Live

Thursday is now in the books and we are passing through Nashville on our way to Joliet, IL. Today we raced at one of the most beautiful facilities I think I have ever seen - Barber Motorsports Park - and are faced with our most grueling (planned) transit stag of the race.

Yesterday afternoon Mary did an awesome job at No Problem Raceway - a course that was ideally suited for her. Her run was good enough for 31st overall and most of all showed that all of our fixes - axles, differential, brakes - were working as we had hoped. It's hard to hop in a car with brand new this and that and have the confidence to throw it around a race track at you have never seen before but we did and we were rewarded with a car that we know we can trust.

After leaving No Problem we had a relatively short transit stage (380 miles I think) to Birmingham, Alabama where we were able to catch up on some much needed sleep. The transit stage was not, however, without incident as we were having some intermittent issues with our trailer lights which, while not a huge deal, is worrysome especially when thinking about the long drive the next day. I think it is (was) a bad ground, we will find out tonight...

(9:40 update... It looks like the light issue is Rocky the Raccoon's revenge... When Mary splittered him, it looks like he not only took out the splitter strut but also walloped the Marquez running light. It's loose now so think we might have a ground issue up there... Fingers crossed we can get through the night).

This morning we had a short drive to Barber Motorsports Park and the best description that I can give is that it was like pulling up to an elite golf and country club. It is immaculately prepared with rolling lawns, trees, facilities, and what is supposed to be an awesome museum (that we didn't have time to visit). The track itself is even cooler although it is very intimidating, especially to those of use with more "conservative" abilities. It is far and away the most technical track that I have ever seen in person, let alone driven on. Most difficult are the multiple elevation changes which give you an interesting variety of blind turns - both uphill and downhill. We walked the track before heading out and I am glad that it was something that we been doing all week. Maps are great, notes are helpful, and video goes a long way to creating familiarity with tracks but nothing compares to walking it. Video didn't even come close to capturing the elevation changes and the pucker moments. When you a get instructions like "whatever you do here, make sure you are going straight when you crest this blind hill (at 90 mph)" you think about it a lot.

It turns out, I think I thought about it too much. When I went out in the morning for reasons that I can not explain I never really "got up" for the run. I was ready, and I was confident about the car and the track, but for whatever reason I never got in to the "gotta go" mentality. I think to some degree I was nervous about the run... We have 700 miles to drive tonight and a couple of hundred tomorrow - I know that preservation of the equipment this close to the end of the race was on my mind. We have locked up first in our class and are too far down overall (after missing Daytona and Gainesville) to recover - I know there was no urgency besides do well and represent the team and the car as best I could.

It was probably a combination of those things but when I got out I was way to tentative and nowhere near as aggressive as I needed to be. The braking zones are all very clearly marked and I gave them a lot of respect... Too much respect. If you have ever participated in one of Baer Brake's speed stop challenges you know what I am saying. You get hard on the brakes only to stop (or slow down) 100 feet too soon... And I just never pushed it like should have.

One of the greatest feelings about driving a car on the track is the surge of adrenaline you have after making that perfect lap, or turn, or apex... You get back in the pits and your whole body is crying out for more; you're shaking with the thrill of having done IT. I didn't have that feeling this morning... I ran my laps, pulled in to the pits and knew that I had been nowhere near the edge. Heck, I probably couldn't have even seen the edge from where I had driven. Bad feeling.

And it showed in my time, a disappointing but not unexpected 40 somethingth overall.

Mary on the other had, got IT. She went out after a solid days preparation (if you know Mary you will know what I mean) and she got on it from the start. She was second in her run group and made up 6 seconds on the car in front of her in the first lap. she got another 6 by the end of the second lap and was drag racing him down the front straight at the checkers. That's really impressive on a 2 mile course. It was amazing the number of people who came by afterwards and looked at Mary and the car in a little different light. The run itself was good for 38th despite being held up on her third lap.

Which more or less brings us to now... Somewhere on I-65 North between Bowling Green and Louisville in Kentucky making a bee line for Joliet. After Nashville traffic and a stop or two for gas we are looking at a 130 arrival at the hotel...

Long night coming.

