Day Last - End of the Road

It's Sunday morning and it's taken me a few days to really chew on the disappointment that was/is the 2011 One Lap. Our long trip back included a stop in the Big Easy and a few more horrific roadside meals. A 21 hour leg back home stared us in the face, but home we are.

While Ric, Sebastian, and I certainly made the best of the situation, there is no question that we would have liked to have flogged the little Audi around the rest of the country.
The Flex in lieu was a sorry replacement, but it did give me a peek into what rolling appliances feel like today......hell it even looks like a fridge:/ Regardless of my incessant complaints, we made it back safely to Evergreen on Thursday and have collectively decided to return to the 2012 One Lap.

Better prepared and prepared for triumph, we will be returning in possibly 3 Lotus Elises. Competition will be fierce and I'm already plotting my strategy. In the meantime, I'd like to wish all the One Lappers a prosperous year and I'd like to thank Brock Jr. for yet another great event.

Til next year.
Tony

Day 5: DAYTONA!

11:52AM EST - Daytona International Speedway...impressive hardly describes this venue and having been here for the 2009 One Lap, the awe has only grown. Unfortunately for us, we're not in a Porsche, Lotus, or Audi, but we're making the best of the sour hand that has been dealt us.

The track opened this afternoon for some parade laps on the track (limited to 100mph) so we decided to roll the Flex out onto the track for some fun. Certainly not made for this sort of thing, but it made it around the track.............frustrating as it was we giggled like schoolgirls as we went high on the high bank, 40ft off the apron.

Riding our bikes on the track this morning and to give an idea of how steep the banking here is made, one can not ride a bicycle on the bank without fallingh off. 40 feet from the top of the track to the apron, it's certainly not a place to spin a car, much less fall off a bicycle.
We're off to the Big Easy today to have some fun on Bourbon Street and to visit our last track of the 2011 One Lap in the middle of the bayou oddly enough. Ric, Sebastian, and I have decided to skip the rest of the event after tomorrow and head home a bit early.

While this year's event didn't turn out as planned, we've already decided we'll be back next year.......better prepared and back with two, if not three Lotus Elises.

Tomorrow, I'm sure will be a bit hazy from the whiskey.
One more update coming with a few added pics.

Day 3 & 4: It's An Imperfect World

It's an imperfect world as Ric would say. Apropos today with the catastrophic failure of our now beloved S4. Shortly after going through the niceties of welcoming Sebastian to the event, he was quickly summoned into action on the track. One recon lap of the lushly lined track and he was off; literally. The transmission is.........was.

6:50am EST - We're at Chantily Audi somewhere near D.C. and we've just received the bad news that they won't be able to fix the car 'til tomorrow night. Plan B is now in action.....update forthcoming.

8:45am EST - Still in Chantily and in the last two hours, we've managed to arrange shipping the Audi back to Denver and rent a minivan to finish off the event. Hopefully we'll be able to make the event at the BMW Driving Center in Spartanburg, SC this afternoon. The 1 Lappers are currently at Carolina Motorsports Park, and while I was hoping to face my demons there after spinning the car at 100mph two years ago, the face-off, it will have to remain a stand-off:/

In the spirit of One Lap........onward!

11:49pm EST - Onward we've gone and just outside of Daytona Beach, it's taken all of 2 hours for me to again understand how little I enjoy Florida. From the errant highway drivers to the fact that cheese envelopes every meal on any restaurant's menu, to the fact that it's so muggy and humid that even the few remaining strands of hair on Sebastian's head no longer stick up like a character from Fraggle Rock...........Florida just plain sucks.

One saving grace, however, is Daytona International Speedway. A beacon of NASCAR, yes..........but also a beacon of motorsport. Regardless of what it is, we will be there tomorrow morning to return to the event and while the event's rules state we can no longer gain points (due to the change in cars), the event does allow us to drive the tracks:)


The "ACME Rental Car Company" outside of DC gave us a Ford Flex to accompany us the remainder of the trip and while it lacks any similarity to the S4, it trumps the German tart in that the Flex is currently running. We'll be at the big oval in the morning to see what this soccer mom's grocery getter can do (let this be a lesson to anyone who has ever thought to save a few bucks buying a used rental car).

We'll update in the morning as to how things go, but hopefully we come out the other end of the tunnel.

Day 2: David, Goliath, Ego, Wonderment, et al

11:05pm EST - We're somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 miles into our day and I'm crammed in the back of the wagon with the laptop on my chest trying to ingore the car's stench; the odor wafting through the cabin right now is a mixture of gummy bears, rotten socks, and whatever is coming out of my ass about every 10 minutes. Fresh flowers, it is not.

Such is One Lap. Looking from the outside in, this event's hardships may look to be a matter of studying racetracks, dealing with mechanical issues, and jockeying for a higher standing, but the reality is, the difficulty lies with transfer driving.

While departing each venue gives everyone a shot of anticipation of the next event, and the recent runs on the track leave residual traces of adrenaline, it remains that an hour into each transfer brings myriad issues. Not excluded are boredom, fatigue, restlessness, longing for good food and better company, etc. You can imagine then, there are serious stretches of doubt and bewilderment as to why we have yet again decided to attend this ridiculous event.

