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November 9th, 2001 at the Streets of Willow Springs TrackThe Streets event had an excellent group of drivers who generally did a great job of offering point by's, driving under control and quickly. We would be remiss if we didn't give special thanks to all the driving instructors who did a great job with their students, and without whom we couldn't have run the event. A big thanks also goes out to A.Dee, who was an absolute workhorse and ran Start/Finish, instructed, and generally helped us keep the event moving. Thanks A.Dee!
John's Writeup...or, Why I Was Driving a Rented Boxster.Usually I would have an account of the event from my perspective as a driver here, but this time it just was not to meant to be. Thursday, on the way up to WSIR, my RX-7 mysteriously overheated several times on the way up, to the point that I had to repeatedly pull off the freeway, release the pressure from the cooling system, add coolant, and continue on my way. Now, any reasonable person would have known there was a real problem here, but there was no way I was going to miss my own event. Logic flew out the window, and I pushed on. Well, I pushed a little too hard I guess, because after about my fifth stop, the car wouldn't start again.After sitting about an hour, it was clear the the motor was dead, and the debate began. If I leave it on the side of the street, will it get towed? Will my Kinesis wheels disappear? Is it really worth the $1k that the tow truck wants to tow my car all the way home? What had I done to so anger the Racing God that he would spare Aaron the merciless beating I had planned for him by causing my car to suicide? I guess we're just not meant to know the answer to some questions... 
Me, pondering unanswerable questions... To make a very long story short, I managed to cut a deal with a tow truck driver to take my car to my house (about 100 miles away) for $450, where my sister would meet the car (note to self: get trailer for car). Fortunately, I had another sister coming up to the event, and she would give me a ride the rest of the way. So, about 8 hours after leaving my house, I waved goodbye to my car with the goal of getting to Rosamond by midnight. Blantant plea for help: I still don't have a new engine in the car, so if anyone out there wants to help me pull out the old motor and drop in a new, or has a lead on a good 13B-REW, feel free to mail me. Friday started early and COLD, at which point I realized to my chagrin that I'd had a senior moment while packing, and the only long-sleeved article of clothing I had with me was my driving suit. I walked out of my motel room to get some coffee, feeling like a dork with my suit on and no car, when scattered about the parking lot I found several of our participants in various stages of dress, some teching their cars in their PJ's, others already wearing driving suits. I didn't feel so bad after that. Once at the track, there was the usual early-morning chaos, and Aaron handled the drivers meeting while I tried to figure out where the hell our corner workers were, and how we were going to run the event if they didn't show. Many thanks to Rick White during this trying time for helping me out. Fortunately, they appeared in time for us to almost stay on schedule, and the day rolled along pretty well after that. Happily, my father had rented a Boxster to run the day with us, so I got to do a couple of sessions in his car. I wasn't blown away by the power of the car, or the automatic gearbox (I didn't use the shift buttons, as I didn't see the point in risking a mis-shift), but I was impressed with the brakes. They did a great job of hauling me down from somewhere around 100 to whatever it was I went into the sweeper going. All in all it was a good day at the track. I was pretty busy, and didn't take many pictures, but those I did manage to get follow. I also have some decent footage of cars on the track that I haven't gotten around to editing, but I promise to someday soon. Thanks again to everyone that made the event a success, and hope to see you all at our next event! 
Does anyone smell the S2000 Challenge Series brewing? 
Turning into the sweeper... 
...Must....catch....the....vette... 
The point-by in action! 
The ever-vigilant corner workers... 
Frank Lin's quick hatch... Here are some links to pages about the event, by people who participated in the event: Dave's writeup and pictrues (the primered 2nd Gen RX-7 that was shooting flames) Steve's Photo Archive (Many McLaren photos) Steve's Video Archive (with much McLaren footage)
JRZ's Photo Archive
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