It's Wednesday evening (at least I think it's Wednesday... the days are starting to run together now) and we are on our way from No Problem Raceway outside of New Orleans to Birmingham, Alabama. The last 60 hours have been a marathon highlighted by a roller coaster of highs, lows, anticipation, frustration, disappointment, and resilience. With no breaks (or sleep) in between.

Since we started the day Monday at Carolina Motorsports Park we have been able to sneak 2 hours of sleep, eaten at MacDonalds more times than anyone thinks is healthy, and have fought back from what we thought was the end of our race thanks to the help of our friends in the Pro-Touring industry and community.

After our break down on Monday night we were able to tow the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro first to Gainesville an eventually to Sanford, Florida where the Prodigy Customs gang was standing by to help us get back on the road if possible. When we finally arrived at a hotel that morning I took a minute to drive the car around the hotel parking lot and after listening to and watching the car, Mary and I optimistically but cautiously agreed that it didn't sound like an axle, but was more likely a bearing or differential problem. Neither are a whole lot better than the other but they were problems that we could fix... And that we could fix quickly.

When we got to Prodigy Custom's brand new facility in Sanford Frank and Michael immediately started working on the car and found the problem as soon as the first axle a was pulled. The bearing was completely destroyed. It looked like the axle seal failed and the gear oil leaked past until it was nearly dry and then the bearing quickly ate itself. The passenger side being showed advanced wear so the decision was made to replace both. When we pulled the center section out of the housing Mary found what she considers to be way too much debris for comfort so the decision was made to change out the 3rd member with the spare that we carried in the trailer with us.

Once the new diff was in and axles reassembled and installed we made the decision to replace the front rotors with the ones that DSE brought us the day before. That was done in short order and barely 5 hours after rolling in on a flat deck we were heading out under our own power.

It was 7 pm and we had missed the one event that Mary and I had been looking forward to more than any other... Daytona. Definitely a disappointment for both of us but at least we were back in the game. After Daytona the race stopped in Gainesville for some quarter mile action but that was wrapping up as we were packing up nearly 200 miles away.

Having missed Daytona and Gainesville Mary and I evaluated our options. At this point we hadn't slept for 36 hours aside from a cat nap and although our lead in Vintage American was secure, we had effectively taken ourselves out of the running in the overall points. It was 7 PM and we were nearly 800 miles from New Orleans and 500 or so miles from Birmingham so we had two choices... 1. Head back to Gainesville, properly breaking in the new rear end and brakes, get a good nights sleep and head on to Birmingham, meeting up with everyone on Thursday well rested and ready to head for the finish line or 2. Try to make it to No Problem Raceway for the afternoon session, grabbing a few hours sleep on the road.

After a brief but silent deliberation, Mary and I looked at each other, smiled and said "I am game if you are" and we chose option 3... Drive all night, make 800 miles in the 12 or so hours we had, and rejoin the One Lap first thing in the morning!

To make a long nights story short that is exactly what we did, making a banzai run across the panhandle through the night and arriving just time to unload the car and get a quick look at a track map before putting our now "broken in" parts to the test...

Sorry for the late update - it's been a long night...

After Mary's excellent showing on at the BMW Performance Center last night we hit the highway for what we were hoping was going to be an uneventful if not late night drive to Daytona. The trip certainly got off well, with Mary getting us though South Carolina and well in to Georgia without a hitch. The car was running well and both of us were feeling remarkably good.

Some time after 11 PM with Mary at the wheel and me dozing in the passenger seat Mary shouts out... Well, never mind what she actually shouted out, you can use your imagination..

"I hit a raccoon," she exclaimed, "the bugger was in the other lane and ran right in front of me. I think I caught him with the splitter."

The car seemed ok after the bump but we were through the better part of a tank of fuel so we pulled in to the next available gas station for an inspection, a fill up, an a driver swap.

The inspection wasn't great... The raccoon had indeed hit the splitter on the passenger side - hard enough to break one of the support struts. ouch. No real damage but definitely a hard hit. When we got to the back of the car we were greeted with a film of gear oil costing the trailer, tail light panel, and gas tank. A quick inspection didn't reveal anything obvious so we filled up, ley everything cool off a bit and continued down the road, hoping that the non stop miles had simply overheated rear end and it was venting a bit of fluid.

