Jim's One Lap of America Adventure

Too many thumbs, some additional thoughts

2011-05-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Sucess at Wet Skid Pad

2011-04-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note since I need to get some sleep after putting on over 650 miles today from South Bend to Grissom Air Force Base to Summit Point, West Virginia. I had some real sucess today with a 1st place in class and 6th place overall in the 1st event, the Wet Skid Pad competition. More to tell later.

We are on our way!

2011-04-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

We had a nice long drive yesterday, only one of many 600 plus mile runs we will have this week. Got to South Bend around 7:30 last night so we had time to get a good meal. That's real important since much of this week the menu will be fast food. The ride out was uneventful except my Valentine 1 radar detector failed so we stopped and Rick bought an Escort. I guess that was only fitting since Escort is one of the national sponsors of this years event.

The picture above shows Rick and I next to the loaded car before leaving right after the storm and tornado warning on Thursday morning. You can't see the little tire trailer on behind from the angle of the picture. The other picture shows me finishing up the decal application process. We are required to have all the decals for the national sponsors before we go through tech.

Tomorrow the real fun starts, in the morning we will do the wet skid pad competition. Wet skid pad consists of doing two laps around one direction on the skid pad with the sprinklers on then a keyhole turn and two laps the other direction. Your best lap in each direction are added together and divided by two to get your average speed. With that speed they calculated your g force. Unfortunately there are alot of all wheel drive vehicles and they certainly get the advantage in this event.

There is an impressive mix of vehicles entered in this years race. There are three Vipers, six Corvettes, three Nissan GTRs probably 4 EVOs and a bunch of BMWs and Porsches, a couple Cadillac CTSVs, a new Challenger with retro style Rally driving lights that must be the size of small dinner plates. There are also a couple of Hondas one of which is twin charged, both super charged and turbo charged. Several Mazdas including a new Mazda 2 which comes stock as a 2000 pound car with a 105hp engine. This car however has a transplant drivetrain from a Mazda Speed3 and now has over 300hp and has Charles Espenlaub as its driver. Charles has several wins as a professional sports car driver. There are many other cars from vintage Camaros to Rousch Mustangs, a Jaguar XK, a VW TDI and an Ultima GTR which is a botique Lotus sized sports car with a big engine and many more. You can find the whole list at http://www.onelapofamerica.com under 2011 entrants list.

After the wet skid pad we head to Grissom Air Force Base and compete in a large autocross on the runway in the afternoon, then off to Summit Point in West Virginia for two track events on Sunday. Keep checking back and watch for more updates. Wish us luck.

Soon Time to Leave

2011-04-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

It won't be long now till we leave on this great adventure. Last week Sharon and I did a couple of days at the shore and I took the folding bike along to ride and build up some riding stamina. Many of the tracks we visit we have never seen before. The format is, you come out of the pits and do one lap and that is considered your recognizance lap. After that one lap you stop at the start finish line and are flagged to a start your competitive run one car at a time. It is certainly a disadvantage if you are not familiar with the track versus some of the competitors that are. There just isn't enough time to always walk the track, so I will be taking my bike and can hopefully do a lap or two to get a little familiar with the driving line. At most tracks you are allowed to walk, jog, roller blade, scooter or bike around the track but you can't use anything motorized.

We are now up to over $1300 in our fundraising for the Pa Breast Cancer Coalition. When we took this on we thought it would be an easy goal of about $2000 and really thought we would do much more than that. I guess part of it is the economy. If anyone out there still would like to donate we will put your name on the car for any donation of at least $10. If you get your name on the car before we leave, you can consider yourself riding along vicariously;^) Many people have made a donation in honor or in memory of a friend or family member who has dealt with cancer or breast cancer. We will be accepting donations for the rest of this years track and show season and the stickers will be seen at many track events and car shows. As I mentioned before Rick has also decorated his car with the Breast Cancer Coalition logo and is putting the same stickers on his car.

This will probably be my last post until we get started, but I will try to update on a regular basis as time permits from the road. It does look like a couple of days will be extremely long and by the time we get to our motel updating my blog might not be a high priority. Please check back often for any updates and feel free to share the blog address with anyone who might be a motor sport enthusiast or be interested in this type of thing.

Corvette filling up with Breast Cancer Stickers

2011-04-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Jimbob Racing charity this year is the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition. We are placing a sticker on the car for each donation of $10 or more. Many people have donated and have their own name put on to show their support for the Coalition. Others have put the name of a friend or a loved one who has dealt with this terrible disease. Space is filling up, so don't wait too long if you would like to make a donation. Checks should be made out to the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition, if you see me or Rick cash is also acceptable. Feel free to make donations to put several stickers on the car. With the stickers you can ride along vicariously on this amazing adventure and donate to a good cause at the same time. We will also be filling Rick's Corvette up with the stickers. Rick has placed the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition logo on the hood of his car and will attempt to fill the hood and trunk area. He plans to also leave the stickers on through the car show season, well into the fall.

If you are sending a check by mail please send it to Jim Roberts West Main Auto, 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552

New Graphics on car

2011-03-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Just got the car back from SSC Tint and Graphics yesterday with all the new graphics on for this years event. Well not exactly all. When we get to South Bend they will have some additional stickers to put on for the national sponsors etc. Mike Snyder really did a nice job on the vinyl and finished it up ahead of schedule. A big THANK YOU to Mike. If you need signing, window tinting, graphics on your car etc. and you are anywhere near Elizabethtown, Pa. be sure to check with Mike and tell him Jim sent you. Here are some pictures of the car, one with Mike in the background. Off to the right is the car he campaigns very sucessfully in the SCCA Autocross Series and some National SCCA events.

