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.