Willow Springs, August 11-12, 2001

This was a complete contrast to my last weekend on the track. The car ran *flawlessly*. Aboslutely perfect. And these C3 cams and the new ECU were excellent. If I can use the C2s with the same ECU (it says C2/C3), I will get the C2s and do a track comparo. The temperature was 100 F and the Techtom registered a high of 135 F intake temperature and 225 F water temperature. Three Mustangs (most powerful in the our group) were overheating by the end of the day even with aftermarket radiators. Jim's NX and Tom's G20 overheated. Tom ended up using Todd's SE for Sunday. Kudos to Todd. That was very generous of you. Tom was also very generous by letting Jeff N. drive his Classic while he drove the G20.

Here is *my* experience:

I was very nervous at first. I did not know what to expect. During the first three sbreast exercise I was weaving a lot. I made the mistake of looking at the cars next to me rather than looking straight ahead and using my peripheral vision to keep an eye on the guys next to me. The next session I corrected my mistake and the difference was amazing. Everything flowed fluently. The nose-to-tail exercise was not that hard. It was an exercise of three cars following closely behind each other and the last car passes the other two almost or at the corner.

We also practiced race starts and that was the most fun part up to then. We would line up double line behind the pace car, the pace car will set the pace then exist to the pits and the starter in the tower will drop the flag. And we were off down the straights looking for holes and trying to pass on the straights, at turn one, two and the begining of turn three. Then the 4 cars in the lead will move to the back of the pack and we go again. I loved starting from the rear and by the end of the exercise I will be in the top three. The only cars that I could not pass were the two 300-350 WHP Cobra Mustangs. So I tried to cheat a bit. On one of the starts two Mustangs were ahead and I was in the second row. So I lined up outside the Mustang on the right and snuk the nose of the car to his rear quater panel, hoping that the starter would not see me. Unfortunately he did and he gave us a "wave off." Damn. The upside is we got to experience a wave off. The downside was we lost a lap and I got caught cheating. Hey, racers are greedy bastards :-)

My best "battle" was with a Cobra Mustang with a Griggs suspension. This guy almost ran me off the road at the SI/SE-R shootout @ ButtonWillow. He was black flagged then. He assumed that I had the same car that I had then. Wrong. I put the hurt on him so bad. It was awesome. I was trying to pass him all over turn 2 through 5, but he would not give me room. Finally I carried such momentum through turn 9 that I was able to overcome his superior power and by the entrance to turn two I had him. These cams are awsome. I was carrying speeds up to 125 MPH down the front straight and 120 MPH down the back in 4th gear. All the time I was in 6-8K range; the sweet spot for these cams. When we came back to the class room, the guy had this look of disbelief on his face. He said "you must have a turbo." No, only bolt-ons was my answer. Another Beemer guy asked the same question. I answer with a smug look "simply bolt-ons."

After our last track session on Saturady we discover that during one of the HPDE run groups a car went off the track and landed on its roof. Apparently there was an insturctor riding shotgun. The owner was driving and an open-track instructor (Paul Godotti) was riding shotgun.  Coming out of turn two (long constant-radius right) the driver put the two left wheels off in the dirt on the corner exit.  Instead of holding the wheel straight and just slowing off-track, he tried to wrench the car back on track and spun back across, leaving the track on the right side (backwards/sideways I believe). Paul said he tried to tell the driver to hold it straight (when they first went off) and i think was even about to grab the wheel.  The car dug in and flipped. Paul had the presence of mind to pull on the handle that reclines the seat back. The seat back reclined and Paul was able to get the additional room to duck from the collapsing roof. Paul also had an older helmet and the the lining on it was a bit loose. So it kinda got dislodged off his head a bit. When the car settled on its roof, Paul took off his helmet and wanted to exist the car for fear that it might be catching fire. He cut the back of his head on the glass and sharp roof metal. He needed stiches on the back of his head. The pictures of the car tell it all. It is my believe that the only reason that the Mustang occupants survived was because they were not using a race harness. With a regular seat belt they were abel to duck away from the collapsing roof. With a harness they would have been pinned to their seats and the collapsing roof would have massive injuries to their necks and head. This is another example of why you ONLY use a HARNESS with a ROLL CAGE.

Tom and I had a little play time on Sunday. One time I made the error of getting stuck a few seconds behind Jeff N and tom took full advantage of it by passing me and Jeff on the inside of turn two. It was beautiful. But Tom is still a Greedy Bastard :-) Then I passed him on the entrance to turn three. It was a very cool play. But I had the more powerful car. I believe that had Jared and Tom had the same power and slicks they would be ahead of me.

On Sunday we finally had a real race. The first real race for me. We were on our own. I was lined up in the back of the pack. The pace car goes into the pits and the starter drops the flag and we are off. I dropped two tires to pass one car on the right, squeezed between 2 BMWs down the straights and was on the inside of turn one passing two other cars to my right. By the end
of the straight before turn 3 there were only two Mustangs ahead of me. But I knew they will overheat, so I waited a few laps. and then they overheated and slowed down and I was in first. Then I saw an M3 in my mirrors and the battle was on. He had nothing on me except towards the end of the straight going into turn one where his superior power got me. Later he slowed down and lets me through and then the instructors tell the corner workers to through red flags to see how we will react. We all came to a complete stop. And that was the end of the race. I later asked the M3 driver why he let me pass again and he said that his pass down the straights was due to power and not skill and he did not like that. Cool guy.

After these two days, you develop a sense of brotherhood with the other drivers and you learn to trust that they will make the correct decision in a passing situation. That is what I have learned the most, to trust the fellow drivers. I learned *many* other things as well, but I will not bug you with them.

Naji...happy with what transpired this weekend