Buttonwillow in April (but hot as July!)

Round 2 of the SoCal Spec E30 race series at Buttonwillow Race Park would start off on a sad note.   Car owner Erick Strong and his co-driver were testing the #111 car for the Saturday night enduro. With Eric’s co-driver behind the wheel, the car lost control coming out of Sunset and had a heavy impact into the tire wall; the car was destroyed.  Luckily, the driver walked away uninjured.

Within an hour of the crash, one of the other SoCal Spec E30 drivers had heard about the wreck and immediately offered him a car he had recently bought and was about to start building.  By Monday morning, Erick already had a replacement car and is now ready to swap all the usable parts and get back to the track. Meanwhile, he is looking for a rental car to finish the 2012 season out in or until his replacement car is ready for competition.  Our hearts go out to Erick because he has a very limited schedule to work on his car and he had just
completely gone thru the car taking care of every maintenance item
needed. That’s the sad truth of motorsports in that sometimes the plan
changes.

2012 Season Opening Race at Auto Club Speedway

After 4 long months of being away from the track, the Southern California NASA Region returns to California Speedway to being the 2012 racing season!  13 Teams arrived for the season opener and it was very clear that everyone was ready to get back behind the wheel.  If this race is any indication of what the season will turn out like, Spec E30 promises to be one of the tightest race series NASA has to offer. All 13 Teams discovered a blustery wind that would welcome them to the track; one that would surely have some effect on everyone’s weekend.   However, warm weather and clear skies would prevail, regardless of what the wind would do. Like all race weekends, the track record of 2:03.216 which was set at this event last year and held by Rius Billing, would be under attack almost immediately.

Season Finale at Buttonwillow

Round 7 and the season finale at Buttonwillow where a Spec E30
Champion would be crowned for the 2011 SoCal season.

Something new to the mix, Spec E30 Series director Shawn Meze led the
way friday after the track closed to do a course walk with a handful
of drives. Very few drivers have actually laid foot to the asphalt and
a better understanding of the track was had by many. I know one driver
would walk the course again on saturday and figure out something in
sundays race to move up in the pack. Could this be the next ritual for
the E30 drivers for the 2012 season? We will see!

Words can not describe so watch for yourself!

A little bit of fun from the the October race weekend. Enjoy!

Spec E30 and Round 6 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park!

The weather in October at Buttonwillow is always difficult to predict. It can either provide the blazing heat of summer, or it can be full-on winter cold. For the Spec E30 races the weather would be nice and cool with sun filled skies and a light breeze all weekend. A new record number of drivers showed up for this event – 14! Yes 14 drivers showed up to battle it out on the track.

Round 5, July 30-31 at Auto Club Speedway

SE30 returned to California Speedway with nine drivers, many of them
had the track record in their sites once again, but the hot weather
would control how fast they could run.

June 25th – 26th @ Buttonwillow

A NASA region with a growing class of Spec E30’s and cloudless 95 degree weather would not be the only story for the weekend at Buttonwillow! There would also be one of tough battles and an ever changing track conditions! 10 competitors would show up to play in the sunshine and, play they did.

Saturday morning warm-up went off without a hitch. 10 cars would take to the track for qualifying. 3 first time racers would join us for a weekend of racing bliss!