In a little less than a month Rick and I will leave on this big adventure. Just a few things to do yet to get ready. Rick is getting his graphics done today on his Corvette. We are decorating Rick's Corvette to enhance the fund raising effort. Mike will put the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition logo on the hood and Rick will work at covering the hood and trunk with the stickers with names on them from those who donate $10 or more in honor of someone who has delt with Breast Cancer. We will also put names on in Memorial of someone and many people will just put their own name on to show support of the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition.

Just a reminder, don't forget you can click on "older posts" at the bottom of each page to go back to older stories from this year and even further back to stories from the past two years.

Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition is 2011 Charity for Jimbob Racing

2011-03-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

Jimbob racing would like to announce that the 2011 charity that we will support is the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition. The PBCC, represents,supports and serves breast cancer survivors and their families in Pennsylvania through educational programing, legislative advocacy and breast cancer research grants. The PBCC is a statewide non-profit organization that creates the hope of a brighter tomorrow by providing action and information to women with breast cancer today.

We are accepting donations in any amount, but for a minimum donation of $10 we will put a sticker on our cars with the name of someone you would like to honor or recognize in memory. You can also put your own name on a sticker showing your support. We will put as many stickers on my car as possible, on the roof, on the roof hoop and the high part of the back window. We will also attempt to cover Rick's Corvette convertible with stickers. We are hoping to leave the stickers on through the competition and show season that lasts well into the fall.

With the visibility and publicity of this awesome adventure and all the exposure the cars will get, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to leverage this to the community good. With this in mind Rick and I are working to raise awareness and at least a couple of thousand dollars for the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition.

Please see Jim or Rick for your donation or send your donation to and make check payable to:

Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition

Attn: One Lap 2011

344 N. Reading Rd.

Ephrata, Pa. 17522

2011 Sponsors

2011-03-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

I just want to acknowledge and Thank my sponsors and encourage everyone to patronize those businesses who have made our 2011 One Lap of America effort possible. Two Cousins Pizza of Mount Joy, The Watering Trough, Mount Joy Diner, Rutt's Appliances, Autolocator.com, Krunch Kritters, Mick's All American Pub, Pro Tune Performance Inc. SSC Tint and Graphics, and the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition. If or when you patronize these businesses let them know you followed this years race. They want to know their advertising dollars are working.

So far there are 63 teams signed up. Our category, which is SSGT1-BB, has 13 registered to date. That encompasses Sports/GT cars which cost new over $50,000 (cost new at today's prices) and are big bore, over 3.5 liters of engine displacement. There are several other categories but one thing that makes it interesting is the car is registered as what it was born as. For example if you run a Mazda Miata but put a big honkin V8 under the hood, it is still a Miata.

We are raising money for the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition by puting stickers on the car for a minimum $10 donation. The stickers can have a name of someone you would like to honor that has had breast cancer, in memory of someone, or with your own name showing support for the effort against breast cancer. Check their web site at http://PBCC.me

For those who don't scroll back I just wanted to show the route map again. Once again I would like to mention the map was borrowed from the One Lap for Dogs team. Be sure to visit their web site at http://onelapfordogs.com/ they are raising money for Canine Partners For Life an organization that places assist dogs with over 400 people in need around the country. They do amazing work with both assist and seizure alert dogs.

Hood Sponsor re-signs for 2011

2011-03-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

Two Cousins Pizza of Mount Joy will again be our Hood Sponsor for our One Lap of America effort. The hood has always gotten a lot of attention, especially in the paddock when the hood was raised and people would refer to it as the Pizza Man car. Nearly all of the past sponsors have re-signed from last year, so it won't be long until we complete the graphics update on the car. It is amazing how quickly the time is going by as we look forward to the end of April when we head west to South Bend, Indiana. There is still much to do.

Very shortly we plan to post information about our new charity and some fresh ideas to leverage this awesome adventure to the community good. Keep checking back for more information, this is the fourth installment about this years effort. If you scroll down you will see previous stories and then you can click "older posts" at the bottom of each page and see stories from the last two years. My partner in One Lap, Rick Stauffer, has also started a blog at http://rick1lap.blogspot.com/ be sure to check this out regularly also.

Rick Stauffer joins Jim Roberts' Team

2011-02-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Rick Stauffer, of Ephrata, Pa. and a long time member of the Lancaster County Corvette Club has joined with Jim Roberts on his team to participate in this year's One Lap of America. Jim will be doing the competitive driving this year and Rick will help as a transit driver, sharing the highway miles that will total close to 5,000 miles in this years event. The actual event is about 3400 miles plus the miles out and back to South Bend, Indiana and the track miles add up to that total. The 2011 One Lap of America will cover a large part of the eastern United States. You can scroll down the page to see a map and the tracks we will visit on a previous post.

Now that our team is complete, we need to get on with the details of preparing for this major endurance event. It is very important that the car be checked over very carefully since any type of breakdown would really hamper a good finish. We do not trailer from track to track, the car must be driven the entire distance, and most days we will put on between 500 and 600 miles.

The picture above was taken while the #22 was on display at the Corvettes at Carlise in August of 2010.

Shakedown Run to Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona

2011-02-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

I just got back from our "road trip" to the Rolex 24 Hour race in Daytona which we also used to give the car a shakedown run to be sure everything was working well. Had a great trip except for the start. Wednesday morning when we left the weather didn't co-operate and I woke up to snow already on the ground, instead of the wintry mix that wasn't supposed to start until we were well south of here. After a failed start I returned home and changed tires with my other Corvette. These were all season high performance, wrong sizes but close enough and a lot more grip in snow covered conditions. Five miles or so south of York and it turned to all rain, if we would have only left a little sooner.

The race was great to watch and the Corvette ran well. We averaged about 21 mpg and about the only adjustment needed to the car will be to refine the tune a little as it was running rich until it warmed up. The weather in Florida was a whole lot better than at last years race when we were freezing and with a brisk wind. This year Saturday was in the high 60's and Sunday got up to the low 70's. Probably should have stayed down for another couple of months because when we returned we came home to temperatures in the 20's and another wintry mix.

