Crossing Start-Finish, level or a little downhill until the turn. Turn One goes off to the left, ahead. Turns 4 and 5 are in the upper center. The Turn One pictures did not do it justice: it is a mildly banked left of about 90 degrees. In the Vegas, it was not necessary to brake, or to let off the gas. The important thing was to get around it with as little loss of momentum as possible. Big turn, big hill coming up.

The Turn 2-3 "Rabbit Ear" is a long uphill bordered on the outside by a 3- to 5-foot earthen bank. It goes on and on and on, until...

That doesn't mean there isn't any braking. As it happens, with our left-apex averse camera view,
the banking, and nose-diving Vega, there
are a lot of Gs involved, and what we see
is more asphalt-dirt landscape, until...

A slightly later point on the Turn 4 arc gives us a chance to see more of the "Balcony" area, and a look up the little canyon beyond, where the Spring of "Willow Springs" is located.

Here it is: the 100 horsepower hill. It is steep enough that your car accellerates like you wish it would on flat ground. Turn 5 is a mild-banked left that immediately goes into an uphill to the crest before Turn Six. Above and to the left of this turn is a little hill. Roger McClanahan, fabled flagman, stood there during the Enduro I ran in the MGB roadster. Nearly every lap he would show me the blue flag, to warn me the odd Lola CanAm or Bs Camaro was catching me up. I always nodded. Pretty soon I was nodding first, and he was nodding back. every two minutes or so for an hour and twenty minutes. (There beyond the turn is a view to Turn One with the track lining off to the right.)

See a map of the Willow course

Did I mention I left out the Turn One pictures? The camera is pointed slightly away from the apex, and all you see is two-tone (asphalt and dirt) featureless landscape. Ahead is the beginning of Turn Two, which is uphill and in combination with Three, is more than 180 degrees. Death on powerless Vegas. I don't remember how it went in the wagon, but the coupe's power curves gave zero speed difference between 3rd and 4th gears.

At last, the Entrance to Turn 4, banked and even more uphill. The challenge, again, is to not lose too much speed.

We look up, well above our heads, and see the first upper apex of Turn 4, and beyond it some of the "Balcony" observers. With the right balance of speed, skid, and steering input, this can be a smooth sweep around the length of the turn.

Riding out to the extreme left at the exit of Four, we are holding our breath while anticipating one of the thrills of the entire Willow Experience: the Turn 4 - Turn 5 transition.

Here you can see the result of cold tires. The driver of the MGB in the mirror didn't expect me to brake and slow to the extent I did. I knew the Vega's cold tires would not grip well, and send me off the course toward Start-Finish if I tried to go around much faster. The MG got some flat spots, and I got a one-finger salute.

During the Enduro I took a very late apex on every lap I was being overtaken here, so I could exit (nodding) closer to the right side of the road and let the faster car keep the fast line. Ironic that the car that caught me in Five on a practice lap in the Vega Wagon was an MGB.