After departing the California Speedway, all entrants were instructed to disregard stop signs, red lights, law enforcement, and the elderly in order to make it up to The Streets of Willow Springs at Willow Springs International Raceway. With a 1.5 hour haul between the two tracks, we needed to ensure all entrants would be on hand as early as possible to begin the road course competition. All the USCC competitors were given a 30 minute open practice session, and then the cars lined up for timed hot laps. Entrants were sent out one at a time on track, and were given five laps with which to run their fastest time. To encourage maximum use of the practice session, drivers were not allowed to pit or to make adjustments during their five-lap timed session. If a competitor entered the pits early, their session was deemed over.
In every previous USCC, the road course was the bragging rights trophy that all the competitors wanted to take. This year would be no different. Grand-Am race driver Billy Johnson was tapped to drive both the Mazda3 and the 350Z, and he got the chance to handle both thanks to the "never say die" efforts of Ed Bergenholtz. Having stayed behind at California Speedway, Bergenholtz diagnosed the Mazda3's slipped adjustable cam gear and made the repairs with just enough time for the haul out to Willow Springs. Thanks to the help of Steve Mitchell of M-Workz and the BR Tuning crew, the Mazda3 arrived with just enough time to lay down an impressive 1:28.60. Johnson went significantly faster in the turbocharged 350Z though, with a first place lap time of 1:25.32. No doubt, having the help of a KW suspension engineer on hand helped tremendously with the setup on the Z.
AMS also went all-out with their entry, flying in 9-time SCCA Solo National Champion, 8-time Pro Solo National Champion, and time attack driver Mark Daddio to handle the road course. Despite having never seen the Streets Of Willow course before, Daddio adapted quickly and put down a fast time of 1:25.55, good for second place. The other Evo, Tuning Technologies' Evo VIII, didn't fare as well. Despite having the driving efforts of Wesley Hamachi, our braking test driver, former NOPI drift judge, and AE86 road racing driver, the older Evo's worn out and tired RA1s just weren't up to the task of hustling 480whp around the tight road course. Fresher rubber, with less heat cycles, would surely have helped their times here.
The two GT-Rs, both heavy but loaded with power, couldn't cope with the 100 degree heat of the desert track. Spray bottles and ice cubes could be seen strewn across the GT-Rs' radiators and intercoolers, but in the end, drivers Richie Taylor and our own Andy Hope had to intermix between cool down laps and flyers.
034 Motorsport's Audi Coupe Quattro also ran into some cooling issues with the V8 and the crew decided to remove the air conditioning condenser in order to gain some more airflow to the radiator. Professional racecar driver Christian Miller got behind the wheel of the Audi, but it was just too little, too late. The Renner Motorsport team had a different outlook altogether. The road course was the one competition that they came out gunning to win, but rally champ Peter Toutchenchki was not even one lap around before trouble surfaced. A silicone induction hose had ripped around its seams and it looked like the Impreza L wouldn't finish the USCC. After a variety of band-aid fixes also failed, Cheston Chiu graciously dismantled his 350Z and loaned a hose to the Renner guys while his car sat in the pits. Unfortunately for the Subaru team, their failure occurred during their hot lap session, officially DNF'ing them from the road course competition, but Toutchenchki was allowed to make a timed run for the record books.