Rochester DSM OneLap

Among the challenges of having two teams going into 2010, comes the challenge of our website taking a new form. While the other site worked great, it is time to search for new sponsors, along with having new content for the site.
Over the upcoming week or two, I suspect that I will be making constant changes to this site as things move forward. We are starting with a new look. Since there are two teams, you can choose the look and feel of the website, by clicking on one of the two logos on the right hand of the screen.
I have also opened it up so that everybody going on the One Lap trip can post updates. After all we are going to be in two cars and having more input along the way should help capture more of the action.

What happend to 2009?
All of the posts and content from 2009 is still around.  You can click on the Archives on the right hand side, search through the posts, or click on the 2009 category to read back through the events last year.

There were three drivers in the Rochester DSM car for the 2009 One Lap of America, but with the support of an entire community the race was more successful then we could have imagined. We had many hands come together to work on the car before it even left the garage, not to mention the support we gained along the way.

We went into this event calling it a once in a lifetime once-in-a-lifetime experience. As soon as it was over, we called it an addiction and we knew we had to repeat it. For those who helped us sweat through the work on the car, the addiction was contagious. It was contagious enough that they would not be able to watch the 2010 event from the sidelines.

Rochester DSM will be returning to the 2010 One Lap of America and our numbers have increased. While we are always one group of friends, there will be two teams and two cars. The first team will consist of Tim Harper and Stephen Burke driving in the 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR4, which successfully completed the 2009 event and is now owned by Tim Harper. The second team will consist of Chris Wirth and Sean Caron driving Chris’s 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X.

Bringing two generations of Mitsubishi vehicles along the trip should be an amazing test of this race. The concepts that began with the Galant VR4 set the foundations for Mitsubishi to develop the Evolution platform. We will see if the culmination of 16 years of technology and innovation has the advantage over experience in an cross-country automotive endurance race.

While Tim and Stephen are now considered the veterans of the team, Sean and Chris are not strangers to the track or to racing. They have been active throughout the SCCA, and the entire group has made Watkins Glen the hometown clubhouse frequently taking advantage of the track time available.

The weeks to come will be busy for the teams, while we work to put together sponsor packages and fill in the details about what is happening with the cars. With two teams, two cars, and the anticipated antics of this group, we at least expect it to be…..entertaining.

The Galant VR4 platform is a collectors item to those lucky enough to find one.  Every year, Garfield Wright, owner of Tuners Nation puts together a calendar of the best Galant VR4 pictures of the year.   These calendars themselves are in limited edition.

With such a pronounced impact on the Galant VR4 community in 2009, the One Lap VR4 car is proudly taking the May slot, appropriately in time for 2010 One Lap.  Garfield went a little above and beyond this year by inserting some of the calendar dates of the event this year and even putting a map of the 2010 One Lap of America even on the back of the calendar.

The calendars will be in short supply, so if you want to pick one up, I suggest you order one before the masses find out.

Official 2010 Galant VR4 Calendar

It is that time of year when we come together with family  and friends to talk about One Lap. You thought I was going to say holidays or cheer or something like that didn’t you? Well once you have been infected with the curse of One Lap, I am afraid it never really goes away. In our case it has gotten somewhat infectious and grown to others.  The only cure so far is to keep it going.

The Rochester DSM team met tonight for a meeting to discuss our involvement in One Lap 2010. While Mike is away for work, amazingly close to the start line of One Lap, we were able to use our leverage Google Chat to bring him into the the discussion.

While there are quite a few things to figure out, we only have a few key facts to share with the world at the moment.

• Somebody is going.
• They are more of us.
• An 18 year old car is better than the 17 year old car.

Expect some large announcements for the One Lap team of Rochester DSM heading into 2010, but most of them will have to wait until after the first of the year.  After all, we don’t want to take the all of the focus out of the holidays.

Tonight, we were able to tie up some loose ends regarding 2009. We took a minute to look through the official picture book that Tim is the keeper of, and handed out the team plaques that Curtis (our control arm savior) made up for us.  They look absolutely awesome.

We have some really cool items at the printers, which are going out to our sponsors that made it possible for us to even go on the 2009 trip. No we haven’t forgotten those commitments we made.  We just didn’t want to send you a measly photo and have supersized our efforts.

