Saturday 9/26, Texas World Speedway

elmariachi · #1 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 06:58 PM

This Saturday some of the Houston Cobra owners are running their cars at TWS. A few of us are going to go watch the excitement. We will be meeting at the Whataburger at the intersection of Spring Cypress Road and 290, in Cypress. We'll be departing there for TWS at 8AM, so if you want to come early for coffee, come on. From Cypress its a 65 mile drive up 290 and Highway 6 and some great scenery. If you've never seen TWS, its a cool place.

Here's a piece of nostalgia from a race program dated June 6, 1976, back in the NASCAR days at TWS. Some trivia...can you name the Interviewee and Interviewer in the lower left picture?

Seagull81 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 07:03 PM

Looks like AJ and Chris Econimacki.

elmariachi · #3 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seagull81

Looks like AJ and Chris Econimacki.

Ding ding ding we have a winner! Now, tell me who the babe in the top center is:

elmariachi · #4 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 07:10 PM

One more:

Seagull81 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 07:11 PM

I was there, but I don't remember seeing her and if I had seen her I would have remembered.
Farah?

elmariachi · #6 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seagull81

I was there, but I don't remember seeing her and if I had seen her I would have remembered.
Farah?

Hell if I know, I just thought she looked pretty hot.

I was 12 years old and stuck at Boy Scout camp in June of 1976.

Seagull81 · #7 (**permalink**) 09-24-2009, 08:38 PM

That used to be a really nice track. Too bad it never went anywhere. I liked the old road course better than the one they have now.

LuvDaBlues · #8 (**permalink**) 09-26-2009, 05:00 AM

Geeze...... I was there last weekend running with CVAR and didn't see ANY hot women like that. You're right Steve, it "use to be a really nice track"! But ya gotta have the money to keep it nice, and ya gotta have the interest to make the money.

Seagull81 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-26-2009, 07:27 AM

The only person to make money there was the owner of the property. He has gotten it back about 4 times. NASCAR & USAC were the only ones to half fill the place, but the rest of the events were only attended by the wives and friends of the teams. No advertising or they would pick a home game weekend for Texas A & M. Go figure. This track is a copy of Michigan and the old Ontario, CA tracks. What a waste.

LuvDaBlues · #10 (**permalink**) 09-26-2009, 02:32 PM

Isn't the track under new ownership, within the last year or two? So someone is taking advantage of something to be able to keep it open, even for club events. Or is the track owner and land owner two separate entities? The facilities could use an upgrade. They do not even allow the grandstands to be used. The only use for them now is counting the seating sections for braking points before turn one (counter-clockwise).

Seagull81 · #11 (**permalink**) 09-26-2009, 07:23 PM

Not sure who the owner is these days. It has changed hands so many times. I just know it is a big waste of a nice track. If you could drag the track east of the Mississippi, it would be a whole different thing.

elmariachi · #12 (**permalink**) 09-26-2009, 10:38 PM

It was a fun day at TWS, filled with plenty of mechanical excitement. James Yale (red Backdraft below) and Bill Swendsen (blue Backdraft below) hit the track just as the fog lifted at 10AM. Bill had a fuel issue that turned out to be some silicone in the pickup line from a prior tank repair. Later on the day James started missing and smoking and after a pre-dusk teardown in the pits (and I mean teardown), the guys diagnosed it as a blown intake gasket. As of sunset they had torn it completely down and removed the head for good measure. I missed all the afternoon action; a few us us that weren't racing drove into town for some lunch, where I managed to make something go bang in my Ford 9" rear end. We had to trailer it back to Houston; no fun but thanks to the guys for helping me out. As of dinner tonight Bill and James were plotting the reassembly tomorrow morning, followed by more track time.

Ian Powell had his recently completed Keith Craft stroked 427-powered Daytona on-hand and it looked great, and sounded even better.

