| Author | Message | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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Day 2 is Over!!! Well, it was much better than yesterday. The sun was out all day and it warmed up. The racing was great as usual. Check out the Texas flag in the corner for pictures or follow this link... http://www.yourlog.com/tms2001/ | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
|
Day 1 is Over! It was a blast. I'm not sure how long it will take to get the pictures up. Here's what we did... 1) There was either practice or racing the entire day, so always something to watch. 2) The car clubs got to drive 2 laps of the course. I hope the pictures turn out. 30 Vettes, 20 BMW's, 10 Porsches, 6 S200's, 1 Lotus, and myself in the 328gts and Karl Chiao in a beautiful Mondial took on TMS. The first lap we just did the oval. That banking is scarry when you're actually on it and moving slow. The 2nd lap, thank goodness, we went on the road course. By then things had opened up a little and I actually probably got it to the top of 3rd and maybe a semi high % of a G in the turns. The Lotus actually lost his back end for a little. 3) I went down and talked to the team of the only Ferrari here this weekend. Carol Hollfelder drives a 355 F1 Challenge car in the Speedvision GT series. The team was great and let little kids sit in the driver's seat. I talked with Carol for about 10 minutes. She is the coolest person and I hope to talk with her more in the future. The horse has a cracked head and is way down on horsepower, hopefully they will be able to fix that. 4) There were only a total of 3 Ferrari's there today... my 328 gts, Karl's Mondial, and a GT4 that didn't even know we were having a "get together". We should have quite a few more Ferrari's there tomorrow with it being sunny and the actual races going on. If I don't get the pics up tonight, give me a few days. More updates after tomorrow. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
|
Well, it's about 7:30 am and I'm leaving for the races. It's about 53 degrees and raining, but a tornado couldn't keep me away. Today is just practice, qualifying, parade lap for car clubs, and autograph session. The rain is supposed to clear up later this morning and be clear the rest of the weekend. I'll give updates of the ALMS, but I will need updates of F1 since I'm missing that. It looks like there are a pair of prancing horses with only clutter in their rear view mirror on the grid. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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Hello everyone, more info for Saturday: Saturday: 10:15 Autograph session at corral (for BMW, Corvette and Porsche) 10:45 All parade participants by their cars. Proceed to infield area for lining up cars. 11:15 Cars all lined up and running 11:30 Begin parade lap Parade lap will be twice around the entire course. We will use the apron when proceeding on the oval so no cars will be up on the banking. Please see attached rule for parade lap. Also, schedule is subject to change due to weather situation or other conditions on the track. I will keep everyone informed if there will be any changes. General autograph session is also on Saturday in the paddock from 2:00-2:45. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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It's less than a week away for the American Le Mans Series races at Texas Motor Speedway. We have a count right now of 9 Ferraris with a range of different 8 cylinder, 2+2, and 12 cylinder prancing horses. This isn't bad for the first year and we may pick up more this week. Most FCA members won't find out about the event until this week. All the races will be on Sunday and that's when most people expressed an interest of going. I'll be there both days all day. If you show up Saturday by 11:30am, there is a parade lap of the course for the car clubs. There are also events like a carnival, charity autocross in Panoz race cars, and autograph sessions. From the schedule you'll see there is practice, qualifying, and racing going on almost every minute from Friday until Sunday. The paddocks will also be open to us for talking with drivers and their crews. I've only seen 1 Ferrari entered and that's the 355 challenge of Carol Hollfelder. I've talked to Carol and she would love for us to stop by and say hello. I think Texas is still BYOB, so I know my cooler will be full of Chianti wine and Pironi beer. The weekend schedule is here... http://www.speedvisionwc.com/01/tms/index.html The coupons and ticket info are here... http://www.yourlog.com/tms2001/ Parking info and a forum thread on this event are here... http://www.yourlog.com/discus/messages/21/215.html?982948721 Also, I'm just curious to find out about when people will be coming out, so shoot me an e-mail. Grazie & Ciao, Rob | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > FEBRUARY 22, 2001> > > A LAP OF TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY WITH ANDY PILGRIM> > NOTE TO MEDIA: Texas Motor Speedway will host the first race of the 2001 > American Le Mans Series season with the running of the Leather Center > Grand Prix of Texas Mar. 3-4. Last year, in the first road racing event > ever held at TMS, the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R co-driven by Andy Pilgrim > and Ron Fellows won the GTS class, scoring the first ALMS win for > Corvette. Pilgrim, from Aventura, Fla., will return to TMS and will > co-drive with California's Kelly Collins in this year's event. In this > narration, Pilgrim describes a lap around the 2.324-mile Texas Motor > Speedway road racing circuit. > > A LAP OF TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY > By Andy Pilgrim> > The Corvette on the front straight away will be coming up to 165, almost > 170 miles an hour before we brake for what is called turn one. We call it > the base of the chicane, also. It's a very tight chicane with real big > curbs- you've got to stay off the curbs there. We cut down to third gear > through there. It's barely third, could be second, we're kind of > in-between. Go through there as quick as you can without touching any of > the curbs then accelerate hard all the away around NASCAR One/Two, which > really is kind of a long turn two on the road course.