July 24th and August 21st and 22nd, 1999. After having a blast at Buttonwillow just a month earlier, I signed up for another hotlapping day in July, this time at Willow Springs with the group Speed Trial USA. Again, it was very hot, but it turned out not to matter nearly as much at Willow Springs. Where Buttonwillow really didn't have any shade near the pit area, we were able to make use of the John Hartman Garage at Willow Springs, which is right in front of where most everyone parks in the pits. To make it even better, not only did it provide shade, but they had an industrial fan in one of the garages as well as water misters along the whole thing. Willow Springs also has an air conditioned cafeteria if that's not enough.

So, it all started on Friday, July 23rd when Tage and I arrived in the town of Rosamond to check in for the night. Well, we made pretty good time driving there from Phoenix and arrived around 3:30pm or so. Just a small word of advice here: if you plan on going to Willow Springs, do not bother getting a room in Rosamond. Just don't. Stay in Lancaster or someplace about 15 miles south of Rosamond. You'll see why when you get there.

Needless to say, when we arrived, we were not all that impressed and decided to cruise down to the track to see where it was and what it looked like. The first thing that both of us noticed was that the track actually ran up part of the mountain side. We both knew there was an elevation change, but this was somewhat surprising. Even this photograph doesn't really give you a feel for how much higher up turn 4 is than the main straight.

What we also noticed as we closed in is that there were actually cars running out on the track. Suddenly I remembered! Friday is an open day for any fully race prepared cars. Although it was nearing 4pm by the time we got to the track, there were still a few P1 and P2-class Porsche 911's putting in a few laps.

Tage and I got to chat with them a bit while they were in the pit area and it turned out these folks are the same ones I'd read about on the NSX-Files which ran in the 1998 LA PRO Street Race. I was very impressed. You can hear an MP3 recording of the Porsches on my racing sounds page.

After they did some tweaks to their cars and discussed setup and stuff they headed out for their last lapping session of the day. Although I had intended to take pictures on Saturday of my Civic and Tage's Integra out on track, I never got around to it. The only picture that I actually had on my own roll of film was a picture of me standing in front of the John Hartman Garage with the big "Fastest Road in the west" banner on it. When I reached the end of the day and realized I never took any pictures, I was kind of bummed out. Luckily, there was a professional photographer at the track that day, and while I was changing my tires getting ready to go home, he came by and showed me some beautiful 8x10's of my car. Thus, I have two really fantastic pictures of my car on the track. They were taken in the first session, so I had an instructor in the car with me if you're wondering who that is in the passenger seat.

A blindingly white 911 Turbo	The standard 911 race wing	The enhanced downforce 911 wing
Very nice.	One of the few cars I've seen that doesn't look silly with yellow wheels	The trio of 911's blasting down the main straight
The red 911 in turn 1	The white 911 in turn 1	The silver 911 in turn 1
All 3 heading for turn 5	The white and silver 911's, side by side	Side by side again
Me and my Civic enjoying a day of fast driving	Diving into turn 4b with my instructor	Climbing turn 4a with Tage close behind

So, after having a great time at the track in July, I told my brother in law Carl all about it and how much fun it was. He had just traded in his C5 (as seen in another photo gallery on my web site) for a 1994 Toyota Supra turbo. While he enjoyed the Corvette, he had numerous mechanical problems with it and wanted to trade it in for something else which was fast, reliable, and had good performance upgrade potential. The Supra was one of the few cars which met the criteria, so he set out and managed to find a 94 in great shape right here in Phoenix.

Not wanting to miss this chance to take his car out to the track, he decided to sign up for the August event and let me run the event in his car as well. I did very well all weekend except for my two timed laps at the end of the second day. So, Carl wound up with printed times vastly better than mine for the event. I still wonder though which one of us was really turning in better laps that weekend.

Whichever way it went, it was a lot of fun, and the only mechanical problem was some brake rotor warpage near the end of the second day, no doubt caused by doing multiple sessions back to back and then leaving the car at rest in the pits. Sure-fire way to warp rotors as anyone will tell you, but both of us completely forgot. Luckily we kept the engine running for at least 7-8 minutes after each run to prevent the turbos from cooking all the oil.

While I had a great time, this event made me realize two somewhat unpleasant things. First, my Civic is incredibly slow compared to a real sports car. It also doesn't handle all that great, even on race tires. Second, it gets real expensive to be doing these events, especially when they're out of state and I need to pay for a hotel room. It was after this event that I decided to cancel all my other plans for hotlapping days for the remainder of 1999. It was a very sad decision, as I enjoy it so much, but I just can't afford the $500 cost which seems to go with each event after all the little things are added up.

Never fear, however, I will do at least one event in 2000, possibly even two, and it should be no more than five years before I purchase a dedicated race car. While that may seem like a long time off, I'll still have a lot of years ahead of me once I finally am able to get into this stuff on a monthly basis. Enjoy the pictures below and know that even though it may be a while before I can provide any new picture of my car out on the road course, I know for sure that I'm not quitting.

A few of the cars lined up for tech inspection	Carl taking the Supra into turn 1	The Supra in turn 1 again with a Toyota sign behind it
A modified white Supra Turbo	Carl getting ready to pass an Integra Type-R	A Lexus GS400 in turn 1
The Integra Type-R in turn 1	Another picture of the Integra Type-R	One last picture of the Supra

Page created: 10-19-99, updated 10-24-99
This site maintained by Brandon Smith
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