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      11-21-2019, 10:35 AM   #1
K-Fab
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Buttonwillow Audi HPDE 9/22-9/24

If anyone here on the forum happens to plan on attending SoCal Audi's HPDE weekend, stop by and say hello.

I'll be in the grey box van with the white trailer and white M2C sitting by it. I'll be running around the place on a KTM 350XCF-W (great pit bike...)
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      11-21-2019, 11:30 AM   #2
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Should be a good event! I was thinking of going, but my suspension rebuild isn't done yet.
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      11-22-2019, 01:14 AM   #3
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I’ll be there in a Black LCI. Just arrived in town from the Seattle area.

By the way, it’s November, not September.
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      11-25-2019, 12:23 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by bentom2 View Post
I’ll be there in a Black LCI. Just arrived in town from the Seattle area.

By the way, it’s November, not September.
Oops!!!! - how'd I manage to fat finger that one that badly?

Hope you enjoyed the weekend - I think it was one of the best track weekends I've had in over a year or so.
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      11-26-2019, 12:58 AM   #5
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Oops!!!! - how'd I manage to fat finger that one that badly?

Hope you enjoyed the weekend - I think it was one of the best track weekends I've had in over a year or so.
Just got back home to the Seattle area. Was definitely worth the drive. Probably won’t be able to make that trip every year, but will try. If the 2020 dates are the same as this year, I might look into doing Sonoma at the beginning of the month with ACGG and leave the car at a friend’s house for a couple weeks while I fly home, then come back for Buttonwillow. Splitting the drive and time off work over two events could make it work.

Fun track! First time there and took a bit of time to learn, but enjoyed the challenge. My GF and I (she drives too and we each drove down in our respective cars) had a blast. Nice group of people as well.

Sorry I didn’t track you down.
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      11-26-2019, 11:05 AM   #6
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Good to hear you enjoyed the track.

CCW is a blast - the place just flows in that direction, especially out of Riverside. Going the other way that little kink at the Bus Stop just blows the flow and drive out onto Riverside.

The damed Off Ramp corner still has me baffled.

I took half a dozen lines through/into it, had my students taking different lines and it's one of those corners that if you can get just right, works otherwise it's one of those you just try not to understeer through as you exit.

Actually my A student (in her Mazda 3 - come on, you can get going...), who watched Bill Vogel's in car video during her class room time, ended up flowing the corner better than I or my C student so I started copying what she was doing - you can ALWAYS learn. I'd taken Bill for a few laps on Friday and he and I discussed the corner quite a bit and it seems that it's everyone's "bad" corner.

I like your thinking on Sears Point (meh on that "Sonoma" name... I'm old school. Laguna Seca and Sears Point, not corporate names! ) and then Buttonwillow. Getting in a couple track weekends fairly close together is nice - you're still thinking in track mode so it's more comfortable. Rumor has it that it'll be CCW at Buttonwillow again too (the instructor's meeting was very vocal about staying CCW). Everyone seems to enjoy it better that way.

Two fantastic tracks - albeit, Sears is the one track I've been on that I'd not make a lot of effort to go back to. I'm not spooked by much at all but all I came away from there with was "CONCRETE EVERYWHERE!" I think an incident back in '87 during an AMA Superbike weekend has also stayed in my head; we lost an excellent racer that weekend and it's always put the spook into me for that place.
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Last edited by K-Fab; 11-26-2019 at 11:32 AM..
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      11-26-2019, 04:06 PM   #7
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Off Ramp was one of two corners I struggled with. The other being Phil Hill. On Phil Hill, I only got to the point of trusting I knew where the track was after the blind crest in the last two sessions on Sunday. Prior to that, I kept turning in as if it was a tighter corner, then I would over slow and/or pinch the exit. Toward the end, I was getting closer, but never felt like I nailed it. Off Ramp is tricky with the decreasing radius entry, camber changes, and blind exit. My assigned instructor and an Instructor friend tried to get me through there and I think you really need to be willing to use throttle to rotate the car to get it right; something I wasn’t willing to try with a 1,000 mile drive home looming. I hope next year they do Star Mazda and the extension that partially avoided off ramp. They look like fun variations.