About an hour down the road, just north of the Florida state line, we were cruising comfortably when the car shuttered and we heard what at first sounded like a tire rapidly going flat. Given the fact that we have run flats and the car was not shaking or pulling I quickly pulled over and we jumped out, hoping that it was a trailer tire. No such luck... All of the tires were up and the drivers side quarter panel was coated with yellowish gear oil, as was he wheel, the tire, and the underside of the car.

It is now 130 in the morning and we are calling triple A for a lift. While we wait for. Flat deck we start reaching out via the internet - forums, emails, social networking - to try to track down help for what feels like a serious issue. The tow truck arrived around 330 and we rolled in to Gainesville - the farthest we could get him to bring us - around 530.

We caught a couple of hours of sleep and at 830 our phones started ringing with offers to help.

We quickly decided to tow the car to Prodigy Customs just outside of Orlando. Frank and his team are some of the most respected builders in the business so we are hopeful that they cn help us get back on the road.

Which brings us to right now. We are in another flat deck just a few miles from Prodigy and hopefully moving towards getting back on the road.

We are down at this point, but not out. Daytona Motor Speedway was one of the highlights for both Mary and I on this trip and it hurts to be so close but not be able to run on the high banks. Hopefully we can get this together today and rejoin the race in New Orleans tomorrow... We will keep you posted.

James and Mary

Wow! What a great day!

We are on I-385 heading south through South Carolina on our way to Daytona Beach (which the GPS promises we will reach shortly after 2 AM). We just finished up at the BMW Performance Center where we had our third competition stop of the day.

The day started with more sock adjustments, lead by some insight from the Team at RideTech. We keep getting closer and closer and I think that we have something that we can stick with for the rest of the race. James took the first run late in the morning and payed down a solid if not spectacular run. Mary too the afternoon run and positively lit it up with a great run that was good for 20th overall! I was great to hear Mary exclaim that the OLC felt as good as it ever has and that she was able to push the car harder than she every had before. I must be doing something right on the setup (finally).

We made the decision between the first and second run to call Stacy and Kyle at DSE to see if they had any spare brake rotors that we could grab. Our Baer brakes are doing absolutely great but we have developed a bit of a pulsation in the front so we'd like to rotate the rotors and keep everything running smoothly. DSE didn't have any spare inventory that we could borrow so they pulled the rotors off one of their own cars and sent one of their guys to Carolina Motorsports Park to deliver the rotors! WOW!!! I can not thank them enough!

We had planned on swapping them out before leaving Kershaw but we were the last (running) car at the track and had only a slim chance of making the transit to BMW as it was. We debated doing the work, missing BMW and rejoining the race in Daytona but decided that we could live with what we had for a little while longer and did not want a DNF for any event if we could avoid it. That being said we made the decision to motor to BMW, hopefully make it in time, and keep on running with the pack.

It was a harrowing transit stage but we made it to the Performance Center with about a half hour to spare. We quickly unpacked, threw two gallons of gas in the car, and Mary headed out on to the track in the second to last run group of the day.

Mary is definitely back - as she demonstrated with a fantastic 19th place overall finish at the BMW Performance Center! The car is running great and the drivers are finally finding a rhythm... We have improved to 43rd place overall and are hoping for a safe transit to Daytona tonight.

Until tomorrow...

Cheers

James and Mary

We're sitting at Carolina Motorsports Park between rounds - James ran in the morning and Mary is getting ready to run in the afternoon session. This has been a day of attrition throughout the field and we are running in to issues of our own but thankfully we're only an hour away from Detroit Speed and Engineering and after talking to Stacy it sounds like we have Parts on way...

I'll post more details when we're not scrambling... But in the mean time...

THANK YOU DETROIT SPEED and ENGINEERING

James and Mary

Monday May 2, Kershaw, SC
Class standing: 1st
Overall standing: lower

We'll it's 5:45 Sunday afternoon and we are ... Somewhere... on I-81 in... Virginia I think...

Summit Point this morning was a bit of a roller coaster. We played some more with the shock settings - resetting everything and starting from scratch and we were rewarded with a much happier OneLapCamaro than we had yesterday. The car felt goon on the track and behaved in a much more predictable manner today - it just goes to show that when in doubt double check everything.

