Buttonwillow Majors

JasonIsley99

JasonIsley99

Well-known member
Just about ten days out from the Buttonwillow Majors. Like Thunderhill the entry list is a little short, but once again Prod seems to be fairing better than some of the other categories. H Prod looks great, with eight cars, but I hear Lepper may be sitting out with a broken trans.

5 Downey, Aaron E Production 1976 Mazda RX-3 roundpeg.com/ Mazdaspeed Motorsports/ Carbotech/ JRI Shocks Rossmoor, CA
28 Jimerson, Anthony E Production 1986 Mazda rx7 A.T. Mechanical, Jesse Prather Motorsports, Hoosier benicia, CA
138 Longwell, John E Production 1997 BMW 328iS Achilles Motorsports/Hoosier Fallbrook, CA
91 Sacks, Steven E Production 1988 Mazda RX-7 San Francisco, CA
21 Sturgeon, Delaney E Production Porsche 944 Raptor Motorsports, Hawk, Goodyear Willcox, AZ

77 Huffaker, Joe F Production 1972 MG Midget Huffaker HORSEPOWER Petaluma, CA
21 Okell, Bill F Production 1972 MG midget huffaker engineering, fram, autolite, castrol oil Victoria, BC

18 Beyer, Bobby H Production 2008 Toyota Yaris MillenWorks, TRD, BFGoodrich, Granstand.com Mission Viejo, CA
32 Cummings, Mike H Production 1964 Austin Healey Sprite Huffaker Engineering / Red line Oil / Hoosier Tires Martinez, CA
99 Isley, Jason H Production 2007 Toyota Yaris TRD/Hoosier/RACER.com Coto de Caza, CA
88 Lepper, Jeff H Production 2007 Honda Fit Black Armor Helmets/Pirelli/Hawk Performance Rancho Cordova, CA
37 Linn, Brian H Production 1990 Honda CRX Hoosier Tire, Carbotech, Mr Meeker Hermosa Beach, CA
43 Markos, Cory H Production 1987 Honda CRX Si Cooper Air Conditioning, HPD, Arias, Markos Motorsports Riverside, CA
19 Thurston, David H Production 1975 Fiat X1/9 Tustin, CA
144 Valentine, Ben H Production 1970 MG Midget Fullerton, CA

44 Bower, John GT-Lite 1994 Nissan Sentra Granada Hills, CA
31 Carter, Craig GT-Lite 2002 Nissan Sentra Hazard Reduction Systems Long Beach, CA
38 Ermish, Troy GT-Lite 1971 Datsun 510 Datsun 510 Parts Outlet, REBELLO Racing Engines Tracy, CA
11 Tuttle, Tom GT-Lite 1962 Austin Healey Sprite Huffaker Engineering, Insul-therm international Inc. Windsor, CA
64 gilcrease, bill GT-Lite 1967 MINCOMP MINI Mini Mania, Redline oil Costa Mesa, CA
 
Just a few days away. Entry list has grown a little, with EP and GTL seeing a few additions.

Looking forward to the last race weekend in the old car.
 
Cant say enough great things about the repave of Buttonwillow. Sure there are still few bumps out there, but man the grip level is crazy - many track records were reset to the tune of 3sec.

Was very windy and hot Fri/Sat, but Sun was beautiful.

Amazingly the attrition level we typically see in HP was not an issue, the only car of the eight entered that did not start was Bobby Beyer, who lost his acc drive belt in qual and overheated the engine. If we could have sourced a head gasket we could have gotten him out there, but he nearest one was in AZ. :( Brian Linn got the CRX back on track, and was very quick in Fri practice. Linn seemed to have a very loose car, reportedly he only had one session without an spin, he kept the crew busy with the shop-vac removing the Buttonwillow agriculture from the car.

Fri qual was late in the day, and it was a hot one, most people posted their best time in the Sat AM session. (IIRC) I took the HP pole, Ben Valentine started 2nd, with Linn 3rd.

On Sat Mike Cummings got around Valentine for 3rd, with Linn in 2nd, and I got the win.