Flow was great overall, with more features to keep it interesting than I expected to find on such a flat track. CCW flow was really good overall. Cotton Corners was probably my favorite section; you could close distance on a lot of folks there if you’re patient on entry and set up well for exit.

I was running in C group, so probably saw you on track while you were in the right seat. What car were you in? Good group other than one guy who didn’t play well with others. I won’t call him out but you probably know who I’m referring to already. He seems to be somewhat infamous among the folks I spoke to.

The walls at Sears Point do make me a bit nervous. I’ve watched some video and it’s definitely lacking on runoff in many places before you find something solid. That’s kept me from prioritizing it so far. The fun of old tracks. We have a couple of that vintage up here as well and track safety has come a long way since the 60’s.
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      11-27-2019, 11:32 AM   #8
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This year at ACNA Sonoma an RS5 wrecked into one of the walls. He was putting down some really fast times too that weekend. To my surprise it was at T6. I guess he came over the hill too hot, went outside on the turn, and either the dust or damp morning track made him lose traction (he was running TC off, which he said he usually runs on in the mornings). I know the dust/dirt was keeping me more inside the turn in the afternoons.
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      11-27-2019, 08:05 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
This year at ACNA Sonoma an RS5 wrecked into one of the walls. He was putting down some really fast times too that weekend. To my surprise it was at T6. I guess he came over the hill too hot, went outside on the turn, and either the dust or damp morning track made him lose traction (he was running TC off, which he said he usually runs on in the mornings). I know the dust/dirt was keeping me more inside the turn in the afternoons.
Did I park next to you at the ACGG Thunderhill event in January? The wagon looks familiar, and I see a photo of Shiv’s TTRS in your build thread. My girlfriend was parked with us in the red Cayman.



Some folks were talking about that crash over the weekend. It sounded like the RS5 was totaled. Hope he was okay.
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      11-28-2019, 03:19 AM   #10
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I've seen lots of crashes this year during track days at both Spa Francorchamps and Nordschleife. I think the tracks in US are generally safer than here in Europe. One more season and I may start to think that 3 ft of grass and then concrete or armco is normal.

Stay safe out there everyone!
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      11-28-2019, 11:31 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by bentom2 View Post
Did I park next to you at the ACGG Thunderhill event in January? The wagon looks familiar, and I see a photo of Shiv’s TTRS in your build thread. My girlfriend was parked with us in the red Cayman.


Some folks were talking about that crash over the weekend. It sounded like the RS5 was totaled. Hope he was okay.
Yup, that's me. I was looking around for your M2 at the Sonoma event to see if you guys wanted to join our "BMW section" in the paddock, haha.

You guys planning on going to the Jan event?

I heard the RS5 driver was OK, but unfortunately the RS5 looked pretty bad. Airbags all went off.
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      11-28-2019, 12:26 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Yup, that's me. I was looking around for your M2 at the Sonoma event to see if you guys wanted to join our "BMW section" in the paddock, haha.

You guys planning on going to the Jan event?

I heard the RS5 driver was OK, but unfortunately the RS5 looked pretty bad. Airbags all went off.
Ha! Small world. Shiv was down there but we didn’t make it. Next Cali road trip will probably be for Laguna Seca with NCRC in April.

Good to hear the car and all it’s safety systems did their job.
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      12-28-2019, 12:36 AM   #13
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Hey all, I am a bit late to the party here. Buttonwillow was a blast. I was in a black Audi TT RS (WA plates) driving in Y group. Off Ramp is a tricky corner - I believe I figured out a good line through it, but was not consistently hitting it primarily because of the occasional exuberance on entry

FaRKle!, I am signed up for the Jan Thunderhill event and looking forward to it being semi-dry
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