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