Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Our One Lap Car


I just wanted to add a picture of Scott's Z06 that we are using for our One Lap event. It is pretty much a stock 130,000 mile Z06, except for the normal bolt ons, ie: headers, exhaust, sway bars, shocks, wheels. This picture was taken at our Test Days at Beaver Run Motorsports Park near Beaver Falls, Pa. The car should look a bit different when we add the sponsor decals. Actually it will look a bit like a rolling billboard. Just what we need to attract the attention of as many law enforcement officers as possible. As you can see from the hoodie Sunday wasn't exactly a warm track day. I think the highest I saw was about 47 degrees but the few times that the sun poked out it made us feel warmer. Also want to thank Don Bell for his contribution to the cause. Time is getting shorter since we will gather out in South Bend Indiana on May 1st. just over a month away.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Test Days at Beaver Run

Our test day at Beaver Run was a very productive track day for us. The track is located north of Pittsburgh outside of Beaver Falls, Pa. Scott went out for Saturday and Sunday and I went for the Sunday session only. Our main goals were to test the tires to be sure they would perform as expected, and for me to get some track time in Scott's car. We needed the tires to perform well on the dry track but also needed to perform well on a wet track since some wet track days are a distinct probabability. The weather was perfect for our testing, since the day started with pouring rain then cleared up for much of the day and then ended with a lot of wind and some sleet. The tires worked out well, so I think we have that part of the deal nailed down. The 265 miles each way even gave us another practice session for the highway portion of the One Lap, although I don't think we have any distances that are that short.

The track days were sponsored by the One Lap people but it was run in conjunction with Beaver Run's Flat Out Days. There weren't too many of the One Lap participants there but the ones who were there were some very interesting people. Lots of stories told at the table we were at for the dinner. There was one story about a transmission failure then buying a clunker car, in a small town out west from a used car company named something like Wiz Bang Auto Sales, to use for a day or two while the transmission was being rebuilt. To round out that story, there was a side deal with the used car guy to have the repaired car delivered to a racetrack that was on the return leg of the One Lap schedule so they could complete the events with the original car. The way I read the rules I don't think that type of creativity would work anymore.

The cars that were there were as interesting as the people. One of the cars was the new 2009 (less than 1,000 miles) 556hp supercharged Cadillac CTS-V and it was very fast. Some of the other cars from the One Lap competitors that were at Beaver Run included a couple Porsche, a Honda Fit, a handfull of Corvettes, Mustangs, and a Charger to name a few. One of the Canadian teams was even there. Some of the teams try to get track time on many of the tracks that are included on the tour. Our budget and time constraints won't allow us that luxury.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

We've got some Sponsors

Well, we've got some sponsors to help us in this endeavor. I just wanted to thank the sponsors who have signed on to help us with our Cannonball One Lap of America effort. At this point the list includes, Auto locator, Benji's Vinyl Signs, Brady's High Performance, Jim Roberts' West Main Auto, The Jones Family of Dealerships, Kam Racing, Krunch Kritters Auto Body and Spray Shop, Lancaster County Corvette Club, RTI Technologies, Inc., Papa Dino's, Pro Tune, and Rutt's Appliances. In addition to our sponsors we also have a few people who responded to our appeal for "donations, contributions and hand-outs", so thank you to Ron Stepanchick and Gary Musser. This is a costly event and we do appreciate all the financial help we can get. THANK YOU TO ALL.

To benefit the local sponsors we plan to fully decorate Scott's Z06 with sponsor names as well as the required large One Lap of America decal and decals of the event sponsors. As I mentioned before, we will use Scott's Z06 for the One Lap but we will also "clone" Jim's C5 by decorating it with the same decals to add sponsor value. We plan to leave the decals on through the summer and fall competition season so there should be a lot of local exposure with both cars showing up at autocrosses and track days. We will also work at getting some local media coverage in the local newspapers. Since Motor Trend is the media sponsor there is also a chance of us getting a picture of our car in a national magazine.

Our set of practice tires are in and mounted, and we will be giving them a test at the end of March. The One Lap organization has a couple track days set up at Beaver Run Raceway in western Pa. north of Pittsburg, near Beaver Falls. We will use these track days to shake down the car and make sure the car is well prepared for the event, but also to make sure that our choice of tires is a good choice and that they perform as needed on the track. If they perform as expected we will order a fresh set to compete in the event.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The entry list is growing

I just checked the entry list and it is growing. There are now 57 vehicle entries showing and 14 of them are in our class. Our class is "SSGT1 Big Bore". At this point half of that class are Corvettes. The others is our class include a few Porsche, an Ultima GTR, a Viper ACR, a Nissan GT-R, and even a 2008 Mongoose GTP. Typically there will be about 90 vehicles participating in this event, so it will be interesting to watch the rest of the entries as they are posted.


Over the past 10 days I got a little practicing in for this event. On Saturday I participated in this years instructor clinic down at Summit Point, WV. I then stayed over for Sunday and trained with a group from the Northern Virginia Corvette Club that I instruct with. They had arranged with some excellent BMW club skid pad instructors to help us develop our skid pad skills and better equip us in teaching skid pad to our students. It was a great day and lots of seat time on the skid pad. The other "practice" I got was a drive to Nashville Tn. on my way to a Trade Show/Convention. I guess I was working on the endurance part of things, I put about 1500 miles on for that trip.


One interesting part of the trade show is that I got to meet 2005 Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon. When I told him of my upcoming One Lap effort and he told me "Good luck and travel safe". Another item at the trade show was a inter-active racing game that one of the vendors had set up, complete with racing seat, chassis etc. Since Nascar was at Las Vegas this week that was the featured track. I guess I don't play the racing games enough, I proceeded to rub the wall a few times, spin out and ended up upside down. BTW it wasn't all fun and games at the show, I did talk to a lot of vendors, visited many booths and learned quite a few new things for my business;^)

Jim