Buttonwillow 7-31 report

[Chad-1stGen]

Well I just got home a short while ago from my first trip to Buttonwillow. I had an absolute blast!! Easily the best time I've ever had in a car I owned. About the only thing that tops it is driving formula cars at Infineon.

We ran 13 CW and it is sooo much faster than my previous experience at Streets of Willow Springs (small track) and El Toro.

I appear to have eliminated most/all of the clutch gremlins that plagued me at Streets so I could really work the shifting aspect with lots of toe/heal. I mainly used 3rd-4th. There are several spots where 100+ mph is possible but I was mostly hitting 90ish.

Car ran pretty much flawlessly until the 4th session. Then I got fuel starvation on the 4th lap right before the pits and pulled off. I ran out of gas at my parking spot in the pits and had to push the car to the pumps to fill up. I'm still not 100% sure it was only a gas issue as the car only took ~12.5 ish gallons but I will figure that out later.

I went 4/4 for improving my fastest lap each session out. The highlight of the day was definitely my 3rd and 4th lap of the 4th session chasing down a 911 turbo. I really got in his head as he started overdriving the car and making lots of mistakes in his line which culminated in him dropping two tires off the track in the esses. That lap would of been a 2:20 I'm positive but I had to pull off. My best lap was a 2:22.3 with two point by's so that one woulda been into the 21's. For my first time there I'm pretty happy as I was shaving time each session.

I met lots of cool people too.

Gaetano - His Orange 69 Camaro is seriously bad ass and he drives the hell out of it. Even on an off day today he was much faster than Orange Crush or I.

Dave with Orange Crush. Seriously a clean and awesome running machine.

Dan (are you SIK02SS?) He was running a newer vet and let Chris pop his track cherry towards the end of the day. Dan made a hell of a passenger and gave me some great pointers in the 4th session. He made chasing down that 911 fun!

Dave (DaveZ28)

Sevillaz28 (sorry blanking on your name atm :/) His 67 was sexy but had a break problem so he came all that way and didn't get to run. I woulda ran to the parts store and slapped a cheapo m/c on there to try and run but respect his self control for wanting to wait and do it right.

I know I'm forgetting a few peeps but I'm running on low sleep and the beginning stages of heat stroke lol.

I didn't have a camera but bought the track photographer pictures of my car. Here are some of them:

[Mkelcy]

Well, darn, no more using your car as an example of un-corrected camber curve. Looks good. That course is a blast.

[CarlC]

Excellent Chad! BW is a great track. I really wish I could have been there, but I was sitting on a plane most of the day.

Did you run into a guy named Jon running a red C5 Z06, and Doug in a 5.0?

[asifnyc]

thanks for the report! any video?

[Gitter Dun]

Chad, great meeting you at the track. Pictures do not do your car any justice, that thing is super clean. 2:22 is a solid time for first time out.

Dave, great meeting you and your brother. Thanks for taking the heat for me at the download meeting, LMAO

Sevilla, sorry you had problems with your brakes. We'll take another crack at it August 21st at Thunderhill.

Weather was great at Buttonwillow. I signed up for advanced group but Dave talked me into running intermediate
Apparently I was supposed to wait for a point by before I passed anybody in front of me which turned out to be all 10 or 12 cars that lined up in front of me. At the end of the session we were supposed to go to a download meeting but I completely forgot all about it. From what I heard, somebody asked who was driving the orange car and then Dave raised his hand cuz his car is orange also and then they let him have itThanks for takin' the heat for me Dave.

Needless to say, I bumped up to intermediate/advanced group to give those guys a try. Every single car in that group was either an Evo, WRX, or Honda. I lined up close to the front and it didn't take long for them to be climbing up my you know what. These guys were hella fast and I didn't have anything for them this time around.

Long story short, I missed my last two sessions of the day due to carb prob's but manged to pull off a 2:15 before calling it a day.

[Chad-1stGen]

Thanks guys.

Carl. I didn't meet John or Doug. I think John might of been in my run group (blue) and was faster than me cause i gave him a point by in one of the 4 sessions and chased him for a bit which was fun. I don't know where he pitted though. I don't recall a 5.0.

Asif. I did bring a video camera without a mount and was going to ask The Stig to shoot a lap or two as passenger but he was having so much fun in the tow truck I didn't see him much yesterday. I do have a couple shots of random cars coming down the straight including one or two of orange crush. I tried to get Gaetano's car too but I kept missing him. I need to figure out how to just splice the couple 10 second clips I have into one and upload it.

[Chad-1stGen]

One other thing I'll add about yesterday. There was some discussion of how hot and miserable Buttonwillow can be in the summer in the thread leading up to this weekend. It did get to 95 or so out at Buttonwillow but the day was a lot more bearable because the snack shop / drivers meeting area had lots of room and nice cold AC. That made such a huge difference as a place of refuge when not out on the track. Also the big outside shaded area behind the building had misters that really helped keep the heat down. Overall, it was more pleasant off track here in July than Willow Springs was in the spring.

