Track day report - Big Willow 6/11/11

[Chad-1stGen]

What a blast yesterday!!! Figured I'd try for a more detailed report and see how you guys like it. If it's too wordy let me know lol.

I may have a new favorite track. I love the high speeds of Big Willow. Not just the straights but turns 1, 2 and 8 which I could hit at 85+, 80+ and 110+ mph respectively. Gives a big thrill!! After my track day high wears off I may revert to Buttonwillow being my favorite but for now I'm in love ha ha.

So a bit of set up. I've been feeling super lazy regarding the Camaro since I did Streets of Willow Springs on 5/15 with Dave, Mike and Brett. I came home parked the car and didn't touch it again until Friday night (6/10). Of course I had to wash the car off so I could get fresh dirt and brake dust all over it again :p Also, while teching the car I was very happy to see that SOWS CCW didn't toast my brakes as I feared and i have tons of material left. Bad news was that my front tires were even worse than I had remembered. I had tried pretty high PSI settings in the front at SOWS and ballooned the tire pretty bad so that the center sections were pretty much gone. On my ride home from SOWS on 5/15 my car's usually mellow high speed vibration was nasty and I found no obvious signs of what could of caused it and hey maybe I was imaging things.

To top it off I had a pretty good reason not to break the car cause it has to be somewhere this Wednesday looking as shiny and clean as possible. I always feel nervous before a track day but I was feeling extra nervous now but figured I could at least go and get one good session in and maybe two if I was lucky before my tires or vibrations sidelined me. At least I would be able to watch Dave kick ass with his awesome blue 68 Camaro.

Saturday morning the Alarm goes off at 4:40 and I'm off to the track. Woohoo. Track days are one of the few things that I will not hit snooze for, ha! Drive out was uneventful other than the fact I thought my car might shake itself apart a few times. At this point the vibrations would come and go at the same speeds in any gear acceleration or deceleration so I was scratching my head but determined to see how it behaved on the track.

Got to the track and met up with the Mustang guys. Met Jay (screen name Brakelate here) a few events back and while him and his Mustang buddies are pretty die hard Ford guys, they still love American muscle of the non Ford variety if it hits the track. We had a nice spot coned off and ended up having three Terminator Mustangs (the super charged Cobra), a couple of new 5.0's a new Camaro, Dave's Camaro and myself. For some lame reason I didn't take any overall shots of the pit area.

At the driver's meeting we learned that there would only be 3 run groups and we would be getting 30 minute sessions!!! I felt bad for Joel of Extreme Speed as the turn out probably wasn't good for his bottom line but it made for a heck of a lot of track time! Also, worth mentioning that the track was just resurfaced/resealed so it was super black with zero indication of where the line was or any landmarks for folks who use on track indicators. Being as this was my first time on this track I was a bit leery of this. We were all hoping it would provide good traction still. I was thinking the drivers would be stoked for a fresh surface track but I guess that usually means a much slipperier surface.

Advanced guys led off the session.
Here are some pics of Dave and Carlos. Carlos' orange Mustang is a freeking monster and he is a great driver. Even with some voltage issues at WOT he was the fastest car in our group.







Dave and Carlos ended up waiting for a while before they got out on the track. One of the very first guys on the track spins on his first lap (uh warmup anyone?) in turn 2 and covers the track in dirt. Took them 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned up. Once Dave and Carlos got on the track a silver C5 Z06 (think the same one I ran with at SOWS on 5/15) blew his motor (that was the rumor) and spewed oil on the track. Dave thought he saw some fire too. So another clean up session was in order lol.

EDIT: BMW driver who spun off the track on his warm up lap and stopped the Advanced guys first thing in the morning posted the vid of it so here it is.


At this point I'm sweating bullets. New Track, some gremlins in the car, and people have problems in the first session.

Dave came in early complaining that the trans was popping out of gear. I will point at that this particular trans was the third one Dave has put in the car since SOWS on 5/15... Dave's crew chief, Rich, later was telling me Dave needed to "Drive that thing like a man and slam it into gear!!" I'm guessing he told Dave the same thing as the next session Dave smoked the transmission. :(

My first session was short and not too much fun. The vibrations were pretty constant on the track. After walking by the onsite tire shop I decided to pull the rear tires and have the balance checked. I missed a session doing this but low and behold both tires were off balance by over two ounces. Track days are hard on zee tires! With rebalanced tires I headed out after lunch and had a great time. Vibration problem was gone and I could concentrate on learning the track and trying to go faster.

So while my day started off not so great but was getting better, Dave's was trending the wrong direction. However, since Dave brings a crew to the track, he decided to look for an M21 locally. After about 1.5 hours of searching and putting the word out he finds one... at the track lol!!

Rich rolled up set the trans on the ground and sprung into action.


Nicole (think that is her name) even came over to offer some encouragement.




They got the trans in and would of been able to run some more that day. However, the shift linkage proved to not be compatible with the new trans and they couldn't get it to access all the gears. Dave damn near made legend status for blowing a trans, sourcing a replacement, installing it track side and getting back on the track same day. I felt like I was at the races, not a track day ha ha. Dave, you rock!