> > Very very hard braking for turn three, a hairpin turn. On the Corvette > you drop from fifth gear down to second gear. On the exit you get some > good help from some camber down at the bottom of the apex and then > accelerate hard on sort of a long right hand turn up to turn four. You > get a bit of up and down change on this racetrack. It's kind of cool, > they've built some up and down so it's not completely flat.> > We go up to third gear for turn four and go down to second gear right > before turn four. That turn is a very hard turn; you come in fast and you > come out slow. You've got to make the car turn down to the inside. The > Corvette's doing probably about 65 mph through that turn. It's one of the > slower turns, but it's an in-between turn because as you come out of that > corner you accelerate up to what is probably the most fun part of the > racetrack, which is the turn five complex, it's kind of like an "S" > complex. It's a slightly downhill run into a left-hand, right-hand "S." > Very very fast, we're at the top of third gear and you're just snaking > into fourth gear before you go in there to give yourself a nice clean run > through. Very quick in the Corvette- probably doing 135 mph through that > "S." > > Then accelerate hard down to turn six, which is a very tight right-hand > turn on the infield. Heavy braking down there, it's a good place to pass. > You get a good shot out of the "S" and a good place to pass down at six. > Six is a turn that opens up, as opposed to four, which is a decreasing > turn. This one's an increasing radius, so once you get turned in for six > in second gear you get back into third as soon as you can, hard > acceleration out. By the time you get to the top of third gear turning to > the right, accelerating out of six, you've got to do extremely heavy > braking for a very, very, very tight hairpin, turn seven. A left-hand > hairpin which puts you back onto the oval going into what is NASCAR turn > 3/4. > > You get out of there as fast as you can and you've got to get the car > slowed down. It's important you get the car out of there as quick as you > can because it's very slippery. We found there were several pavement > changes there last year and it's quite slippery in that turn. > > As soon as you get out of that turn you just accelerate through all of the > gears- second, third, fourth, fifth. And the Corvette, again up to about > 165 or 170 mph, and you cross the start-finish line. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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Only 10 days until the big event!!! I'm getting new participants almost daily now. Remember, at TMS you can BYOB. Last year I kept a big cooler in the car and you can take a small one in and out. I'll have some Chianti and Pironi. I'll send an e-mail out to all interested people early next week. Most everyone will be there Sunday for the races, the benefit on Saturday is you can drive on the road course during the parade lap. Ciao, Rob | ||
| Rob328gts
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We have our assigned parking. You will at least see my Red 328gts there from about 8am until the racing ends both Saturday and Sunday. We have several responses of people going. Please e-mail me if you're thinking of going and haven't contacted me already. Here is a rough map of where we'll be...  | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
|
Here's some more info sent to me by the ALMS director... "Hello everyone- Thank you for all your interest and involvement in getting the following car clubs to the American Le Mans Race at the Texas Motor Speedway on March 3rd and 4th: Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, S2000, and Lotus (I'm having trouble finding Viper so if you have a contact, let me know.) All parking for car clubs and general attendance will be outside the backstretch area. (Gates 9,10, and 11.) A tram will be running every 2 to 3 minutes to take people directly into the infield. Everyone is welcome (included children) in the paddockarea. All car club members present on Saturday will be part of a parade lap around the track from 11:30 to 12:30. Further details will follow. The autograph session is also on Saturday from 2 - 2:45 in the paddock. In case I forgot to mention this to some of you, there will be live music and carnival rides on both Saturday and Sunday. The Panoz Racing School will have an autocross set up on Saturday and Sunday for those wanting to test their driving skill in an actual race car. A fee is charged and proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Regards, Melissa Grunnah Director of Promotions" | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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Here's a link to the weekend schedule... http://www.speedvisionwc.com/01/tms/index.html Also, I got a response back from Carol Hollfelder, who is the driver of a 355 F1 in the Speedvision WC GT class. She would welcome us to stop by and meet her and check out the car. Her team's website is http://www.tiger-racing.com. More info to follow. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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The interest is starting to pick up. This should be a great time, it will be very informal. I'm still trying to get a lunch set up with a Ferrari team, but haven't heard back yet. If we don't get a lunch set up with a team, we can organize a lunch for everyone to meet. More info to follow as I get it. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
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I worked on this with the Ferrari Club of America, Panoz/American Le Mans Series Racing, and Texas Motor Speedway. It should be a blast for the March 3-4th weekend. Ask me any questions you might have. Here is the information or follow the link on the upper left... http://www.yourlog.com/tms2001/ |