NASA Texas at Hallett – Summer Shoot Out, June 22-23, 2013

After 10 months of hard work rebuilding Team TX Speed’s Porsche 911 Carrera #171, we anxiously travelled to Hallett Oklahoma to put our tires to the pavement. Jay Matus drove his newly rebuild Porsche 911 #171 in GTS4 and Kevin Mixon joined team TXSpeed for the weekend driving our Porsche Boxster #172 in GTS4.

On Saturday, Jay took the car out for some shake down laps in warm up and practice. During those sessions, his lap times were consistently between 1:22 and 1:21. In Race 1 & 2, Jay took first place with his fastest lap at 1:21.4 while Kevin Mixon took 2nd place with his fastest lap at 1:24.4. At the end of the day on Saturday, the team was discussing some set up changes to the 171 car so that we could try to break our previous track record of 1:20.09.

On Sunday, Jay was ready to break his track record. Race 3 was around 10:15am and the weather was warm but not as hot as the two afternoon races from Saturday. We had a new set of tires on the car and we changed the wing angle. We were confident that all things considered, we had a good chance at obtaining the new record. As soon as Jay went out on track he could tell something was not right with the car. He was able to complete 2 laps, one of which was, according to the traqmate, predicted to be a 1:19! Once the car was back in our paddock, we realized he would be done for the weekend; the oil separator went out. Kevin Mixon went on to win first place for team TXSpeed in Race 3 and 4.

Team TXSpeed is in preparation for the NASA National Championship in September at Miller. We are hopeful for a national win in GTS4 after a long awaited start to the 2013 season. We look forward to the competition.

Team TXSpeed is grateful for our partners and industry advisors, each of whom contributes greatly to the on-going success of this race team.