Dave's car did get some more love from the photographers before he got back with his trans. However, since Brett and Mike weren't around my to outshine my car, I got some love too.

These guys, seemed pretty hardcore, with the whole track and trolley setup for video. There were also 2-3 still camera guys.








Big Willow ended up being nicer on my front tires I think. I was actually able to get three sessions on the car before I called it quits. When I headed out for my third and final session I had 100% intentions of doing 5 or so medium effort laps and coming in. I am normally fast enough in my car to not embarass myself, but I'm not setting in records. But this session the ego raised it's head and I got addicted to chasing down the other intermediate guys. I kept telling myself, ok one more lap, but then would see a car in the distance again and try and catch/pass them. I ended up catching or passing a car just about every lap and stayed on track long enough to turn more laps than anyone else with a transponder lol!!! The only reason I came in was because as I was trying to pass a vette (can see at the end of my video) I lost serious power as my car started having fuel starvation issues (damn!!!). I managed to pass eight cars without being caught by anyone else. I have to be honest, it felt damn good. You will see in the video that I had several opportunties to pass but passing rules were pretty strict on this track for intermediate and I could only pass in the first 75% of the two straight aways.



Here's the video:
(sadly only 480p because its too long to let me upload in 1080p and I can't edit video.


Here is a data overlay of my fastest lap. Yellow zones are 0.5+ sustained G's and red are 0.85+ sustained G's.



I wrapped up the day by joining some of the Mustang guys at the Golden Cantina. One of these is not like the other ha ha ha...


Ok. That is my longest post ever I think. I hope it was worth it.

PS having trouble getting video with data from my phone but will post it when I do.

[Vegas69]

Not surprised that Dave is no where to be found in the photos or the trans swap. ha ha ha

[Chad-1stGen]

LoL Todd. Hey he is in the first pic of the tranny sequence to the right. I think he did take a break to go hit on a photographer later on while I played the tool gopher for Rich.

Still haven't gotten my fastest lap video from laptimer to work but here is another lap. Man some of those corners are a heck of a lot slower than i thought I saw on my speedometer ha ha.

[LM7_67]

looks like a blast!

[John Wright]

looked like your car was much more comfortable to drive on this configuration. Thanks for sharing

[NOT A TA]

Great post, thanks for sharing!

You might want to mark your tires with a grease pencil. I've had tires rotate on the rim at track days from braking throwing off the balance, causing a high speed vibration like you experienced. A lot of tire shops that cater to the general public get a little happy with the lube when installing tires so now I ask them to go light on the lube so there's less residue left between the rim and rubber when it dries.

[Chad-1stGen]

Great post, thanks for sharing!

You might want to mark your tires with a grease pencil. I've had tires rotate on the rim at track days from braking throwing off the balance, causing a high speed vibration like you experienced. A lot of tire shops that cater to the general public get a little happy with the lube when installing tires so now I ask them to go light on the lube so there's less residue left between the rim and rubber when it dries.

Interesting. That is surely possible. I just had the rears mounted one week before the track day in which the vibration started.

Someone from another board found this simply awesome pic of my car taken by the pro photographer (CaliPhotography) that was at the track taking pics. They liked one pic of my car so much they threw it up on facebook and printed one for their office. I thought that was pretty dang cool!

[Ron.in.SoCal]

^ great pic Chad! Glad you guys had fun (sorry Dave!)...can't wait to join you one of these days.

[Chad-1stGen]

It was fun Ron. I hope you join us too! Carl C. has been making some noise about Buttonwillow in September. Should be a bit cooler weather, the price is awesome and its far enough out to give people plenty of notice!

I edited my first post to include a video of the spin out first thing in the morning. This guy was the second (?) car out and on his first lap. He popped a bead on his front left tire from this.

[John Wright]

From the Beemer's cam, it looked like some else had been off in the same spot....

[67zo6Camaro]

Chad, excellent reporting and video. I was getting butterflies watching as this is my old motorcycle stomping grounds. Remembering corner entrance and exit locations, watching you smoothly manipulate the track. Great stuff.

It must have been the shinny rims that attracted that hot model to your car. lol.

Sorry I missed this one. Looks like you had a blast.

[sik68]

What an eventful weekend all around! I'm having fun and am jealous of all the track action you guys are doing. Keep it up!

[Chad-1stGen]

Here is a fun video taken by one of my new Mustang buddies. Its a 2011 Mustang 5.0 with a rear facing Go Pro and I followed him most of the session. It didn't seem like it at the time but man he really out guns me on the straights but I'm able to catch up in some of the corners so it was a lot of fun lapping the track together.

[Flash68]

Chad, I didn't know you had that wicked spin out. Awesome. Kinda. LOL

Glad you got that vibration sorted out too. Not confidence inspiring at these track speeds I'm sure.

