At the end of the 2024 season, NASA Southeast Time Trial got feedback from our drivers, who indicated that our fields of cars were getting too big for some of the shorter tracks at which we compete, such as Roebling Road Raceway, which is 2.02 miles. It got to the point where the three or four sports racers in TTU we had coming to almost every weekend were getting maybe one clean lap before catching the TT6 cars at the back of the field.
Last weekend was a typical weekend for our program, with 32 cars registered in TT, but it’s not uncommon for us to see 40-plus drivers registered in TT. Following the lead of our TT drivers, we split the TT fields into two groups, which I try to split as evenly as possible while ensuring that all drivers in each class remain in the same run group. We decided on TT Alpha and TT Omega as the faster and slower groups, respectively. This was largely driven by drivers like Hans Bliss in his TTU 2004 Stohr WF1, but we realized it would benefit all drivers to do the split, even though it meant less overall track time on the weekend — but not by much.
That said, even before the split TT groups, Hans was turning laps in the 1:04- to 1:05-second range. He told the group during our Sunday lunchtime TT drivers’ meeting that he was going to go for the overall track record that afternoon, just to give us a heads up, so if there was anything we could do to help him to get at least three clean laps, we could do it. Bliss is the kind of guy any race group leader wants 10 of in their group, so his giving all of us notice did not come as a surprise.
NASA Southeast TT drivers are some of the most selfless and genuinely good-hearted people I’ve encountered, on or off the track, so everyone agreed to do everything we could, which included a few guys who gave up their session track time so there was one less car on the track, but also so they could be there to support Bliss.
You can’t help but to support and encourage Bliss because he’s the guy who will help and support you when needed, such as during Saturday’s competition, when one of Bliss’ direct TTU competitors, Kade Lewis, in a Revolution A1R sports racer, blew out one of his brake lines. Bliss had the means and ability to help Lewis and his dad, Chris Lewis, to repair the car so that his weekend wasn’t done, so that’s what Bliss did.
With perfect weather conditions on Sunday afternoon, low 40s, perfectly clear, and the typical 10-15 mph headwind on the straightaway being unusually tame, Hans was able to break the overall track record. Twice! His first record lap was 0:59.789, followed by his second record lap, and final record lap, was 0:59.368.
That was not only the TTU track record, but the track record at Roebling Road, period. I can think of few more deserving drivers to have accomplished such a great achievement.
RESULTS
