Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour’s third competition weekend of 2023 takes place Feb. 24-26 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park (BRP) situated midway between San Diego and San Francisco. This will be the first of three West Coast stops on the series schedule this year.
Resting within the southern portion of California’s Central Valley, BRP is one of the premiere road race and test facilities in the U.S., with 40 different layout configurations. SCCA’s Cal Club Region will host this Hoosier Super Tour (HST) event, which will be run in a clockwise direction on configuration 25a. That layout is 3.02 miles in length and includes turns such as Riverside, Phil Hill, the Esses, Sunrise, and Sunset, to name a few.
Hoosier Super Tour Buttonwillow Schedule
On-track activities for the three-day event at BRP begin Friday at 8 a.m. Pacific Time with 25-minute practice sessions for each of the seven run groups, followed by 25-minute qualifying sessions in the afternoon.
Saturday opens at 8 a.m. Pacific Time with a second round of qualifying for all run groups, but this time sessions are only 20 minutes in length. Then racing begins Saturday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. Pacific Time with 25-minute events for each race group.
When Sunday rolls around, competitors hit the track again for either 35-minute or 17-lap races beginning at 8:20 a.m. Pacific Time and continuing until approximately 4 p.m. local time. Click the button below to review the complete schedule.
The Competition
The Spec Racer Ford Gen3 class always puts on a great show at Buttonwillow, and they’ll likely repeat that feat Saturday and Sunday with 18 entrants in the fourth race group.
Another hot contest will likely take place in race group seven where 13 drivers will jockey for victory in the GT-3 class. That entry list includes Troy Ermish and Collin Jackson, both former GT-3 Runoffs National Champions who split race wins last year at the BRP HST event. And don’t forget about the GT-2 field in race group five where seven entrants will seek victory during the weekend.
With nine entrants in race group six, the Formula Continental® (FC) contests at BRP should be a thriller, too. These talented, open-wheel race car drivers are not afraid to brake late and slide vehicles around the circuit. One person to watch will be Troy Shooter, who claimed a Sunday victory in FC during last year’s HST visit to BRP.
Racers in the E Production (EP) class look set to put on a show with eight entrants in the second race group. Glen McCready, the EP driver who won both HST BRP races last year, is back to repeat that performance. However, there are several talented drivers looking to end McCready’s streak.
For additional information about the Hoosier Super Tour at BRP, check out the event webpage.
Watching the Weekend’s Action
The HST visit to BRP is open to the public and free for spectators. Come on out and be trackside to experience the excitement, and wander the paddock to observe wonderful machinery and meet great people.
For those who can’t get to Buttonwillow for the event, a secondary option for following the action is the new Hoosier Super Tour enhanced video and audio coverage. The familiar voices of motorsports commentators Gregg Ginsberg and Brian Bielanski will be calling the play-by-play action, and DriversEye Live will be producing the live video broadcast featuring up to 12 cameras – plus in-car video where possible.
Watching the HST Buttonwillow broadcast online is a breeze. Coverage will be streamed live via the SCCA YouTube channel and SCCA Facebook page. Post-race video interviews with many winners from Saturday, and Sunday victory podium celebration videos, will be viewable at the SCCA Road Racing Facebook page.
As usual, live Timing and Scoring is also available throughout the weekend at www.scca.com/live, or click the link button below. On-demand viewing of the action from BRP will be made available after the event.
Photo by Wedrick Campbell (First Place Visuals)