Mary took the first run this morning with some trepidation after spinning yesterday... It's tough to get on a track with a potentially 150 mph straight away followed by a 180ish degree turn when you're not sure exactly how the car is going to respond. The good news, as I said earlier, is the car did very well and Mary's faith in the OLC was restored. Her cumulative lap time of 5:00 was only 15 seconds per lap slower than the Leh Keen's low time of morning so we're working ok. The bad news was that (as I mentioned in a previous post) this is a really competitive year and her time was good enough for 60th place on the day. This means that we will start in 60th position for the rest of the week although we will be able to move up in the ladder as we prove to be faster.

I took the afternoon session - from the now established 60th spot on the grid - and things were looking up. Until the rain came... With around 55 cars done and my turn fast approaching a drizzle quickly became a light shower... Nuts! I don't know if there is anything worse to see as you sit on the grid than rain drops on your windshield but that's what I had now... But it's not like we had any choice so I went out with a final piece of advice from one of the local hot-shoes... "beware of the concrete sealer... It gets slippery in the wet". Wonderful... When we walked the track earlier we found the new sealer to be both sticky and the ideal racing line for most corners... nuts.

Long story short... It was (slippery) but I was able to find my way around with only a couple of pucker moments and was able to eek out a 4:50 - good enough for 50th place in the afternoon and one of the best times posted on the wet track.

We're on our way now to Kershaw, SC - a comparatively short transit of 420 miles (well short compared to yesterday at least). With any luck we'll roll in to town around 9:30 tonight for what could be a decent night sleep before tomorrow's mini-marathon with South Carolina Motorsports Park in the morning (twice) followed by a 150 mile transit stage and one stop at the BMW Performance Center in the afternoon - followed by a 480 transit to Daytona, Florida. 630 miles and three competition events... It's going to be a long day!

Good news is that we remain first in our class although that's more luck than skill at this point.

This morning we're at Summit Point in West Virginia and Mary is getting ready to run our first road course of the week. It was wet this morning but it's dried up nicely so were hoping for a good lap. Mary will run this morning and James will run in the afternoon then we have a "short" transit to South Carolina which will be a welcome change from yesterday's cumulative 600+.

We played with shocks this morning and are hopefully heading in the right direction. We're around 50% on rebound and 75% soft all around now.

Fingers crossed... We're beat but still pushing hard. We're first in class for now and will get a good idea over the next day how safe that lead will be but as we demonstrated last year anything can happen.

Cheers

Friday morning - getting ready for the wet skid pad.
RideTech triple adjustable shocks set at +6 from full soft
Tires are set at 30 psi (down 6 psi)
Mary takes the wheel in a couple of hours

As Mary and I get ready to head to Chicago to pick up the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro and do one final shakedown run to South Bend for the kick off the 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America on Friday I wanted to take an opportunity to thank all of our sponsors who make this all possible:

We'll be trying as best we can to keep the live updates coming over the next week.  Check out our LIVE site at www.OneLapCamaro.com/live for 24 hour Live GPS tracking, blogs, and video updates.

And if you're keeping track, here's next weeks route and schedule...



Registration and Tech at Tire Rack HQ – Friday April 29th

Event 1 – Wet Skid Pad – Tire Rack HQ, South Bend, IN – Saturday AM
Transit 96 miles
Event 2 – Autocross – Grissom AFB, Peru, IN – Saturday PM
Transit 566 miles 

Event 3 – Time Trial – Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point, WV – Sunday AM
Event 4 – Time Trial - Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point, WV – Sunday PM
Transit 465 miles

Event 5 – Time Trial – Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw, SC – Monday AM
Event 6 – Time Trial – Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw, SC – Monday PM
Transit 154 miles
Event 7 – Time Trial – BMW Performance Center, Greer, SC – Monday PM
Transit 482 miles

Event 8 – Time Trial – Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, FL – Tuesday AM
Event 9 – Time Trial – Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, FL – Tuesday PM
Transit 115 miles
Event 10 – Drag Race – Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, FL – Tuesday PM
Event 11 – Bracket Race - Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, FL – Tuesday PM
Transit 545 miles

Event 12 – Time Trial – Circuit Grand Bayou Road Course, Avondale, LA – Wednesday AM
Event 13 – Time Trial – Circuit Grand Bayou Road Course , Avondale, LA – Wednesday PM
Transit 370 miles

Event 14 – Time Trial – Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, AL – Thursday AM
Event 15 – Time Trial – Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, AL – Thursday PM
Transit 700 miles (!!!)

