Buttonwillow Report 4.26.08

#1

Well, I will let someone else that raced write a full report from the weekend, as my weekend was quite bleak. A short synopsis from my point of view…

I arrived around 1:15 on Friday afternoon to do some testing, and had a hard time getting a handle on the track, but by the end of the day, I had semi’ figured out the line…I was having a tough time getting the car to rotate and was scrubbing a bunch of speed. Someone timed me at a 2:12 in the last session…

The next morning I woke up, after a nice night at the track, made a few adjustments to the car, and went out for practice. I managed to get the car to handle much better, but couldn’t put it all together for a fast lap, as I still ran 2:12’s…

Next, I lined up for qualifying and had some of what I thought were fuel starvation issues. I came in, threw some fuel in the car and went out to put in a qualifying lap. This is when it got ugly. The car really didn’t like turning right…:angry: . About half a lap latter the car died and I pulled it off the track. Once I had been towed in, I opened the hood to find my coil on fire, resting against the exhaust manifolds. Pulled the power, and put the fire out…Now it looked fixable, so off I went on a wild goose chase to find a coil, coil wire and some wire to patch everything up…After returning with my parts, we started cutting into the harness to see what needed to be replaced…This is when we decided that we couldn’t fix it track side, and my weekend was over, before it had begun…

I hung out and watched/helped Mike drop his lap times down to his goal of a 2:20…:woohoo: .

#2

B, that’s a pisser. It was a mess but looked like it was going to be fixable with some dedicated time with wire and strippers. How’r you looking for next weekend? At least you have some free time :wink:

Mike, congrats on your SoCal points and running clean on your provisional. You ran a really good race on Saturday from what I could see.

I was really surprised to see that the coil mount is only tack welded on, even tho there’s a big bolt running through it (that only holds the two halves of the coil bracket together). I’ll be running a drill through mine and bolting it up proper before next track day.

#3

Hay Brendon,
I found a wire harness in my shop attic. Do you need it?

Mike

#4

I will add more info on the weekend when my head stops spinning, I guess that’s the result of a “punt”, and I hate it.
Who’s supposed to pay for the body damage I received? I thought it was the other party, but I can’t find it in the ccr’s.
Brandon, you got pics?

#5

BETO wrote:

[quote]
Brandon, you got pics?[/quote]

Yes, I do…I will burn you a CD for when you come visit us in norcal…:stuck_out_tongue:

#6

Can you post them? Who knows when I’ll be able to drive all the way up there. Over 660 miles to Thunderhill (10 hours), or 580+ miles to Infineon (9 hours). I have to take a week vacation just to drive over there, not that I don’t want to, but I can’t as of now.

#7

What configuration did you guys run? Also in my lap records sheet I have the same config for 2 different buttonwillows does anybody know which is which?

Buttonwillow - CCW 13
1 2:27.245 Victor Beraja 6/9/2007

Buttonwillow - CCW 13
1 2:16.037 Victor Beraja 10/14/2007

Thanks!

#8

BETO wrote:

Yes. Let me sort through them and do a little bit of processing…I will then post them for you. It was good meeting you this weekend. I wish I could have raced with you guys…

#9

Elephant4 wrote:

[quote]What configuration did you guys run? Also in my lap records sheet I have the same config for 2 different buttonwillows does anybody know which is which?

Buttonwillow - CCW 13
1 2:27.245 Victor Beraja 6/9/2007

Buttonwillow - CCW 13
1 2:16.037 Victor Beraja 10/14/2007

Thanks![/quote]

I would guess the 2:27.245 was running CCW 13 and the 2:16.037 was running CW 13. The times you post need to be in the race? So practice times don’t count?

#10

Thats correct, per the GCR only race times count for lap records. Thanks for the help. So which config did they just run?

#11

We ran CW #13 last weekend. It’s the first time I raced.
Those number you have from last year are correct, I never raced this configuration, just practiced. My times improved from 6/07 to 10/07.
Brendan was flying during practice, he got 2:12. Unfortunately he got coil issues and his weekend was cut short, would’ve been great to chase him and see what he was doing right and I wasn’t.

#12

Elephant4 wrote:

We just ran CW 13…To bad the only timed session I did was practice…:angry: …

#13

grydemon wrote:

[quote]
We just ran CW 13…To bad the only timed session I did was practice…:angry: …[/quote]

Thanks guys.

#14

OK, a week later, but here is my report from this event.
Saturday 4/26/08:
Air temp: low 90’s
Track temp: got to 102 around my paddock area.
Mostly sunny, no wind in the morning, got breezy in the afternoon.
Practice session:
We were three cars, Brendan got the best time 2:12, I only got to 2:19, and Mike 2:40. Unfortunately, Brendan had some issues with the coil, like he explained it, so we were two cars left for quali. There were a lot of cars going off in the morning session, too fast, too quick without warming up everything.
Quali:
Weather was perfect, not my driving. I got to 2:18 only, and Mike improved to 2:24.
Race:
Rolling start, I was able to pass a couple of cars in front because I caught them by surprise, but then they passed me in the next lap. There were a few cars going off again, not any major incidents, and I was able to finish in front of Mike, with my best time 2:20, and Mike 2:23.
In the afternoon we had bbq and beer garden, mingled with other racers, and had a great time.