Willow Springs adventure

Willow Springs, has a motto. "Fastest Track in the West". Don't know if
it is true, but the track is scary fast. Went out there this past weekend
and met up with some old time autocrossers that have crossed over to time
trialing.

My first ten laps, I was trying to be smooth and consistent. The track is
very deceiving. The turns appear to be slanted and they want to make you
brake and slow down. But you don't have too!

After four, 20 minute run sessions I was actually feeling comfortable.
Coming down the start finish straight I was hitting about 125mph. Brake
hard and set up for the first left hander. Fourth gear sliding turn to a
short straight and down to third for the right hand UPHILL sweeper.

Out of the sweep up to red line and brake hard for the Budweiser
"Balcony". This an area across from the stands that is on top of a hill.
More than a few have spun here. Matter of fact, a turbocharged Mazda
powered 914 stuffed it into the wall. Seems the throttle cable melted
from all the heat and kinda stuck. I will have some pics posted of the
aftermathe....NOTE.....route cables AWAY from hot things.

Past the balcony, you lift a bit and the ass swings around for a right
turn and a scary down hill (I hate downhill racing unless on skiis)
section that corkscrews into a hard left....then here comes the REALLY
scary part.....

Mash the pedal down in third, go up over a hump... you can't see what's on
the other side, hoping the course workers did not drink their lunch and
then shift to fourth.....while under full acceleration and approaching 110
mph, you go into a right sweeper.....boy this will make you pucker up real
quick......bugs are ending their life on your windscreen, you can feel the
Gs as you try to hold on and bleed a little speed without touching the
brakes.....

Towards the end of this helacious speed swing, the turn straightens for a
bit and then gets tighter. Those that aren't used to it will tap the
brakes....BAD....others will lift a split second and get the tail to
moving out and then stab again....at least that's what the Instructor told
me to do.....seemed to work. Then you come around that last turn (9) and
hope to not get into the marbles on the outside of the track....

THEN you do it all over again....
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

After two days and a lot of grins, we did our final timed runs. Team
Santa Barbara did well. Shawn McKay won his class (G Prepared) with a
1:43 and I also finished first in "I" Street Stock with a 1:47. The
fastest time of the day was a 1:24...smokin'. A single seater prototype
with a 3.6 turbo....

I was eating up all day a little fuzzy cute red Miata chick car....then
the owner CRANKED the boost up on his 350hp blown 1.6 Japanese hand
grenade and won X class honors with a time that was .3 seconds faster than
me.....arrrgghhhh....
oh well, finally got my competition permit and will maybe get one more
race in before knee surgery puts me down for the summer.

I want to thank Dave Bell for coming out and delivering my Mazda oil
cooler. He was unable to stick around long....wifey called ....8^)

I anyone wants to consider time trialing...DO IT...it is a lot more fun
that AX and is actually easier on the car. The weekend cost me $150 for
the racing, and another $100.00 for expenses.....

BTW....the little duct that mounts in the bumper where the side light sits
that Pelican Parts sells worked out well. My oil temps were well below red
line.

Great description, Mike! Part of the fun of that blind hump going into the back straight is that -- in a 911 -- it also throws your backside up just as you have to make a slight right turn. A real leap of faith for a rear-engine car!

For anyone interested in a visual aid, here are two versions of an in-car lap of Willow Springs. This was right after I got Black Beauty back with the new engine in it, and it was my first time on this track, so I'm driving pretty tentatively (1:49). But still, it's fun. The clip starts coming out of the final turn (the dreaded 9) onto the front straight. About two thirds of the way through, watch the rise (and correction) going into the back straight, and then getting up to redline in fourth (116 mph) going into the back sweeper. Even at that low speed (relative to the 130 that some guys manage), if you watch carefully, you'll get a sense of how the back end slides a little wide through the sweeping turn.

Quicktime (8 megs)

AVI (13 megs)

------------------
Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe
jackolsen@mediaone.net

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 04-02-2001).]