Event 16 – Time Trial – Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, IL – Friday AM
Event 17 – Time Trial – Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, IL – Friday PM
Transit 105 miles

Event 18 –Dry Skid Pad – Tire Rack HQ, South Bend, IN – Saturday May 7th AM

I have been asked a couple of times over the last week if we will be looking for help and support like we did last year… if we will be selling T-shirts again… if there is any way for people to follow our progress as we race. To answer those questions…

• Volunteers - We are definitely looking for potential volunteer support during the event. This is a long race and knowing that there are forum members somewhere nearby - on the off chance that we need their help - goes a long way for our peace of mind. You can check out our route map here – 2011 OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Route Map – and if you are close to where we’ll be running, feel free to collaborate with the map and drop a pin with our member name, real name, or email. Also please email your name, address, and contact information to james@onelapcamaro.com. We’ll keep your information with us and if we run in to problems will call you if we’re in the area.

• T-Shirts - We will be doing T-shirts again – we’re just a bit behind right now but will hopefully have something to show everyone soon – we’ll keep you posted.

• Live Tracking - You can follow our progress during the race live this year at www.OneLapCamaro.com/live/ - we’ll have real time GPS tracking and regular blog entries on the page and we hope to have live video feeds from time to time – cell service permitting. The Live page is still being finished up but should be done Monday or Tuesday next week - be sure to check it out and stay tuned!

• Donations - Last year we were fortunate to have a number of friends and forum members who helped to offset our costs – food, gas, etc. - and this year we are hoping to turn that generous show of support to help a very worthy charity –Autism Speaks / Cure Autism Now. We would appreciate it if you would show your support of the OneLapCamaro Team by making a donation here - Autism Speaks - 2011 OneLapCamaro – and help to find a cure for Autism. We’ve set an ambitious goal of $5,000 for this year and would really appreciate your help to reach it.

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro was privileged to have been invite to attend the 2011 Toyota Grad Prix of Long Beach - not only to show off to the 200,000 or so enthusiasts in the manufactures midway but to actually lead the World Challenge field to the grid for their race on Sunday!  This was a really cool opportunity for us and we were blown away by the non-stop crowds who were definitely "wowed" by the OLC.

The 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America is now a week away and the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team of Mary Pozzi and James Shipka is getting ready to take on the challenge of long miles, serious competition, and – by the looks of things this week – the weather. This year’s event will cover over 3,650 miles in 8 days with 18 individual competition stops including wet and dry skid pads, an autocross, some drag racing, and lots of road course racing. Starting in South Bend, Indiana this year’s course will take us down the East Coast as far south as Daytona Beach before heading across the panhandle to New Orleans and finally turning North for a couple of long days crossing through the Mid West to return to South Bend just a week after we left.

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team has made a lot of changes over the winter, hoping to take our performance up a notch without sacrificing reliability: 

• We’ve installed a new Rick’s Stainless fuel tank featuring Carl Casanova’s VaporWorx fuel pump and controller; with the multiple pickups and surge tank design we’ve been able to run the OLC hard in testing with less than 2 gallons of fuel in the tank with no starvation issues.

• We’ve switched over to RideTech’s new Triple Adjustable coilover shocks, softening the shocks while increasing the spring rate to make the car more compliant and increasing the range of adjustability.

• We’ve installed massive Baer 6R brakes on all four corners, the 6-piston calipers and 14 inch rotors giving us additional stopping power with better pedal feedback for a more confident braking feel.

• We’ve moved to new C93 style wheels from HRE Performance Wheels for reduced weight and increased strength. The 18” fronts and 19” rears will allow us to use state-of-the-art supercar tires and look simply awesome on the car.

• We’ve incorporated new ZR1-style wheel bearings up front; SpeedTech Performance was able to modify the low-deflection hubs to work with their ATS Spindles and we’re ready to take on the high banks of Daytona with confidence.

