TBA
Bakersfield
Pre- and post-track day at Buttonwillow Raceway. Mike brought up fancy dan tat from Na Tart in San Diego-- delicious but way fancy, not traditional at all. Then pizza after the track day with Alicia and family from Rusty's, which I did not realize is the same one as in Santa Barbara. Definitely a very California/American pizza. Wrapped up with a beautiful sunset and some stupid expensive gas in Bakersfield.
Track day was with National Auto Sport Association (NASA) at the relatively new Buttonwillow Circuit track, run clockwise. Today was unpleasantly hot, over 104 degres F/40 degrees C. Fastest lap recorded was a 2:33, backed up with a 2:34, so the car was quite consistent. Zero problems with cooling, although the RE-71RS got greasy when so hot so braking, especially on the front straight, got squirrely. Also driving home I think I glazed the brakes-- they were fine in the morning sessions but clearly after the afternoon one, I should have driven around longer to cool them off some more. Instructor Jeff (from NASA NorCal) did not push the car when he drove due to temperature being so high-- his times ended up about the same as mine-- but makes me very curious how much faster he could have pushed the car had he driven in the morning rather than the afternoon.
Mike's GR Corolla, which is effectively stock, also had rear differential temperature issues in the third (afternoon) session, so we both skipped the fourth and last session that afternoon. His brand-new Pilot Sport 4S's held up pretty good as well, although I think we both reported quite a bit of tire noise as well, although that got better as we drove further... clearly the tires picked up a lot of rubber in HPDE1.