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Texas 2011 Round 1 is in the books


Al F.

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Check out the spec944 forum for a full report

http://www.944spec.org/944SPEC/forum/texas/9524-texas-round-1-race-report

 

Five cars for our first event is just awesome considering we had just one last year. The racing was spectacular and the party Saturday night went on until well past midnight.

 

Congrats to Kevin for his two wins and to BJ for his one win!

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Here are a few pics from Sunday's race:

 

 

5 cars taking the green!

944_1-11_Green.JPG

 

 

The first corner was slick and wet, but all made it through cleanly.

944_1-11_1st_Turn.JPG

 

 

Kevin got the jump on me out of the first corners.

944_1-11_Kevin_Pass.JPG

 

 

Lots of dicing with Al. We never let each other get very far away.

944_1-11_Al_Pass.JPG

 

 

At the restart, at nearly the end of the race, 4 of the 5 Spec cars were still in a pack.

944_1-11_Restart.JPG

 

 

For the first time in my 944 Spec career, I took the checkered!

944_1-11_Checkered.JPG

 

 

Thanks again to my fellow Texas guys for a great time on Sunday!

-bj

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GREAT pictures! Although there's nothing showing my full sideways drifting technique through turns 1 and 2 (and 3 and 4 and....). Next time I'm making sure I have a set of rains at the ready.

 

That was easily the most fun I've had at a NASA event weekend. It's great to finally have some others in the class.

 

Really glad you were able to make it down on Sunday.

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This was hands down the most fun I've had racing. It really helps to be in a car that is finally competitive. I enjoyed running with the MW region, but it wasn't much fun always finishing last. And I'm not talking last in class, but last in the field. The motor was seriously hurting before the rebuild!

 

I don't know what it is about this class, but it attracts some of the best racers I've ever met. Al, Kevin, and Todd were all great guys and I can't wait to race with them more.

 

-bj

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Congrats to Kevin and Todd this weekend for their wins. More importantly , I want to thank each for spending the time with me between events and having the patience to answer all my questions regarding to joining the 944 Spec crowd. All my track experiece thus far has been in a car other than my 944 so I came out to see if this is the direction I wanted to go. It was great to hear the enthusiasm from everyone on getting the program going in Texas and I felt welcome even though I did not have a car on the grid. Todd was certainly an ambassador for the sport and coming from CMC that meant a lot. Kevin showed me what a spec car was capable of - thanks for that ! I think I have made a decision to move away from SCCA and to NASA. I still need seat time to learn the 944, so I plan to HPDE as I build up the car with Spec in mind.

 

- Paul

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I think I have made a decision to move away from SCCA and to NASA. I still need seat time to learn the 944, so I plan to HPDE as I build up the car with Spec in mind.

 

- Paul

 

Paul,

 

I'm glad to hear you are interested in the class. It is amazing racing!!!

 

If you already have a SCCA comp license, just come race with us. I ran my 944 Spec car in a few HPDE's before I started racing it. I thought I was going fast until I realized I was running 10 seconds off of the pace of race laps. Nothing will let you learn the car faster than racing with a bunch of other 944s.

 

These cars are so evenly matched, that you can have a lot of confidence following other Spec drivers--if their car can do it, so can yours. This gets you getting a lot out of the car very quickly.

 

-bj

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I had a blast in my first 944-Spec racing weekend. It took me all day on Saturday to realize I didn't have to lift to make it turn and I didn't need to stomp on the brakes to make it slow down. Once Saturday was behind me, the car felt so much more natural..even in the rain (thankyou full tread Toyos!) After looking at MyLaps, it was pretty cool that 4 out of 5 cars & drivers who had never raced together could all be within .800 seconds of each other! I must have gone 5 turns side by side with Fernandez before one of us nosed past the other.

 

Saturday's photo shoot before BJ got there.

168714_10150094779754557_748564556_6062412_5942325_n.jpg

 

#25 leading the Texas points....#2 well, um, #2 in Texas points

179424_10150094780979557_748564556_6062420_7904426_n.jpg

 

I must have talked to at LEAST 10 very interested Porsche people who have plans to join the series at one stage or another. A few Porsche diehards took photos of my cage and were sending them to their builder, who was apparently starting their cages that very weekend! They hope to make Round 3, but after seeing the racing...are going to push for Round 2. We'll see, but the season and the Texas series was off to an AMAZING start...and we have Toyo Bucks to show for it!!!

 

-=- Todd Covini

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Build it and they will come!

 

Great work guys...

 

 

BTW... these 944's may not have much, but you don't need to force them to handle well. They are naturally well balanced and well mannered on track so that you really focus on driving them around the track rather than fighting them. This makes racing them fun when you can get close to another car and not worry about the car struggling.

 

I will saw however getting 100% from the car is still hard. 90% is pretty easy, but that last 10% is really hard work, but in fun sort of way.

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