Racin': One Lap of America Day 6, Barber Motorsports Park

Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama (birthplace and boyhood home of Charles Barkley, so there's a Hoops connection, too) is one of the prettiest, most meticulously maintained racetracks in the country. They have a reputation for being terrifically anal about their facility and that reputation is somewhat deserved. If you put a jackstand down on the pavement, you have to have a piece of wood under it. If you spill fluids (oil, gas, coolant, whatever) on the paddock or racetrack, they will send you a bill for it. If you have an off and hit any of their precious Armco barrier, they will send you a bill for it (after writing up an incident report and having you sign it).

A story told to me was that when he was building the track, someone told Mr. Barber that "in that swamp the bugs will eat you alive." Throughout the facility there are metal sculptures, most of them of bugs of one sort or another. On the infield between a couple of straightaways there is a large spider (spyder?). If you look closely, you can see several little baby spiders around her legs (I'm assuming it's a mama spider).



On the wall of the timing/scoring building along the main straight, there is a very large metal wasp.



The funniest detail about that is that some birds have built a nest inside the sculpture. I didn't have my camera with me when I noticed that, otherwise there would be a picture of that as well. You can see a tiny bit of nesting material hanging out near it's left shoulder.

In addition to the track they have a museum which houses Mr. Barber's car and motorcycle collection which is truly astounding. I have visited the museum before (one weekend in 2006 while living in Hattiesburg) and spent several hours there looking at the vast array of cars and bikes. I have been told that 75% of his collection is in storage and only about 25% is displayed at any one time. That is amazing as well.

The track is a pretty place to turn money into noise. Because neither of us had ever run a lap at Barber and I had done both time trials at No Problem the day before, Francis was elected to take both sessions today. The day itself was gorgeous; warm, breezy, bright blue sky with some high clouds.



Really a great day to spend at the track. Even the bluebirds came out to watch us race.



Francis and I talked a bit and reasoned that even though either of us would be slow, he would be the much faster slow, so he went out. Here he is hanging out before the morning session talking with Brock Yates, Jr. and Jason Saini.



Francis' morning run was pretty good. He placed 49th with a time of 5:55.859, undoubtedly way better than I would have done.





At lunch time, they let the non-competing drivers out to do some laps around the track. I must say, I was intimidated by the track when I looked at the layout, but when I drove it I really liked it. There are some really cool corner combinations, a lot of elevations changes, and some decent straights. It also looks like a track that rewards practice. There's no way you could get this track down in 4 laps or even 8 laps. With a couple of days practice, it would begin to reveal its secrets. Anyway, I had a great time.

In the afternoon session, Francis ended up getting much more excitement than he had bargained for. In the picture here (taken during the morning session) he is coming up a hill and running parallel to the main straight.



The entrance is blind and uphill to the right. You're approaching the top rpm in 3rd in the Roadster, so are doing about 90 mph. During his first hot lap of the afternoon session, he got to the top of 3rd and shifted to second instead of fourth. When he let out the clutch, the wheels locked up and he went into a spin. He put the clutch back in, spun a full 360 degrees and managed to keep it in the middle of the track the whole time. He gathered himself back up and continued on, but he was shaken. The results could have been much worse (a blown motor or a significant crash) but weren't due to his quick reactions. Oddly enough, he didn't drop that far in the standings, placing 51st with a time of 5:58.602, only 3 seconds slower than the morning. Good job, Fran Diesel!

We packed up the car and hooked up the trailer and headed out of BMP, pointing north toward Joliet, Illinois. This was going to be the longest transit of the week, over 700 miles. We left at about 3:00 or 3:15 and were making good time going up I-65 in Tennesse when the axle on the trailer shifted (again) and the right side tire began rubbing against the frame and sending up a cloud of blue smoke. We pulled over on the side of the road to fix it. Right behind us a local fellow pulled over in his pickup and offered to help. About 15 minutes later one of our fellow One Lap teams (Tim and Robert in the red Miata) pulled over to help. It took about an hour to get it all set to rights, so we lost a bit of time. However, the fix is really good and is holding up well, so I am confident it will make it all the way back to Seattle.

Alabama experienced some devastating wind storms a little while ago. The evidence was clear all up and down I-65; light poles snapped in half or bent at crazy angles, swathes of trees chewed up and knocked down, road signs completely twisted or blown over.

I slept through a good portion of Kentucky and Indiana because Francis drove two tanks of gas in a row (we usually trade drivers at fill ups). I drove the last tank in to Joliet and the Super 8 motel at 2:35 a.m. on May 6. I didn't even bother to bring my laptop out of the car. I knew I wouldn't do anything with it.

