austin for the job, along with many other trucks.

Back then, he was not El Jefe, but rather a white Dodge 250 among many others. It was a good, if hard, life. He hauled many things. The best part about it was that if anything went wrong, from little windshield wipers to to transmission trouble, the City mechanics pulled him out of the pool and fixed it right away. He had many friends, though the trash trucks were always surly.

In 2001 he was pulled out of the pool, and detailed. He had been busy training the new trucks in how to haul and pull trailers and in how to wait while the City guys were getting morning tacos. Waiting was an important part of City work. Thus, it was a matter of some stress when he realized that he was retiring. He was sent to a new section of the motor pool, and the trucks there filled him in on what was happening. He became depressed.

He was bought by a large man who ran a private company, and he even got to stay in Austin! Some of the trucks in the sale lot went North, where the roads were salty and it was cold all the time.

This job was different in that he had to get up earlier. He also got a set of toolboxes, a ladder rack and even a new hitch! He mostly pulled a power washer and a tank of water, and spent the early morning hours helping to clean graffiti off the walls and streets of the City. He got to see some of his old City buddies, though the trash trucks remained surly. His service plan was always covered. He became hopeful. Sure, sometimes he had to do odd jobs and haul sheetrock and heavy equipment, but he was still working.

Late in 2006, the old truck was rarely driven. Once again, he was detailed, and all the tools and gear he carried were removed. A For Sale sign adorned his window. The Graffiti business was no longer the man’s focus, and he was downsizing. He didn’t need another truck. He had some time to idle and think about getting old. When had that happened? He couldn’t pull quite as hard as in the 90s, and his gas mileage was not what it once was. The man even stripped the company stickers off his doors, taking some paint off. That was a worry, since rust started almost at once. Trucks hate to rust, and they don’t sell as well when they are rusty.

One weekend, he went home with a couple. They took him North, and he was afraid the roads were going salty, but they stopped short of that place. Instead, he was parked in a drive way, near a van much of his age, and a couple of sports cars. He had never spoken to sports cars much as they tended to be in a hurry and somewhat skittish. Some didn’t speak any english. The van was another story. She told him how much she admired work trucks, and complimented his mileage. He was polite when he learned she had 160,000 miles. His count was only 60,000. She had been many places with the couple, but was tired now and wanted to do other things. She wanted to know especially how much he could pull.

Soon, his title was transferred to the couple, and they started calling him “El Jefe”. This was flattering, but he was wary. They also fitted him with a camper shell in an awful gold color. He now thought he was going to haul carpet, as that was what trucks with camper shells did. The rust on his doors got worse.

One morning, he had a chance to talk to the blue sports car. The couple treated these cars so well that they warmed them up each morning before going to work, and were washed almost each weekend. The blue car told him that he was going to pull a trailer with him, the blue car, on it to and from the track. The race track.

El Jefe didn’t believe it, but the yellow sports car confirmed it, and the blue van as well. He was going to tow a race car! The blue van was versatile, but didn’t have the muscle to do this. He began to think about custom plates, like the sports cars had, and they agreed to tell the couple that he needed some. And to be sure and fix the rust.

Perhaps retirement would be OK after all.

“1991 Dodge 250 3/4 ton truck. 60K miles, 10000 pound hitch $3000 firm” was all the ad said. I like my version better.

Wow! Busy holiday season in the rear view mirror. Not much driving, unless you count trips to the mall and retail stores as racing. From what I’ve seen on the street, some folks certainly think that way.

The car is dirty, and the weather is miserable. Mother Nature gives us tantalizing, beautiful sunny days followed by rain and more rain.

Looking at the season for 07, and the first Austin Spin Doctors event may be March at TWS. There’s a Feb. event, but not sure how wet it’ll be.

The Austin Spin Doctors is a group that just sort of acreted. We’re not centered around one sort of car, nor around one sort of driving, save that we all do HPDEs. We’ve got auto crossers, road racers, SCCA folks, and so on. The main reason to be in it is to get together and talk track stories, and to get a discount at the TDE events (as a car club). It’s a nice bunch of people.

The car is at a crossroads. I’ve ordered a trailer and hitch that will fit a C5. Just after that purchase ($400 or so of parts and trailer), an inexpensive truck became available. It’s a 3/4 ton vehicle that would easily pull a C5 and trailer. It’s a 91 with 63K miles, for $3000. Going to test drive it this weekend, and if it works out, we’ll sell the van and buy this vehicle. Then we have to think about a trailer for the car, which will set us back another $2000 or so. It’ll be worth it though. Very nice to be able to load up the car if it breaks and get it home. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll set up my little tire trailer and hitch and go to the next event that way. Either way, I won’t be asking folks to carry my tires anymore.

I’ve also closed the deal on a racing seat, so I’ll have to get brackets fabbed up for that soon (or buy them). It’s a Kirkey and it’s quite nice for an old seat. I’ll likely get it mounted at LG’s place. That means I’ll have to sell the Corbeau seats I own now, but they have never been out of the box, so no big deal.

I’ve decided that messing around with the car is something that I love to do, but not something that you NEED to do in excess. The folks I know that tinker all the time tend to break the car. Those that leave well enough alone tend to run stronger. I want to be part of the latter crowd, not the other. The car runs very well, and it plenty fast for me at the moment. The next serious mod for it will be sway bars and links, but that’s some time off, if we get the trailer.