Seagull81 · #13 (**permalink**) 09-27-2009, 06:33 AM

Looks great! Sorry the guys had trouble. That's never any fun. Is the transition from the banking to the road course in turn one still an exciting time? It used to be, back in the day on the old road course when we ran super late model cars with the Texas Race of Champions.

mtpockets · #14 (**permalink**) 09-27-2009, 03:46 PM

After getting my tow in, second lap, first time out and sorting out my issue, full speed ahead. This was my first time running the 2.9 mile, 15 turn course and first time running my new Nitto 01's. The car ran great, handled fantastic and once I got the lines down I was turning respectable times. Pushed 140 down the 8* front straight just in time to break hard and into turn 1. James was smoking the track when an intake gasket ended his day 1. After tearing his motor apart in the Cobra Den garage we settled in for the night at the Dixie Chicken in CS. Back at it bright and early, put the motor back together to find something more seriously hurt. Not sure as of this post but may be a rod. As James said "Oh well, time for new motor, more HP". Ian's coupe is beautiful and talk about hard core, the car/motor has 3 miles on it and he's at the track. He stayed in the novice group and it was a good venue to shake down the car and catch any bugs. Ian, great job on the Coupe buddy.

Well, were going to start prepping the car for the HCC Fall Cruise and meeting in Conroe in a couple weeks. Jim, thanks for posting the pictures.

Ian890 · #15 (**permalink**) 09-28-2009, 05:32 PM

Ditto to all about the great weekend....what a blast!

First of all, and most importantly, let me set the record absolutely straight. The hard core guys are, without question, James and Bill.

It began Saturday morning on Bill’s first run, with his diagnosis and fix of the "missing RTV in the fuel line", which. I might add, he fixed in time to make the second run of the blue group on Saturday. Then James has engine trouble. But instead of calling it a day, he starts and completes a complete top end tear down to locate the offending pieces(s). Bill donated significant wrenching assistance to James; me, well, I drank beer and offered banter. I think I held a wrench.....once.....briefly.

James had his engine stripped and ready for reassembly when all left at 7:30pm Saturday night. Got back to the track Sunday morning about 7:45-8:00am and by 9:45am James and Bill had it buckled up and ready to fire up. It was just a shame that something deeper in the engine kept it on the sidelines, but it was an impressive tear down/rebuild effort. As fast as James works on this stuff, he probably has it back up and running this afternoon. No B.S., these are the guys you want to have with you when you go to the track.

It was an ideal weekend to do my shakedown cruise for the Coupe. The green group had a bunch of folks in it which was OK because it gave lots of opportunities to work on passing skills. The Keith Craft engine ran great and made awesome noises. Even staying well below 5000rpm the whole day, overtaking and passing was simply not an issue (as the Viper and Vette drivers would have to confess to). All that, and with no show-stopping mechanical incidents. Speedometer was apparently on vacation this weekend, so I’m not sure what we were doing at the end of the front straight, but it felt like it could make some speed. Instructor asked if I wanted to jump to the blue group, which I respectfully declined. I offered some lame excuse about the car needing to have a relatively mild weekend (which it did) when, in truth, the driver needs more time on track before even thinking about running with James and Bill.

After the first Sunday morning run, I saw high water temps and asked James for a consult before taking it out again. Within seconds he pinpointed the “Stop-a-Leak” that blew out of the fill cap and then diagnosed a steady leak at the water pump. Done for the weekend. But, the car is great shape, runs like a beast, and I have much accumulated knowledge of what to sort out and tweak before getting on public roads. My plans are to have it sorted out and titled (a Royal PITA; ask me how I know) and take it to the fall meet in a couple of weeks.

Jim – It was great meeting you for a bite to eat Saturday night at the Dixie Chicken with what seemed like the entire undergraduate enrollment of A&M. I’ll look forward to hearing that all has been put right with your Hurricane and (hopefully) see you at the HCC fall meet.

Should have some video/pics of this weekend posted tonight to share with the group. I had a great time and am looking forward to another track day soon (which, actually, will be back at TWS on November 6).

Cheers,