2010 One Lap of America
Videos from One Lap with Race-Keeper
Capturing video on One Lap is challenging. I remember Sean coming over after the first session of Road America to tell me that his camera stopped after a minute of recording, after the battery died. I chuckled, and said “welcome to my entire 2009 Season of trying to make video work”. There is no time to get cameras clear, batteries charged, or things setup. This year, it seemed like time was even shorter.
However, this year I cheated. Thanks to Hugh over at Wilson Performance, we not only made capturing video on the trip easy, we completely overshot the requirements for sharing a few laps around the track. Wilson Performance let us take their Race-Keeper system on the entire weeklong trip around the country. They are a distributer for the systems, so if you are considering getting a system, let me know and I will put you in touch with them.
Let me be clear in saying, we completely under-utilized the Race-Keeper system. With little time to set it up, I slapped two cameras on the car and hit the button. 8 days later, I have a pile of videos to go through, and I am only now appreciating how little we used this system.
We also under-utilized the system, because we are in a 1992 car and this thing will capture all of the information from OBDII, which is any car made after 1996. The GPS was enough to map the track for us and give us a speedometer readout, but the possibility of logging everything from braking and acceleration makes this thing pretty powerful.
I only ran into two instances where I didn’t get the video. One was the first session at Road America, because we didn’t have a dedicated power source. We kept turning off the power to the car, which reset the system that was plugged into the cigarette lighter. I wired up a permanent power source between sessions. The other one was when we forgot to stop recording and we filled up a memory card before we got to the grid the second time. If I trusted the system, you can actually set it up to record when the car starts moving and have it automatically stop. I didn’t have enough time with it yet to use that, so I reverted to the “push the big red” button method.
I am working to bribe Hugh to let me take the system to Watkins Glen in two weeks with the Niagara Region PCA Drivers Education course, but it may conflict with the Wilson Performance race schedule. Then I could run the system in the Evo X to really show the cool features.
0The Endurance Race for Cars
One Lap of America is very much, and will always be an endurance race. The mechanical wear and tear on these cars is more than any other event. It was an amazingly harsh year for cars as there was a lot of shifts of power among some of the fastest cars, as they could not stand up to the physical demands.
The list of teams that broke something is too long to list. We saw our friends throw belts, loose power steering, have their air-bags deployed and continued on. Some of the mechanical issues however were bigger than a quick repair job.
Find comfort in the fact that we were not the only ones breaking. We were just prepared to fix our car no matter what, in order to finish this race.
the GTR
After having some major ignition issues at Road America, the GTR team decided they would back out of the event, after they were unable to get it sorted by Mid-America.
Talking with Will Taylor, they can’t get the spark they need in the motor to keep it running at the level they wanted to run. When you are shooting for the podium and the car isn’t going to cooperate, you start planning for next year. Here is a shot of the
spark plug that the car ingested at Road America.
Steven Rankins and Jon Krolewicz rented a car, went back to South Bend and grabbed the Subaru to drive, to at least enjoy the rest of the event.
the Evo X
The White Evo X of Paul Seto and Barry Stewart threw something as simple as a serpentine belt because the idler pulley separated, loosing the chance to run at Road America. While it was one of the smaller drama incidents, it acted as a sharp reminder that even the Evo is not immune to removal from this event with a minor slip up. I think there will be a spare belt and pulley in the parts bin for Chris and Sean next year.
the Cadillac
Photo Credit - Motor Trend
At Road America we were reminded that we were not on a Sunday drive across the country, but we were in fact racing. Unfortunately the Cadillac CTS V of Howard LaFever ended up going off track and rolling after grabbing the gravel and flipping into a fence. Howard walked away with some cuts and bruises, but is otherwise alright. He returned later in a Chrysler Crossfire to finish the event.
the Sti
We watched the car of Michael Lattos and Erik Van Cleef launch at Gateway and knew something was wrong as there was a lot of noise and smoke, but not a lot of motion. The result was a broken axle, which tore up the bearing and lead to the wheel dragging behind the car within half a lap.
Photo Credit - Motor Trend
Z06 Blows a Motor
Brock sent out a Tweet that Dan Cochran was out of the running due to a blown motor in his Corvette Z06. The irony being that this was Dan’s 20th One Lap event, with a sticker on the back of the car stating “20 and done”.
the Mustang
We made it to Nelson Ledges and it felt like the last hurdle in an epic journey of survival. The track was cold and was about the least forgiving track surface we have ever been on. Into the afternoon runs, I had a pause moment where I could take some photos, and I grabbed pictures of the Mustang snaking it’s way down the back curves after blowing the motor. The result was a large crack in the block and piston wrist pin that was deposited on the track, ending the season for them. I repeatedly heard Tim chanting “I am not going to break at Nelson Ledges”, mentally willing the car to take the torture of that track. We survived with a smacked exhaust as the car bottoms out the track. That will need some attention now that we are home.
the Ultima GTR
After battling electrical issues the entire trip, the car’s alternator finally took a dump. Running the car on batteries, up to the last event, the car wouldn’t run around the whole loop, leaving the Dubler team running out there to push it to a finish to at least eliminate the DNF on the record. The car left on a trailer, headed for Rennessy Fabrication for an overhaul before next year.
Dry Skid Pads and Ceremonies
We returned to the skid pad this morning, on a day that felt almost as cold and damp as last year.
Last year we looked at the schedule and arrived mildly late for the morning photo shoot. While the top 5 get shifted to the front of the group photo, the rest of the field is organized on how early they drove in the parking lot. Yes we are deliberately going for the media exposure, as that’s what pays for this trip. Sean and Chris would have been right along side of us if Chris wasn’t over by the hose trying to wash the car in a hurricane like rain storm. Somehow the guys with the $130k Porsches didn’t break out the buckets of soap. Let us know if you can tell when the magazine comes out.
The skid pad was damp, but drying quickly. The main factor was the cold. Cold tires don’t stick very well. I am still amazed at how well the Dunlops handle the skid pad on this 18 year old car running a 255 tire width.
The Evo X is running 275′s and the Subaru Sti is running 295′s so we are very happy with the results.
They had the reception among the tires again and went above and beyond this time for food. Last year was pretty tame, but this year they tool all of the states we visited and created a specialty dish from that state. Very cool.
Of course the Evo X group grabbed the spotlight from our table, taking 1st in the mid price sedan class and landing an amazing 7th overall. It is a testinment to all the hard work Chris has put into that car and depicts some excellent driving from both guys.
