Redline Time Attack '09: Buttonwillow

Boy was last week tough. I thought I blew the ECU in my car when two wires touched the cover the computer and caused smoke to come out, eventually resulting in my car not starting. Usually there's a light that comes on in the ECU, and that wasn't working so I was worried. Luckily Dr. Alex came by and did some troubleshooting to find that it was only a blown fuseable link on the battery side.

Anyways Andy Yen and I decided to drive at the practice day on Saturday, while Dr. Alex was nice enough to tow my car up there. Driving to Buttonwillow in a loud, stiff and hot car is not something I like to do. I did it once, and it sucked. This time around we went all luxury by renting a hotel room for 2 nights (a hotel by the way which doesn't believe in shampoo) and capping off the weekend with a wonderful dinner at Willow Ranch. Their BBQ combo is probably the best ever!

I had fun during my sessions. It took me a while to get back to being comfortable with that track, since the last time I drove there was Redline 2 years ago. I always put off Buttonwillow because its so far, but it is my favorite track. There are so many elevation changes, off camber turns, sweeping turns and genral chaos, that you've got to love it. I didn't hook up my transponder for this event, but during out last session Andy and I ran together. He ran a 2:14 which probably means on that day, i was capable of somewhere around 2:12-2:10. I had to let off about three times on the straights because I was closing in on him too fast.

The thing about American time attack is that the cars are relatively bland looking with lots of home made body parts and tacked on stickers. I usually find them pretty boring but there are a few that are pretty awsome. The Factor X NSX is one of the more awsome machines out there. Its a full blown race car with incredibly sexy body lines.

This 350Z was also pretty awsome. Its running a naturally aspirated VQ engine and sounds absolutely devilish.

As expected, the Crawford car was there as well. I knew it was fast, but didn't really think that much of it untill it showed up in my rungroup. I was rounding turn 1 when I saw it entering from the pits. I wondered if he was going to take it slow so he could warm up his tires (which he probably did) but as I started to get closer to him, I got completely blown away. That car at 75% is rediculous.

All in all, a very fun weekend. There are few things that are better to do during your weekend then drive at the track with friends.