Jim Tipton once again did a great job in organizing SOCALM's second visit to the Streets of Willow Springs located in Rosamond. Over 2 dozen drivers from both SOCALM and SDMC took part in the 1 and 2 day driving course taught by Danny McKeever's Fast Lane Racing school. (Fast Lene is the school that teaches celebrities who race the Toyota Celicas as part of the Long Beach Grand Prix.)

During the weekend, mixed with the Miata drivers were other vehicles: about half a dozen students who attended Fast Lane's regular school and drove the school's Toyota Celicas, 2 spec. racing trucks, a Mini Cooper, and a Touring Class Honda Accord. Some people even saw a glimpse of Home Immprovement's Tim Allen, who brought his Saleen Mustang, his crew, a large support vehicle and even his personal Michigan-plated gray Ferrari Modena.

People who did the 1 day and 2 day course started on Saturday morning at 8:15am. The 2 day people stayed overnight in Lancaster and did another track day on Sunday.

All day Saturday and for the sessions before lunch on Sunday, the course was run in the normal clockwise direction. Click here to see an MPEG video of a very fast Yamaya R1 motorcycle driving the Streets of Willow. After lunch on Sunday, we ran the course in the opposite direction - a whole lot of fun!

My thanks goes to Jim Tipton for all the hard work he put into organizing this year's event. He set up an unbelievable bargain of a driving school. Consider this: if you were to go to Fast Lane by yourself and sign up for their one day course, it will cost you $595. For their two day course, it costs $1295. For that price, you'll get to use their race prepped Toyota Celicas, but apart from that, there was no difference in what they went through and what the Miata people were doing. We got the same in-class lectures, the same helpful instructors as ride-along passengers when you wanted, we used the same track, did the same skidpad, and even ate the same meals. The only difference? We used our Miatas! And the price that Jim worked out for us to do all this? $350 for the 2 day course. What a deal!

Thanks also to all the instructors at Fast Track Racing who wre all top notch people. And last but not least, thanks to all the wonderful Miata drivers who took part this year.

Links to Streets of Willow Springs track days I've attended:

• April 29-30, 2001
• December 9-10, 2000
• April 29-30, 2000
• October 2-3, 1999
• September 13, 1998

• 01, 02 -- Saturday morning began at Fast Lane racing's office
• 03, 09 -- Next stop was the 250ft radius skidpad
• 04, 05, 06 -- Driver's meeting at the hot pit area on the front straightaway of the Streets of Willow Springs
• 07 -- Lining up to go on the track
• 08 -- Toyota Celica's used by Fast Lane's non-Miata students. Tim Allen's Saleen Mustang support vehicle is in the background.
• 10 -- A picture of my tires (Bridgestone RE-71 195/55-14) after roughly 200 miles of track time over 2 days
• 11 -- John Martinez going down the straight during the reverse direction run on Sunday afternoon.
• 12 -- Jim Tipton on the same section
• 13 -- Jason "Nutball" Wassman in the red car, making a hard right down the straight, while Bobby Kleemann's car turns left back to the pit area.
• 14 -- Yes...my car was really there.
• 15 -- John Martinez
• 16 -- Bruce Hilsberg
• 17 -- Gene Stanley
• 18 -- Robert Arance (L) and Jason Wassman (R)
• 19 -- From L-R: John, Robert, Jason, and Neal Howland
• 20 -- Rod, one of Fast Lane's instructors who did several ride-alongs with me during the 2 days, and gave me several valuable tips over the course of the weekend.