[Fot] COTA- Race Report

[walt at hot-tr6.com]

Just got back from a successful race weekend at Circuit of the Americas. I
raced my 1970 TR6 with no mechanical issues whatsoever. The weather was a
perfect upper 70s to mid 80s all weekend. SVRA placed me in Group 8 GT while
I would have preferred to be in Group 3 where other British car racers I
have competed with were. My wife was with me as my umbrella girl and two of
my grown children were there to pit crew for me. I found that the best
starting tire pressures on my Hoosier TDs were 26 front and 24 rear. I set
my 123 ignition at 32 degrees maximum advance while I normally set it at 36
where I live at 5,000 above sea level. I ran all three practice sessions on
Thursday the 6th to learn the track. Friday I ran with 41 cars in my group
for the two practice races. Within my Group 8 GT class there were only a few
cars which some broke and one crashed out so by the Saturday feature race it
was just me so I won my class by default. Same thing on Sunday. I kept my
revs down to 6K so I would survive the weekend. My best lap time was 2.527
which is respectable for me. The long straight is impressive and you really
get going a fast top speed. I kept driving deeper into the braking zone but
I was probably on the conservative side. On Sunday I performed a rendition
the National Anthem on my trumpet that Chris Botti gave me over the public
address system for the crowd and it was a big hit. Sunday afternoon I ran
the one hour long Endurance race solo with one pit stop to check tires,
fluids and add fuel. My two children did a great job of the pit stop. 36
cars of all Groups and classes ran the Endurance race which made things
interesting while I was watching my mirrors for superfast cars to blast past
me such as me such as a Ford GT, Lolas, Vipers and Cobras. I had planned on
running modest lap times during the Enduro but the red mist hit me and I had
an awesome dice the last four laps with a very fast Porsche 356 driven by a
father/daughter team. We were side by side through the esses and I could
pull a little ahead on the main straight away but on the sweepers we were
side by side waiting for the other driver to miss a shift or get a little
bit loose but neither one of us slipped up. Going into the last corner (#20)
of the last lap we were still side by side with me on the inside. We both
drifted through the 90 degree left hander with less then 4 inches between
our cars and the Porsche went pretty wide over the second white line. We
crossed the finish so dead even I honestly don't know which of us broke the
electronic beam first but neither one of us cared. I have mixed feelings
about SVRA. During the feature race on Saturday a BMW 2002 passed me
dragging it's entire exhaust system which was kicking up sparks and debris.
I kept pointing it out to the corner marshals for the last two laps but he
was never flagged. Also, $550 for the practice day and another $550 for the
Endurance seem expensive but I guess that's the price in the big leagues.
The COTA track is awesome and I'm I  can say I have raced there. Overall I
had a great weekend.

I have lots of pictures and GoPro videos to download and edit over the next
few days. That will be fun.

Walter Hollowell

Albuquerque, New Mexico



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