Too many thumbs, some additional thoughts

I was not quite finished with my last post but I guess I had too many thumbs and somehow my last post got published without being finished. To see the whole post on the blog please go to http://onelapadventure.blogspot.com/ . Don't forget on the blog you can go to the bottom of the page and select older posts to see previous posts, even the last two years.

One additional point I wanted to make is that we have raised about $1700 for Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition to date. Our minimum goal is $2000 so we still have a little way to go. For anyone who would like their name, or the name of someone in Memory of, or in Honor of, we are putting names on the cars for a minimum$10 donation. Please make checks out to Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition. Donations can be sent to me at Jim Roberts 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552.

Be an Optimist and look for the positives

Just trying to look at the positives and take the optimistic view, here are some thoughts. I was analyzing the week and came to the realization that after the first event we were in 6th place, higher in the standings than any of the ultimate overall top 10 finishers. After my run at Summit Point I think we were in about 16th place, which was right on track for our goal of a top 20 finish. Unfortunately, when I caught the Porsche in front of me it took a couple of corners to get around him and I lost a few seconds or we might have been another position or two better. At this point I was 20 points behind Scott in the overall scoring. Of course it all went south after that with the engine problem. Wait a minute, I said we were looking for positives. The early analysis shows a hole in the number 5 piston, at least it's not a fully blown engine. We suspect at this point that it may have been an injector that was working, but at less than 100%.

Scott Breneman's parents offered Rick and I a ride back to Mount Joy to pick up my other Corvette. We got home about 4:30 loaded the car, checked the oil, antifreeze and air pressure and were on our way by 5pm heading for South Carolina to catch up with the group. The 92 coupe has not been used as a track car for several years and is stock except for some Dynomax mufflers, but it was up to the task.

Another positive is that my transit driver Rick Stauffer worked out very well as a partner. After an initial getting used to the heavy clutch and cam in the yellow vette the highway miles went well. Rick has a very good awareness and comfort in traffic and from a personality standpoint we got along great.

My co-driver from the last two years, Scott Breneman meanwhile was doing great. After a slow start at the Wet Skid pad he started putting some good runs together and stayed in the 14th or better position for most of the week. After the Dry Skid pad was in the books he had finished the week in 13th position overall, his best finish ever. Congratulations to Scott and Nick.

Another positive is that we were at the closest point to home, only 2 1/2 hours away, and we were able to get a ride home with Scott Breneman's parents who had come down to see him run. We were the only team to get another vehicle after the first one failed and continue on, even though we stopped earning points.

We Made it Home

We made it home on Sunday morning after stopping at Summit Point, West Virginia to pick up my trailer from my 2000 Yellow Corvette that has been sitting down there since I had engine problems there last Sunday.

From the numbers, we put on 1372 miles on the 2000 Corvette, 4017 miles on my 1992 Chrome Alusion Purpleen Corvette. In addition we rode home 127 miles (to pick up the other car) with Scott Breneman's parents who had come down to see him run at Summit. That totals 5516 for our One Lap effort. The 5389 miles we put on the two Corvettes averaged 21.64 miles per gallon which includes both the highway and track miles. The 2000 was getting 18.5 mpg and the 92 averaged 23.0 mpg. We used 249 gallons of gas and I just heard on the news that gas is expected to go down in price (now that we are back).

While we were gone we passed through 16 states east of the Mississippi, got 0 tickets and had no mechanical problems on the road. We did hit one road alligator (hunk of big truck tire) and missed a deer by inches. Some of the roads were very rough and we scraped a couple of times and bent one of the mufflers down a bit. Not sure if the bent down muffler was from the rough roads or the road alligator. Speaking of mechanical problems, I will go down to West Virginia tomorrow and retrieve my 2000 and try to figure out what failed in the engine.

