Texas Mile March 2014 Picture Dump

[andyc740]

Spent the weekend at the Texas Mile when it ran in Kingsville. CMA was on hand once again volunteering at the event. Friday and Saturday, entrants were running against a headwind, holding their speeds down. Sunday turned into a rainout, just enough precipitation to prevent participation.

Official results from the Mile can be found at http://www.texasmile.net/mileresults.php

I was there just a bit on Friday and didn't bring the camera. Goldfish and I started Saturday morning handing out timing slips at the bottom end. Valerie Thompson made a 200 mph pass on her BMW S1000RR. Jennifer Robertson managed 214 on her Hayabusa. Yay for the ladies.

This is not Jennifer:

Here's Valerie:

Yours truly with a borrowed coffee cup:

This fellow was having trouble with his NOX solenoid sticking open. That can get pretty exciting. He borrowed my Guzzi toolkit to fix things enough to get back up to the pits.

This bike was reputed to make 1000 HP. (wonder where they got that bike number.) They were still trying to get it sorted out. His quickest pass was 191. That's Goldfish handing him his timing slip.

And the fastest Fiat to ever run at the Mile (the only one):

The Lamborghini Aventador definitely got a lot of attention.

The circle car did 212.

Goldfish needed a picture of the Ford towing the Chevy. The RV in the background belongs to Ed (we refer to him as Doc), who built and supplies all the timing gear used at the event.

Rocinante and the Mothership parked at the bottom end.

 

[andyc740]

Saturday afternoon, I wound up working the gate. I got pictures of several rat rods that rolled in.

Then after a couple hours of that, wound up at the starting grid, hanging out, watching the starts, talking with folks. There's usually a lot of good stories to hear when you ask people about their rides.

People come from all over to run at the mile. This vette sported Montana plates.

This car came from Virginia. The owner said it was his first time at the Mile. I guess he plans on coming back (check his plates):

The Izetta was a favorite of mine. Not in the event, just used as pit transportation.

Pit transportation is a chance to one-up everyone else. This belonged to the party hard crowd.

Spectators watching the start line.

The Trans-Am, complete with screaming chicken hood decal, topped 200 on one pass and lost a door in the process, if I remember right.

Then I ran into Bad Andy, who has a speed shop in Houston, and asked to take a picture of his shirt (I like Andy references).

Bad Andy did me one better and gave me his shirt! I'm wearing it as I type this.

More pit transportation:

Rebecca Ebert's bike (she didn't top 200 this time, but she made more motorcycle runs than anybody else, which she usually does).

Bad Andy's project at the mile, a Honda Insight built for a friend who wants a Bonneville Salt Flats record. They said if they can do 120 at Bonneville, they'll own the record for cars with sub-liter engines. They ran 94 at the Mile, so they still have a ways to go.

My Guzzi has a bigger engine than the Insight. It's had all it's electric-drive stuff removed.

This car had a secret weapon:

Then it was time to head for the house, returning Sunday.

 

[andyc740]

Sunday, I rode out to the Mile in the rain. There were still a number of cars at the starting grid, but the staff was waiting for the strip to dry before doing any runs. The racers were all champing at the bit because they had a nice tailwind blowing after two days of headwinds.

How often do you get to see a Maserati parked next to a Lamborghini?

This car came from out of town. The distance record, though, was set by three guys that drove down from Saskatchewan.

People were steadily pulling out all day long. Cars and bikes were thinning out on the starting grid while the runway stubbornly refused to dry out enough to run.

At least this feller got to enjoy the windy day:

And it was blowing (check out the flag):

Trucks are bigger in Texas:

Aransas County Motorsports had a really nice car hauler, used to bring several of their fleet of cars to the track. The owner told me the car hauler was a 1946 Chevy Loadmaster cab sitting on a Holiday Rambler RV chassis. The bed came from a junk yard and the whole thing is powered by a 500-HP Caddy engine mounted midships.

Goldfish got creative, drying out his wet gloves with the exhaust from the generator we had powering the lights and coffeepot at the front gate.

One of the vendors was showing off this Mustang with a blue chrome wrap job. One of our buddies was told the wrap job was $10k worth of tinfoil.

By lunch time, no one was left to make much of a line at the food vendor's.

And Rocinante was saying it was time to go home. We packed up and hung around till the event was officially called done about 1:30 and headed home. First time in ten years an entire day was rained out.

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Texas Mile. Feel free to add more photos if you've got any.

Here's the wrap-up from the Texas Mile crew:

The March 2014 Texas Mile Event was a great success. Even with the rain out on Sunday we were able to get in 891 total runs on Friday and Saturday 53 of which were over 200MPH! Check out the cool records and highlights below.

FASTEST DRIVER OF THE WEEKEND: The fastest speed of the weekend was 227.1MPH achieved by Tim Siachitano in his 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo. Congrats to Tim and his crew!!!
FASTEST MOTORCYCLE RIDER OF THE WEEKEND: Nelson Pupo was the fastest motorcycle rider of the weekend achieving a top speed of 225.6MPH on his 2007 Suzuki Hayabusa. Nelson went over 204MPH a total of 4 times over the event weekend.