[Gitter Dun]

Carl, John and Doug stopped by my trailor and introduced themselves. Great guys, and look forward to seeing themat another event.

By the way, I probably met these guys in Dave's garage but who was (daveZ28) and (sikoss). Were they there?

[MrQuick]

One other thing I'll add about yesterday. There was some discussion of how hot and miserable Buttonwillow can be in the summer in the thread leading up to this weekend. It did get to 95 or so out at Buttonwillow but the day was a lot more bearable because the snack shop / drivers meeting area had lots of room and nice cold AC. That made such a huge difference as a place of refuge when not out on the track. Also the big outside shaded area behind the building had misters that really helped keep the heat down. Overall, it was more pleasant off track here in July than Willow Springs was in the spring.

we were out there in 113* and the last time it was 90 or so...it can be miserable at times but the snack shop and balconey shade is great when trying to cool down between laps. Glad to see you guys had a good time.

Chad shoot me an email if you are still after a tow hook. [email protected]

Vince

[-The Stig-]

Hey, I was there... don't forget me burning my hands pushing your car back to get fuel! ;)

I would of gone for laps with you, but I got there later in the day than I expected. Ended up sitting with my buddy who owns the Tow Truck that was on post, sat in the AC there and watched everybody go by.

But we got bored, and watched DVD's in his in-dash entertainment system. We watched all of Eddie Murphy's Raw.. and started Transporter 2...

We also did a few calls to get a couple of cars off track during that time, I've been around BW on a street bike at speed, which is a lot of fun, but going around at speed in a Tow truck dipping dually wheels off/over the stripped curbing was just stupid fun.

Next time... I plan on being there with my own heap... ;)

(just have lots to do... right chad?)

[CarlC]

Hey Vince, what'cha got for tow hooks? I'm in the market for fore and aft hooks.

[asifnyc]

hey Gaetano did you run your camera?

chad, if you have a pc you should have windows movie maker installed. if you have a mac I think there is imovie? either one of those should let you combine clips and do some simple editing.

[Gitter Dun]

Go Pro not working properly, what are you using?

[asifnyc]

gopro HD on suction cup mount for the in-car stuff and a kodak zi8 camera (like on of those "Flip" cameras) on a ram suction cup mount for the exterior stuff. what's wrong with your go pro?

btw, I had a problem with mine where it kept turning off 5 or 10 mins after starting a recording. finally figured out that it didn't like my class 4, 4gig SD card. I switched to a class 6 card and it's been working great. the higher the class # the faster the card can be read from/written to...

[sik68]

Need more pics and video!

I am super jealous of the weekend you guys had...I just saw Gaetano post a September Buttonwillow so I may have to jump on that one.

[sevillaz28]

Hey Chad. You have a sweet car. Sounds like you were doing really well at the end of the day.

It was a good day despite my breaks, which when I looked at every thing on Sunday I found a bunch of rust in the master and prop valve.

I had a good time meeting you and all the guys and just hanging out. G.C. took me out for a few laps and that was a lot of fun but next time I will have my car in working order and I'm going all out.

Are you going to Thunderhill the 21st? If so, see you there.

[Gitter Dun]

gopro HD on suction cup mount for the in-car stuff and a kodak zi8 camera (like on of those "Flip" cameras) on a ram suction cup mount for the exterior stuff. what's wrong with your go pro?

btw, I had a problem with mine where it kept turning off 5 or 10 mins after starting a recording. finally figured out that it didn't like my class 4, 4gig SD card. I switched to a class 6 card and it's been working great. the higher the class # the faster the card can be read from/written to...

The Go Pro vids are skipping every two seconds or so. I'm using a class 4 16GB card. Might have to try a class 6. Thanks, gonna give it a try.

[CarlC]

Thanks guys.

I think John might of been in my run group (blue) and was faster than me cause i gave him a point by in one of the 4 sessions and chased him for a bit which was fun. I don't know where he pitted though. I don't recall a 5.0.

That was Jon in the red C5. He remembers that session as well. That's his second track event ever. He bought the car the day after I let him drive mine for 20 minutes at SOW's. He's hooked.

I thought Doug's was a 5.0, but it's late 90's car I think. He had some mechanical problems as well.

[CarlC]

Carl, John and Doug stopped by my trailor and introduced themselves. Great guys, and look forward to seeing themat another event.

We're looking hard at the Sept. 25-6 SV event. There's another SV event at Big Willow in mid October that we may hit as well.

[Gitter Dun]

Sounds good, I'll be at Infineon in October tho. You should try Infineon, My favorite.