Buttonwillow Raceway 26CCW
Buttonwillow Raceway Park is a multipurpose Motorsport facility, home to the California Region of the Sports Car Club of America. It's been in operation since 1996 at the town of Buttonwillow, a 30-min drive away from Bakersfield, CA. The club members use the complex to develop their high-performance racing skills on track days open for aspiring racecar drivers. Buttonwillow Raceway Park also hosts regular go-kart competitions and serves as a road testing ground for car manufacturers. The raceway's location in the arid San Joaquin Valley offers good climate conditions year-round, although it may get quite hot in summer. You can bet on the track surface to remain dry, as it rains very little in Buttonwillow, usually in wintertime.
There are three track layouts in Buttonwillow Raceway Park: the 1.86-mile West Loop, the 1.06-mile East loop, and the 3.1-mile combined configuration. These are customizable in 40+ different ways for hosting varied competitions simultaneously. There is also a separate kart track of 0.69 miles and a 250′ x 255′ skidpad. The main straightaway has 3,800 feet and serves as a test drag strip when it's not a part of a race layout. Some turns have negative banking, and others have up to 10% positive banking, and many of them are blind corners because of the frequent elevation changes through the whole race track.
The 26CCW configuration at Buttonwillow Raceway delivers a counterclockwise layout utilizing turn combination 26, extending to Star Mazda Turn 16 in the facility's modular naming system at California's Kern County technical road course. The 26 designation combined with counterclockwise direction creates specific routing characteristics distinct from clockwise 26 operation. This variant demonstrates Buttonwillow's systematic configuration approach where turn numbering and directional options combine to create extensive layout variety serving diverse motorsport activities.
Operating the 26CCW showcases Buttonwillow's exceptional versatility where numbered turn combinations and directional choices provide nearly unlimited configuration possibilities earning reputation as California's most flexible road course. Central Valley's extreme climate creates year-round racing potential with summer track temperatures exceeding 60C while winter sessions can operate in near-freezing morning conditions. The 26CCW variant provides specific routing serving events requiring this particular configuration, allowing Buttonwillow to customize layouts matching varied skill levels and technical requirements across the facility's comprehensive year-round programming.