The Planning starts

2011-01-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well it is time to start planning One Lap of America for 2011. On the map it shows the route we will be taking this year. After driving 700 miles to South Bend from home in Lancaster County Pa. we will start the event at the Tire Rack Skid pad in South Bend, In. with a wet skid pad competition on Saturday morning. From there travel one of our shortest distances of only 82 miles to Grissom Air Force Base north of Kokomo, In. for an Autocross on the runways of Grissom, Saturday afternoon. After Grissom we head east for a long drive of 552 miles to Summit Point WV. to the 2 mile 10 turn Summit Point Raceway for our Sunday morning event. This being our first road course, it is the event that will set the seeding order for the rest of the week. The higher in the field you finish at this track the sooner you do your runs all week long. The sooner you finish each day the quicker you can get moving to the next track and the quicker you get to the motel for some much appreciated sleep.

Brian Gomez another One Lap competitor, created the map graphic that you see above and is raising money for his cause "Canine Partners for Life" , be sure to go to his web site http://www.onelapfordogs.com/ for more information.

Note: If you click on the map it will enlarge for a better view. Keep checking back for more details as our plans develope.

We made it home again.

2010-05-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made it back to

Lancaster County and get to sleep in our own beds again. As much as I enjoyed the adventure, it is nice to be home. One amazing statistic is that we went in completely different directions after leaving South Bend compared to last year and all different tracks, but ended the trip with 3 more miles than 2009. Our total mileage including to South Bend and back was 4864 miles. The vast majority of the mileage was transit miles between the tracks, with only about 200 or so track miles. The furthest west was Hallett, Oklahoma and as far east as Millville, New Jersey. Many of the regulars talk of doing the "Big Western Run" again where the transit mileages can grow to 800 plus miles in a day/night. That would also probably add another 1500/2000 miles to the total. This is a very challenging and grueling event and that would make it more so for both man and machine.

We can probably give you a pretty good run down on the menus at Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King and Denny's. The track food for the most part consisted of hamburgers and hot dogs along with the brats in Wisconsin. To make the finances work we also looked for the more budget side of lodging, but we found out paying more did not guarantee a better shower. It is amazing how interesting the shower restrictors are in some of the motels.

The pictures above show the Yellow Corvette driven by Danny Popp the multiple SCCA national autocross champion. "The Dog Bone Car" of Brian and Harry raising money for their local humane league and the 2006 Lotus that had a little off track excursion that damaged the front valance and left some tire marks along the side. Check back for any final thought I may come up with.

South Bend, almost the end.

2010-05-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

The last event of the week is at South Bend, Indiana. This morning we competed in the Dry Skid Pad competition and finished 23rd. This gives us an overall finish of 26th for this years event. Last year we finished 15th and felt we might be able to improve slightly on that effort. This year when we arrived and saw a lot more awesome cars it looked like it was going to be a little tougher and it was said by one competitor that it seems like "twice as many top ten teams showed up this year".

After our DNF at Road America and dropping to 39th place, my goal changed to a 25th place finish. We got close and finished in 26th, not quite a win but a great experience and with many new friends made. With our exploding pulley problem on Saturday it really looked like a possibility of losing a day or two to get things fixed. As I mentioned in a previous post, without Joel Huibregtse's help we might have been stranded over the weekend and lost several events until getting the car fixed during normal shop business hours on Monday and still the problem of finding the right parts to make the repair. Joel is a Corvette Restoration Specialist with CSI Performance in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and they were closed for the day since One Lap of America was at the local track, Road America. Fortunately for us, Joel was standing near Danny Popps car when I went looking for other Corvette guys who might have any spare parts that might help us out. While standing waiting for Danny to come out from under his car Joel made some comment that made me ask him if he was local and a mechanic. Many, Many thanks to Joel for his helpfulness and friendliness in our time of need. For more details on the Road America events scroll down to the Road America entry.

Only 600 miles back to Lancaster County and we can call this adventure completed.

Nelson Ledges Sports Car Course

2010-05-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

Nelson Ledges Sports Car Course is considered the fastest 2 mile road racing course in the country. It is located near Warren in northeast Ohio. The track has not been paved in quite a while and is extremely rough in many areas. They are now under new ownership and things are beginning to improve but much still needs to be done. The track is so rough that one of the cars had the side curtain air bags go off while in the middle of their run. The driver said it sounded like a shotgun going off and startled her but she kept going and finished the run. One other major problem at the track that day was a supercharged Mustang blew its motor in turn 10 just in front of us who were watching from the tower. While checking the track for debris a safety worker found a wrist pin that had blown out of the engine. With a hole in the block the Mustang was finished for the week. One other incident for the day was when the Lotus went off the track and did a little bodywork alteration when it contacted the tire wall. Just cosmetic damage that a few thousand dollars will cure, but still able to continue on. The track was new to both of us and we kind of slipped a little on this day, not quite getting the finishes we were hoping for.

This will be a short drive today with only about 300 miles back to South Bend to finish out the week with a dry skid pad competition. Maybe we can get a good nights rest so that after the banquet we can still make the 600 mile trip home and get there for Mother's Day.

New Jersey Motorsports Park, Thursday

2010-05-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday we ran at New Jersey Motorsports Park on the Lightning circuit. This course is 1.9 miles long an has 10 turns. Two of the turns have blind track outs over the crest of hills which adds to the challenge. It is a very fast course and I got a 20th place finish in the morning and was able to improve by 2 seconds in the afternoon run but still finished in 20th. We moved up one more spot in the overall to 27th position. The spot are a little harder to earn this late in the event but we are still trying, With only 3 events remaining I am hoping for a 25th place overall but we need some good finishes to make that happen. You need to take your successes where you can and I think that would be a great comeback after dropping to 39th with our power steering pulley problems and the DNF at Road America. After finishing up at Lightning we will have a short 427 miles to Nelson Ledges race course near Warren, Ohio.

