Willow Springs in the wet ... any recommendations

[Back2DTM]

I like the background says
"The fastet road in the West"

[CJ_Boxster]

I watched both videos on youtube made by the instructor at Willow Springs for both the Big Willow Track and the Streets of Willow track and i have to say, While Big Willow seems nice, its got too many long wide turns (seems boring after about 6 laps), and Streets of Willow looks like it WOULD be a great track if it wasnt so GD'd f**ked up, i mean bump and cracks are all over that track.

Has anyone here tried the Buttonwillow race track up near Bakersfield?

I've been there and been only a co-pilot but never driven. Anyone here been to both Willow Springs and Buttonwillow and could offer a compairson and feelings about both tracks?

[Acid_J]

Big Willow is a good fast track.....the big wide turns are taken quite fast and you have to get good at being able to brake / turn / accelerate through faster corners. Turn 2 is a bit boring since it is a bit of a "waiting" corner but otherwise it was still really good. Although it doesn't look technical there is definitely some skill it getting good speed through turns 4 and 5 so that you get a good fast run at 6, 7, 8 and 9 for a front straight top speed.

Streets of Willow is a great technical track...very tight...with a lot of hard acceleration and hard braking (especially in CCW direction). The esses are freaky in the CW direction! This track is much harder on all components of the car though.....you will go through tires / brake pads and other suspension / steering components much quicker with this track than any other. Colin video is a bit old and there have been quite a few improvements to the track since then. I don't remember it being that rough.

Buttonwillow (I did config #13, CW) was a lot of fun. It was a much faster track than streets (I hadn't done big willow yet) but still has a few technical sections especially with Magic Mountain (completely blind apex) and the sweeper and following turn. Again, there are some tricks to doing it fast and the obvious racing line is not necessarily the fastest.

The best thing about all three tracks is that there is plenty of run off and in the majority of cases you can come off without much damage (just lots and lots of dust).