Only Two weeks to go.

Time is getting short, only two weeks to go until we start our One Lap of America adventure. The car count is up to 74 at this point. There are 18 showing in our class SSGT1Big Bore. It looks like a lot of very talented drivers participating.

On Saturday May 2nd we begin with a wet skid pad competition. Finishing positions in the Wet Skid Pad competition are awarded by measuring and averaging the maximum g's of cornering force for each vehicle while driving laps in both directions on the 200-foot diameter wet skid pad. After the skid pad we then head off to Autobahn Country Club (racetrack) in Joilett, Il. The competition here will set the run order for much of the rest of the events. The higher you finish here, the sooner you will do your Time Trial runs at each track, and the sooner you can then leave to head for the next track. The two longest legs of the event are from Talladega, Al. to Sebring, Fl. and from the BMW Performance center in Greer, SC. to Beaver Run Raceway in Beaver Falls, Pa. The cars that get moving sooner have a better opportunity to get some quality sleep in a motel instead of just in the right seat of the car, especially on these two longest legs.

There will be different strategies in play. Some teams will have a very good driver do all of the competition driving while the teammate operates only as a transit driver, sharing the driving between the tracks. Some teams will have one driver do all the driving at one track. For example if it is a two event track, the driver who drives in the morning would likely be better in the afternoon session since he had "practice" by running the early event. Scott and I will be sharing the driving duties, so that we each get to experience all the tracks possible. Not sharing the driving is kind of like going around the country to visit all the ball parks, and then waiting outside the park while your buddy goes in to see the game. We are hoping that we will be competitive and still have a good time experiencing all the tracks.

Points are accumulated similar to the Nascar system with each position down the line getting fewer points. If there are 80 participants you multiply by 5 points so the maximum points for any one event will be 400. Therefor the 1st place gets 400, the 2nd gets 395, the 3rd gets 390 and so on. A DNF (did not finish) or DNS (did not start) gets 0 points. A DNS might happen for example if something was broken on the car and it was unable to run or if they had a breakdown between tracks and were still off getting their car repaired.