Racing Ready

Earlier today, Tavo Hellmund announced 3 important items to advance the progress of Formula 1 in Austin, Texas for June 2012 (the official press release is here):

• Red McCombs support as the primary “mover & shaker” investor.
• The proposed location to be SE of the Austin airport!
• Formula 1 launched a new website, as well – formula1unitedstates.com.

Sources say will be on 900 acres that was originally slated to be the Wandering Creek real estate development, near Elroy in southeastern Travis County.  We’ll see if the accuracy of this bears out as true in the coming days.  Here’s a good location map I found:

The priorities that Tavo & Red share for the 2012 Formula One initiative are:

1. Bring value and economic development to the state of Texas
2. Create value for partners
3. Make this one of the true great sporting events in the world

Here’s a satellite image with all the important landmarks indicated – click to enlarge:

We shall see…  Racing Ready surely wants this to happen.  Okay, so what’s this track course layout going to be like?  More here as the news evolves…

Dan

Sondra Sondregger, a respected Austin-based autocrosser & HPDE (High Performance Driver Education) promoter, is very active & involved in the South/Central Texas motorsports community.  Sondra has even started her own HPDE endeavor, Velocity Adventures Texas.

Sondra was interviewed on the radio (along with Eric Beverding of Harris Hill Road) a couple of weeks ago.  They discussed the pros & cons of Formula 1 coming to Austin.  Suffice it to say, like me, Sondra (& Eric) is VERY pro about this.

From all the information she had researched in preparing for this interview, she put together this recently published in the Austin Post.  It’s about why having Formula 1 come to Austin makes SO much sense!  Sondra provides a LOT of good data & thoroughly prepared information.  Well done!  Here’s just a teaser snippet – click here for the full article:

A lot of attention has been paid to all of the people who are opposing Formula One’s presence in Austin, but I am one of the many really excited about it. I really don’t have a dog in the fight and little to gain other than that I like Formula One, am thrilled that we have been honored to have been chosen as the location for such a prestigious event and track, and I think that this is a very good opportunity for Austin’s economy, both in the way of the immediate benefits and in the way of the more lasting benefits of business relocation…

Racing Ready can’t agree more.  We’ll continue to share more here as it becomes available!  Rumor has it that they’ll be announcing the track location this week – we shall see…

Dan

Okay, here’s the follow-up to the news that Texas State Comptroller, Susan Combs, visited a Formula 1 race (at Silverstone in England), on her own dime.  She was favorably impressed & looks to be pushing support for this event to happen!  Details/video are here!

Here are some teaser snippets from the article:

Texas Comptroller Checking Out Formula 1

When questioned about the environmental implications the Formula 1 track would pose on the Austin area, Combs said “I think you’re going to find that it’s green both physically with trees and grass and environmentally and I think you’re going to find that the way the vehicles are managed is environmentally friendly.”  “I think people will be very relieved when they get the details, I honestly do,” added the Comptroller.

… & more…

Next week, the Austin Formula 1 investor and the location of the track will be unveiled for the first time.  Ms. Combs says groundbreaking on the track somewhere in the Austin area will begin in December with a completion date scheduled for June of 2012.

Now this is a very encouraging news giving more traction to Formula 1 racing REALLY happening in Austin.  Racing Ready will continue to stay tuned; you do the same!

Dan

I was SO pleasantly impressed yesterday!  I celebrated the 1 year anniversary of Karlino ownership (my 1999 Mazda Miata).  To mark the occasion, I participated in the 2010 SASCA Autocross #7.

You ask, “Why was Dan impressed?”  I’ll get to that in a bit.  I had missed the last 4 SASCA autocross events due to needing new tires & had to work weekends the last 2 months.  Now working Monday through Friday and the happy owner of 4 Falken Ziex ZE512 tires mounted on my car, I am able to properly autocross, once again.

