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Concise Review…read more
WHAT A BLAST!!!!
SO AWESOME!
GREAT FAMILY DAY!!!
Five Stars are not enough!
On a scale of 1 to 10, a 12 (yes one more than eleven)!
Helpful in planning the race day.
Great teachers, to help us learn how to race.
Great hosts.
Provided great food.
Taught us more than we expected, and we hoped for a lot.
Extreme Speed
Sports Car Racing School
THANK YOU EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS!!!
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Longer Review
Our son is quite the car enthusiast.
We visited Southern California - Palm Desert, Yucaipa, and Malibu - for Spring Break 2021.
00 - FINDING EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS; INTRODUCTIONS
We like Jay Leno's Garage (TV show) and knew of Willow Springs race track from his show... and we thought maybe we could race there.
It out that Willow Springs is located north of LA, in the Mojave Desert, near Edwards Air Force Base.
I explored Willow Springs' website and they have a list of groups who regularly race there, and who teach others to race there.
I picked Extreme Speed Track Events and called and talked with Joel, who is very helpful. I explained that we just wanted to learn how to race, to safely go around the track and have a good time, and to maybe learn some "enhanced" driving skills. Joel assured me that is what they do, and we wholeheartedly agree... Extreme Speed Track Events can and will teach you how to race cars... on one of the most amazing tracks - Willow Springs International Raceway!
More information about the amazing time we had:
01 - ARRIVAL
We visited the office in the main building and the lady there pointed us to The Streets at Willow Springs.
While we could see all the tracks from where we were we spent the first little bit in the building. They got us situated and got us breakfast - bacon and eggs and waffles... and flavored Starbucks in-a-bottle.
02 - PRE-DRIVING INSTRUCTIONS
They gave us come classroom instruction in the building, about driving and tire tilt and camber... about how to read the track to determine how to set up one turn for the next turn.
03 - TO THE CARS
We followed them for five laps, as they showed us how/where to position our cars on the course.
04 - THE CARS
Our son and I each drove a stick-shift / manual transmission Toyota Celica... his black, mine white... that had been in the Long Beach celebrity Grand Prix... stock / factory cars with roll cage, lots of weight removed, and racing seats... and mufflers, etc. modified a bit, so they made a great rumbling noise.
Our daughter drove a red automatic Toyota Solara, also stock with a roll cage.
05 - THE STREETS AT WILLOW
The Streets at Willow has elevation changes and many curves. It's a thrill to drive. Given our novice status as drivers, our peak speeds were 85-90 mph, which was fast enough. Our track times were ~ 2 minutes.
06 - SKILLS SESSIONS
After the first laps, then we had a combination of driving in circles, and high-speed braking. The circles were ~ 80 feet around... and by driving faster, and turning the wheel more we saw how that didn't help - turning the wheel more did not make us turn any more tightly... to get more traction you slowed down, steered back a little and then had more grip, better control. The fast braking helped us time going faster into turns, slowing, then powering out of the corners.
07 - DONUTS!
Our son and daughter each got turns in the Miatas, making donuts and spinning out. Our son did some drifting on the skid pad, too!
08 - SCOOTERS
As we were using the track one-at-a-time, they also had Honda scooters... which we rode to the other tracks...
09 - A RIDE WITH THE TRACK RECORD HOLDER
I got to ride with Mark in his Miata, which helped learn what they were teaching us about slowing down and powering through the turn...
10 - AND THEN IT WAS JUST US
In the morning, a father and son shared The Streets with us... when we were off-track learning, they were on-track, racing. We drove counter-clockwise and they went clockwise... they were tuning their racing Porsche for an upcoming race, and the 17-year old son was fast! They left around lunch time.
Big Willow had several drivers on it in the morning, some Corvettes, Toyotas, Ferraris, etc. They also left around lunch time.
11 - HORSE THIEF MILE & BIG WILLOW
After another round of laps on The Streets of Willow, Rob and Mark led us around several laps on Horse Thief Mile and Big Willow... in between we went to the skid pad and our son had an awesome donut/burnout... he was really having fun making smoke and was showing off what he learned this day!
As we drove south through Antelope Valley, the sunset... to the right... a fitting end to a day that started with the sun rising to the east, to the left.
What a day!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU JOEL, ROB, MARK, DIANE AND JOEL'S GIRLFRIEND / EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS!!!
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