Mileage today: 723
Mileage to date: 5,930
States covered: Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
Wildlife seen: many snowy egrets and bluebirds (at Barber MP)

Racin': One Lap of America Day 5, No Problem

If you look at the 2011 One Lap of America itinerary, the track listed for Day 5 is Circuit Grand Bayou or some such nonsense. I have been to this track three times now (once for a BMW driving school and twice before with One Lap) and it has always been known as No Problem Raceway. Most of the stuff at the track, buildings, golf carts, paper ID bracelets, trucks, are all still labeled No Problem. It seems that someone new bought the track and wants to turn it into one of those country club type tracks like Monticello or Autobahn, so they had to give it a new upscale name.

Whatever. I'm going to continue to call it No Problem, the same way I call it Sears Point instead of Infineon.

So, we got to our hotel in Donaldsonville at 3:45. We stayed in bed until 7:30 and then headed out for the track about 15 miles further south into the bayou. No Problem is extremely flat and surrounded by woods and sugar cane fields. The track itself is relatively simple and I like it. Because I have done the track so much more than Francis, I did both the morning and afternoon sessions.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was the coldest day on record for that day since they started keeping track back in the 1950s. Maybe the locals were shivering, but most of the One Lap competitors thought the weather was awesome. It was a bit like a summer day in the Pacific Northwest; in the high 60s with a good breeze and clear blue skies.



Before the morning session I was hanging out in line with two of the guys in my run group, Chris and Joe. Practically no-one brings a stock car to One Lap. Chris is running that black VW. It's an R32 with a turbocharged V6 motor in it. His co-driver, Josh, was also the builder of the car. His work was absolutely gorgeous. Joe's car is that green Miata, the one with the supercharged motor in it. So my supercharged BMW is kinda normal in that group!

When you look at a racetrack the first thing you look at is the longest straightaway and then figure out how to get the fastest speed out of the corner before that as that will give you the biggest bang for your buck. The front straight at No Problem is mid-length, about 1,900' and is part of the run-off for the drag strip. You enter it through a long, sweeping right had corner that runs onto the straight between two lines of concrete barriers which are only one line when they are drag racing. You can really get the car leaned over pretty far.



Once you hit the apex of the corner, you begin stepping on the gas and unwinding the wheel so that you enter the straight in a smooth and undisturbed fashion.



In the morning session I felt pretty good about my run. Come to find out I placed 55th with a time of 4:49.611. I find that kind of depressing. It's expected, but depressing. Neither Francis nor I spend much time at the track because we have so many other things to do in our lives. In fact this track time at One Lap is the first real track time we've had in two years. So, with no practice and not much talent, 55th is to be expected. I just want to be better than that. Unfortunately, the only way to get better is with seat time and I just have too many other things I'm interested in/responsible for to put that kind of time and effort into this.

My afternoon session was somewhat better. I placed 49th with a time of 4:42.350. So, that proves I can get better, it just takes some time. I managed to shave 7 seconds off my morning time and moved up 6 places. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with small improvements because there aren't going to be any great big miracles here.

While I was banging around on the track, Francis was talking with Adam Hennesey, a mechanic who is a part of one of the other teams. He described the repair we could implement and gave us a list of what we would need to accomplish it. Now all we had to do was stop an another auto parts store.

After our second run, we packed up and headed for Leeds, Alabama, just outside of Birmingham. The route we were taking runs right through Hattiesburg where I lived for 14 months from December 2005 to January 2007. I knew right where the auto parts stores were and I knew that my second most favorite barbecue place was just up the street from there. We drove to Hattiesburg, did our shopping and then had dinner at Leatha's. It was as good as I remember.

We stopped for a sit down dinner partly because we had a relatively short transit, only about 450 miles. After dinner, filling our gas tank, and stopping for a venti Americano at the local Starbucks we hit the road with me driving. I drove until the next gas stop just outside of Birmingham. We got gas and, because it was only about 35-40 more miles, I kept driving.

When we got to the hotel we had proof positive that God protects fools. As I got out to go check in, I looked around for my wallet and didn't find it in the place where it usually is, or the other back up spot. At that point, Francis said, "Oh, my God." or something like that. He pointed to my wallet which was sitting outside the car, resting against the top just behind the passenger seat and right near the gas tank filler. It had sat there for 35-40 miles of 70-75 mph freeway driving! What a nightmare it would have been if it had dropped off. First, it is highly unlikely that we would have ever found it. Second, it has everything we need for the trip; my driver's license, credit cards, debit cards, cash. Everything. The reason it was there was because that's where I set it down after using the credit card at the pump while I was pumping gas. I forgot to put it into my pocket. When you get a bit sleep deprived, you can begin to mess up simple things just by not following through all the way to the end of a process. That one could have been a disaster.

We checked in relatively early, 11:00 p.m. Instead of going to bed, I began to work on the post on CMP. I had actually intended to bring it all the way up to date, but I didn't get CMP done until about 12:30 and then just wanted to go to bed, so I did.