Enough innuendos. Keep an ear out for news updates coming out of the group after the first week of January.

There has been an update to the One Lap schedule today. Brock has dropped off Monticello from the route and has added the Lightning track at New Jersey Motorsports Park. There were concerns over the safety that could be obtained with only one recon lap at Monicello.

The distance is pretty much the same, but he has to drop Chemung Speedrome and find another oval. While we all give him the wammy hex to drop NJ and add Waktins Glen, expect to see an oval added to the lineup.

There is the addition of a drag race, which is at the Tulsa Raceway Park after the day at Hallett. Somebody should have a spare transmission waiting for us in the bushes if we need it.

View Larger Map

Friday night, April 30th at Tire Rack in South Bend, IN (248 miles 4:31)

Saturday, Road America -(584 miles 9:10)
http://www.roadamerica.com/

Sunday, Mid America – (425 miles 6:58)
http://www.midamericamotorplex.com

Monday, Hallett
http://www.hallettracing.com/

Tulsa Raceway Park
http://www.tulsaracewaypark.com/

Tuesday, Gateway
http://www.gatewayraceway.com/

Wednesday, Mid Ohio
http://www.midohio.com/

Thursday, NJ Motorsports Park
http://www.njmotorsportspark.com

Friday, Nelson Ledges
http://www.nelsonledges.com/

Saturday, May 8th, finish at the Tire Rack

Take 3 guys, put them in a car for 1600 miles with a normal radio that has two deck speakers and some questionable factory door speakers. I think we made it to the thruway in Henrietta before we realize we really need some attention on the audio system. While we can talk about cars for days, as we have now put to the test, the car is in desperate need of a better audio system.

As if to rub it in and poke fun at our lack of tunes, the Rockford Fosgate Evolution X showed up to represent their relationship with Mitsubishi at the 2009 Mitsubishi Owners Day.  It was very cool to see a built audio car again, though some people went over expecting to see performance parts.  I have some respect for the work, as I have strong roots in the car audio business, working for some of the shops around town when I got out of college.  I have fond memories of the scene which used to revolve around car audio and the innovations which really made the car manufacturers pay attention to the audio in the car.  Ok I will admit it, I completely whined like a 4 year old, asking for a sound system, knowing I had to drive 700+ miles to get home.

Of course their system sounded good from across the parking lot, and all we need is something that can cut through the drone of a 3″ inch exhaust at 75 MPH.  The fiberglass enclosures were encouraging, though we would need one speaker apposed to the whole back seat.  The cage was well hooped, but purposeful for holding speakers, not saving your life on the track.

We happened to run into the guys who brought the Rockford Fosgate car the night before the MOD event, eating dinner at the restaurant.  It is hard to miss a car with speakers on the hood, disguised as rally lights.  Great bunch of guys, and very approachable.  While could have easily out powered the band they brought in, they were pretty good about not out staging the guys on stage.  When the band cleared out and the music went up in the Rockford car, it sounded awesome.

Rockford Fosgate has the systems in many of the new Mitsubishi cars.  I know their system came with the Sight Sound and Speed package that I purchased when I bought the 2008 Evolution X, that I now own.

Dear Rockford Fosgate, if you guys ever feel like retrofitting a 18 year old car so that 3 guys can survive 3500+ miles of driving across America between race tracks, let us know.  We leave May 1st 2010.

While the One Lap car appeared on the list of attractions, we weren’t exactly a vendor per say and we were not the center off all attention. Though we felt like it at times.  I actually missed some of the things I wanted to see, because time moved so fast.

The event was organized very well, keeping people busy the entire time.  I know Carol Redfern-Ambler, and the team at Mitsubishi worked hard to put together a diverse, yet owner centered event.  It definitely paid off, because between the raffles, watching car being destroyed, a chance to ride in the new Mitsubishi electric car, and a tour of the manufacturing plant, it is just impossible to fit it all in.  I didn’t even get to run the obstacle course that the national gaurd setup. I might have to go back next year to catch all of the things I missed. Here are some of the things I did not.

