Since the PCA race at Buttonwillow last weekend was cancelled, I went to Buttonwillow yesterday and spent the day testing an SCCA SRF (Spec Racer Ford). This was my second time in this car.
The SRF is a purpose-built tube frame race car that only weighs 1,640 lbs with the driver. That is 1,000 lbs less than a Spec Boxster! Its amazing how much "stuff" a street car has that a pure race car doesn't need. In terms of lap times, the SRF is definitely faster than a SPB/BSR and most of that advantage is in the cornering capability since it has fairly similar acceleration and top speeds.
My goals for the day were to get used to driving at the limit of those Hoosier race slicks and show competitive speed against the other 4 SRF's who were also testing (including the 2019 SRF Regional (SoCal) Champion, Alex Bermudez).
The #15 car that I drove was used by five time SRF National Champion Mike Miserendino to win his 5th National Championship in 2017. No pressure.
It was an open test day so you could go out whenever you liked and stay out for as long as you wanted (no sessions), so I got almost 4 yours of track time! I was absolutely exhausted at the end of the day. That is probably the most that I have ever driven on a track in a single day.
I spent the morning learning the car - steering inputs, brake modulation, gear selection, how early to go to throttle, what it felt like to slide the car, how to recover the car from a slide, etc, and slowly building speed.
By the afternoon, I was close to being as fast as a couple of SRF regulars and Bermudez slowed a bit, so we did two 45 min sessions racing around and passing each other. It was an absolute blast!
Not a bad way to spend a Friday.