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team has also had to scramble a bit due to some unforeseen carnage in the months and weeks leading up to our departure. While bedding our new Baer brakes a valve stem attached to our TPMS system broke, flattening a front tire. Fortunately the Run-On-Flat feature worked as advertised (saving our new HRE wheel) but the passenger side front tire needed replacing with less than 50 miles of use. Then, just a couple of days later our clutch was reduced to a smoking, warped hulk at the Editors Challenge Autocross at the Goodguys show in Del Mar. The unexpected destruction left us with only seven days to rebuild and nut-and-bolt the car before heading to the Long Beach Grand Prix – our final stop before loading the OLC and trailer up and making the long journey east.




And now, with only a week to go Mary and I are left to think – or over think – the race ahead of us and question our mental, physical, and mechanical preparation… After running our parade laps at Long Beach before the World Challenge race we found a couple of trickles of coolant pooled on the splitter… is this something? nothing? a leak or just some residual fluid? Have we forgotten anything in the trailer… our spares list is pretty extensive but is there something missing? Are wereally prepared to run on these tracks… our exposure to them is more or less limited to ESPN, Trackapedia, and YouTube. What is the weather going to do… and how are we going to deal with it? 

The ultimate question though is… are we ready for this… I hope that we are.

The 2010 Silver State Classic Challenge has come and gone and while this remains one of our favorite events, this years outing was really disappointing. After what felt like a great run down Highway 318 in Nevada - and a day full of challenges and complications - the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro is, as it stands right now, sitting with a DQ for apparently crossing the finish line too slow. The results are under review but at this point it’s not looking good.


If you are not familiar with the Silver State Classic Challenge it is one of the few true Open Highway races left in the world. Twice a year Nevada Highway 318 is closed from Lund to Hiko – a 90-mile stretch of desolate two lane blacktop in what feels like the middle of nowhere. Cars are sorted in classed based upon target speeds – the average speed that they are attempting to maintain over the entire 90 mile run. This year the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro, with James driving and Mary navigating, was competing in the ultra-competitive 120 mile per hour class. 120 is always a packed class because (a) 120 mph is pretty comfortable in just about anything with pneumatic tires and more importantly (b) the math is pretty easy. At 120 you are covering a mile every 30 seconds so, in theory, it’s not all that difficult to calculate waypoints and timing milestones – this was a huge benefit this year as you will soon see…

During the race the entire length of the course is manned by an incredible crew of volunteers who watch out for our safety and take station at several checkpoints along the course. There are a total of nine checkpoints along the route with three of them being “major” checkpoints where the race can be restarted in the event of a red flag or other issue. Between these checkpoints, every mile or so, you’ll find a volunteer keeping watch and cheering the cars on as they make their banzai run across the desert. A heck of a way to spend your day – especially under the September desert sun.

The race starts early Sunday morning after a cruise from Ely, Nevada – the official host town of the event – to Lane’s Truck Stop out side of Lund where the cars are pre-gridded by their speed class before heading to the starting line on the other side of the small town of Lund. This year there are 130 some cars competing in speed classes from 90 mph to the truly wild Unlimited class. From 90 to 150 mph classes are divided in 5 mph increments; the 150 mph class is run first and cars head out in their respective classes in 1 minute intervals until the last 90 mph car has gone. The track is then “swept” for debris and then the Unlimited Class cars are run, followed by the 180, 170, and 160 mph classes.

This year one of the highlights of the event is the Polly Motorsports (http://www.pollymotorsport.no/) 1986 Pontiac Firebird. This 1400 HP, 252 mph monster has come from Norway to take a shot at the 207 mph (average speed) record and the odds were about even that he would leave with the record this year.

The race started promptly at 8 am and Mary and I found ourselves heading towards the starting line shortly before 9:00 AM. The OPTIMA Batteries Z06 Corvette driven by Steve Keppler and navigated by Jimi Day was one of the first cars out and was already approaching the finish line as we prepared to start our run; behind us waiting for his turn in the 160 mph class, was the third part of Team OPTIMA – Cameron Douglass and his incredible Winston Cup ARMY Car.

As Mary and I sat at the starting line we watched as the electronic timer counted down to 09:00.00. With 10 seconds to go we activated our ultra exotic Radio Shack egg timer… With 5 seconds to go I reset our Garmin GPS… at :00.00 four thumbs started four stopwatches and we were heading down the road, accelerating steadily to 125 mph – our target speed for the first 30 miles of the run. Why 125 mph?