Looks like a decent year so far!

Wife and I are at TWS this weekend, recovering from the first day of driving. It’s been good so far!

My spouse is about to be checked for solo status, which is a nice validation of skill and general driving chops. She’s getting fast, and will soon only be limited by her willingness to put rollover protection of some sort in the convertible. Many tracks will not let convertibles run without some sort of rollbar.

We’re trying to pull together an Austin group of folks that comes to these things, since the Driver’s Edge offers a 10% discount for parties of 10 or more. We’ve almost got it. Edgar, Sheri and me, Josh, John, AC, Chris and all we need is a couple more. Might join up with another club to make the numbers work. 10% doesn’t sound like much, but it’s fun to put the club together. It also gives us another excuse to go out for good meals and talk car stuff. I am certain that the folks around all our various offices are sick of hearing about it.

I’m driving in the Red group again, and working with the head instructor to see if I can stay there. He’s good, but VERY deconstructionist. His approach to problems is to break them into little chunks and work each one until it’s fixed. I don’t know about that, as driving is a more holistic experience for me. I am listening to what he has to say though, as he’s bloody fast and has many years of seat time. It’s just that he takes quite a while to say it.

I’m at the slow end of the group, which is an unfamiliar place for me. Normally, I’m pretty fast, but I’m getting passed quite a bit in Red, and it’s bugging me. It ought not to bug me, and I’ll get up to speed soon.

The car is running well, and it’s one of the few corvettes that is. We’ve had three corvettes break down already. It’s like some horrible streak. I told Dean the other day “the less I tinker with the car, the more I like it”. It’s proving to be a good thing to tinker as little as possible. All the cars that are breaking are highly modified. I can’t imagine spending 30K on a car, then 10K more on mods, then 300 a weekend, and only get half the track time and all the frustration.

When I’m doing well, it doesn’t feel like I’m going fast at all. It’s smooth. It’s easy, with no fatigue. Unfortunately, that’s also how going slow feels, but the difference is that when you are doing well, and going fast, not many people pass you. That effortles feeling is often what I’m reaching for. I’ll get there tomorrow, a little easier than I got there today.

Unless it rains. Rain would work for me, as I need the practice in it, but it’s much harder to come off the track and not be tired. Well, we shall take it as it comes.

Went to drive the 3.1 course at MSR Cresson over last weekend. It’s a longer track than any in this part of the state, and looks as if it came from a napkin drawing in some ways. The layout can be found here.

I got in late, and elected to not go to the track after dark. It’s a long drive from Austin to Cresson, and I wanted a good night’s sleep before a full track day Saturday.

It was COLD Saturday! Tires, brakes and driver were all a little cold. It took three full laps to get the tires up to temp, and honestly the first session felt like ice skating the whole way. We started to see some epic spins and off-track excursions. I nearly lost it twice in turns that are normally quite nice.

Second session was better, as the day warmed up. Saw lots of friends and made a couple of new ones. PST automotive continues to provide excellent track support to all of us as we flog the cars about. Fast and curteous, they get my vote for best mechanical support group this year.

Above all, I relaxed. This was a weekend all about taking it easy and driving, and not thinking about too much else. The experience is so intense and the focus required to be good at it is so tight that you forget the job and the chores and are really able to relax. At the same time, getting too wrought up about how fast you go is a trap. For example…

One of my friends spun out seven times on Saturday. That’s a very high number, even for a group that doesn’t penalize spins. I asked him about what was going on, and he finally admitted that he was trying to catch people. Oddly, the harder one tries to do that, the more one tends to mess up. He was driving at 11/10s of what he could do (and what the car could do). Once he backed off, on Sunday, he got much faster. So you have to concentrate hard, but on the right stuff, or it doesn’t work.

I was chasing around a silver corvette C5 on Saturday. Or rather, I followed him until his tires were warmed up, and then he left me behind like Carl Lewis would leave Danny DeVito in a footrace. Sunday, I was determined to relax and just flow along and sure enough in one of the sessions, I lined up near the silver vette (by chance; I generally just pull into the grid whereever). I caught him eventually, though it was many laps of small gains as neither of us were making many mistakes, but when it was natural to do so, he pulled over and let me go on around.

I found out later on that the guy is a highly skilled autocrosser. His buddy told me he was nationally ranked, but I have no idea where. It was nice to share the track with a good, fast, curteous driver and going around with the silver C5 was the best part of the weekend. I’ll have to catch up to him next time I see him and let him know he’s a bloody fast driver.

I let a few folks around myself, as the advanced groups were very fast this weekend. There was my friend the 640 HP porsche again, and the green mustang. The ‘Stang is interesting. 308 HP at the wheels, and heavy with a full roll cage it out-turns most of the rest of the cars on the track. The suspension is NICE. I learned alot from how it was set up, and got some ideas for how to set up my own when the time comes.

I talked to Dean, the Grid Marshall for TDE a bit about working on cars. I told him that the less I fiddled with my car the more I liked it. He allowed as how the first step to winning races was to make sure you could start one. Plenty of cars are over-tinkered, and thus at best inconsistent and at worst non-starters. Moral: Find what you like, and stick with it.