2009 One Lap of America
The Chocolatier Got Me
I cropped all of the drag racing videos together from Gainesville. I didn’t realize how bad my video skills were, trying to juggle the SLR and the digital. I captured “most” of the action.
I need to find a picture of Robert Dubler, who is actually a Swiss Chocolatier. After Tim fell to the GMC, “the Chocolatier” became the dark nemesis that exists in every comic book tale. He was actually a great guy, but it was fun to call him “The Chocolatier!” for the rest of the trip.
1Post video updates coming
Galant VR4 History in One Lap
We broke many significant records for the GalantVR4 community on this trip. I am pretty sure we are the first Galant VR4 to enter many of the tracks like Daytona. We are not the first Galant VR4 to enter the One Lap of America however.
I was talking with Brock Yates Jr, and he mentioned that he drove a Galant VR4 one year in the One Lap of America. I am not sure if that was as a participant or not, but there are a few others that have appears over the years in the entrants list.
In 1991 Angelo Pizzagalli, Ralph Beckman and Noel Lawler entered a 1991 Mitsubishi Galant VR4 in the One Lap.
In 1992 Billy Edwards, Ralph Beckman and Brit Ponder won the mid-priced sedan class with a 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR4.
1992 Entrants List & 1992 Results
In 1993 Rick, Lee, Gary McLeiian and Bob Farmer entered a 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and finished 40th Overall.
As these cars grow in age, we will find fewer of them around. Please the resources and community at GalantVR4.org to preserve the cars and keep them an active part of the automotive world. The United States only saw 3009 of these, and certainly their numbers have dwindled over the years.
0Compiling it All
Although the race is over, this site will remain pretty active for a few weeks. I have hours of video footage to process, and we need to go through and update all of the Race Day pages to link back out to the thousands of pictures, photos and comments that people shared with us.
We are going to make some videos and summary pages of the car itself, going over the details of what was done to it, and of course covering what worked and what didn’t.
If anybody has media or content that they can share with us, please let us know so we can add it to the mix.
0The Main Goal is to Make it Home
The One Lap VR4 safely arrived in Rochester last night around 11PM. Our main goal for the trip was not only to complete the One Lap of America, but to get the car back home. As we pulled out of South Bend and saw the trailer queens and lavish tractor trailers hauling some of the cars away, we knew that we came from a different planet.
We had so many people comment on how well prepared we were during the trip, being able to replace parts and source items while we were moving. The fact is that we know the car. I am pretty sure we were the only team carrying a spare transmission with them, but we knew that it had a high potential of failing us.
There were a mixture of both mindsets in this race. The guys who built the cars, and the guys who knew the car only behind the wheel. I can’t imagine taking this trip and not knowing everything about the car I am driving.
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