Anyone who has followed racing through the years knows that it has gone from being a very dangerous sport to one with manageable risk. Most tracks have been improved with modern safety features and generous runoff areas. Well, Willow Springs is a throw back to the beginning as it opened in 1953, is virtually the same as then, and touts itself as the "Fastest Road in the West." The pavement is in poor shape, the edge of the track at the fastest corner has a raised asphalt edge just waiting to grab your tire, and any off track excursion is going to be through knife-edged rocks.
I'd never been to WS before, but had heard stories about it. I'd already mentally committed to leaving myself a margin of error at key spots around the track. We had a semi-private test day scheduled the day before the Majors weekend was to begin. We did get two sessions in to learn the track but that was it, as the clutch kept giving us issues. Jason and Chris split the car in half about six times over the course of the weekend working on it and finally got the clutch issue solved.
In qualifying with new tires, we finally got in a couple of clean laps in the 1:13.7 range that easily put us on pole by two seconds over Tim Day Jr. Our average speed on these laps is about 124 mph and peaks at about 147 mph headed into turn 9. It is very difficult to get an unimpeded lap as slower traffic interferes a lot. Check out my fastest lap of the weekend here in Q1. We also secured the P1 track record during the first race.
In race 1 on Saturday, Tim again out accelerated me into the first turn just like he did at Auto Club Speedway last time we started side by side. It's a little maddening to me to have to give up the lead because my car gets outgunned from the get go. Our engine builder is still working on getting more power so I'm hopeful we can prevent this by the time of the Runoffs. We had a great little go at each other for 3 or 4 laps so enjoy the show on the Race Video page or here. We had some light contact that damaged my nose but we ultimately prevailed and won the race handily.
Race 2 on Sunday was a repeat at the start except, before I could get around Tim, double yellow flags came out for an incident and during this pace car period an electrical wire connection broke at the alternator and my car died on track and had to be towed in. Tim went on to get the win and our rivalry continues to grow now that Chris Ferrell has announced his retirement from the sport after the Auto Club Speedway event where we trounced him. Chris was a great competitor, 3-time national champion, and I'll miss racing him.