Buttonwillow Raceway Jan. 2009

Buttonwillow Raceway Configuration 13 Clockwise

Nestled amongst fields of in Kern County California is Buttonwillow Raceway.  Many moons ago, Yokut Indians used this area as a meeting place identified by a lone button bush that resembled a willow tree.  Now-a-days Buttonwillow Raceway has become the Mecca of Californian go-fast enthusiast.  The track can be run in many configuration, configuration 13 has become especially popular with which several time attack records have been set.  It is therefore easy to evaluate a car’s performance level using this configuration.  Just for reference purpose, the HKS time attack monster EVO set a Super Lap Battle record of 1 min 43.523 seconds in 2007.  The NASA Time Trial D class, which I’m competing in this year, has a class record of 2min 5.96 seconds.  Having used Toyo RA1 r-compound tire for 2 previous track days, I was anxious to see how my Mazdaspeed3 will stack up to the rest.

Saturday

When I arrived at the track, it was enveloped in a thick cloud of fog, yes fog !  I can hardly see 10 feet in front of me.  I met up with go-fast buddies, Sam/Amy/Jon.  Sam just got hooked on the go-fast crack recently, he’s determined, and is upping the pace rapidly with every track day.  Amy drives the EVO X, she’s one of the few girls that actually takes her car out at the track, more props to her !  Jon has been modifying Subarus and coming to track days for years.  His latest project is a 2009 STi.

My MS3, Jon and Sam's STi

Around lunch time the fog finally cleared.  I hit the track immediately to maximize the track time.  The car is still on soft stock suspension at this point, it rolls around quite a bit.  The max camber without camber plate is at -1.3, which is too little for both the car and the tire.  Never the less, the car felt very planted.  I finally figured out a good line through the “Sweeper” corner, I found a patch of square black asphalt right at the turn in point, it’s a very solid reference point, I just have to move the steering once at the right place (right before the black square), fight the urge to unwind steering mid-corner as the radius change deceivingly, hold the line, and it will take me to apex point perfectly.  Saturday ended without much incident, some car got stuck in the mud due to the semi-wet condition, remember to install your tow-hooks for situations like this!  Afterwards, we went to a local Indian food restaurant and had some delicious curry, and washed it down with Kingfisher “go fast” beer.

Drink go-fast beer to help out the F1 slumdog !

Sunday

Ken's S14

More go-fast buddies arrive at the track.  Ken show up in his drifter turned road racer Nissan S14.  His car has been extensively modified,  it’s powered by a SR20DET engine, and every single suspension arm has been replaced with aftermarket pieces with heim joints.  Eddie shows up in his ubber-$$$ NSX, it has been modified with JRZ suspension, Voltex wing, Toyo R888 tire, Comptech header, Tai-Tec Exhaust, and slew of other exotic go fast brands.  Sam ran into a hiccup with his ECU, and had to call it a day early.

Got Wings?

Continuing with the progress I made the previous day, my times kept getting faster throughout the day.  The new G2X data acquisition w/ lap timer is a great help, I can now cycle through the lap times as soon as I get off track.  The display dash can be configured to display a variety of real-time parameters such as (speed, lap time, diff. to best lap, rpm etc.).  Using the MPH display, it was easy to gauge my exit speed coming out of corners.  I’ve found a peculiar way to drive fast with the stock suspension.  On fast corners, the small steering movements made the car difficult to turn in at the right line.  I found that I could turn in early with just a tiny bit of steering movement which presets the stock suspension, and follows that with my normal steering input, this made the car felt much more  responsive, and I was able to hit the correct line while carrying more speed through the fast corners.  My fastest lap time of the day was a 2 min 6.5 seconds.  I was pleasantly surprised, I expected to be in the 2min 7-8 second range on the stock suspension.  Now that I’m already in the 6 second range, I should be able beat the class record easily come race day with coilover suspension installed and more front neg. camber.

The aftermath..

The front brake pads are completely worn down to the metal, I have to use ebrake to get around town right now, lol…..   Need to get a set of rotors asap, already have a new set of carbotechs on order.  I noticed even with the Motul RBF600, my brake pedal still gets soft toward the end of the day, infact at the end of Sunday it was to the floor.   I think it might be the OEM lines, I’m going to replace those with stainless steel lines.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for

2 Laps Around Buttonwillow Configuration 13