FASTEST FEMALE MOTORCYCLE RIDERS: We had some very fast female motorcycle riders this event.
Top honor goes to Jennifer Robertson who achieved a top speed of 214.0MPH on her 2005 Suzuki GSX 1300R .
Congrats also to Valerie Thompson who achieved a top speed of 199.8MPH (So CLOSE to 200mph!!) on her 2012 BMW S 1000.
Congrats, also to Rebecca Ebert who went 195.6MPH on her 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa GSX 1300R.
FASTEST CORVETTE OF THE WEEKEND: David Ghiselin and team LaQuay Motorsports left the Texas Mile maintaining their title as the fastest corvette. David achieved a top speed of 213.2MPH in a 2002 Corvette Z06 toping his previous speed from October 2013 of 206.3MPH, not quite besting his previous March 2013 record of 216.3MPH.
We had a total of 33 corvettes attend the Texas Mile March 2014 event. The corvette crowd loves this event and we appreciate their support!
CADILLAC CTS-V LUXURY AND SPEED: We had a total of 18 registered Cadillac's at the March 2014 event. The fastest CTS-V of the weekend was Mark Marquardt who went 200.9MPH, the first CTS-V to go 200MPH at The Texas Mile! That sure is a fast luxury car Mark! Wow.
Special thanks to Sewell Performance a Texas Mile Sponsor for March 2014.

OUR FIRST FIAT AT THE TEXAS MILE: We were excited to see how fast the Fiat would go, congrats to George Harbeson for obtaining the new Fiat record at 119.2MPH. This Fiat is a 2012 Hatchback 4 cylinder engine with a single turbo. We look forward to seeing George and his Fiat at the next event.
CROWD FAVORITE: The sound of that Orange Lamborghini Aventador was a head turner. Dan Nixon's car sure was the crowd favorite of the weekend. The Lamborghini's top speed was 186.1MPH.


AWARD WINNERS:

HOTTEST TRUCK: Oren Albright wins Hottest Truck with his Red 1969 Chevrolet C10. Oren achieved a top speed of 131.1MPH.
HOTTEST CAR & BEST VEHICLE PAINT JOB: George Harbeson in his Gray 2012 Fiat Abarth. Currently the Fastest Fiat at the Texas Mile!
HOTTEST BIKE & BEST MOTORCYCLE PAINT JOB: Dave Wagner wins Hottest Bike with his 2008 Suzuki GSX 1300R
MOST EXOTIC: Terry Dreibelbis and her team B.E.S.T in Texas win the award for Most Exotic in their yellow 1953 Studebaker Cammander Starline.This car is defineitly one you can't miss.
LONGEST HAUL: Darren & Lloyd Harder who came all the way from Saskatoon Canada a total of 1,970+ miles one way!
MOST RUNS FOR A VEHICLE: Jess Olson wins the award for Most Runs done by a Vehicle. Jess made 9 total runs with a top speed of 193.3MPH in his 2013 Camaro.
MOST RUNS ON A MOTORCYCLE: Rebecca Ebert wins the award for most runs done by a motorcycle. Rebecca made 9 total runs with a top speed of 195.6MPH on her 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa GSX 1300R.
MOST RUNS OVER 200MPH: Mark Tredway wins the award for the most runs over 200MPH. Mark made a total of 5 runs over 200MPH with his top speed being 224.3MPH. Mark rode his 2007 Suzuki Hayabusa. Congrats Mark!

To view all of the event results check out our website: https://www.texasmile.net/results.php

To check out even more highlights of the weekend check out our Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheTexasMile.

Jessica Reyna
The Texas Mile
Event Coordinator &
Director of Customer Experience
281-303-1844
info@texasmile.net​

See you in October at the next Texas Mile!

 

[M38A1]

Thanks for posting all the pics! I just love seeing this kind of stuff and really would like to attend some year. I see it as a HUGE money pit experience as I'd just want to try to find some obscure transportation and see just how fast I could go. Hmmmm I wonder if there's a class for historic military vehicles.

 

[1 wheel peel]

Thanks for posting the pictures.

 

[SL350]

Does this mean Beeville lost the Texas Mile?

 

[andyc740]

Thanks for posting all the pics! I just love seeing this kind of stuff and really would like to attend some year. I see it as a HUGE money pit experience as I'd just want to try to find some obscure transportation and see just how fast I could go. Hmmmm I wonder if there's a class for historic military vehicles.

You could probably run against the (world's fastest) KLR and do pretty well.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

You're welcome!

Does this mean Beeville lost the Texas Mile?

No, the Texas Mile was at Chase Field in Beeville, where it's been for the last 3 years and will continue to be held. The Texas Mile people are also running the Houston Half Mile in May, but that's a different event, held at Ellington Field.

This will be the first time they've run the Houston event. It wound up in their hands when the new owner, Bill Warner, died in a bike crash in Florida last year, shortly after purchasing the rights to host it. At that point, the Texas Mile folks were asked to step in and run the event.

Taken on a sunnier day:

 

[JMZ]

Nice pics , I hope I can make it next time .

 

[andyc740]

Nice pics , I hope I can make it next time .

Thank you. Next time will be October 24 -26.

A backstory I forgot to mention: The current Texas Mile record holder, a Ford GT owned by Mark Heidaker of Houston, ran 278.2 last October. Since then, another Ford GT ran 283 at a standing mile event in Florida, eclipsing Heidaker's top speed.

The Heidaker GT was back at the mile this time with plans to run 284 and bring the record back to Texas. When the Texas Mile people asked for help to pay the big liability insurance bill for the event, Mark ponied up a large amount of cash, earning head of the line rights anytime he wanted to run the car.

Due to headwinds Friday and Saturday, they didn't bother to run, waiting for Sunday's tailwinds. When the event was rained out Sunday, the car went back to Houston without making a single pass down the track. If the weather cooperates in October, pay attention when that GT rolls up to the start line.

Jalopnik has a video and the story on the car's record pass:

http://jalopnik.com/watch-a-2-000-hp-ford-gt-destroy-the-old-texas-mile-rec-1453540450/all