 |
 |
|||
 |
||||
For the professional images taken at the event, go to Hart Photography and check out the cool pics! For pictures from the caravan to the Fort Worth Stockyards, click here. For pictures from all three track days, click here. The adventure of NSXPO 2002 started days earlier on October 31st when I pulled into the lot at a customers office, touched the curb with my RM front air dam and as it was 25 degrees out, it cracked! I did the same damned thing last year! A quick call to RM right from the clients desk got another one headed my way over night - or so I thought - it ended up shipping ground. So when it didn't show the next afternoon (Friday-the day I'm supposed to leave for TX) I called and RM found the error, and shipped me another out to hotel in Dallas free of charge! That was awfully nice of them and I won't forget it. Back to the story. 11-1 (Friday) I head south out of Minneapolis starting at around 6:15pm and drive non-stop to the rural metropolis of Osceola, IA and get a quick 5 hours of shut eye at the Days Inn. It's clear sky and about 20 degrees. 11-2 (Saturday) A crisp, clear morning greets me as I hit the road for the big push to Texas. As soon as I get to the Missouri border the lovely blue sky ends and the clouds sock in. Rain and highway patrol are my constant companions for the next 9 hours. I've never seen so many concerned law enforcement professionals gathered to promote MY personal safety. I took the 35s to 71s at Kansas City, 44w out of Joplin, and 69s/75 down towards Dallas route. Just north of Dallas are my biz partners parents so I stopped in and saw them (his dad just had shoulder surgery) and rested for a bit. Its warmer here! Around 5pm I start the last leg of the journey to my fellow NSX buddy Jon's lake place near Burnet, TX. I took only one wrong turn the whole trip, and this is when. In the dark and rain, I took the "long way around" towards Austin, caught the right cross road and got there two hours late after adding over 100 miles to the trip. Fun. I now am the proud owner of the dirtiest NSX on planet earth. Jon greets me with dinner and we stay up for hours chatting and watching the rain. 11-3 (Sunday) The annual "Paul's Garage" car club get together is today, so we head over in the cold drizzle, help Paul and his wife Paula get ready for the event. A couple dozen people show up in all kinds of cars - even in the crumby weather. Great fun and good folks. We eat a huge amount of barbecue and pie. Little did I know what portent to future menus this was... Later, we went back to Jons and started the task of cleaning both of our NSXs. I adhesived the crack in my "old" RM air dam and it turned out good. Since Jon's car doesn't have an air dam of any kind (!) I offer to give him mine when I put the new one on at the hotel. A little sanding and a shot of paint and it'll look good as new. 6 hours of cleaning later, they look like a million bucks. It's still raining. 11-4 (Monday) Jon picked up an El Camino from Kentucky and it needed to be inspected, certified, numbered, stamped and processed for use on Texas roads. I feel safer all ready. The air cleaner was a bit of a challenge, but he wedged the one from his older El Camino on the hi-po small block and it looked like it was supposed to be there. The inspection went well, the DMV tag was a breeze and now he's legal! Scary but true. A little food, a couple beers, a lot of rain and some good music rounded out a fun day. 11-5 (Tuesday) We wake up to sun! Ahh blessed light! He DOES live on a lake! I can see it now! Very pretty view of a big assed lake. Oh, the country life. We pack up the cars, take a couple pics out front of his house on the dirt (no longer mud) road, then up 281n for Fort Worth and points north! After the pesky highway patrol pickup truck left us, we proceeded at speed to the hotel. Only had to hit 125 once doing a quick little 5 car pass on the two lane. Check in at the Beechwood, scope out the Acura cars parked around the hotel entrance (courtesy of Goodson Acura) and relax a bit. Around 6pm Jon York starts to prep for his little barbecue party/beer bash he tossed for everyone right outside the registration area, so I helped him out for a bit. Jon M. shows up (he's staying just down the road at the Microtel) and we register, get our free stuff (logo folding chair, logo brief case and logo bottle of wine!) and go hang with all the folks. Its great to see all the people I met last year and meet new ones. It was starting to get a little nippy out by the end of the night so we all congregated inside the doors, just a stones throw from the keg... 11-6 (Wednesday) Tech seminar day. First one was a comparison of superchargers and a little about nitrous. On paper, the Comptech unit looks to give the best low end torque and thus the best performance. All of them have some shortcomings. Hmmm, maybe I wait until spring to see what shakes out with these little devils. We take a field trip out to the parking lot where all the different systems talked about are represented, including the dry N2O in my car and Rob's wet system. The maintenance seminar was good, covering brake pads and coolant draining. A little Mexican buffet for lunch complete with a 50 question NSX info quiz that was harder than hell. Lud, you suck. Instead of going on the "group drive", Jon M, and I heading to the concierge to get my new air dam and out to the parking lot we went to throw it on and put my old one on his car. There are about 20 other guys out there doing brake installs, etc. going on all over - and the Goodson service techs aren't even there yet! Barbecue for dinner with Jon York and Jon Mandell (everyone I know is named Jon! No less than 5 people on this trip!) 11-7 (Thursday) Sadle up the horses boys! We're going to town! Downtown Fort Worth that is. Complete with a police escort (arranged by Sam-I think they just wanted to know where HE was the whole time). Though the flow of the giant train of NSXs was somewhat herky jerky, it was great having the coppers working FOR me for a change! They even had a police helicopter spotting traffic ahead for them. It was something to see the deluxe rubber-necking going on around us. Once at the Stockyards, I ended in the 3rd row from the front. When I went up to talk to the motor cycle cops, they tried to clip the cuffs on me! I think they thought I was Sam. Once the pics were taken, we scooted down the block to have our "concourse" event. I got some great pics and video if this. Lots of comparing "who had what" and a ton of comments about my Volk wheels. Yes, they are cool. Kind of rushing things, we then all headed off all the way across town to TBC Indoor Carting. What a hoot! They