Today’s autocross had a relatively low number of participants, 89 competing drivers.  I guess the heat, up to the mid-nineties, kept people away.  But it was about 10 degrees cooler than last year.  By keeping in the shade, staying properly hydrated & using good sunblock, it wasn’t too bad.

Well, the new tires brought both Karlino & me up to our respective potentials.  With the 7 (!) runs we had today, I got progressively faster on the first 5 runs & then pretty much plateaued after that.  After learning the course in the 1st run or so, I started to learn how to use the new Falken tires to Karlino’s advantage.  Craig designed a great equalizer of a course, with a good combination of a variety of left & right sweepers and some nicely challenging chicanes.  Here’s a rough sketch of the course layout, by Craig.

Starting with the tire pressures up and adjusting them after the first run, I left them at 36 PSI front, 34 PSI rear.  With Karlino set up this way, I could pretty much steer where I wanted to.  I was even able to steer with the throttle on the sweepers.  It felt very good to have a better controlled car that was actually competitive.  Eric, my favorite guest blogger, let borrow his Hero Pro digital video camera -- here’s the result of my run #4:

My only competitor in the CS class, Golf, drove a Mazda RX-8 & had R-compound tires mounted.  In the first few runs we duked it out as to who was faster.  Then, on his 4th run, Golf found a big 1.25 second advantage that I was not able to fully answer back with.  I did get close, within 0.331 seconds!.  That was okay as my best time was close to or better than some other Miatas & other cars that were in more prepared & modified classes.  My PAX time placed me 46th out of 89 competitors, much better than in prior autocrosses.  I had typically placed in the bottom quarter, or less.

In addition, I made my first “semi-upgrade” inside Karlino.  This could be construed to be performance-related.  I replaced the stock shifter knob with a Voodoo knob.  It’s about 3/4″ shorter than the stock knob and a bigger ball (2″ diameter) to grab onto.  Some would say you can shift a little quicker, but I’m not so sure.  In an autocross you normally shift from 1st to 2nd & stay in second for the remainder of the course.  Whatever -- it feels better in my hand & looks nicer, too.

Racing Ready is very pleased with this successful return to autocross competition.  I hope there are more competitors in the CS class next time.

Dan

My favorite guest blogger, Eric, just sent me a quick little article from the most recent SPOKES/SASCA autocross he attended & participated in from 2 weeks ago.  This is notable for 2 reasons:

• This is a first time autocross experience for the owner, Kevin.
  
• This is a NICELY restored/upgraded Corvette – very sweet!

I know, I may seem biased by profiling yet another Corvette racer, but Kevin’s 1968 convertible is so cool that it was worth the risk.  And since one of my previous cars was a 1976 L48 coupe, it also brought back some memories.

His car is a lot more sorted than mine ever was, as under the hood lives a new ZZ4 crate motor mated to a 4-speed transmission.  It certainly sounded the part, breathing through Hooker sidepipes which could cause quite the calf mark if you weren’t careful getting out!

The suspension was upgraded with heavy duty springs and shocks, and the car looked right sitting on later model aluminum rims and BFG tires.  The brakes had also been refreshed, an important consideration for any vehicle used in competition.

This was Kevin’s first autocross experience, and the car was a real hoot to ride in.  Stepping out of his C3 and into my 2001 Z06 was like taking a 33 year trip through time.  Technology sure has come a long way, but this car was a great reminder of how cool older cars can be.  Don’t hide them away, come out and join the fun!

Racing Ready enjoys virtual autocross participation, but this Sunday, I’ll finally be “back in the saddle” with Karlino at the next SASCA autocross, after a 5 (!) month hiatus.  Hope to see you out there!

Dan

Here’s an interesting, hot off the press,  Formula 1 in Austin, Texas snippet!

