Willow Springs Race Day

09-16-2004, 05:18 PM

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davefzr

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Location: Diamond Bar, Ca

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Willow Springs Race Day

Hey, here is a little information about my track experience at a track located in Southern California called Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR). This was my second experience being on a track as my first adventure was at California Speedway. You can read all about that at the following thread link.

CA Speedway

I'll attach the picture of the track and my line as an attachment.. Find it below.

The track is very interesting to say the least. It has a multitide of corners which make it a very special track. The types of corners that one would experience would be high speed, off camber, switch backs, rolling undulation... Needless to say, you have a little of everything in this track.

Some of the recent modifications that I have done to my car include the following:
1) SR Motorsports Flywheel
2) SR Motorsports High Flow Cat
3) SR Motorsports Power Pulleys
4) ACT Heavy Duty Clutch
5) Tanabe Front/Rear Sway Bar
6) Agency Power Rear Link
7) Lightweight Wheel/Toyo T1S tires (245/40/18)

I feel these modifications need some spotlight in this thread due to how much they have increased both the cars performance and handling characteristics. Now.. back to the track day.

The track day at WSIR was organized by a group called NASA. They often go to many tracks and provide an organized means for drivers to experience the track. We all got there at 7:45 and had a drivers meeting which basically consisted of do's and dont's for the day.

The first group to go on the track was the race group followed by the other 4 groups. At this time I was already feeling a bit nervous so I went near the pit wall to watch the action. All of a sudden I see this huge plume of dirt in the air follwed by a car spinning on the track coming out of turn 8. Well, this seared in my mind the importance of staying on the track. After his spin he came back and his car was completely covered with dirt, rocks and little pebbles both inside and out. When you are on the race track it is mandatory that your windows remain down due to emergency situations. Needless to say at this point I was a bit nervous, and this was not the end of it.

Each group had 20 minute sessions and all groups had 4 sessions in the day. Soon enough it was my turn. I grab my helmet, get in my car and head for the pit lane. They had instructed us in the drivers meeting that if you needed an instructor to line up near the yellow wall of the pit lane. Being the second to last driver lined up I was the unlucky one that did not receive an instructor because there just were not enough to go around. They then waved me on and told me to "catch up" to the instructor that left 30 seconds ago. Oh great... So I saw some guy spin out and now I dont have an instructor and have no idea where to go or which line to take... I was more nervous about that but that shortly went away as the second and third lap approached. I became a lot more comfortable and soon started ticking off lap after lap refining my apexs' and speed.

So.. after session one I was very comfortable with the track. My car ran very strong all day long and I had no complaints at all. There was far less understear that I had when I went out to CA Speedway just a few months prior when I didnt have the components listed above.. All in all a very fun day at the track. On my second session I was begining to pass some cars such as Hyundai Tiruron, BMW M5 (just barely.. man those things can haul on the straights)... Volkswagon GTI..

Turns 4 and 6 on the track layout are very interesting. The car gets really light and you need to be careful not to run the car wide or else you will end up driving down a dirt filled enbankment on your way to the car wash and detail company. Not good at all.... I would have to say the most exciting/fun corners would definitely have to be 2, 3 and 8. Turn 2 is a right hand corner that seems to run on forever. You push hard to stay in control of your car as you make your way to 3. Turn 3 is an uphill run as your on the gas hard trying to keep the backend from coming around.. very fun!!!

The rundown from turns 6 and 7 leading to 8 got my mph up to 105 before I had to slow down for 8. I took the corner at around 95 mph again trying to fight between handling and speed..

All in all I would definitely recommend getting out onto the track and I hope I didnt ruin it a bit explaining my nervous moments.. it was so much fun!

Later all...

David...

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