broke us into teams and again, very rushed, got us out for a little qualifying. I was running consistent 63s and was pretty happy, until I saw the little guys running low 50s. Damn! I'm too big for these things. Ok, we need some mods - higher output batteries, quick chargers, high torque motors... It took forever to get the races done, but the champagne flowed like water and everyone had a great time. Did I mention the barbecue for lunch? We were late for dinner, so a quick shower and a speed run down the quarter mile strip in front of the hotel got us over to the TMS Speedway Club. Great facility, good barbecue! Lud and I chatted for a bit. After dinner, we had a drivers meeting and you could tell Vaughn and Eric R. had been covering details and not sleeping for WAY too long. Man did those guys work their asses off for us. Thanks guys. It was a very full, very rushed day, but packed a lot of fun into it! 11-8 (Friday) Up at 5am for the first day of track time at Motorsport Ranch. Neat facility! I parked the car, opened the door, and laying face up on the ground was a shiny heads up penny! Lucky penny! It was in my pocket in an instant. This will become important later. Andy V. used me as a guinea pig for registration so I was first. I found myself in the Yellow (solo) run group and had four 20 minute sessions that seemed way shorter than that. Ron Stafford went out with me for the first session to give me the line and was great to work with. This track is technical and gives you plenty of opportunity to make mistakes. My new S03s were really squirmy, but I got better each round. Thank God in heaven, Subway sandwiches for lunch! Talking to the guys from the solo group after each round about techniques, gear changes, brake and turn in points paid off huge-thanks guys! I couldn't have been more fun, well maybe if the wind backed off a bit. I never spun or left the track, which is nice. Plenty of people did though. I used the rest of my N2O bottle the last two sessions, so I'll have to put the new one in for tomorrow... Hey, what's for dinner? Barbecue! Cool! 11-9 (Saturday) MSR, Day 2! Jon M. and I got there early and took a few photos with a beautiful sunrise above our NSXs. I picked up right where I left off yesterday and was turning some great laps. The tires felt way better today and a had more confidence in pushing it. The time trial session at noon (with blessed pizza for lunch) showed that stock NSXs hold up well to the mod cars on short tracks. There were plenty of "agricultural excursions" today, but none by me, so again I save the front air dam for another day. Jon M. was not so lucky and put a wrinkle in his air dam. The nitrous was great for going up hills and anytime the car was straight. Its nice only having the torque when you want it so I can apply it when its proper to do so. I used a whole 11lb bottle in the last 3 sessions. I may have to add a second bottle. I did learn (yet again) that the best mod you can make to your car is YOU! Learn to drive better and the seconds just fall off your lap times. It's fun watching the guys who actually know what they are doing out there. Back to the hotel for a dip in the hot tub and the cold ass pool. Invigorating! Jonny and I went to Olive Garden for dinner - they don't have barbecue on the menu. 11-10 (Sunday) Texas Motor Speedway!!! I've been here many times before, just never as a driver. The drivers meeting was one of those "scared straight" deals where they tell you how many ways there are to die, show you pictures of severed heads and have people selling life insurance on the spot. The warnings were important and well placed. First time out, I was going at 80mph max and it was "interesting" but a couple laps into it I got the feel of the high bank and it was really cool. I progressed up in speed as the laps went by and really got the oval 3-4 thing down, but the 1-2 set almost bit me on the 3rd session. I decided to go into 4th gear and push it a little in 2 and as soon as the track leveled out I started heading for the wall. I backed off on the throttle a bit, no change. A slight left steering adjustment-no change. I got that "feeling" in my gut that I was going 110 and was not in control. About 3 feet from the wall, the car decided it had scared me enough and went parallel to the concrete. The lucky penny saved me! I downshifted and braked for the turn in to the road course and the corner worker pointed at me and looked at me sternly as I passed. I know, I won't do that again. I used a little more moderation in turn 2 from then on. This was a fun track, but I just didn't want to push too hard here, as it's 1000 miles home, if you know what I mean. It was nice getting passed by Mark J's yellow Integra on the infield course. Ya bastard. Hamburgers and chicken for lunch! The Goodson guys were deep into day three of wrenching on a ton of cars and did a fabulous job. Hats off to Susan Tableman and the whole crew. Back to the hotel, a little hot tub, then met the Vescey's and Mark Johnson in the hotel bar for some snax, drinks and conversation. What a day! 11-11 (Monday) I slept 11 hours. I've got to imagine that everyone was as beat as I was. After checkout I head across town to McKinney, TX to see my biz partner's folks. His dad's shoulder is mending well. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then spent the afternoon at Dave & Busters arcade. I haven't done that in years! Around 5pm I said my goodbyes and went south to Garland to hang with a high school buddy and his family for the evening. It was great seeing the crew and playing with the kids - they missed me! It was April when I was here last. Around 11:30pm I decided to hit the trail as I felt pretty good and wanted a little jump start on the northward trip, so off I went. 11-12 (Tuesday) So I was just going to drive until I got tired, pull over and take a nap. Well next thing I know, it's morning and I'm driving into Kansas City, so I figured I'd just drive the rest of the way. By the time I got to Des Moines, I was seriously dragging, but my high school bud's parents live here, so I stopped and surprised them, and boy were they! It's been a couple years since I'd seen them. A couple hours with them, then back on the trail for the 4 hour trek home. A had a couple "long blinks" while driving and should have pulled over, but went all the way to Minneapolis just to get there at rush hour. Great timing. I made it home with no damage to the car, but I was shot. Want to know more about the tracks we drove? Go check out the Motorsport Ranch and the Texas Motor Speedway web sites. I'll be there in 2003, and so should you! This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink. |
||||
