4/3/04 Buttonwillow Saturday Race Report
 

My dad and I headed down to Buttonwillow last
Thursday for the 3rd race weekend of the season.
Having missed the first weekend due to lack of
preparation, and the second due to a towing mishap, I
was very anxious to get back out on track. We started
running some test sessions in the middle of the day,
getting me used to the car again, taking tire temps
and pressure adjustments. We started out running
2:27s, after dialing in the shocks and getting used to
the track, I squeaked the laptimes down to 2:20s.
None of my fellow ProSedan 1 drivers showed up for
testing, so I felt pretty good about Saturday's race.

Saturday warmup showed a 70 car grid for the race,
there was really no room to get a decent time, so I
just worked on critical corners (exit of the bus stop
and the front straight). I was turning :24s in the
warmup, which wasn't great, but not too bad. I
qualified with a 2:22, again with so many cars it was
just about impossible to get a decent lap put
together. Either I was passing someone or getting
passed almost every lap, but the :22 was good enough
for pole by 4+ seconds.

Pregrid only had room for 47 cars, so the rest of us
were stuck without grid locations. So those of us
gridded after the 1st 47 kinda got jammed into the
escape road and paddock area. The grid marshals ended
up waving out almost the entire field of 70, including
the 2nd place qualifier in my class, ahead of me,
leaving me to start 69th, with 70th being the 3rd
place guy in PS1.

We took the flag, and kinda tiptoed into turn 1, I
didn't want to get into an accident there so I just
lagged behind the field and let everyone get through
cleanly. Paul Ko, the 3rd guy in PS1, got ahead of
me, and stayed there for the first lap while we ducked
through a 3 or 4 slower cars. He got balked a bit
going through the esses and I managed to out brake him going into the final turn and slid by. The chase for
the leader was on, after a few laps I finally caught
sight of the blue rear end of Brad's RX-7. I was
turning 4-5 seconds a lap faster times that either of
the two other PS-1 cars so it was a definite testament
to Brad's driving that he kept me behind him for 3
laps. We started to get lapped by the US touring car
and Honda Challenge cars, which Brad made full use of.
I squeaked by on the inside of the final turn onto
the front straight, but pinched off the car
unnecessarily and Brad was able to get back by at the
end of the straight. He finally made a mistake going
into the Buttonhook corner and spun, leaving me with a
wide open track to shoot throough.. I started slowing
down and letting the car cool off, and cruised to my
first class win of the season, in 47th spot, 1 lap
down overall.

http://para.noid.org/~silkworm/bw-040304-race1.wmv
http://para.noid.org/~silkworm/bw-040304-race2.wmv

I'll post Sunday's report later this week.

Enjoy!

PaulC

Nice work, any keep up the racing.

You beat paul ko? nice

those have been the best 20 minutes or so i have watched of any vids on this forum, dude , you kick ass, i watched them both in full screen (21" monitor) and i felt like i was a passenger in your car, that was fucking sweet, AAAAAAAAAAAAA+++++++++++ great job, i saved both of the vids.

Enjoyed your video clip....loved the text and hand waving!:D

best of luck to you and Brad during this years race season.

//Oliver

how much more power are those crx's, civics and sentras making then u guys? Cause they were flyin on the straights

Crikey....70 cars?...even on Buttonwillow's main course? Talk about yer fuggin' ant trail; there must've been hardly enough room to move, let alone get a clear lap.

Nice to see you back in action Paul. And I have saved every race vid that he has posted on here :D

Hey Paul, what are teh honda challenge and US touring cars alowed to do to be so much faster than your class?

The honda challege guys are running hybrid motors, typically K or B type motors.. 200-250 HP. They are also very lightweight, with lexan windows and CF body panels. They have no weight minimums. Combined with track knowlege (I normally don't race in southern cal, and a lot of these guys only race in So Cal) left them 10-12 seconds a lap faster than I.

The US Touring cars are just a step below World Challenge type ccars, so they're pretty quick too.

PaulC

Congrats on the win!

I thought Mark Welch and crew were heading down? I guess I was wrong...

Do you know the story behind this?

http://www.leabo.com/wow/crash.wmv

M.

Yeah, it's in my Sunday report I'll post soon

Basically Paul outbraked me going into that corner, and spun trying to turn in.. I continued past but Brad was about 2 seconds behind and had no where to go..

Mark made it for the Enduro, but didn't run the sprint races..

PaulC

that was really awesome...it's nice to see someone racing the right way! Congrats on your win...I just might have to go outside and drive now...

Nice vid...Yeah i was wondering about the hugewing civic to

nice videos! :D

Me too, that really adds too it knowing what you are thinking. Very cool! Good luck

It's SO cool to see whole laps from that vantage point. I've NO idea how you decide whether to leave your nose in and stick it out or to back down and paitiantly wait for another run...
I also have no idea how you guys have time to be waiving howdy (!) and looking in your mirrors. Those Civics were whizzing by and I was like "WOAH!!!"

Thanks for the videos and the race reports, they are appreciated.

Now, how about rigging up a little telemetry so we can see your breaking pand shifting points ;).
A tiny LED strapped to that bar there on the left and wired into a switch on he brake pedal would do the trick.

Seriously though, racing is cool and winning is better. Have fun, good luck, and be safe!

Cory Waters
must be content racing through cones against himself for the forseeable future.