If it's Mid Ohio it must be Wednesday

2010-05-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

We kind of lose track of what day it is. After a couple of days things start to run together and you have to stop and think what day it is. This morning we arrived at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, just a little north of the center of Ohio. This is one beautiful course, very well maintained and a neat park setting. I think the track surface is one of the best I have ever seen on a racetrack. This is a 2.4 mile course with a very fast downhill staight and lots of elevation changes. The gravel pit runoff area at the end of the front straight is called China beach. I don't know where the China comes in but it does look like a beach. It is a very challenging course to get right, but we don't have that chance, we do the best we can. After the one recon lap you are then flagged on for your competition laps, most drivers come back in saying "How much better I could be if I had some time on that track.

Only 527 miles to go and we will arrive in Millville, New Jersey to run on the Lightning 1.9 ten turn road course. After New Jersey it on to Nelson Ledges Road Course in northeast Ohio, then on to South Bend, Indiana to finish the week.

Gateway International Raceway

2010-05-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we went to Gateway International Raceway outside of St. Louis. We even got a chance to see the Arch from pretty close when we drove through the downtown on the way to the track. Similar to other Speedway tracks, Gateway is a very fast banked oval track. The track also has an alternate layout which utilizes the Speedway from NASCAR turn 3 through turn 4 and down the front straight and then transitions into the infield with several twists and turns to make up a road course for sports car racing.

Scott finished 22nd in the morning event and I ran just a couple of tenths slower per lap in the afternoon but it was only good for 32nd place, but I was thrilled to be that close. The One Lap of America format is extremely challenging with just one reconnaissance lap to learn the track. Immediately after your recon lap you line up at the start/finish line and get the green flag at about 10 second intervals. Typically we do many 20 minute session on a track over a day or two to learn the track and get fast. After the second session we moved up to 28th place overall.

As soon as we are finished I change out of my racing suit and we load the car as quickly as possible and head out for the next track. Tomorrow we will be at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course outside of Lexington, Ohio. The distance this evening is only 478 miles, then we get some sleep and arrive at the track before 8 am.

Monday day is Hallett, and Tulsa Oklahoma

2010-05-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

We are climbing the ladder and making up a few positions after our DNF at Road America. Scott earned a 17th place finish at Hallett and I got a 32nd place finish in the afternoon. We are at a distinct disadvantage since we share the events at each track. Many of the teams use one driver for all track events with the other team member helping with the driving on the highway between tracks. Other teams have one driver do all the driving at one track, so he gets some experience in the morning and will likely be faster in the afternoon. We share the driving at most tracks so we both get the experience tracks all over the country.

Hallett is a neat 11 turn track that is about 2 miles long with lots of elevation changes. It is located just west of Tulsa Oklahoma only 483 miles from our last stop in Pacific Junction, Iowa. That doesn't count the extra 17 miles each way through the back country to get to our motel. After Hallett we went 50 miles over to Tulsa Raceway Park for the Drags.

That's all for now, must get some sleep. I will give more details soon. Keep checking back.

Mid America Motorplex

2010-05-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

The blogs are a little tougher to keep up with this year. If it isn't getting to the motel at 2am it is a problem with the motel wireless connection. Last night the connection was so slow and I kept losing connection that I could not upload any pictures.

Mid America Motorplex is in extreme western Iowa. It was a fun track, but with mixed success. Scott was able to get a 22nd place finish in the early event. I went out in the afternoon and only got a 42nd place finish. With both finishes added in we did move up to 34th place from the 39 place after our DNF at Road America.

Just a side note on my 42nd place finish. I can get around a track pretty fast after just one session but the One Lap format is just one recognizance lap then 3 hot laps. I seem to have a little slower learning curve and and the One Lap format is very challenging to me. I also think the responsibility of racing someone else's car hold me back just a little. More news tomorrow from Hallet Oklahoma.

The picture above is just a litte humor from the Viper guys.

Problems at Road America

2010-05-02T20:24:00.001-07:00

We had problems on Saturday at Road America. Scott went out to run in the first Qualifying session, which would set the order for the next session. The second session set the seeding order for running for the rest of the event. During the 3rd lap the power steering pulley disintegrated and in doing so also took out the power steering pump reservoir and the serpentine belt that runs the water pump and alternator as well. Because of this failure the temperature went up quickly and Scott to shut down and abort the run. As a result we ended up with a DNF for that event which stands for "Did not finish". With a DNF you receive no point for the event and we dropped from 14 th place overall to 39 th place.

The good new is that when I went looking for help and could not find anyone who had a pulley. I stopped at another competitor's car and was waiting to ask him about a pulley until he was finished working on a problem part. While standing ther I heard the fellow say something next to me that gave me the idea he was a local mechanic. I started to tell him of our problem and he told me he works for a local Corvette performance shop but was off today to come to the track for the One Lap event Joel was absoloutely great and went above and beyond in helping us get the car back together in time to get in the last group for qualifying.

Of course nobody local had the pulley or reservoir in stock. The fix Joel helped to come up with was a pulley from his C4 which fit but didn't have the grooves on it like the orginal. We got the pulley on and glued the reservior in time for qualifying, but then discovered it was still leaking and dripping on the serpentine belt. Joel suggested using the C4 Corvette reservoir but it was too large. After everyone else had left for western Iowa Joel guided us to the local Fleet and Farm store where we bought hoses and fitting and mounted the reservior remotely back by the master cylinder so we could still close the hood. A few cable ties to hold everything out of harms way and we were leaving for Iowa. Another big THANK YOU to Joel. It is nice to know how much some one you never met before was willing to be so giving and helpful to get us back in the game. When we get home we will have to mail Joel his borrowed parts and tools back to him.