There are really four parts to the run down that make up the 90-mile course. The first part, if you really want to call it a part, is the first mile. Since the race is from a standing start your average speed for the first mile is half of your instant speed at the end of the mile. So, using the easy math, at 120 mph your average speed in the first mile is 60 mph and at the end of that mile you are effectively 15 seconds behind – 15 seconds that you have to make up to maintain your perfect average. So you need a couple extra miles per hour to get caught up.

The second part of the race is basically a 70 mile transit to “the Narrows” – which is the third stage of the race and is a couple of slow speed miles through a valley cut that is most comfortably taken at speed below 100 mph. To make up for those two or three slow miles through the Narrows you need to have some time “in the bank” before you have to slow down (our goal was to have 30 seconds “in the bank” before the Narrows – in hind sight that’s about 10 seconds too much for us). This cushion allows you to drive through the Narrows at a safe, comfortable speed and, ideally, be exactly on time exiting the twisties. To do that you need a little bit of extra speed during that second transit stage – about 125 mph for most of it was all that was required. At least that’s the theory.

This year the second half of the 70-mile transit was going to be especially challenging… Nevada 318 has been undergoing an extensive repaving project and the mile markers - from about mile 35 through mile 65 - were MIA. There were some makeshift markers set up along the course but during our recon run the day before we could tell that they would be difficult to rely on. We had to shoot to be right on when the started and hope to maintain our speed through them and, with some luck, would be on time when we got to the next “proper” marker at the start of the Narrows. In our minds the first 30 miles were critical, the second 30 miles were going to be useless, and the final 30 miles were going to be where it all came down to business.

If you’re still following all of that, with the Narrows being the third part of the race – basically just a low speed pucker and run – then the final 17-mile stretch is the fourth and final leg of the journey. The goal in the final few miles is to methodically zoom in on your time and, in an ideal world, cross the finish line at a perfect 45:00 minutes (in the 120 mph class that is).

Anyways, the clock ticked down to 09:00.00 and we were off. Since your time is based off the clock at the start the most important thing is to have your timing equipment bang on – which we thought we hit pretty well – and you can actually start any time after you’re ready. The final stopwatch started clicking and two seconds later we were hauling ass down the highway.

The first 20 miles felt great, the weather was perfect – calm and warm – and we were cruising comfortably at 125 mph. The OneLapCamaro was turning around 4000 RPM in 6th, oil pressure was rock steady at 60 and the temperature was a constant 177. It felt like a picture perfect run until we crested a slight hill before checkpoint two and were greeted by a huge red flag being waved at the side of the road by one of those aforementioned volunteers. We immediately pulled to the side of the road and, after a couple of minutes of panicking regarding timing and what we needed to do with the four different stopwatches that we were relying on, we turned on our emergency radio to find out what was happening.

The news was bad – one of the 150 mph cars had suffered some kind of failure and had gone off course at the Narrows. The car had apparently rolled several times but the driver and navigator were out of the car and in good condition. After an hours delay to deal with their evacuation and to clean up debris we were instructed to drive to checkpoint three where our race would be restarted.

A restart is not anything that we had even remotely considered and the balance of our waiting time was spent trying to recalculate our waypoints and targets. Checkpoint three is at mile 30.1 so we had 59.9 miles to go… at 120 mph we calculated that we had 29 minutes and 57 seconds to reach the end of the course… now all we had to do was calculate our waypoints… That is about the time that we realized that we had no waypoints – at least nothing that we could 100% rely on – until we hit the Narrows. And that is about the time that we realized that we still needed our 30 seconds in the bank when we got to those same Narrows… only now we had half the distance to do it. The next ten minutes as we waited to be restarted was a lot like your first big math assignment in high school – frantic calculations and a whole bunch of “tell me if this is right”… we think we were close…

The actual restart itself was the next rude surprise… there was no clock this time, instead there was a beam and a rough count down. Unlike the start, now our official time would start when the car crossed the beam – but where would the car break the beam? Heck of a question. No time to worry about it now as the checkpoint worker counted us down and waved us through. We did our best and again we think that we were close…

We averaged 130 to 135 running up in to the Narrows. More than once Mary asked how the car felt… the calm conditions had been replaced by a stout 35 mph headwind and the Camaro was feeling just a bit loose from time to time… I told her it felt fine and concentrated on driving smoothly. When we hit our first reliable mile marker we had almost exactly 30 seconds in the bank. The run through the Narrows at 90 mph felt like a slow motion cruise around the block and when we emerged from the Narrows we were just about 10 seconds fast.

