Richard EVO

Chuckwalla Valley Raceway is the newest road course in SoCal. It just opened up earlier this month for cars, motorcycles have been running there a little longer.

Eventually the complex will include 3 road courses, garages and other facilities. It is a membership country club organization, but will rent the tracks to outside groups like SpeedVentures and has its own open lapping days that are open to the public.

The first road course has been completed. It is a 17-turn, fairly "technical" 2.8 mile course with no really long straightaways. It can be run in either direction. The course was designed by well-known racetrack designer Ed Bargy. The paddock has been paved and there is a small gas pumping station on the property, but only 91 octane is available at this time ($4.25/gal. and the nearest gas station is 23 miles away).

The track is very well designed and fun to drive. It only took a couple of sessions to feel like you are really learning it. As you get faster, you drive with a lot of slip angle. Going CW, a lot of the turns are decreasing radius, followed by short straights or other turns. There is a little bit of elevation change, but no big hills. It has a banked bowl. I have not yet run it CCW, but we did take a parade lap in that direction, and it looks like a different but challenging track.

The open lapping days are one weekend or one or two Wednesday a month. I went on April 21. There were only 6 cars, and they just left the track open all day from 9:30 to 5:00, except for a worker lunch break. I drove between 3 and 4 hours! $150 for the whole day plus $10 gate fee.

The track is nicely prepared. All the berms are in and painted. There are permanent brake point markers, flag stations, etc. There is tons of runoff area and the only thing you could possibly hit is the pit wall on the front straight. The paving is new, and in places has phenominal grip (but not it the bowl, which is a little skittish).

This is a great addition to our track resources in California. I definitely like this track better than Streets of Willow, the Auto Club Speedway Roval and Infield, Horse Thief Mile, and the Las Vegas Outside Roadcourse. Not everyone will agree with me, but I think it is on par with Buttonwillow and Spring Mountain.

The only real downside is the location and weather. It is located 50 miles east of Indio off I-10, so it's a longer drive than SoCal drivers are used to when we go to Willow Springs or Buttonwillow. The weather there will be extremely hot there about 6 months out of the year. I would not go there between May and October.

The day I went we were in the middle of some stormy weather in SoCal. There was no rain during the day. But it was VERY WINDY. Some gusts over 50 mph. There were basically sand storms going across the track during some parts of the day. One time it was so bad I couldn't see the track and spun off into the dirt. I don't think this is normal, but apparently it can be windy there, especially in the Spring.

The guy who built the track Mickey Grana, is a nice guy and racing entusiast who was very accomodating to the drivers. He did a nice job with this track and I look forward to the future construction.

Aerial views:

NORTY

You forgot to mention that 3 of the cars left after 1pm, so there were only 3 cars on the whole track! Were you the Honda S2000?

Richard EVO

Yes.

RoHo

What is the long straight away were looking at next to the track?

That's not a drag strip is it?

LazyDog

....so obviously they allow Verts on this track?

stano

Nice write-up Rich.
I'll be there this Sunday. How was the surface of the track? I would imagine because of it being new and the weather hot, it was a little greasy?

How did the S2000 do Rich?

Richard EVO

Their track rules say all convertibles must have a rollbar, but they accepted the stock roll hoops on my S2000. I don't know what they would say about a Vette Vert, you should call the track office and ask before driving out there.

Richard EVO

The track surface is great, except for maybe in the bowl. It was not greasy at all. There is one section (the "hill" part of the track) that has really great grip. The bowl is paved differently for some reason, and the tail wants to come out on that part of the surface.

The S2000 is great. A much better car for me than the C4.

Richard EVO

It's an airport runway. The developer bought the local airport as the land for his track. I think small planes can still land there. I don't think there are any plans for a dragstrip, just 3 road courses.

C5Lion

Which turn is the bowl? Is it the most southern part of the track in the first picture in your post?

Richard EVO

Yes. You can tell it is banked in that pic.

stano

found this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ2BpTwg5CI

NORTY

The "bowl" is T13 in clockwise config.
Go in just above the midpoint, start to dive towards the late apex, slingshot onto the straight. When I first got on the track, it was a 55mph turn. Once I figured it out, it became a 77mph turn with a 90 mph exit.

n2osage

Hey Richard! Price is one of the corner workers/control rider for Socal Trackdays and was out there for their opening. He loves the track. After 4 days of racing the Ducati (1198s), he showed me the tires on the bike and they were perfectly smooth and looked near new (with shorter wear marks, of course). The track is so smooth the tires didn't booger up at all!

NORTY

NORTY

2:19.94 on the lap. Those worn out GoodYears like to slide! Predictable just like Dunlops. No surprises like Bridgestones!