Posts Tagged ‘track’
2011.02.12 Streets of Willow CCW
So last Saturday was track day at streets of willow with speed-ventures. This is my first time going CCW. The track seems much faster than going CW. I had trouble with two areas, one was on the skid pad and the other, the bowl. Both involved a long straight at 100+mph going into a slow turn, the bowl is especially difficult since it was banked and also a decreasing radius turn.
In car video made from my Go-Pro before i ran out of batteries, the Evo blew its inter cooler piping mid run so it was getting towed. Best time time of the day for me was 1:36.07, best time in the video was 1:38.7.
So far the car is running great, the BHR coils really helped out and doing the cooling mod managed to keep the car in optimum temperatures. The brakes are phenomenal, the pads bite very hard and every time i can brake much later than before. The bad thing was that my tires are pretty much shot, they are all heat cycled out. After many tire squealing laps they didn’t even gum up, time for some new ones before the next track day!
There were 3 other RX8s besides Lionzoo and I. We met eddie who was awesome and pulling crazy drifts into the skid pad (much better than the drifters in the drifting event that was also happening on the balcony BTW), and also a black rx8 that looked really fast, so while i was walking around the pits, look at who i ran into! mazdamaniaaaaaaaac!
Some photos,
the maniacmobile,
This is a clean Hatchiroku, the interior on this thing is immaculate!
Pretty nice skyline, the driver had trouble pointing people by since he’s RHD haha
This Ferrari was slow! it was holding people up going 40mph in the blue group, and of course the driver wasn’t pointing anyone by. It did this for 2 laps and eventually got black flagged and bumped down to white group.
Later on one of the instructors got its hand on it though and mannn that thing could go, fastest lap time in the group set by the Ferrari.
This thing was hauling ass in the black group, faster than some of the much faster cars. it had no windows or interior and the gauge cluster was zip tied to the steering column, freaking awesome! There was also a stock hyundai accent in the black group that was keeping its pace with a lotus exige, (keep in mind that people in the black group are not slow, they’re all pretty good drivers, the hyundai driver was just insane)
Speaking of rats there was also this awesome car
yes that’s AstroTurf on the roof and hood and in case you can make it out, its also got a dolphin on top of it, LEMONS FTW
darin from westends hatch, i met darin a while back at his shop for corner balancing, and its good to see him out on the track, that guy is seriously fast!
and finally my car chilling a little bit by the overlook near the bowl, i really need to get some magnetic numbers or something the racing tape numbers look so cheap
Woke up at 5am on saturday and headed out to fontana, ca to attend Mazfest at autoclub speedway (formerly california speedway). Built in the 90s the California speedway holds motor sport events of many kinds, notably NASCAR. For mazfest we only drove the roval configuration which consists of a half oval and part of the infield.
Although i cant say im a big fan of NASCAR, but it was pretty awesome to be driving on a real racetrack. The feeling of speeding down the front straight zooming past the stands is definitely exhilarating. The concrete barriers and tire walls are scary also.
The 90 degree weather didnt help performances, my times were pretty slow. Thank god for beach umbrellas. One car actually caught on fire, it was a FD rx7. Several other cars broke down. I found myself off the track a couple of times, and ended up with a damaged wheelwell and toasted brakepads. Overall it was a very fun day, and awesome to be on track with other mazdas.
Click for more images.
Pretty Eventful Saturday at Button-willow Raceway Park.
I didn’t do too well mostly because i was sleepy the whole day, DAMN YOU SUN! Landed myself a time of 2:27 as my fastest of the day. Not bad for a noob, but i hope next time i will be at least 7 seconds faster.
The rx8 was in pretty bad shape the whole day too. I changed every possible fluid in the car the week before, but forgot to check my cooling system. Which lead to me getting close to overheating on the track several times throughout the day. I didn’t want to blow up, so i took it easy.
The track itself is pretty challenging, much faster than streets of willow, which has more sharp turns and less straights and lower speeds which im more used to. The large sweepers and hills make for pretty scary and shaky laps in the first couple of sessions. Especially after the fact that Aaron of Speed ventures mentioned people like to roll on Phil Hill (someone did roll, but that’s another story). Going into that corner at 80+mph and feeling the car slightly sliding made me want to pee a little. Time for better aero (and fix my cooling issues).
At end of the day I sat in a car that clocked 2:09 minutes, thanks Jared. Now i see the way. More to come next time i hit the track, probably in fall. Canyon season is coming =)
Click for more Photos