Of course we didn't get to Pacific Junction, Iowa until 2 am and got some much needed sleep. One Lap of America is certainly an endurance contest of both man and machine.

Some success on the Wet Skid Pad

2010-04-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Competition started today with the Wet Skid Pad competition. I didn't win but I am smiling. I came in 14th place out of 68 registered entrants. This was a major improvement from last year showing of 52nd place. Last year it was the first event ever for me in One Lap and I was probably a little consertive. I certainly didn't want to spin out and make a fool of myself so I didn't push real hard. Add to this that our tire choice last year was great in the dry but not so good in the wet and the two things left us near the bottom of the group after the first event.

The one picture above show them stenciling our tires. All tires are branded and stenciled to be sure you keep the same tires on for the entire event. Several factors come together to do well at One Lap. Good vehicle preparation, good tire management, personal endurance and of course some ability to get the car around a track quickly. The second picture is of Scott putting on the final stickers on the car before we took it through tech.

Tomorrow is Road America in Elkart Lake Wisconsin. I won't promise an update tomorrow since after we finish tomorrow afternoon we have a 583 mile trip to Pacific Junction, Iowa. Tomorrow also sets the seeding order for our run groups for the rest of the event.

We are on our way!

2010-04-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

We are on our way. Not much else to report. The only picture I took today was of the flag at the left that was hanging in the rest area food court on the Ohio Turnpike. We put about 600 miles on today and we are right outside of South Bend, Indiana. Tomorrow we will register, have the car teched, put on the rest of the national sponsor decals have a welcoming dinner and have our first competition, the wet skid pad event. For the wet skid pad we get two laps around a 200 foot circle in one direction then through a keyhole turn and then two laps in the oposite direction. They will take our best lap in each direction and calculate our average G forces. Points will be awarded. We will have a final count tomorrow but it looks like about 70 entrants. Points are awarded from the 1st place finisher down to the last in 5 point increments. If there are 70 entrants it would be 5 points X 70 entrants, so 1st place would get 350, 2nd place 345 and so on down to last place with 5 points. All of the events will be scored the same. Other than the wet skid pad event at the start and the dry skid pad at the end, we will have 2 events at each of the racetracks. Tomorrow is game on. Wish us luck.

2010-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I spent some time at Pocono International Raceway to get in a little practice for our One Lap of America effort. The event was a drivers school where I was instructing for the Cumberland Valley Corvette Club. We had about a dozen members from our Lancaster County Corvette Club. Everyone from our group didn't get in the attached picture since some were out

on the track at the time. I'm hoping for little better weather for One Lap since it was cold and windy for our weekend and we even had an overnight snow shower and we woke up to lightly snowed upon cars.

Unlike our regular track day events where we use competition tires, we will be using street tires for the entire One Lap event. The tires are branded and stenciled so they can be easily identified, and you need to take care of your tires so they last the entire trip. If you injure a tire on a road hazard you may be able to substitute a tire if it does not give you a competitive advantage.

We will be leaving shortly and I will try to do nightly updates so check back often during the first week of May. For those new to the blog, be sure to scroll down a few pages and read some of the stories from last years event.

Some early pictures of the car

2010-04-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post and show a couple of the pictures of the car with some of the new sponsors on it. I'd like to welcome Two Cousins Pizza of Mount Joy as I already announced as the Title Sponsor, The Mount Joy Diner,SSC Tint and Graphic and Mick's All American Pub. These four are new to the effort this year. I would also like to thank our returning sponsors. Jones Family of Dealers, Jim Roberts' West Main Auto, Auto -Locator, Rutt's Appliances, Krunch Kritters, and Brady's High Performance. The rest of the decals should be on in a couple of days, and when we get to South Bend we get to add the National sponsors that are part of the overall event. Can you believe it is less than a week until we leave for South Bend.

We have already received some checks donating to our charity Spina Bifida Resources of Greater Pennsylvania. Please feel free to start a pledge form and sign up your friends to help us raise money for Spina Bifida, we have a long way to go to match last years effort.

Title Sponsor is Two Cousins Pizza, Mount Joy

2010-04-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

We are very happy to announce that we signed the title sponsor to our One Lap of America effort for this year. For 2010 it will be Two Cousins Pizza in Mount Joy. They will have their company name and logo prominently displayed on the hood of our 2002 Zo6. Time is getting close and it is less than two weeks away until we are on our way to South Bend, Indiana to start the competition.

Last year we were able to raise funds for Spina Bifida Resources of Greater Pennsylvania and decided to try to raise funds for the same charity this year. With the challenging economy most charitable organizations are having a very difficult time, so it is even more important this year. I was very pleased at our Lancaster County Corvette Club meeting last night that several members came forward to donate or to make pledges for our Spina Bifida effort. Anyone that would like to donate to Spina Bifida Resources please make your check out to SBR One Lap and send to Jim Roberts, 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552. If you would like take pledges or donations from your friends, we anticipate completing nearly 5000 miles so people can make a per mile donation or just an outright donation.

This years field is up to 73 vehicles in several different classes. Our class is the SSGT1 Big Bore. At last count there were 12 cars in our class which includes a Ferrari F430, a Viper, a couple of the larger displacement Porsches, an Ultimate GTR and a few other Corvettes. The entry list is truly international with several teams from Canada and even a few teams from Europe.

Modifications are almost unlimited except the tires must be street tires of 140 tread wear and above from a list of approved brands. No track tires are permitted since the tires must last the entire event and also be used for the transit distance between tracks. This event is a challenge to personal stamina, vehicle preparation and durability and driving skills on the track as well as a little strategy thrown in. At each track you get one lap to recon the course then three hot laps and a cool down lap. The total time for the three laps count and the scoring is similar to NASCAR with the top finishing team receiving 365 points (73 entries X 5 points each). The second place for that event would get 360 and so forth down to the last place vehicle which would get 5 points. A DNF (Did Not Finish) would get 0 points.