On Sun Linn got a nudge from a GTL car on the opening lap that took out one of his valve stems, he dropped back a couple of laps while they changed the tire. This let Cummings and Valentine go at it for 2nd and 3rd, with both of them posting very similar lap times it should have been a pretty good battle, with Valentine getting the upper hand. I got the win.

Up front on Sun Aaron Downey and Joe Huffaker were going at it hard, Downey just edged Huffaker for the overall. In the process Huffaker crushed the old FP record, and was running only a tenth off of EP. He was flying! :shock:
 
Jason@SportsCar":df0yzf0c said:
Linn seemed to have a very loose car, reportedly he only had one session without an spin, he kept the crew busy with the shop-vac removing the Buttonwillow agriculture from the car.
Click to expand...
I wish I could blame it on the car, but I have to take the credit. We tested on Thur and for the first time this season the car was running without issues (other than popping out of 2nd gear) and I could get a sense of how the car handled at full speed. After the first session, I was reminded that I had to forget my RWD habits and drive it like a FWD. It was feeling pretty good and I kept it on the track for most of the sessions. Since the track had been repaved after last years event, we had no idea how fast I really needed to go to be competitive.

In Fri's AM practice, I set a pretty good time (2:06.something) in the cooler weather. It was getting to mid 90's during the day so the AM sessions were quicker. Jason was still on his way to the track so we still didn't know how I compared but I was reasonably high on the results sheet. During qualifying I tried to carry more speed thru "Riverside", a very fast sweeper. The car had been very loose through here, much like a drift car but without the throttle control of a RWD. With the higher speed I missed the apex by a lot, was a bit out in the marbles and I tried to catch it, keeping my foot in the gas but I ran out of talent and around I went at 100mph into the silty dirt. What a mess in the car and code brown elsewhere. I was a bit spooked after that.

For qual 1 I had a new set of tires to break-in. I slowly got them up to temp and decided to try a fast lap - and spun as I came on the front straight - hmm. Put a light flat spot on the RF - damn it. For race 1 I got a good start and moved up a few spots but then made a mistake and gave most of them back. I moved up a few spots but I could see Jason pulling away a little each lap.

We were running low on front brake pads and I was able to call Danny at Carbotech on Fri and have some delivered on Sat, but too late for the race. Thanks Danny, they were awesome. I went out for the warm-up session with the new pads and a change to the rear bar. On the last lap of the session I did a really good lap according to the data acq - signs of encouragement! I was slightly closer to Jason for the start of race 2 and after the first half of lap there was 1 car between us. Going into the 2nd hairpin, right before the esses I see a GTL that was 2.5 sec slower than me the day before looking inside as we brake for the hair pin. As we accelerate out, he is now looking to pass going into the esses which are not really two cars wide. I'm on the inside for the first esse and climb the curbing to give him room, but on the 2nd one we come together. The contact knocks off the valve stem and my race is essentially over. Thanks to Noel Hayward for hobbling back to the garage for a tire and jack and Keith Gillespie and Doug Ruthroff for carting him to the pits and doing the tire change. Got back going again and was mentally out of it. Towards the end Steve Hussey got on the radio and told me to try and do some better laps to end the race. I pulled my head out and did my three best laps towards the end.

The GTL car that had been slower that tried to pass me in the esses had changed drivers. Kyle Kelley (GT1 Nat'l champ) stepped in and started from the back. He was in a hurry to get to the front, and was 10 sec a lap faster than Sat's driver. Had I known that tidbit of info, I would've just let him through, but I was more worried that I was going to be held up after he blocked me in Sat's race. In the end he was DSQ'd for being underweight.

This was our last scheduled race and I was trying to get a season's worth of learning into a long weekend. Showed some flashes of speed but was wildly inconsistent. Not sure what to do at this point. Talking about going testing and doing some regionals, but not sure. Thinking of the money it will take to get back to the Runoffs, and no tow-fund doesn't help.

Thanks to Steve Hussey, Tim Connors and Noel Hayward for all of their work/efforts to get the car ready, up to speed and clean after my experimenting with non-traditional lines. Thanks to Hoosier tires and Carbotech Brakes.
 
