June 12th, 1999 marked the first time I'd ever taken a car out on a real road course. After having autocrossed since November of 1998, I decided it was worth seeing what it's like to push the limits at speeds well in excess of what would be reached in an autocross.

This turned out to be a learning experience for me on several counts. The most notable was that a very different driving technique is needed on the road courses compared to autocrossing. Braking suddenly became important and could not be started when entering a corner. Gears beyond 2nd were needed. First gear was not. Most importantly, there are other cars on the track with you that would not appreciate it if you attempted to occupy the same space as them.

Yes, this is as close as you can get to the real thing without the need for roll cages and 5-point harnesses. The group that I signed up with is Open Track which is basically a group of guys who race cars and hold track days like this one to get other people interested in the sport. They are a really well organized bunch and seemed pretty committed to making sure this was a safe and fun event for everyone.

The way it was structured, the 120 or so entries were divided in to four groups of 30 based on experience and the type of car entered. Each group would get 4 sessions of 20 minutes on the track, for a total of an hour and 20 minutes of track time. With the exception of a car that got stuck on the track and another which spun off track and started a small brush fire, the event finished without incident.

The course was very challenging, as the 2.68 mile configuration we used consisted of something like 16 or 17 turns. So many that it took me until the 3rd session before I could remember where to be, when to brake, and how to take each of the turns. Even at that, my lap times in the fourth session were about 2 seconds quicker than the third. I don't have my exact lap times written down anymore, but if I remember correctly, they were in the area of 2:28 per lap for anyone who really wanted to know.

Beyond that, I'm not sure how much there is to say. It was a ton of fun, but outside of a turn-by-turn analysis, I think that's about all I can say. Instead, I've decided to post some pictures taken at the event. Most all of them were taken by my dad, as I was too busy driving and playing with my tire pressures and video camera to take more than just a few pictures of my own. If I ever get a video capture card, I'll post some MPEG video of the event here as well.

My video camera mounted in my car	My Civic in the pit area	Me, attaching a g-tech to my windshield
One of the many pictures of me out on track	Check out the slick driving gloves!	Me again, after an off-track excursion
An Eclipse that went off track	A Civic coupe and hatchback down the straight	A 240Z, my Civic, and a Nissan NX2000
My Civic and a Mustang cresting "Magic Mountain"	An Audi looses it after Magic Mountain	A Civic hatchback that spun in front of me and a BMW
My Civic being chased by a slightly more modified one	My Civic being chased by a 98 Integra Type-R	An Integra GS-R loses it going in to the switchbacks
A nice shot of my Civic heading into the last turn	Another picture of everyone lined up in staging	The switchbacks claim another victim...
One of the many Sentra's which showed up	A speedy white Integra	A speedy white Civic
Magic Mountain claims a Mitsubishi Eclipse	The Good Nite Inn in Buttonwillow, California	Come out to play at Buttonwillow Raceway

So, that's about it. It was a great time, and as you can see, I have a whole bunch of pictures from the event in addition to all of my in-car video footage. If you're interested in the track itself, you can visit the Buttonwillow Raceway Website and check it out. The configuration we ran is listed as #13. Also, "Magic Mountain" is called "Lost Hill" on the track map, probably for legal reasons.

As much fun as this event was, I'm not sure if I'll make it back to Buttonwillow any time soon. It's quite far from Phoenix (about 515 miles) and is very hard on brakes and tires. It's still a great track and very challenging, especially for the faster cars since they can actually get pretty light cresting some of the hills. As an introduction to road racing, I couldn't have wished for more.

Page created: 8-1-99
This site maintained by Brandon Smith
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