DROC track days at Buttonwillow Raceway Park

Buttonwillow Raceway Park, north-west of Bakersfield, is the circuit DROC has been back to more than any other. It is about a three-hour ride from Orange County, so these are usually overnight trips.

People call Buttonwillow flat. It is not: the run from Cotton Corner to Grapevine has real elevation change, there is a wheelie bump between turns 4 and 5, and Lost Hill at turn 9 is unmistakable. What is true is that you can see most of the circuit from most of it, which makes it a good place to learn a track properly. Note that the park has two separate tracks, and a day here can be on either one.

Two tracks, and they ride differently

Check which track a day is on before you sign up, because they are not variations of each other.

The classic track

The long-standing Buttonwillow course, and the one most people mean when they say they have ridden Buttonwillow. It runs in several configurations and in both directions, so the same circuit can feel like a different track from one day to the next. Ask the organizer which configuration you are running, and which way round, then check it against Buttonwillow’s own track maps, which cover every configuration.

Learn the corner names before you go, because that is how everyone in the riders’ meeting will refer to them. The elevation is the part photographs hide. Cotton Corner through Grapevine rises and falls, there is a wheelie bump between turns 4 and 5, and Lost Hill at turn 9 is unmistakable.

Layout of Buttonwillow Raceway Park, drawn by Ducati Riders of Orange County from OpenStreetMap geometry, with the corner names labelled. Buttonwillow Raceway Park The classic course · several configurations · run both directions Star Mazda Turn Sweeper Esses Off Ramp Lost Hill Drag Strip Sunrise Sunset Cotton Corners Bus Stop Grapevine Club Corner Truck Stop Riverside Hot pit lane 400 m drocdesmo.com
The classic course, with the corner names riders actually use. The Circuit, the newer Track #2, is a separate track at the same park. Layout drawn by DROC from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. This drawing is © Ducati Riders of Orange County.

The Circuit

Newly constructed, signed as Track #2. Buttonwillow’s own map puts it at 2.56 miles with 9 turns, 40 feet wide with a 50-foot front straight, on rubberised asphalt. Two corners carry names there: Erlandson on the back straight and Crean through the right-hand section. This is where California Superbike School put the dedicated DROC group in March 2026. If you have not ridden it, watch a lap first: it is a genuinely different exercise from the classic course, not a shortened version of it. Buttonwillow publish the official Circuit map, and every configuration of both tracks is on their track-maps page.

Layout of The Circuit at Buttonwillow (Track #2), drawn by Ducati Riders of Orange County from OpenStreetMap geometry, with the corner names labelled. The Circuit at Buttonwillow (Track #2) 2.56 miles · 9 turns · 40 ft wide · run clockwise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hot pit lane 400 m drocdesmo.com
Track #2, the newer circuit at the same park: 2.56 miles, 9 turns, 40 feet wide with a 50-foot front straight, run clockwise. Two corners carry names on the circuit’s own map, Erlandson on the back straight and Crean on the right-hand section. This is where California Superbike School put the dedicated DROC group in March 2026. Turn numbers are ours, worked out from the geometry rather than taken from the circuit, so tell us if they differ from the numbering used at the track. Layout drawn by DROC from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. This drawing is © Ducati Riders of Orange County.
Buttonwillow Raceway Park track map of The Circuit, Track #2, 2.56 miles, run clockwise

What a day here looks like

  • One of our Buttonwillow days, March 2026, was California Superbike School rather than an open track day: a structured curriculum with coaching and drills, not a casual session. Every other day here has been an open track day.
  • Open days here run the usual three-group format with tech inspection first thing and a riders’ meeting before session one.
  • Most people stay the night before. There are motels near the track, and camping at the circuit is an option.

Every DROC day at this circuit

Getting ready

Bike prep, gear, and what to pack are all on the track days page. If this would be your first time on track, read that first: none of it is hard, but arriving without a working transponder mount or taped mirrors wastes your morning.

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