Willow Springs is where FastLane Racing School started. It is one of the oldest purpose-built road courses in the western United States, set in the high desert north of Los Angeles, and it shaped how we coach to this day. FastLane now calls Buttonwillow Raceway Park home, but Willow Springs is still part of who we are, and we can still run private days here on request.
For years, Willow Springs International Raceway was FastLane Racing School's home. It is where our instructors logged countless laps, where our teaching style was forged, and where generations of drivers first learned what a car can really do. The fundamentals we are known for, patient one-on-one coaching, real seat time, and a focus on car control before speed, were built on this circuit.
Today FastLane is based at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, our home track in California's Central Valley, where we are the official, SCCA-accredited school and run every program from our own dedicated facility on property. That is where the vast majority of our days happen now. Willow Springs remains our heritage, and a venue we are proud to have called home.
While Buttonwillow is our home track and where our programs normally run, we have not turned our back on Willow Springs. For private coaching, special requests, and the right occasion, we can still bring a FastLane day to this circuit. If Willow Springs is the track you have always wanted to learn, tell us, and we will look at what is possible.
Willow Springs is not a single road course but a complex of them, which is part of what made it such a complete classroom for FastLane over the years. From a flat-out, high-commitment circuit to a tight technical course and a dedicated skid pad, the site has a configuration for every stage of a driver's development.
2.5 miles, 9 turns
The signature circuit, long nicknamed "The Fastest Road in the West." Big Willow rewards commitment and clean technique, with real elevation change and a long straight where the fastest machinery can run well past 100 mph. It is fast, flowing, and unforgiving of bad habits, exactly the kind of track that teaches a driver to respect speed and earn it.
Technical, multi-configuration
A tighter, more technical road course with elevation change and a mix of increasing and decreasing radius turns. The Streets challenge novice and experienced drivers alike, and its multiple configurations make it an ideal place to build precision before carrying that pace onto a faster circuit.
Paved, about 400 ft x 350 ft
A large paved skid pad for car-control work. Taking a vehicle past the limit of grip in a safe, open space is one of the fastest ways to learn how a car behaves, and how to correct it. It is where many of our drivers first felt understeer and oversteer, and learned what to do about them.
Willow Springs sits in California's high desert, roughly an hour north of the greater Los Angeles area, near the towns of Rosamond and Lancaster in the Antelope Valley. Its dry, open setting and long history have made it a fixture of West Coast motorsport for decades and a backdrop for countless racing schools, test days, and film shoots. You can learn more about the venue on the official Willow Springs Raceway website.
Whether your heart is set on Willow Springs or you want to start where we run most days at Buttonwillow, the next step is the same: talk to a FastLane instructor and we will build a private day around your goals.
Talk to an Instructor Willow Springs is where we started, and Buttonwillow is where we run today. Tell us what you want from a day on track, including a private day at Willow Springs, and we will plan it with you.