Any tight course is harder on the car, tons of braking/accelerating........etc....you get the picture. Willow's big track is the fastest course in the nation (well atleast it's advertised as such :bigwink. The only time your hard on the brakes is going into turn 1 off the front straight and turn 3. Hell, let me describe a lap for ya. And that corner in a properly prepared ride can take it at 90. So your backing down from 130-140 of the front straight. Then turn 2 is a 270 degree sweeper, your really pushing the front end around for a looooooooooong time (I like 75-80 here). Coming out of 2, you'll gas it, up to maybe 90+ and hard on the brakes for #3 (40mph turn), gas it (up hill) and shut it down heading towards the appex of #4 and 5 (easy on the brakes, carry your momentum) and then aim it down hill towards #6. Now for me, I've found much better lap times by staying in second and coming down into 6 easy (no hard braking) and then setting up for the launch after the appex. You will not be braking for #7, but accelerating through it and then down the back straight hard. If you have any balls, you'll enter #8 at about 130 and at the appex start slowing for 9 (appex around 80-90) and then the front straight. Anyhowwwwwwwwww. My point was, this track is easy on the brakes, This is a large track with plenty of cooling time between hard corners. Driving the course fast is done by carrying your speed and not hard braking/acceleration stuff like a tight course. Damn, that's got me all worked up..........................man lets hit the track!
well said cam....... i have always found that smooth is fast.....when i went to the keith code super bike school maaaaaany years ago, we had exercises that would could not use brakes and had to focus on throttle control to make our way around the track.....funny thing is, many people got some of their fastest times using this kind of strategy!
Thanks Cam, great write up, you got me all worked up too!!!!! Ever since Feb at Laguna Seca (my first "on track" experience) I've been seriously thinking bout doing a track day here or there, just don't want to kill my car. Also, never done it before so I need to find out how, doh!
Heres a pretty good instructional video I found on Willow Springs: http://youtube.com/watch?v=REu6SkTbx6E&feature=related
hehe, cool find Bud. "turn 9 is one of the worste turns"...........NO SHIT!. Turn nine is deceptive and if your not ready for the turn in and hit the appex wrong, it's all over. I've had 6 cars go off and come back in front of me in that turn. The best one was my buddy, we were driving Winston cup cars up there and he took it WAY to hot, got sideways, over corrected, I almost collected him at that point and then he headed towards pit wall and missed it "by that much".........:surprise: man did we get a talkin too after that........hahahaha :bottom::whistle:
Great story....that had to be pretty fun spanking Winston cup cars around the track. How was it trying to tame the power without ABS and traction control?
The cup cars are a blast. 400HP and maybe 2700 lbs........way fun!!. But I haven't had any ABS or ESP for a couple years now. Hell, I wouldn't know how to react if that bullshit F'd with me.