Several Sponsors committed to the effort

2010-04-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. We have signed up several sponsors, some that are returning again this year, including Auto-locator, Rutt's Appliances, Krunch Kritters, and new for this year the Mount Joy Dinner. I would just like to say thanks to those who have signed on, and say we still have space for a few more. It is amazing how fast the time goes by, we will be leaving for this years adventure in just about three weeks.

As last year, we decided to add a charity component to this amazing adventure. We are listing as our charity Spina Bifida Resources once again. Just like last year, charities of all kinds have suffered greatly from the reduced giving due to the tough economic times we are in. We expect to log nearly 5,000 miles in this years effort, from leaving Lancaster County, Pa. to returning home again. Some donations last year were of the cents per mile type (1 cent per mile for example rounded out to about $50), while some just made a check out to an amount of their choice. All donations are greatly appreciated. Please send any donations to Jim Roberts 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552. Make your check out to Spina Bifida Resources. Above is a picture of my grandaughter, Adaline, who has Spina Bifida. You can see it is a cause that is very close to me. She will be 4 years old in May and in the past year has started school and now has her very own wheelchair.

Don't forget, just scroll down to see some of the stories from last years adventure. Also be sure to check back often, I will be trying to post each days news once we start the trip in early May.

One Lap -----One More Time

2010-03-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go again. Scott Breneman and I have decided to do the One Lap of America again this year. In a little over one week we expect to put on nearly 5000 miles between tracks and on the roadrace tracks we visit. Each track we visit we will compete in two Time Trial events.

The route this year will take us from Lancaster, Pa. to South Bend, In. to Road America in Elkhart Lake Wi. then it's 583 miles on to Mid America Motorplex near Pacific Junction Ia. Another 482 miles puts us outside of Tulsa Ok. at Hallet Motor Racing Circuit, then a quick jaunt to Tulsa Raceway Park for 2 drag strip events. After Tulsa we are headed to Madison Il. to the Gateway International Raceway not far outside of St. Louis. By the next morning we are due at the Mid Ohio Sportscar Course in Lexington Ohio. After Mid Ohio it's off to the New Jersey Motorsports Park near Millville where we will compete on the Lightning track. Back to Ohio near Garrettsville in northeastern Ohio to the famous Nelson Ledges Road Course and then a quick 300 miles over to South Bend and we are almost done. Only 596 miles back to Lancaster County, Pa.

As in last years event we are actively looking for Sponsors and donations/handouts etc. Our plan is to decorate both Scott's Zo6 that we are taking and also clone my yellow coupe with the same graphics.

Wish us luck and follow along with this blog. For those new to our adventures you can scroll down a few pages and see my postings from last years competition.

Jim Roberts

We made it to the End

2009-05-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

This years One Lap of America event is over and we successfully made it to the end. We completed and got points in every event and made it back to South Bend and from there back to Lancaster County. The mileage added up to 4861 in total and 3669 during the official event including transit distances and on track mileage.

We were able to place 15Th place overall and 9Th place in class, which we consider a very respectable finish. Obviously we would have liked to finish in 1st place, but with the level of talent and equipment we competed against we consider our finish a success.

Our last event was on Saturday and was the Dry Skid pad competition at the Tire Rack facility in South Bend, In. It was a very threatening sky and a brisk wind and it was trying to rain. The temperature on the car thermometer was 49 and it felt like less than 30 and you could see your breath. Scott was able to get a .902 g's and placed 27Th and then it was all over except for the group picture and the banquet.

We met a lot of nice people and had a very enjoyable if tiring week and my mind is already working on the consideration of doing it again in the future, maybe even next year. I had a great time and the title of this blog was correct as it was a real adventure.

The pictures above are the 1st place overall Nissan GT-R (orange/silver) and the black Porsche GT2, 2nd place overall. I also included another picture of our entry, just to remind everyone of the number 22 car.

That's all for today but check back, I will probably have some more musings to share.

Jim

Beaver Run Motorsports Park

2009-05-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today was our last track day, after this it's down to the dry skid pad event in South Bend. Beaver Run is a 1.3 mile road course with some neat elevation changes in western Pennsylvania near Beaver Falls. Scott ran in the morning and was able to post a very good 9th place finish. While we were having lunch I felt a couple rain drops and was afraid I would get another wet run in the afternoon. Just a few drops and those rain clouds moved on and a little sun poked out and the rain held off. I went out and was able to get a 16th place finish, not quite what I was looking for but respectable. Now again pack up quickly and head off to a 6 hour run to South Bend, Indiana.

The picture above is the number 2 Nissan GT R which had engine problems and was unable to continue. The last event shows 10 vehicles that din't get points on that event which is a good indicator that they have had problems and were broke at least for the day or maybe even out of the event.

After the Dry Skid Pad event there will be an awards banquet and we will be on our way home. It might take a couple days to get a final update posted but keep checking back.

Jim

Great Scott-BMW Performance Center

2009-05-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

Scott did an awesome job at the BMW Performance Center, finishing in 8th place overall. He actually caught the car in front of him and it was a drag race to the finish line. They space the cars out so that doesn't happen but this time it did. I think if Scott didn't have that car to deal with he might have been a bit faster and would have likely placed a few places higher. The course was like a road course and autocross combined and Scott really showed his autocross skills. This great run helped us move up in the points.

After his run was finished we quickly left for Beaver Falls, Pa. some 562 miles away. This would be one of our biggest trips and even with all the hustle we still didn't get there till 1:30 in the morming. As you can see, stamina and endurance of both participants and vehicle are very important.