Team Illuminata Motorsports

Our setup area for the One Lap car was back to back with a group called Team Illuminata Motorsports. Out of all of the shiny and perhaps “show” cars in that lot, there is no place we would have rather been, than next to a driven rally car.  Tim, quickly adopted and branded one of the team sticker across his chest, as it obviously acted as an over-sized name tag spelling out TIM.  We had chance to relate with and meet with Paul and Demetri, who brought actual race worthy parts to share with the crowd.  The group is out of Michigan, and you may have seen them go through some of the rallies like Snow Drift.  They would be the guys who get airborne first, and think about landing second.

NOS Energy Drink

While we thought AMS was a sponsor themselves, they actually were there supporting NOS Energy drink, having built the Quickest Evo VIII in the world for them.  Energy drinks seemed to have made it deep into the automotive performance industry, though I am not sure I think of drinking anything when I think of NOS.  Well apparently neither does the NOS group, as I caught a picture of the NOS booth sponsor guy, slugging down a good old Mountain Dew at lunch. I do laugh a little when I hear the word NOS, as it instantly reminds me of that terrible movie which completely mocked everything I valued about automotive tuning.

If you haven’t heard of Buschur Racing, then you haven’t been in the industry, well ever.  Dave Buschur has a bit of history with the One Lap car.  In fact, he used to own it.  I originally purchased 187/1000 from Dave Buschur, as it was a project car he was building up to cover a magazine shoot, “back in the day”.  The magazine backed out, Dave was going to drive it daily, then the land went up for sale by the shop he is in.  He sold the car to buy the land, and I went down with Mike Hayes to pick it up with a less than appropriate trailer setup.  That is the short version of a rather beer required tale.

While the car started off as a drag car, it certainly has transformed into a versatile track car for us. We were able to chat with Dave for a few minutes, remembering back when he originally had the car himself.

We are all about safety here in the One Lap of America, Galant VR4 car.  I mean everything from safely running 145+ MPH around Daytona with a bumper held on by zip ties to having a fire extinguisher that completely ejects itself and bounces around the cabin at BeaveRun, we are the picture of safety.

While we have may have everything safety related under control, it was nice to see a realistic safety demonstration at MOD 2009.

The Illinois Fire Institute came out to run some demonstrations on extraction drills (aka the Jaws of Life) and other safety information on a car.  You could see they were a little excited, because Mitsubishi handed them a brand new 2010 car to rip apart, which is a slight upgrade from the usual donations they get.

They had a demonstration of how fast air bags deploy, both in and out of the vehicle.

Then they ripped off a door or two with the Jaws of Life. I think the car was so well built, it took them a little longer than expected on the rear door, because I could see the Mitsubishi CEO grinning in the background when he made the comment that they are not used to having a new car.

Don’t worry, our door is ready to fall off whenever you need it.

The trip to Mitsubishi Motors production plant was long overdue for myself.  My first new car I bought was a 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T. Since then I have owned four different Galant VR4s and recently making the move into a 2008 Evolution X. To say I have been a Mitsubishi owner would be a mild understatement.

A few years ago, one of the partners in crime (Sean), talked me into buying  the complete set of Mitsubishi specialty tools, with all of the matching shadow boards to go with them.  Yes I still have them, waiting for a wall big enough to mount the boards.  I am pretty sure that makes me the larger Mitsubishi fan in the group, not to mention I founded the Rochester DSM group.

Photo by Ryan Hertz

It figures, while I escaped to check out the rest of the attractions around the site, the One Lap car had a nice visit from the Shiro Futaki “aka Jack”, the CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America.  Apparently Tim had a nice long conversation with him, going over the downfalls of 4 wheel steering while Futaki-san covered how the Galant VR4 was the inspiration behind the modern car and how it really was an Evolution into the current technology and advancements.

I regret not being able to be in on that conversation, and getting a chance to hear about how Mitsubishi has evolved itself over the years.  Luckily I can fabricate my own story, to make Tim look bad and to make myself feel better.  You see, from what I understand Mitsubishi was so impressed with our One Lap efforts, they were going to supply us a car next year, until Tim botched up the negotiations. Yeah, that sounds more like it.

While that is a slight fabrication, I did manage to score more free Tshirts than Tim, something I hope to rub in whenever I get a chance to wear the shirts in his presence.

It was actually very cool that the CEO was walking around talking to the owners and industry sponsors.  While I had seen Futaki-san walking around, it didn’t register as to who he was until later.  Hopefully they will continue to put on an Owners Day event and have everybody involved as much as they were.