37th Track Report at Buttonwillow
Aug 18 2006 with Lead Foot Adventures.

The Track Day.

Yes! Another track day at Buttonwillow and this time with a new organization called Lead Foot Adventures. LFA is run by Perry and Vinny. Two nice blokes who just want to have fun at the track. When I first visited their website, the rules are simple and straight to the point. Not to mention they allow open passing in the advanced group. For that I signed up. As usual, my track buddy, Andy signed up. These days, Andy and I would sign up just about ANY track events. As long as it's track time, who really cares who organizes it?

The day greeted us with a table full of breakfast goodies like pastries, juice, StarBucks coffee. For the rest of the day, LFA filled us with plenty of bottled water. Once the bottled water ran out, they had more water. Amazing.

Like I said, LFA is new in this. So the morning drivers' meeting was little "raw" but they did disseminate the most important information about safety, passing rules and flag rules. About 40 drivers signed up with maybe a couple of walk-ins. The drivers were categorized into 4 groups: Advanced, Intermediate, Novice 1 and Novice 2. Reason why the novice group was divided was due to the abundance of track newbies. Each session ran for about 25mins. Each group has about 5 sessions. Lunch is not included. There's a lottery for a free track day as well. Instruction is free for novices.

The advanced group, which Andy and I ran in, was a small group of maybe 10 to 12 drivers. There were a couple of race-prepared Porsches, a couple of S2000s and such. Drivers were mostly very polite in this group. The overall vibe was very good. Point bys are required for non-Advanced groups. 4-offs and reckless driving are frowned upon.

Andy and I had a plan on the track: to have fun exchanging positions and chasing each other. We were given the passing flag every so often yet we ignored it. The controller soon realized we were just messing with one and other. We have our cars under control and under no circumstances we were jeopardizing other track users. We learnt a great deal about each other's driving techniques, braking zones and lines. At one point, I was so fixated on Andy's rear bumper, I went off before Club Corner. Corrected the car and went back to terrorizing him. It was perhaps the most memorable track session I had in years.

LFA did a very good job given that it's their first event. I would strongly recommend this event to everyone. For a comparision of LFA with the other organizations, visit this chart.

What's the BW-2-LA Tow Club? Well, if you have had your car towed from Buttonwillow back to Los Angeles by Brannon Services, then you belong to this very exclusive club. Membership criteria is simple. Car has to break down at the Buttonwillow Raceway Park and has to be towed back to Los Angeles. And yes, I just joined the club. The car was towed back to European Motor Works, which was 140 miles away. Andy happened to have a 100 miles free from AAA and he gladly loaned the miles to me. It's comforting to know that a friend in need is a friend indeed.

So what happened? A weekend ago before I attended the SpeedVentures and SpeedTrial USA event at Buttonwillow, my car had a perculiar electrical problem. I traced the problem to be related to a dying battery. I ended up buying a new InterState battery, slapped it in and drove at the track for 2 days without a hiccup. At this track event, things went very well until when I pulled in from the last session of the day and found out the car was, well, dying. Lights were flickering and the engine idling strangely and almost choking. I jump started the car and tested the voltage. The battery is new, so it can't be that. Ahh...yes, the alternator died. A rather strange coincidence I must add. Andy had a similar incident last November when we attended Green Flag Driving Association's event at Buttonwillow. He was a tad bit more unfortunate than me. He didn't even manage to reach the track in time for the event and his alternator failed. Fast forward 9 months and it's my turn.

Recalling my last session, now I undestood why the car felt a bit sluggish. It wasn't the heat from the weather rather it was because the car was running off the battery!! At one point, the ABS didn't work. The water temperature went up a bit due to a dying electric fan and the transmission shifting felt awkward.

Below is a datalog comparison of the battery voltage from two sessions at the Aug 12 event and two sessions from this event. As you can see, the top two lines hanging around 13.8V were from Aug 12 events. The pink line, session 3 of this event, starts to show a depleting battery voltage. The bottom most line shows the last session of this event and a even lower voltage level. I should have brought the laptop to view this data at the track. But unfortunately, I didn't. Such is the life of being a Murphy.

Now, who's European Motor Works? EMW is run by Imad Handal, an old friend I met back in the days when he worked at the dealership. We clicked because of one thing: the passion for track driving. Imad and I actually attended the same event back in the 2003. That was the last time we went to the track together. Since then he has been busy setting up his business and hiring new technicians to pass on his valuable knowledge on BMWs.

When Andy had a failed alternator, he had his car towed back to EMW and it was fixed within the hour. Not that I needed the car immediately but I have a bit of a impulsive and quick-tempered personality, I wanted to get the car back on the road ASAP. A quick phone call to Imad and he said "Bring the car over and we will fix it tomorrow!". We arrived at EMW late in the night and Joe, one of the techs, showed up and we pushed the car into the shop. At about 11:30pm that night, Imad called and said he will arrange to have the new alternator picked up.

On Saturday Aug 19, Andy and I rushed back to the shop. I was planning to at least remove the supercharger so that it would be easier for Joe to replace the alternator. To my pleasant surprise, he removed it for me including all the necessary lines. Amazing fellow. Thumbs up to him! You see EMW deals mostly with BMWs that require factory inspections and maintenances. There maybe a supercharged setup once in a while but nothing as intricate as mine. Still, Joe breezed through everything.

Urethane bushing updates from Bimmerworld (part 2)

In case anyone missed the last report, this is a continuation from the last report that the cores are still in placed. I give two thumbs up to the new design.

Is 2:11.718 good for 13CCW?

Despite the failing alternator, I managed a BL of 2:11.718 and my TL is 2:09.001. Wait..that's 2.71500s difference! I could have clocked up a 2:09???

This configuration is hardly run at NASA or any other organizations so it's a little hard to compare. This is the first time I am running this event with G2X, hence no previous data to compare. My overall vibe is that I am fairly competitive with this lap time and my class. Would be interesting to see how I fair with the others.

Now should times be similar for both CW and CCW direction? Some say yes. Others say no. But to me, it's a "can be". Think about it this way. The track maps are the same but what differs are the driving lines. My BL for 13CW is 2:10.XXX. That's fairly close to my 13CCW.

The verdict? Now I am wondering if my alternator had been in full working conditions, am I able to close that gap between 2:11 and 2:09? Is there a correlation at all? Maybe not.