Thoroughly sated and some spirit-addled, it's time to head to the hotel. Despite a required 7:00 a.m. arrival time at Buttonwillow Raceway the next morning, more than several participants attend a dance performance at the Dff,jff Vu High Desert Performing Arts Center. Unfortunately, 7:00 a.m. for participants means 6:00 a.m. for us staffers. Good night.
Day 2Sunrise is still 40 minutes away, but we drag our tired corpses from the lovely Chateau Travelodge into the freezing desert morning. We tremble as thick blood refuses to grace extremities and thick oil makes Project 350Z's supercharged VQ35 clatter unhappily. Both lanes of Highway 58 are surprisingly stiff with traffic considering the sun hasn't yet announced a new day. Frigid desert air makes for white-hot power production, and our Z has never felt faster. Its 275mm wide BFG KDs break loose at speed, and six vehicles stuck behind a semi blur into one long car as we whip past.
We arrive at Buttonwillow Raceway to find cars and trailers already waiting outside the gates. It's obvious this will be our best-attended day of the Track Attack. Clean Type-Rs rub bumpers with carbon-fiber-bedecked EVOs that sit next to a 500-hp Lamborghini Gallardo. More than 70 cars register.
Buttonwillow Raceway offers triple-digit sweepers, decreasing-radius double-apex hairpins, balance-challenging crests and a multitude of possible configurations. What better track to attack? Ian Pouley with the Sports Car Club of America handles the day's organization, and a number of SCCA instructors and regulars are here to help wrangle the newbies into driving shape. Ian breaks participants into four groups-red, blue, green and yellow-regardless of vehicle capability or driver experience.
Buttonwillow is divided into the East Loop and West Loop, with the East tighter and slower than the West, although both get chicanes on the straights to keep a handle on triple-digit velocities. With one group on each loop, a third spends time in a classroom, while the fourth group gets time off.
The first sessions use a lead-and-follow format to help drivers get acquainted with the proper line. Those receiving classroom instruction get blackboard work detailing concepts like apexing, weight transfer and proper driving techniques. In subsequent sessions, instructors ride shotgun with drivers as they negotiate both courses.
Once it's obvious drivers are comfortable with both their cars and the course, instructors become optional. Some more experienced drivers find the morning's format a bit restrictive, but those who stick it out are treated to near unfettered high-speed lapping in the afternoon. We take out our Project EVO and 350Z to work off some calories and free rubber. The Z, while fun on on-ramps and fast through the slalom, is simply too loose at speed, making for spooky transitions and a switch back into the EVO.
Belches resulting from ever nutritious track food are interrupted by the staccato note of an engine bouncing on its rev limiter and the shriek of tortured tires. Chris Forsberg in his SR20DET-powered 350Z and Dai Yoshihara in his Silvia blow onto the front straight, practicing Choki Dori toward the now swelling crowd. These two tear tires until the third gear blows in the Silvia and the engine gets soft in the 350Z, but not before a couple of Attackers get rides.
After lunch, a proper timed course is set up on the East Loop to test Attackers' skills and their machines' muster. Separate awards are given to each run group. In the red group, Stewart Gibbs brings home the trophy in a 350Z with a lap time of 57.58 seconds. The fastest in the blue group is Vanessa Shiu in her WRX, at 1:00.70 seconds, making her also the fastest female of the day. Mike Mehnert, winner at the dragstrip, is fastest in the blue group with a 56.52 in his beautifully prepped, Hoosier-shod 300ZX twin turbo. The winner of the yellow group, Matt Haas, also takes home top time of the day with a searing 55.97-second lap in his prepared second-gen. RX-7 turbo on full cantilevered slicks.
The SCCA also presents other awards chosen by the instructors, including the Hardship Award, which goes to David Mark Pesce, who strangled the controls of his Dodge Dakota pickup to turn a respectable lap time. The Most Improved Driver Award is given to Klaus Blem in a Honda S2000. Most importantly, everybody has a good, safe, incident-free time, meaning those spins and incursions into the brown zone don't include immovable objects.
Day 3So far, we've given Track Attackers every opportunity to prove their straight-line and circuit skills; now we watch the big boys scrape fenders in some of the best wheel-to-wheel racing at one of the most famous tracks in the world, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The schedule for the weekend is packed with practice, qualifying and racing for Super Karts, Spec Miatas, Star Mazdas, Speedvision Touring cars, Speedvision GT cars, and the heavy-hitting American Le Mans Series racers.
The pits at Laguna Seca undulate and snort with crowds milling, racecars zipping in and out, and the occasional Brazilian Carnival performance complete with drum line and feathered dancers busting out in the middle of the road. The Sport Compact Car-sponsored RTR Sentra Spec V piloted by Peter Cunningham qualifies third behind the RTR TSX and the TriPoint Mazda6.
Rain, which we have avoided thus far, finds us at the tail end of our first day at the races. Us spectators just get wet, but racers near the end of the ALMS four-hour race, which runs into the night, find themselves on full slicks, which are true to name when combined with wet asphalt. Watching heavy cars screw themselves in the corkscrew and slide into the rough stuff is guaranteed.
After the race, the rain escorts us to Club Octane, as mega as a club can get in the seaside town of Monterey. Nothing but the best was prepared for Track Attackers, which means bypassing the 200 or so locals waiting in line, getting our own portion of the VIP lounge, and the dangerous $4-for-two tequila shot special.
Day 4The hard core peel themselves from drool-soaked pillows for another rainy day of racing at Laguna on Sunday morning, while the weary, which is most people, head home. Cunningham wheels the RTR Sentra Spec V to a second-place finish in Touring, and as usual, some Porsche wins the GT race.
We tracked, we attacked and we kicked ass. If you can have any more car fun for free, we don't know about it. See you next year.
,* We thank our sponsors Infinity, Mazda, SCCA, Dromo One, Mothers, StopTech, Oakley, Toyo Tires, VP Racing, Tokico, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Famoso Dragstrip and Dangerous Grafix.com for their support.