Making some new friends in the Mustang crowd was fun -- Carlos, Jay, Dave are all great guys who were very helpful and welcoming. I took rides with both Carlos and Jay and got to see their different lines on the track. I got more seat time as a passenger than I did driving my own car. Boo. LOL

The models and photographers June and Nic were a pleasure to spend time with as well.

Not surprised that Dave is no where to be found in the photos or the trans swap. ha ha ha

Todd, don't be a hater. When you get to my level and have a crew chief who handles it all so I can spend quality time with the ladies, well, ya just can't put a price on that. LOL

My crew chief Rich is a stud and as I keep saying, I wouldn't be able to attend these track days without him, so thanks buddy. I think we only put down about 30 bud lights this weekend... many at the track.... was anyone else surprised they serve alcohol onsite? I admit it did come in handy once we were just spectators.

After 4 muncie transmissions in less than a month, I officially hate Muncie, whoever he is. I gotta figure something out soon....

I only took one video of my 2nd and final shortened session where I hit consecutive 1:42 laps with shifting issues and point-by's. You can see me yelling and waving at some guys to just go around me during some of my issues. LOL

At about 2:10 in my video, one of the highlights was hitting 130-132 on the front straight just before my braking point and a C6 Z06 passes me and cuts in front for the turn-in as he was doing close to 140 I would guess. Open passing in advanced is pretty fun once you're comfortable with it.

Still gotta work on my rev matching, but my adjustments need to be made to the brake pedal as it engages way too high to roll over and blip the throttle.



And last but not least, in our search for a spare M21 trans, we stumbled upon this little gem of history.... yes, it's the real deal. Very cool.

[Nessumsar]

Looks like you guys had a blast, wish I would have made it out (I know, I keep sayin that...). Great right up Chad, you're doing these regularly enough you should have a track blog... Sorry to hear about the trans troubles Dave; but hot damn, 132 is cookin! Did you rub the Sunoco Camaro for good luck?

[Chad-1stGen]

Damn Dave I was wondering when you were going to show up in this thread. That was a fun video to watch even if it was frustrating for you. No kidding linkage/shifting issues. And holy crap you car accelerates like a rocket!

Dude that pass in turn 2 at ~4:30 mark was ballsy!!

I was enjoying the verbal commentary. You were pretty calm when the trans munched too. I don't think I could of claimed the same.

EDIT:

Chad, I didn't know you had that wicked spin out. Awesome. Kinda. LOL

No spin out for me. The clip above I posted is the first spin out of the morning by the BMW guy that held you and Carlos up your first session.

[Flash68]

Looks like you guys had a blast, wish I would have made it out (I know, I keep sayin that...). Great right up Chad, you're doing these regularly enough you should have a track blog... Sorry to hear about the trans troubles Dave; but hot damn, 132 is cookin! Did you rub the Sunoco Camaro for good luck?

Thanks Jon, it was fun while it lasted, but I was just starting to get confident with the track when it let go. Guess I should've given Sunoco a bigger kiss.

And yes Chad should start a blog I agree.

Try to get ready for what seems to be a group coming together for the September Buttonwillow event people have been talking about... would be great to get a bigger group together for that.

Damn Dave I was wondering when you were going to show up in this thread. That was a fun video to watch even if it was frustrating for you. No kidding linkage/shifting issues. And holy crap you car accelerates like a rocket!

Dude that pass in turn 2 at ~4:30 mark was ballsy!!

I was enjoying the verbal commentary. You were pretty calm when the trans munched too. I don't think I could of claimed the same.

EDIT:



No spin out for me. The clip above I posted is the first spin out of the morning by the BMW guy that held you and Carlos up your first session.

Ok yeah I didn't think you spun. That guy blows it on his second TURN of the day... on the warm up lap? in ADVANCED run group? Wow...

The pass at 4:30 was probably not as bad as it looked.... I wasn't sure if the guy was letting me by or taking that wide line or what... so I crept up there and finally just hit it. And similar deal with the Porsche... I was having issues so I pulled way out left and slowed a bit to let him by but he stayed close to my side... and he was fast... ran a best 1:35 I saw.

If I come back to Big Willow it'll be with NT01s and a bulletproof trans.

[Chad-1stGen]

Found this description of Big Willow aka Willow Springs Raceway which I thought was cool.

Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR), the “Fastest Road in the West” is the oldest purpose-built road course in North America and has remained virtually unchanged since its creation in 1953. The 2.5mile nine-turn track earned its nickname from its medium to high-speed corners including the infamous Turns 8 and 9. While not the most technical track out there, “Big Willow” puts the mechanical and aero grip of a car to the test while high horsepower cars can see over 160mph. Because of this, the average speed of a car is faster here than almost any other track in the country. The words “ballsy” are often thrown around when talking about WSIR

EDIT: ha ha ha funny that two posts above I use "ballsy"

[Flash68]

160... now that is serious bidness.

I hope to get more pics of our cars from June, the other photog there... I told her to send me all the pics of yours and my car. I'll post or forward to you Chad.

[Flash68]

Not surprised that Dave is no where to be found in the photos or the trans swap. ha ha ha

See Todd... I actually was involved in the tranny swap. And beer was a key tool.