BLinn":2fvcm8ea said:
I wish I could blame it on the car, but I have to take the credit. We tested on Thur and for the first time this season the car was running without issues (other than popping out of 2nd gear) and I could get a sense of how the car handled at full speed. After the first session, I was reminded that I had to forget my RWD habits and drive it like a FWD. It was feeling pretty good and I kept it on the track for most of the sessions. Since the track had been repaved after last years event, we had no idea how fast I really needed to go to be competitive.

In Fri's AM practice, I set a pretty good time (2:06.something) in the cooler weather. It was getting to mid 90's during the day so the AM sessions were quicker. Jason was still on his way to the track so we still didn't know how I compared but I was reasonably high on the results sheet. During qualifying I tried to carry more speed thru "Riverside", a very fast sweeper. The car had been very loose through here, much like a drift car but without the throttle control of a RWD. With the higher speed I missed the apex but a lot, was a bit out in the marbles and I tried to catch it, keeping my foot in the gas but I ran out of talent and around I went at 100mph into the silty dirt. What a mess in the car and code brown elsewhere. I was a bit spooked after that.

For qual 1 I had a new set of tires to break-in. I slowly got them up to temp and decided to try a fast lap - and spun as I came on the front straight - hmm. Put a light flat spot on the RF - damn it. For race 1 I got a good start and moved up a few spots but then made a mistake and gave most of them back. I moved up a few spots but I could see Jason pulling away a little each lap.

We were running low on front brake pads and I was able to call Danny at Carbotech on Fri and have some delivered on Sat, but too late for the race. Thanks Danny, they were awesome. I went out for the warm-up session with the new pads and a change to the rear bar. On the last lap of the session I did a really good lap according to the data acq - signs of encouragement! I was slightly closer to Jason for the start of race 2 and after the first half of lap there was 1 car between us. Going into the 2nd hairpin, right before the esses I see a GTL that was 2.5 sec slower than me the day before looking inside as we brake for the hair pin. As we accelerate out, he is now looking to pass going into the esses which are not really two cars wide. I'm on the inside for the first esse and climb the curbing to give him room, but on the 2nd one we come together. The contact knocks off the valve stem and my race is essentially over. Thanks to Noel Hayward for hobbling back to the garage for a tire and jack and Keith Gillespie and Doug Ruthroff for carting him to the pits and doing the tire change. Got back going again and was mentally out of it. Towards the end Steve Hussey got on the radio and told me to try and do some better laps to end the race. I pulled my head out and did my three best laps towards the end.

This was our last scheduled race and I was trying to get a season's worth of learning into a long weekend. Showed some flashes of speed but was wildly inconsistent. Not sure what to do at this point. Talking about going testing and doing some regionals, but not sure. Thinking of the money it will take to get back to the Runoffs, and no tow-fund doesn't help.

Thanks to Steve Hussey, Tim Connors and Noel Hayward for all of their work/efforts to get the car ready, up to speed and clean after my experimenting with non-traditional lines. Thanks to Hoosier tires and Carbotech Brakes.
Click to expand...

Don't be down, Steve only had one really good race in the car last year, but it was the one that counts. Load it up and head east in Sept.
 
Jason@SportsCar":1dbfnhp4 said:
Up front on Sun Aaron Downey and Joe Huffaker were going at it hard, Downey just edged Huffaker for the overall. In the process Huffaker crushed the old FP record, and was running only a tenth off of EP. He was flying! :shock:
Click to expand...
Joe was flying and when they came by me he was leading Downey. He broke my lap record that I did last year with the Lotus by 4 sec's and Jason broke his own record by 3.5 sec. Shockingly the EP record by Bob Neal in '05 is still safe.
 
BLinn":1n3idlo1 said:
(edited - mdh) This was our last scheduled race and I was trying to get a season's worth of learning into a long weekend. Showed some flashes of speed but was wildly inconsistent. Not sure what to do at this point. Talking about going testing and doing some regionals, but not sure. Thinking of the money it will take to get back to the Runoffs, and no tow-fund doesn't help.
Click to expand...

Brian,

What about Pacific Raceways? I know 3 cars that are going out of Joe's shop and perhaps with 4 perhaps they could use the Semi so it would be cost effective.
 
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