There was an interesting mix of vehicles in this year One Lap with BMW being the most prolific make. Next to the BMW's were the Porsches and then the Mitsibushi Evos, Corvettes and of course the awesome Nissan GTRs. There were a couple of Dodge Vipers and Roush Mustangs, and a few Miatas, Audis and Subarus. Also in the mix was a Honda Civic with a turbo charger as well as a super charger, another Honda with national champion Andy Hollis driving, a factory sponsored Dodge Challenger and a host of other neat and or eclectic vehicles.

This was my third year doing One Lap and it was a great weather week for our effort. We had some rain while driving but none while we were at a track competing.

Check back for a few more of my thoughts and I will let you know what the engine problem was.

Geat Run at Autobahn Country Club Raceway

At Autobahn Country Club Raceway outside of Chicago, near Joliet, Ill we ran both the North course and the South course. On the 1.4 mile North course I was only able to gain about 5 seconds on the car in front of me, but on my South course I caught the new Camaro in front of me in the middle of the third lap and made a pass near the kink on the back straight. They work hard to send the cars out with enough separation so that passing during your time trial is unusual. Even though I am running exhibition it still is a rush to make up the distance and make a pass. I was certainly out classed on tires since I have my old all season tires on the 92, I now wish we would have stopped at Summit Point on the way south after we retrieved the other car and swapped tires to the high performance summer which are better for the track.

Only 105 miles to South Bend this afternoon and we get a little time to decompress after mostly 600 to 700 mile nights. Tomorrow we will finish with the Dry Skid competition and after that the awards banquet then a 600 mile run to Pa.

Barber was beautiful

Barber Motorsports Park in probably the Augusta of race tracks. It is groomed much like a golf course. Lots of sculpture on the grounds like misquitos, motorcycles, a spider, etc etc. Even under the tree groves in the infield they are groomed with mulch. You can see where cars gouged the grass and it was replaced with sod. If you hit a guard rail it will cost you about $1800, tear up the grass by sliding off and it will cost you. It is real nice and they want to keep it that way.

The track was fast and lots of elevation changes and blind corners, a real challenging course that you can't master without a lot of practice. I am running at the end since I am in a different car from what we started in, but I had a real nice run and caught the car in front of me about half way through the third lap.

Our transit drive was a long one. We went from Birmingham, Alabama to Joliet, Ill. just a little southwest of Chicago. The trip was 688 miles, with a drive time of about 10 hours. Tomorrow we will do both the North course and the South course at Autobahn Country Club Raceway outside of Chicago another top notch facility. After Autobahn we have one of the shortest legs of the trip over to South Bend, Indiana for a dry skid pad competition on Saturday.

We have had quite a bit of attrition this week, with me being one of the first. I think we are down about 15 cars from when we started out. Today the blue Viper hit a wall and damaged the right front as well as the oil cooler. The plan was to take the oil cooler out of play and to re-plumb the oil lines and to continue the trip. We are the only team to continue with a replacement vehicle running exibition.

If it's Wednesday it must be Circuit Grand Bayou

Today we ran at Circuit Grand Bayou Raceway about 60 miles west of New Orleans. This track is a 1.8 mile 14 turn road course with no elevation change at all, totally flat. It was a fun track and I was able to make a nice run but because of the car change I will get no points for the run. Sometimes it is really nice to know where you are going even if you have a GPS. We got way back in the boonies and the GPS took us back a gravel road. About a half mile back it announced we were there. There was no track in sight. We had to get back out to the main road to ask someone local and got pointed in the right direction. The white Challenger followed us down the same road and with their GPS they got the same wrong directions. I heard a couple of others had the same problem.

Some of the most exciting driving was on the highway. By One Lap standards it was a short 429 mile run and we got in at an early 7:30 and went out to eat with Scott and Nick. The excitement on the highway was a deer that decided to make a run for it across the highway. Some heads up threshold braking and I missed broadsiding the deer by inches.

Tomorrow we will run at the world famous Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham, Alabama. They call it a 15 turn track but it really works out to 21 turns when you count the extra turns that they letter instead, such as 5, 5a, 5b, 5c,etc. This track is used by the Rolex series, American Lemans, and the Indy Car series as well as many others. It has about 80 feet of elevation changes and blind turns and is a beautiful park like setting on 740 acres.