This was compiled from The Austin-America Statesman (the Austin newspaper)  Staff & Wire Reports (Published: 10:52 p.m.,  Wednesday, July 7, 2010):

Comptroller checks out F1 race

State Comptroller Susan Combs, instrumental in securing a Formula One race in Austin beginning in 2012, left Wednesday to get a firsthand look at the sport. She is attending the British Grand Prix, about 70 miles north of London.

Allen Spelce, a spokesman for the comptroller’s office, said that the trip is a vacation and that Combs is paying for it, not the state. Combs is traveling with her husband, whom Spelce described as an avid racing fan. Combs “was really excited about this,” Spelce said. “She thinks it’s going to be a great event for Austin.”

To put on the Austin race, the state is putting up $25 million annually, which could be used to pay the sanctioning fees for the event.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is also expected to be at Silverstone, as is Tavo Hellmund, the promoter behind the Austin race.

Racing Ready is looking for more reports of this nature to post here!

Dan

Guest blogger Eric provided Racing Ready with this in-depth report of the most recent SPOKES/SASCA autocross on June 27, 2010:

This past week, I attended the SASCA/Spokes co-event at the San Antonio Raceway.  Despite the promise of hot and humid weather, 130 drivers registered for the event, as you can tell by the crowd at the driver’s meeting.

Since I worked the registration desk and Super Stock ran last, I had time to check out the course at speed in several different cars, including Chris’ STR class S2000 (the blue one half cut off in the picture below) and Nam’s new-to-him MR2.  Unfortunately, the wheels Nam got for his slicks required longer wheel studs, which he didn’t know about until the day of the event, but even saddled with street tires the car was quick and fun.

After a quick lunch at Subway with Wei and several other members of Spokes, it was our turn to run.  Jay, always good competition with his black Z06, is going to be MIA for the next several months, leaving Ray with his silver Lotus Elise (pictured in the background below) and me to fly the Super Stock banner in SASCA.  As a surprise, Lance, a national level driver who was taking some time off competing, showed up as well.

Wei, being the good co-driver, got the tire warming first pass, but one thing was apparent – my car felt very loose.  I hoped it was just cold tires and I was able to hang on, until reaching the long, mid-speed sweeper in the middle of the course.  I attacked it like normal, and the car gripped – for about a second- before the rear swung around.  Scariest thing was, I didn’t feel a thing.  The right rear might as well have gone flat.  I tried braking earlier the next run with no trailbraking, and the result was a hard 270 degree spin that smacked the side of my helmet against the pillar.  Meanwhile, codriver Wei was being his usual self, hitting as many as four cones in a single run!  Adding to the frustration was a temperature in the mid-90s, with high humidity.  One unfortunate soul passed out and had to be taken from the site in an ambulance.  As you can tell by this pic I stole from Jerry, it gets hot in the car with a helmet on – make sure and stay hydrated!!!

I decided to dial back my rear shocks two clicks, managing to touch my face to a hot muffler in the process.   (Having to explain to my wife that the burn mark was not a punch mark was not the high point of my evening…)  I also lowered the rear tire pressure two psi, and bled out one pound less than normal from the fronts.  The changes helped Wei, who ran a clean 45.9, while I could only manage a 46.6 dirty.  With Lance in the high-43s in his Z06, we were a slight bit less than competitive, and to add to the disappointment, I went from eighth in PAX my last two events in a row, to 57th.  The only difference between last month and this month was a full tank of gas.  I was planning on driving the car more, and didn’t.  Could all that weight sloshing around in the back have made that much difference?  We’ll see next month.

Moral of the story is, don’t overdrive!  Wei at least managed a string of 46-ish second runs before finally making it down to the 45s, while I ended up fighting the car, losing a whole lot of time in the process.  Anyway, thanks to Dan for allowing me to blog about my experiences.  I look forward to his return next month.

Again, another quality guest blogger post from Eric, as he chronicles his autocross exploits with his Corvette, Sunshine.  Racing Ready can’t wait to get back into the autocross action personally with Karlino again, soon.

Dan