As I mentioned before, my friend and neighbor had a slick new to him BMW with a 500HP engine just itching to try out on a local race track, Willow Springs Raceway. As luck would have it, it’s just up the road from here, and on June 13th he and I headed over there to get on the track and give the car a workout. I’m the ‘pit crew’ so I’ll just get to watch while Brennan takes her out on the track. We arrive at the track pretty early in the morning after a night of intermittent rain, but the tracks already dry, so that’s good. And Brennan has to sit through the driver training and all so I had some slack time.
And here’s a shot of the hill the track goes up and circles off again.
Here’s a better view of the track swooping up on the side of the hill then back off again.
Here’s the cafe and one of the official viewpoints for timing and such. They had the new drivers training in there.
And there’s the BMW over parked in the paddocks. We’re starting to get some other crews parking nearby.
Big ass engine here. Purrs. Has all sorts of adaptive electronics. Even the suspension is adaptive. Helps with cornering and all. Very cool.
An hour or two later and the paddocks are getting filled up with racers.
Here’s the group getting drivers training. Don’t need anyone hurt out there just having fun so there’s some pretty strict rules. Each newbee will have a pro driver with them in the passenger seat. More seasoned drivers have their own times during the day they can be out on the track. The new guys go out 3 times, each time with an observer in the car with them.
And off they go. That’s Brennan over there crossing the line after the first circuit.
And coming around again.
After the few circuits all the cars made, they all come in, assemble for the debriefing, and rest and hydrate. Racing can really take it out of you, if you’re doing it right. It was at this point that Brennan decided he probably wasn’t really cut out for racing. Made him uncomfortable and not in control. Probably because the trainer he had in his car was encouraging him to really let the BMW have her head and go faster then Brennan was comfortable with driving. He thought about it during the down time before the next race, but finally decided to bail. Well, whatever. It’s his car, his money (yeah, it costs a couple hundred for the drivers school and for using the track).
As I’m walking back to the paddock where the car’s parked now, ran into these beauties.
And checking out the BMW, making sure everything looks normal after the high speed track circuits. Everything was fine.
This Porsche pulled in. They have a great engine and underbody but I don’t care for the interior much.
Took this long shot of the track. Not as detailed as I’d hoped. This was taken on our way back to the track. Turned out there was a road that circumnavigated the race track that I wanted to see and imposed on Brennan to give me a tour. 
And here we are back at the track. Our wristbands got us back in without a problem.
After passing the paddocks where we staged earlier, the road heads out around the east end of the track we’d been using earlier. Up past some more garages and official buildings.
These cars were all parked on the paddock of an entirely different racecourse. All was quiet over here. No drivers or pit crew members wandering around. No race officials inspecting. I think the drivers and crews were all in the drivers meeting, along with the track officials. I know enough about race car owners to know they wouldn’t just leave their cars sitting here baking in the sun so there must have been a race coming up later. Right now though, everything was calm and quiet.
You can see the scars in the hills where they have jeep hill climbing.
On the left is the training track Brennan had driven on earlier. On the right is the 2nd track I guess the pros were going to use today.
And a shot from up on the apex of the track on the hill, looking down on the Start/Finish, comforts, and official buildings. There were a bunch of private garages as well. Just past those buildings is the paddock where we’d parked the BMW earlier.
And here’s the lead car of what would have been Brennan’s group had he stayed. His BMW is so powerful though, I’ve little doubt but that he’d have been in the lead.
And the rest of the group comes around…
After watching the drivers make a circuit, off we head. Lot’s of fun being on a racetrack again as a pit crew member. It’s been several years since I hung out at one.
Well, hope you all enjoyed our trip to the racetrack. See you all next time.