As the miles clicked down so did our excess. With 10 miles to go we were three seconds fast… 5 miles out we were just over a second fast… 2 miles out and we were right on… 1 mile to go and we were perfect.

As we tear up the last mile Mary starts counting the seconds down. She starts at 10 seconds to go and right away I see a problem… she’s just started counting and I can already see the Finish Line. When she reaches 5 seconds I let off the gas and the car is coasting towards the finish. When she reaches 2 seconds I stab the brakes, trying to scrub more speed. In a blink of an eye we’re across the finish line and, if we’re right, within about a second of our ideal time.

At the awards ceremony that night they announce that a disproportionate number of cars were disqualified for being too slow crossing the finish line and right away Mary and I seem to have the same thought. We both replay it in our heads and agree that while it’s possible we doubt it – we would have to be going slower than 90 mph at the line to be DQ’d and we were certainly going faster than that when we crossed. When the top three finishers in the 120 mph class results are announced we’re not there and again we’re thinking about the finish.

At the end of the day we averaged 120.127 mph against a perfect 120.000 target; the 0.127 mph means we were just 2.85 seconds too fast over 90 miles. Had we not been DQ’d that would have been good for 6th place in our class – not great but better than a DQ to be sure. Looking back at it now we didn’t have a choice at the end – we were fast and to win we had to slow down; as it was we didn’t slow down enough.

At this point in time the results are still being reviewed. Mary and I have in car video that shows the GPS but, unfortunately, it’s less than crystal clear (think Mr. Magoo on acid and that might put it in context) but it looks pretty clear that the speed clicks down from triple digits to double digits right as we cross the finish line. I don’t know if the video will help but it makes us feel better nonetheless. We won’t push the issue but instead will be back in the spring to take our chances on 318 once again…



As for the Polly Motorsports Trans Am… he didn’t set the record this year. Engine troubles kept his speed down but he still crossed the finish line with a 183 mph average (the highest of the event) and his trap speed was 207 mph – also the highest of the event. He too will be back next year to take his shot at the record…

OLC - checking in from the finish line
We made it
No clue on time
Race was red flagged
Had to restart @ mile 30.1
James and Mary

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro is heading to Ely, Nevada for the 2010 Silver State Classic Challenge - one of the most exciting and revered motorsports events in North America.  This is the 23rd year for the Silver State Classic - where cars, drivers, and navigators of every description take their turn running down the 90 mile stretch of Nevada Highway 308 - and we're hoping that our third time is a charm!



This year James will be driving the OneLapCamaro with Fast Mary Pozzi handling the navigating duties.  We'll be competing in the 120 mph class meaning that we'll be shooting for a 120.000 mph average speed over the 90 course with nothing more than a couple of stop watches and (hopefully) some decent course notes.  In May of 2009 James made his first run down 318 aided by navigator and self professed media personality Steven Rupp.  There average speed of 104.987 mph on a 105.0 mph target netted a fourth place finish with a time variance of only 0.377 seconds - not bad for a couple of rookies!  The OneLapCamaro was back in September of 2009, this time with Jimi Day taking on the navigation duties.  The results last fall was a 2nd place finish with an average speed of 115.051 vs a 115.0 mph target. 

On Sunday September 19th we hit the highway... we'll keep you posted as the weekend progresses!

8 days
3,500 miles
zero excuses

... First Place!

4 Camaros started... And 4 Camaros finished!  Great run...

Back to Tire Rack Headquarters
3,528.9 miles round trip in 8 days.  Final event the dry (wet) skid pad coming soon...

In a couple of hours the 2010 Tire Rack One Lap of America is going to come to an end following the final event - the dry skid pad.  At least it's supposed to be dry... as of right now it looks like we're going to be running a moist skid pad.  We're hoping to replicate or better our results from last weeks wet skid pad and hope that the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro has a few more miles in it...

Cheers

We've made it back to South Bend, IN and we have one event left in the 2010 Tire Rack One Lap of America. The GPS shows 3,520 miles and only a few more to go. Here is our updated route mapping...

The 2010 One Lap of America Route - through May 7

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