Racing last weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway (southern Central Valley in California, west of Bakersfield in the middle of nowhere off I-5) went pretty well.
I like this track a lot but I'm still not particularly fast there. Its a very technical track and running a tight line and pushing the limit are key to a fast lap. There are only two fairly short straights, so most of the track is stitching together a series of corners to try to make it thru a sector as fast as possible.
There are also two corners that can be taken as low as 2nd gear, although some drivers stay in 3rd. I tired both ways and found 2nd to give me a better corner exit but you give up corner entry speed to slow enough to get into 2nd as compared to a driver who stays in 3rd and carries a lot of speed into the corner but then doesn't have much torque to accelerate at corner exit.
Another downside to 2nd gear corner exits is that you can get power oversteer if you get onto the throttle too hard, too early (ask me how I know).
The starts are even more insane than usual since the front straight leads to a 90-degree right hand turn where two cars can go side by side if everyone cooperates (but that cooperation is hard to come by). In Sunday's race, I was able to go from 15th to 4th down the front straight and thru just one corner.
With a field of more than 20 Spec Boxster's, there was always someone to race with whether you were on the slow, middle, or fast end of the group. That is what makes it really fun and exciting. There is nothing like battling wheel to wheel with a couple of other cars.
In Race #1, I started somewhere around 12th and finished around the same place. Andrew Weyman, Jeff Shulem, and I had a great battle for the entire race. Race #2 on Saturday was in the rain so I skipped it (I don't have a lot of rain racing experience so it looked like an easy way to make an expensive mistake). I started around 15th for Race #3 on Sunday, moved up to 4th on the start, then faded mid-race and fell back several spots. I think that I finished around 10th.
I am editing video now and will post over the weekend.
Next weekend, I am headed to Las Vegas to race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Outside Road Course with the POC in conjunction with Pirelli Cup. This is a 14 corner road course next to the NASCAR Speedway (not the roval course inside the Speedway).
Here we are, going into Turn 1 on Sunday...