There is no tangible prize and climbing up in the standings means little to anyone with the exception of the ego that's screaming that you're better than the guy right in front of you.....of course it's just another way to say Nth place loser, but I digress. Standings are not the point here and while some may find it important to get to Nth place, we stand amongst the teams that have come for reasons mostly unknown. Now on our collective third year at the event, it is different from last which was different yet from the first. The constant has certainly been the racing, but really thinking what brings us back is difficult to pinpoint. Meeting new teams and catching up with old, it really is the weird bond of teams in this traveling car carnival that makes it so endearing. The sophomoric humor and incessant guy-talk is really what this year's One Lap is turning into, and with Sebastian joining the team tomorrow morning at Summit Point Raceway, it will add the last piece of our team; sure to offend most everyone he comes in contact. I suppose it's a good thing he can drive.....also considering it's his car we're beating to shit, it's only fair to let him join in:)

With all that rambled, this morning was the official start of the event and I kicked it off for Team Gay For Bikes with a 39th placing in the wet skidpad event. Much better than my past attempts and much more pleased with my absolute mediocrity. Quickly packing the car, we headed southeast (I think) to Grissom Air Force Base about 80 miles away to try our hand at an autocross event. For those unfamiliar, autocrossing is a discipline that favors small, light, quick handling cars and mostly penalizes hugely powerful cars that have quesionable handling abilities. With our S4, we had very modest aspirations with its 3800lb heft and nose heavy bias. Regardless, Ric took the helm for all three runs and getting progressively faster with each session, he placed 44th, bookended by a Viper in 43rd and a Rousch Mustang in 45th.

Of course earlier I said placings didn't really matter, but egos being what they are (and me being an absolute liar), 43rd loser feels like we conquered some Goliaths.....cheers to slaying a few more tomorrow.

Day 1: Dynamically Jeopardized

Dynamics, as it applies to cars, is an oft-used term to describe a car's ability to coordinate braking, steering, and accelerating into something that allows the driver to effectively go fast. Now some cars like the Corvettes and Mustangs of the world can put up impressive numbers, but dynamically are considered quite poor. Oversteer is a simple dab of the gas pedal away, steering tends to be distant and making one go fast around a track is a battle in stamping out fear. On the other end of the spectrum are cars like the Porsche Boxster which some many see as a bit effeminate, but inspire such confidence that mediocre drivers in a "girl's car" can typically keep up with the heavy-footed/ham-fisted in ox cart axled Mustangs with double the horsepower.

So just as with cars, our team dynamic is one of finely tuned balance. Sebastian is temperamental, Ric is comedic, and I am either cringing or laughing as dictated by which is talking at any given time. As you might imagine it is difficult to spend this amount of time with anyone outside of our spouses, but it seems our three-person dynamic works quite nicely. The pre-event discussions had Ric and Seb doing the vast majority of transfer driving while I comfortably slumbered away. Unfortunately, Sebastian has been absent to this point as he was on business in parts unknown as Ric and I (mostly Ric actually) drove from our homes in Evergreen to South Bend this morning.

The plan has been for Sebastian to fly to South Bend and we'd all take off from here tomorrow, but as we've all experienced, a flight cancellation kept him grounded and scrambling for an alternate plan. As Murphy's Law would have it, all flights to any airports nearby were booked and had Sebastian contemplating abandoning the event before it even started. The dynamics of our team were in jeopardy. Long story short(ish), Sebastian sloughed off his frustration and found a way to meet us at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia on Sunday.

Disaster averted and whether our team really drives like a Porsche or hobbles along like an ox cart will be borne out in the next eight days. Tomorrow has us kicking off the event with the wet skid pad where I'll be attempting to beat my miserable attempts of the past; moving along to Grissom Air Force base in the afternoon for an autocross event and finally driving nearly 600 miles to West Virginia to Summit Point.

Cheers til tomorrow.

Dodging Missed Opportunities

As it applies to the 2011 One Lap of America, it was opportunity lost, then somehow regained. I think we've all been there, and if you haven't experienced it, you've certainly seen it. It's the visiting team hitting the go-ahead home run in the top of the 9th; with the home team on the verge of defeat, there's the lead-off walk in the bottom of the 9th......the agony of a 3 & 2 count with 2 outs and a 2-run home run to catapult the Cubbies.....ahem, I mean, the home team to a frenzied win!

Apologies for the baseball analogy, but I can only assume you get my point. We almost didn't make it to 1 Lap this year, but a last minute email from Brock Jr. (the event organizer) stirred us into action. All be told, Sebastian, Ric, and I had all resigned to skipping the 2011 One Lap due to various lame reasons, and up to 3 weeks ago, none of us were signed up.

Needless to say, here we are three days prior to the event, signed up and ready to "race". With the shortened prep time and lack of any semblance of planning, it's been a scramble to get things ready. As it stands, we have Sebastian, Ric, and me taking Sebastian's Audi S4 wagon to the event. Now some of you may wonder how we're going to compete in a station wagon, but know that the equipment again will not be our downfall, as this particular chariot boasts a 4.2 liter, 340hp V-8. Certainly, it will be our lack of driving skill that keeps us out of the top 20, but with what looks to be a pretty stacked field, I think top 40 would be astonishing.

What may, however, put a bigger burr in our collective shorts may be the 3 grown men forced to tolerate 10 days in a car xizang-ing the midwest to the right coast to the depths of the deep south. This year we will be re-visiting a handful of tracks, but our route takes us from IN > VA > SC > FL > GA > LA > IL and finally back to IN.

As in the past, we've had local competition and it's no different this year. Our friends Eric and Scott will be participating also in an Audi S4........a small inside bet has been made so I'm sure we'll be jabbing at them along the way.

Wish us luck and we'll be sure to keep the posts coming.

Ladies and gents, start your engines!

Tony