I will aim for Laguna Seca as well ... but it's tough to say w. my current work schedule. How many would be interested in going to Laguna Seca??? If there are enough people ... I'd be willing to try extra hard to take that day off ... otherwise, I'll hold off till the next Buttonwillow event (my favorite).

 

I know I can't make the date for Laguna Seca but so far any other date is open.

Looking at the Speedventure 2005 schedule if it has the word "Willow" anywhere in the name, I'm there.

ButtonWillow crackpipe did it. Hooked on the first hit. Tracking is more fun than snow skiing!

 

No question about it, Buttonwillow is a fine test, and with so many alternate configurations, and the ability to run it both directions, an interesting and fun one.
Alas, it really does not have the major elevation changes that make Laguna and Sears Point so fantastic. I have not run Thunderhill, it being so darn far away, but I look forward to it. And perhaps some day Spring Mountain and Fernley too. Big Willow does have the Omega at the top of the course, but it is rather just a speed burner track....three miles and only nine turns. Fast as heck turns, but still only nine. And the Number 9 turn is the nastiest you will find on almost any track, high speed diminishing radius leading to a long front straight. Maximum reward, with maximum risk. Not a place for a novice, or intermediate for that matter, to push the limits.
But while Cal Speedway does not have the elevation changes either, that Roval is just something you gotta try. You can discount it all you want in chit chat before you strap in and do it...but when the first timers pull off the track after their initiation session with it, and their eyeballs are popping out their helmets, you become a believer of how different it is. Come to think of it, whenever I push it just that itty bitty more than ever before, mine are saucer wide as well. Every time. Nothing like whooshing along a wall at 130mph+ to get your pucker working.

 

Well Ed, I'm with you on all three counts. I certainly wouldn't mind doing Sears Point for a change of scenery. I'll even go as far as Thunder Hill and Spring Mountain.

 

You two are nuts but im up for sears point i even thought about thunderhill but it is 500 miles away. Big Willow was my first time and WOW was it a reality check. Calspeedway was insane and ive never really scared myself till i hit the roval at 125mph on my first and 2nd lap then i came to back to the real world and figured i better play it safe. Clint and Ed are probably the most educated ive talked to yet about these tracks. Clint should be driving JGTC as far as i see it he wont be b*tching about taking the roval at 150+mph

 

Avo, we will get you up to Sears and Laguna some way or the other. You will not be disappointed. You have good common sense, a most critical factor in being a fine driver. Always better to be 5% too slow than 0.5% too fast! Clint is much better than I am as a driver, probably always will be. But gradually, carefully, I am working on technique and skills and shaving the times down smoothly. There is so much to learn about how to handle a car and it takes time, concentration, and seat time. Lots of seat time.

As my father, a career fighter pilot told me often, there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots. Now that really puts driving a car in perspective.....1g lateral, maybe a couple more in a race car, compared to 8 in an F-16 or F-18.........that is nothing less than stapping your fanny to a rocket as they have thrust ratios exceeding the weight of the aircraft and can literally go "ballistic". Preparation and experience, training and concentration, can take you places in control that would injure or kill others in seconds or even fractions of seconds. What is nuts for me is boring for Schumacher. It is wise to be aware, and not ashamed or embarassed about, one's limitations and that of his equipment, before going into harm's way. You can then get not only the best out of what you have available to you safely and effectively, but you can use that as the launch point for expanding your education, skills and platform capability to go even farther and faster...intelligently. If you want and choose to go there.

If you had gone into the Roval the first day at 140mph I would not want to get to know you very well. You would not likely be around long and I don't like losing friends. You are doing it right. Be careful, go up in stages, and learn to handle the car before you get to a place you cannot recover from safely. Driver school is probably where you want to be pointing towards sometime in the next year if you can get the chance.

Good luck, and great driving out there Friday. You did great.

 

I'll be joining u guys next year sometime. I'm attending driving school in Feb and should be good to go after. I still need to get some rotors and brake lines.

Ed,
If u get a chance post the vid of the Z06.

 

Rever:
I need to fish out my cable for download and get it up for you. I will try to get to it in the next week or so, but I definitely will do it. I will edit out my film of Josh nose first in the tire wall before hand, however.

 

I wanna see Josh's escapade with the tires????? Ed Youre right in what you said about step by step no need to rush the more you experience the more you learn. Ill be at Leguna no doubt about it, and im also lookin in to a school to learn some more fun stuff.

 

You can communicate with Aaron Bitterman at SV or David Kennedy, and in advance schedule a more intense driving lesson on a track day for on course techniques etc. That can be a good interim step. Then, for the full blown but more expensive approach (which means more late nights working to pay for it) you can do a formal course like Skip Barber at Laguna Seca, Russell at Sears Point, or Bondurant in Arizona. Those programs usually have a one day and a three day racing course which is pretty good, and after you complete one of those a car control clinic, a one day program for some more radical stuff. Then after that a formal two or three day program to get your racing license for SCCA etc. But the intro course is usually enough for most casual, but interested in going faster safely, folks.