Buttonwillow driver's clinic, Feb 25 2012
 

I know, I know, this is last minute. I have a bad habit of doing this :) Reason this time is that my girlfriend was going to come with us to El Toro last week but when she heard of this, she wanted to go and bailed on the El Toro event. I told her I wanted to do El Toro also... and I said "fugg it" I'll do the Buttonwillow event too.

This is on a real road course type of setup, I think they have a separate area for skid pad work. They will likely have less crowd than we had at El Toro, when I signed up last week, they only had 25 or so cars. My understanding is we do exercises in the morning and go out on the track for the afternoon, a buddy of a buddy is going to be there with a Z06 carbon, he told me you get a lot of track time.

Here's a cut/paste of an email I sent to my "car guy" list:

-------------------------------

clinic info:
http://www.buttonwillowraceway.com/clinic.htm

track map:
http://www.buttonwillowraceway.com/i..._01_config.gif

video of time attack champ FD (sick ass car, this thing is nuts)

speedventures s2k challenge last month... these guys are hauling ass, it's hard to tell in the video but anyone who runs around the 2 minute mark on this track with street tires is fast as shit
me and fisa are going next Saturday, going to drive up late friday night and stay at a shitty hotel and get up early next day and drive back down afterwards. It's pretty far away, like 140 miles each way... lmk man.
we've both been on that track before, it's really fun. This event is instructional in that you get to do car exercises in the morning (skid pad, car control, etc.) and then get to drive the afternoon on the track.
it's an awesome track.

-mike

If all continues to go well I'll be able to start doing stuff like this again next year. Can't wait!

Oh man if it weren't so close to the one we just did I'd be all over it! I don't want to wait until August for the next one though...

George

How do you know how many people have signed up? I decided against going to El Toro because there were too damn many people [over 60 when I made my last look to sign up].

If it is capped or will for sure a smaller group, then I would consider this, but for $195 anything over 50 is too many. Know anyone who has done this Buttonwillow event before?

Realistically I’m about four months away from doing something like this but I am going to track the car a few times this year. That’s the plan anyway. I’d like to begin at Auto Club Speedway just to get used to things but Buttonwillow does look fun. Damn you Mike, you’ve got me hooked. ;) You two have fun. :motorsmile:

We had plenty of seat time at El Toro... 3-4 turns on skid pad, 3 turns on wet figure 8, 1 turn dry figure 8(but some had more), 4 slalom, too many accident avoidance-threshold braking, and 5 turns on the autocross track..It was non stop most of the day.. they broke it down into 4 groups, rotating events.

Good point Paul, I guess I was looking more towards actual track related instruction.

Mike, I was doing some research on other car forums and it seems like you get a decent amount of time on the track, not just doing side drills. Ill keep you updated if I can make this [pending any work projects]

Sounds good to me :) You will love it!!! Look forward to seeing you out and about.

lol I know man. I realistically wanted to take a break but my g/f wanted to do this and I really like this track so I said screw it... it's just money right??? They are not the only ones who put stuff on, I think the BMW guys do events too :)

Hey Sean, not sure about how many they sign up. Call them tomorrow and ask them. I asked the girl on the phone last week and she told me they have 20-50 people typically.

Hey Jon!!!! So glad you came out man. You guys looked great on Saturday :) Track is like crack, that's what my friends tell me! BW is fun, but far away, that's my rub :( I think if you can get out 2-4 times a year that will get it "out of your system". :D

^^ Yup.

Sounds good Sean. PM/call me if you like.

Add my C55 and a friends 335i to the attending list :)

I'd love to go do Buttonwillow again but I still need to buy some tires and by the time I pay for the event, buy race fuel and brakes I end up $500 for one day. By the way if they are running CW13 then the Cobra did a 2:12 and I know I can do better. That was on 245/45/17 NT01s.

I have a testicle for sale, should fund the completion of the 87. I want to track that fucker SO bad its not even funny.

woo hoo! awesome. i'm not leaving til later, probably around 9... won't get there til probably close to midnight. look forward to seeing you guys out there :thumbs_up:

Last minute bump. Gonna drive out late tomorrow night. Sean I will PM/call you about a meetup spot on Sat morning. We should get some breakfast together :drink:

Sounds good to me. Goign to be a real early breakfast, seeing how we have to be at the tack by 7:30 :censored:

lol sorry man, I'm not a morning person myself. I think we could meet up at 6:15, eat, get out to the gas station by 7, fill up, grab some water/ice/gatorate/whatever, and be at the track at 7:30. I will send you details tonight.

I can't wait, you guys are going to love this. Don't forget ur helmets and video cameras :)

tired... but stoked
 

Had a great time today. Sean and his buddy + gf /w the 335i came out. Z06 carbon, 2 boss 302s, shitload of a "mustang gang", new cayman, v12 turbo s600 merc, couple of c5 z06s, red zr1, holy crap... lots of horsepower on the track today.

Great weather and conditions today, couldn't have asked for any better. I took a few crappy pics and lots of in car video, my go pro lasted for one run and died (didn't charge it). My gf with the yellow rx7 got one clip and we had the carbon z06 follow us for a couple laps, when I get his vids I will post up.

:thumbs_up:

You're fuckin killing me with all these track days :(

I need to find a money tree and finish all my shit.

lmfao.... dude take your time, this shit is $$$. I'm broke now, I don't think I'll have enough money to do another one for a while :(

Here's some video from out of the car, in the afternoon session. The wind kinda kills the sound of the motor and tires. I got a little faster in the afternoon, felt like I learned something. I could have definitely carried more speed in most of the turns, but whatever :laugh:

I put up an in car vid too but I need to trim it... it's super long. Check out my youtube channel, watch a minute or two of it to get the idea.

Outside

When's the next one???

My car has been sitting for 2 years now, under construction in various stages for 4. Probably around 40k in stuff done to it and its only been out a handful of times. Its paid its dues :(

Ill try and get a few of my videos up taken with the GoPro.

how fast did you get up to on the back straight? I was 117-120... i couldn't get myself to push it any faster into that sweeper

Yup, I was grazing 120, on the brakes early, I was scared too going into the sweeper ("Riverside")... that is the scariest turn to me. Looking at the video, I could have gone faster if I got on the gas sooner at that last turn coming into that straight. Oh well, I'm not out to win races :thumbs_up:

BTW, is there a multi-quote feature on Motorgen, I like to reply to everyone's posts in one reply.

Hurry up and post those vids, I love track vids :drink: Use Windows Movie Maker, it comes with the operating system :)

Teaser


Good thing gas is only $2/gal... oh wait :p


And thank you again Mike for forwarding the info on this! Great weather, great cars & people, and the event was very well run.

Awesome! It might not have been your best / fastest, but lap 4 looks blistering. I thought you were approaching Fisa (yellow car) as it turns out it was a Caterham; kinda neat to see that. Very cool video Mike thanks.

Damn dude, ur flyin :thumbs_up: I got some in car video too, here's a clip. I had to cut a lot of BS out of it, not so entertaining, but it's all good :D

Raw in car footage

pic
 

here's a pic from the guy who was snapping photos that day.

carbon z06 following 2 rx7s
 

Track buddy with a carbon z06 (rare!) was super cool and followed me and my gf for a few laps. The car is ridiculous and IMO sexy as hell. Check out the vid.