Author: Speed News Editor

The third annual NASA Western States Championships presented by Toyo Tires is receiving entries from across the country that will assure strong competition October 14-16, 2016 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park.
Buttonwillow Raceway Park, with its 3.1-mile and 12-turns, will play host to the NASA Championship competitors in two weeks. The track is a favorite among the local racers and will be challenging to those traveling from across the country. NASA is adding a unique flair to the event by using two different track configurations over the three-day event.
Chad Plavan is running his first NASA Championships in the all-new NASA NP01 powered by Mazda.
“Since I live in Clovis, California, Buttonwillow is considered my home track being under two hours from my house,” Plavan said. “I have been racing at Buttonwillow since 1997. In fact, I received my racing license there. The Championships configurations are a little different. I have raced my vintage

In the middle of California’s Central Valley lies Buttonwillow Raceway, a technical circuit with 16 different race configurations and the option to run clockwise or counterclockwise. With so many options, it’s possible to run the same track several times a season and still experience new challenges.
Now that officials have revealed which configurations we’ll be running at the Western States Championships in October — No. 1 and No. 25 counterclockwise — we can offer NASA members a tutorial on how to get around the track as fast as possible. Fortunately for those racers coming from another NASA region, these two configurations are rarely used. That means there won’t be much home-field advantage for Southern California racers.
Buttonwillow can be a difficult track to master, with lots of sacrifice turns, rapid transitions and a bit of elevation change thrown in for good measure. The short front straight doesn’t quite level the playing field