The NASA Texas region kicked off the 2010 racing season on Jan 30^th, a rather cold but thankfully dry weekend. Considering the previous six Texas race weekends have had rain, a little cold but a dry and sticky track was a welcome change. 21 cars were run through the annual safety inspection process in preparation for the weekend’s racing including a few familiar faces that had been absent for some time like Robert Boudreaux and Chris Marvel as well as new faces like rookie drivers Wade Zimmer and Randy English and A-Sedan veteran Ron Jones.

From the wave of the flag for the standing start to the wave of the checker, the first race of the year was full of action. Mike Patterson proved all of his winter work on his AI car was worthwhile as he pulled to a strong lead. In CMC2 Jeremiah Kellam and Michael Mosty battled neck and neck for the entire session with Jeremiah crossing the line first only to have the win stripped for being underweight. A bit further back Al Fernandez barely held off James Proctor, who barely held off Chris Marvel. Jay Jordan and Sam Crumpacker went doorhandle to doorhandle for literally the last ˝ lap and drag raced to the flag for a photo finish with Jay edging Sam out by a mere 0.003 seconds. 2009 Texas CMC Champion showed he hasn’t lost his touch, taking the CMC win with Gary Robertson and Gary Hood both inheriting podium spots due to David Francis and Nick Valentin being found light in post race tech.

The second race of the day was of course an inverted field based on the finishing order from Race 1 with a rolling start format. Mike Patterson suffered a header failure allowing Frank Robertson to cruise to a win over Clifton Winkleman in AI. CMC2’s Robert Boudreaux pulled out an early lead while the field sorted out. Al Fernandez caught and passed him a few laps in, then barely held off Michael Mosty for the win. Jeff Wirtz continued his streak with his second win of the day over David Love.

Saturday night NASA Texas hosted a Mexican style party and drivers, friends, and family from all Texas region classes gathered to receive awards from the 2009 racing season. The regional champs were recognized by their peers and received some nice awards.

As the group lined up for race 3, it had become clear there would be no quarter given this day.  The Marvel/Pedersen fourth gen and Robert Boudreaux's fox body gave chase in CMC2 but fell short. Mike Patterson led the AI brigade while Jeff Wirtz overcame another slow start to manage the CMC field.

Once again the cars were well formed for a rolling start with the order set up by inverting the finish results of the previous race. The green was thrown and another round of clean racing was underway.  At the checker it was Patterson in AI, Kellam with a hard fought win in CMC2 and the pretty blue 19 and Jeff Wirtz taking the win in CMC.

All cars had annual inspections done, with several minor issues found and written into driver’s log books. Examples included uncovered hot terminals, insufficient padding roll bar padding, seat belt mount clips not safety pinned/wired, and other similar minor things. There were no significant safety issues and all cars were approved for racing.

Post race tech inspections throughout the weekend included:

Air dam and radiator air deflector height (CMC and CMC2 only) - no  issues found.

Sub-frame connectors (CMC and CMC2 only) – one car inspected had illegal sub-frame connectors, but these had been disclosed by the driver during the annual inspection and were given a waiver for the weekend.

Rear wing (AI only) – no issues found.