Scott continues to work towards a top 10 finish this year. This mornings run was not quite what he wanted but in the afternoon run he improved by several positions and is now in 12th position
overall. The week is winding down and we still have two events tomorrow then two at Autobahn Country Club Raceway outside of Chicago, then we finish up with the Dry Skid Pad competition (as long as it does not rain) at the Tire Rack facility in South Bend, Indiana on Saturday.

Running the High Banks at Daytona and Thanks to Ty

Today we ran the high banks at Daytona. We ran the road course like the Rolex 24 hour race does, which uses almost all the main track and adds another mile to the infield and also uses the chicane or "Bus Stop" near the end of the back straight. Now that we are in another car we no longer earn points so I run near the end of the run groups. Also since I am not getting points and since this has not been my track car for a few years, I am trying to be a little gentle on the car on these events. My goal at this point is to experience each track but to not flog the car so we can finish the rest of the week.

Scott continues to do well and has climbed back into the top ten overall after Daytona and Gainesville. Congrats to Scott and keep up the good work.

Tomorrow we run at Circuit Grand Bayou about 60 miles west of New Orleans. After that we go to the famous Barber Motorsports Park outside Birmingham, Alabama only 429 miles away. It looks like the easiest drive we have had all week.

I just want to give a shout out and a THANK YOU to Ty Timperley from Glendale Wisconsin, and is part of the #19 team with the white Nissan GT-R. Ty brought his tools over and gave it a good shot trying to help diagnose my engine problem at Summit Point on Sunday in West Virginia. Even though it was nothing that we could fix I really appreciate the help Ty gave. It is amazing with One Lap that when someone has a problem how other rally to try to help the problem. A fix is not always possible but it is just great having people like Ty wiling to help, thanks again Ty.

The Trip continues

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much lately, but we have had problems and have had long distance days.

The two pictures posted are Scott Breneman (who I was co-driver with the last 2 years) in front of his car #35, and Rick and my new ride #55. This is my 1992 Chrome Alusion Corvette coupe.

I guess by now everyone has heard of our engine failure. After a pretty good run at Summit Point, I caught a Porsche and got held up a bit and finally completed my pass after a couple of corners. After the pass, the run to the finish line. When I crossed the finish line I looked in my mirror and saw I was trailing smoke and it didn't look good. Can be sure exactly what is wrong but it lost a cylinder and was not going to be a quick fix. We bummed a ride home with Scott's parents who had come down to see him run, and picked up my other Corvette. I haven't tracked that car for a few years, I have however used it in autocrosses a few time in the last year or so.
Anyhow, we have had a couple of very long day putting on 772 miles on Saturday night, 721 miles on Sunday and 633 miles today if we make it all the way to Daytona Beach tonight. I write this as I am in the right seat now heading down 95 with only 258 miles to go and it's only 11:02pm on the dashboard clock. We might stop a little short and finish the drive tomorrow. Since we changed cars we stopped earning points and I run at the end of each event with the group affectionately know as "all remaining cars". The one advantage of running late is you can get to the track a little later, as long as you don't miss your run group.

This looks like it may be the year for Scott to really shine. Yesterday morning after the results from Summit Point were in Scott was tied for 7 th place overall which is awesome. He had a good first run at Carolina Motorsports Park but on his second run he overcooked a corner and did a little off track excursion but recovered nicely and got going again but losing some time off what would have been a good run. As of this evening Scott is in 14th place overall, but a few of the cars ahead of him had troubles today and will likely fall out of the top ten. Since our hope of a good finish this year were dashed we are now the cheering section for Scott and Nick having a great year.

I will try to post again tomorrow night, but we have a 116 mile trip to Gainesville then a 607 mile run to New Orleans after the Gainesville event ends around 8 pm. Don't know if a motel will be in the cards for tomorrow. We might just have enough time to get to the track and sleep in the car and wait until the track opens.

ps: We may have to stop and get some more Oreo cookies to keep this trip going.