Stay tuned for more.
Jim

Carolina Motorsports Park

2009-05-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

I had a good run at Carolina Motorsports Park today. Unfortunately it rained this morning for Scott's run, but then it cleared up by my afternoon run. There were a couple of big spins and slides in the morning and that added some excitement to the viewing (also to the drivers who were in those cars). I was able to get some pointers from a fellow that I had as a student at VIR 2 years ago. He was there to watch the One Lap group since it is his home track. His advise was well appreciated. I ended up with a 15th place run which was very respectable. After my run was over we loaded the car quickly and headed about 140 miles to the BMW Performance Center

Running the High Banks at Daytona

2009-05-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

What a blast running on the high banks at Daytona. Today was quite a bit different from a normal track. We ran the Rolex 24 hour layout with the one mile International infield added to the high bank portion. This makes a 3.56 mile course which is very challenging which also includes the "Bus Stop" near the end of the back straight. You have to look out the top corner of your windshield to see any distance ahead of you when you are in turns 1 & 2 and especially in 3 & 4. There was a lot more speed to be had, but it would take a few more than 4 laps to build a comfort level at these speeds. It is amazing to realize the driving skills needed to handle a Nascar on the track with 43 other cars traveling as a pack.

The one picture is Scott coming down the front stretch and the other is him making a pass on the back straight. Scott was able to get a 15 place in evert #1 and I got a 27th place finish in the second event. At this point we are in 10th place in class and 19 place overall.

Jim

Good Day at Sebring

2009-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sebring went pretty good today, Scott got a 17th place finish in the morning event and I was able to get a 17 place finish in the afternoon. This moved us up a little bit in the standings. It was good to do an event in the dry. The top picture is me running down the front straight at Sebring and the one on the bottom is Scott in his run for low ET.

Scott did the duties at the drag strip in Gainesville, Fl. and was able to get a 12.571 in the ET challenge which was good for 10th place overall Unfortunately Scott was eliminated in the 1st round in the Bracket Drags but we don't know the points yet since they are not posted yet.

Tomorrow we get to run the Daytona 3.56 mile course that the 24 Hours of Rolex uses. This layout uses the high banks as well as the international infield that is just over a mile long. They use the Bus Stop near the end of the back straight that causes you to manuver into the "Bus Stop" to help keep speeds down when entering Nascar 3.

Check back for more updates.

Jim

Monday May 4th Talladega, Al.

2009-05-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

We had a little rain in Talladega today (actually yesterday since I am writing this after midnight), then we had a 600 mile drive after finishing the event in the wet. The picture on the left is Scott holding an umbrella for a friend to check out a brake problem in the rain. The other picture is just to give you an idea of how much rain we had. It wasn't as bad as it might have been. The track was wet but the tremendous downpour had stopped while we were on track.

Not quite the results we were hoping for today. Scott had a 21 place finish in the first event and I had a 42 place overall in the afternoon event. We certainly create a disadvantage for ourselves by us both running the same day. Most teams will use the same driver for both events therefor getting "practice" in the first event to do better in the second event. We wanted to both experience all the tracks, but our competitiveness is suffering by seeing us slip in the points. If I would have had that same time in the first event I would have improved by about 12 positions, but most everyone got better on their second event. I guess I'm feeling a little frustrated not handling Scott's car the way I handle my own and the wet tracks certinly doesn't help. I am hoping for a dry day at Sebring tomorrow and maybe we can gain a few positions.

We have about 2400 miles on the car since we left home and expect to get near 5000 miles by the time we get home.

Jim

Florence Ky. Sunday May 3rd.

2009-05-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

Things are looking up. Scott did an great job on the autocross and finished 11th overall and 6th in class. We are now in 24th place in the accumulative standings and 7th in class out of 17 in our class. We put in about 550 miles to day first going to Highland Rim asphalt oval track then on to Talladega, Al. Unfortunately it rained at Highland Rim and they would not let us run in the rain. Too much chance of hitting the walls in the wet. Also unfortunately for me that was my event to do for the day so all I did today was a fun run on the autocross course which didn't count but I did get a respectable run of 45.345.

While we were waiting for things to happen at Highland Rim, I was dozing in the drivers seat and one of the Motor Trend photographers snuck up to the window and snapped my picture. I hope that picture doesn't end up in a national magazine or on their web site.

Tomorrow we run at Talladega Grand Prix roadrace course. We are splitting the duties, Scott will run the first event and I will run the second. As soon as we are finished we pack up quickly and head for Sebring, Fl. which in about 620 miles away. Hopefully we get there in time to get a motel room. Because of how late we will probably get to Sebring I don't know if I will do a post tomorrow, but you can check resuts on the On Lap web site at http:/onelapofamerica.com/home.shtm.

Mixed Bag Day

2009-05-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a mixed bag day. I did kind of lousy on the Wet Skid Pad competition and Scott did great on the Time Trial at Autobahn Country Club Raceway. Another part of the mixed bag is that I did not contribute many points and that leaves us in 35 place overall so far. The second part is Scott did terrific and ended up in 15th place in the Time Trial and that puts us in the early groupings in each event so we can finish early and be on the road for the next event.

Tomorrow will be a long day, we will start at Florence Ky. with an large autocross then 250 miles to a asphalt oval in Tennesse, then over 250 more miles to Talledaga, Al. The reason for this is the track at Bluegrass Raceway in Sparta, Ky. was being paved and is not finished in time for our event so an alternate plan was created.

Don't forget we are still trying to raise funds for Spina Bifida Resources. If you want to send a check send it to Jim Roberts 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552 and make it payable to SBR/One Lap. Or if you want to make a pledge just send me an email to that effect.

Pleas check back, I will try to post daily.

We made it to South Bend

2009-05-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Well we made it to South Bend and are at Tire Rack. We got the rest of the decals for the national sponsors and the One Lap of America door shield. They had a drivers meeting and we got the Route Book and last minute changes and corrections. After the dinner/meeting we headed for the hotel to study our Route book and make our final plans. Tomorrow morning we start with the competition. I will be competing in the wet skid pad event, which will be two laps around clockwise then two laps counter clockwise from which they will calculate your g force. We will be awarded points based on the g force we are able to maintain. After the skid pad we are off to Joilett, Il. where Scott will compete in the road course event which will set the seeding order for the rest of the week. The higher up we finish tomorrow the sooner we will finish each day and be on our way to the next track.

There is some very serious equipment and some very talented dirvers that we will be competing with. At this point I am thinking I have my work cut out for me. I have enclosed a few pictures of a sampling of the cars.

Check back tomorrow and I will try to post an update and let you know how we did on our first day.

Counting Down the Hours

2009-04-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

We're counting down the hours now. It wasn't that long ago that it was several weeks to go, now it's down to a couple of days. Here is a picture of the car with most of our sponsor decals on. When we arrive in South Bend on Friday they will give us the One Lap of America shield to go on the doors and the other national sponsors that go around the doors. We then need to put them on and head over to tech to get our final sign off. After all the final registration work is finished we have a kickoff dinner/gathering to get the last of the details before starting the competition at 8 am on Saturday morning.

Sorry the delay between updates, but I have been busy. Last week a group of us from the Lancaster County Corvette Club spent two days participating in a great track event on the Pocono North Course with the Cumberland Valley Corvette Club. Of course I call this practice for the One Lap. I was also draging my feet putting up a new post since it would push my last story with the appeal for sponsorships down the page and we are still anxious to keep getting the word out and raising more money for Spina Bifida Resources of Greater Pennsylvania. At this point we have raised a few hundred dollars but we are still hoping for more. Keep those checks and pledges coming in. We did get a few paragraphs in the Lancaster New Era on Thursday, April 23rd but the only part they mentioned was the competition itself and no mention of the charity part. If anyone has another contact with the Lancaster newspapers feel free to give them the address of the blog and encourage them to mention the Spina Bifida charity benefit. It may also be a little more newsworthy now that we have a picture of the car to show.

2009-04-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

We are now adding a charity component to our Cannonball One Lap of America. We will be displaying a Spina Bifida Resources of Greater Pa. sticker on the One Lap car along with our sponsor stickers. We will also list them as our charity on our official entry and on the web site for the Cannonball One Lap of America. This will bring exposure to our local Spina Bifida Resources and Spina Bifida as a medical birth defect issue. To help them financially we will accept sponsorships from anyone who would like to sponsor us by the mile or for the entire trip or just as a donation to the charity. Think of this as a Drive A Thon. We will record our mileage when leaving home and at the end when we return home and expect to log about 5000 miles in total. For someone willing to donate a penny a mile that would be $50.00. You can do the math and make things work out to whatever you want to donate. The main goal is to leverage this amazing adventure of ours to greater community benefit.

Many of you may know that I have a wonderful granddaughter that was born May 19, 2006 with Spina Bifida. Through those difficult times in the weeks after Adaline was born, Michele was able to benefit from materials, direction and advice that she received from Pat Fulvio and the local Spina Bifida organization. Since the level of giving has certinly suffered for Spina Bifida Resources of Greater Pa. as well as many other charities in these difficult economic times, we felt we wanted to try to help their fundraising. If you would like to create a sponsor sheet and solicit contributions on our behalf for Spina Bifida Resources please let us know and thank you. Please make checks out to SBR-One Lap and mail to Jim Roberts 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552.

Only Two weeks to go.

2009-04-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Our One Lap Car

2009-03-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Test Days at Beaver Run

2009-03-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

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.

We've got some Sponsors

2009-03-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

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.

The entry list is growing

2009-03-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

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

Corvette Team to Compete

2009-02-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

Scott Breneman and Jim Roberts will compete in the 2009 Cannonball One Lap Of America to be held at the beginning of May. The Cannonball One Lap of America is an off shoot of the original Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash created by Brock Yates in the early 70's. In 1984 Brock Yates reworked the format to make it more acceptable to the general public and law enforcement, and continued to change the format until in 1992 it evolved into what it is today.

The event starts in out in South Bend Indiana on May 1st and wraps up back in South Bend May 9th after logging about 3400 miles traveling from track to track. During that time we will do a wet skid pad competition to start the event, visit 7 road race courses, one drag strip and finish with a dry skid pad competition. From our leaving Lancaster to returning to Lancaster and including two Time Trial events at each track we expect to travel a total of about 5000 miles.

Tracks include Autobahn Country Club racetrack in Joliet, Il., Bluegrass Motorsport Park in Sparta, Ky., Talladega Gran Prix Raceway in Talladega, Al., Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fl., Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville Fl., Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fl., Carolina Motorsport Park in Kershaw, SC., BMW Performance Center in Greer, SC., and Beaver Run Motorsport Complex near Beaver Falls, Pa. We will also using the skid pad at Tire Rack in South Bend, In.

The rules only allow street type tires (no track compound) and one set must last the entire event. You may take spare tires along but may not use them unless you have a tire injury. The changing of the tire must be approved before you run the next event. Tires wearing out because of setting extreme camber or other suspension settings will not be considered reason to allow a tire replacement.

We are using Scott’s 2002 ZO6 and are actively soliciting sponsors to display logos on the car to help defer some of the costs involved. If anyone has a business they would like to promote in this manner please get in touch with Jim or Scott. Obviously space is limited so 1st come 1st served. For local promotional purposes we are also considering decorating Jim’s yellow C5 with the same decals. For those who would like to live vicariously through us, or to just help to support the cause, we will also gladly accept contributions/offerings/handouts to further the effort. A half tank of gas for example would be $20, a fast food dinner for two only $12. etc, etc, ;>) Any and all support would be appreciated.

The one piece of advice I have been told is that this is an exercise in sleep deprivation, and fast food overload, and personal hygiene may take a back seat on the days we don't arrive at the next track in time to get a motel for the night.

For those who are interested I will try to continue to share our progress with you.

Jim