Mileage today: 463
Mileage to date: 5,207
States driven through:(I've been thinking of adding this feature and will play catch up here) Washington, Idaho, Montana (70%)- Day 1; Montana (30%), North Dakota, Minnesota (95%) - Day 2; Minnesota (5%), Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana (30%) - Day 3; Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia - Day 4 (OneLap Day 1); Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina - Day 5 (OL Day 2); South Carolina, Georgia, Florida - Day 6 (OL Day 3); Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana - Day 7 (OL Day 4); Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama - Day 8 (OL Day 5) 20 states so far
Wildlife seen: lots of snowy egrets around No Problem

Racin': One Lap of America Day 4, Daytona (continued)

A couple of things I meant to add about Daytona.

One is a big miss on my part. When we went out to do the parade laps at lunchtime, I had my Flip video camera in my pocket and totally forgot that it was there. How cool would that have been to have in car video around the banks of Daytona? I know there are probably hundreds of YouTube videos of laps at Daytona, but none of them are shot from inside my car with Francis and I there.

In addition, before the first session, we did our first oil and filter change of One Lap.

Also, I have been remiss in recounting mileage.

Mileage today: 741 (includes all laps at Daytona and 1/4 at Gainesville)
Mileage to date: 4,744 ( includes the 673 from CMP to Daytona as well as Daytona to Gainesville to Donaldsonville)

Racin': One Lap of America Day 4, Daytona

Well, it has been several days since I last posted. I have many good reasons for that (mostly lack of time and very late nights) which will become apparent as I chronicle the rest of our One Lap 2011 adventure. As of now, One Lap has been over for two days, but I am going to proceed with our story.

We arrived in Daytona Beach, Florida at about 1:45 a.m. and crashed into our beds. We got up around 6:00, got breakfast and then headed across the street to the track. Daytona is an immense complex (more written about its immensity in my posts about the Rolex 24 from late January/early February) and Francis and I were incredibly excited that we would both get to run on the track. Francis took the morning session. Here he is waiting for his run group to start. Doesn't he look handsome and race-driverish in this picture?



Here he is coming across the official start/finish line. The One Lap start/finish line was actually on the infield between Turns 4 and 5 for safety and accessibility reasons, but this is a pretty cool picture and a testament to good (lucky) timing and good living.



Once you come across start/finish on the tri-oval, you have to get the car slowed down from about 135-140 to about 60 or 70 in order to make the first turn into the infield. It's a comfort to have good reliable brakes. You go through the infield course and then go back up onto the high banks not all that far from where you left. From there you go through NASCAR Turns 1 and 2 and then onto the back straight. Two-thirds of the way down the back straight, you enter what they call The Bus Stop, a chicane that slows cars down to about 60-80 from a relatively high speed, probably 125-130 in our car. After the Bus Stop, you go back up onto the banks for NASCAR Turns 3 and 4 and then onto the tri-oval and the start/finish line. Total length of a lap; about 3.5 miles.



Francis had a really good run, placing 39th with a time of 7:18.230 for the three laps. So, he covered 10.5 miles in 7:18, that's an average speed of 87.74 miles per hour. Doesn't sound like much, but he was hustling.

At lunch time, between the morning and afternoon sessions, they let us out on the track to do several parade laps around the NASCAR oval. Speeds were limited to about 100 mph, which was just fine. It's hard to imagine that the stock cars run at speeds of 195+ on the same track. It gives you a whole new appreciation for their skill level.

The first time you enter the banking the whole world tilts. It is positively mind-blowing. Many people say they feel it is like driving in a tunnel because all you can see is asphalt in front of you, asphalt out the driver's window, asphalt out the passenger's window, and asphalt in your rear view mirror. We didn't have that problem as we ran with the top down. We could see everything.



I ran the afternoon session and proved once again that Francis is much faster than me. I placed 50th with a time of 7:34.518, so Francis was a little over 5 seconds a lap faster. Yikes!

Here I am coming out of the East Horseshoe and heading for the One Lap start/finish line. If you look very closely, you can tell it's me. It's hard because we wear the same driver's suit and helmet, but I have clear glasses and Francis always wears sunglasses. I'm kidding of course, it's practically impossible to tell who is driving. You're just going to have to take our word for it.



Once we finished the session we packed up and headed out. The route book called for us to head right to Gainesville Raceway for some drag racing; a Low ET competition and then bracket racing. Francis and I had another stop to make first at a NAPA Autoparts store just down the street.

At CMP in South Carolina we discovered that we were losing fluid out of the differential (the part of the car that takes the rotation of the driveshaft and turns it 90 degrees to power the wheels (all cars have them, some in the front, some in the rear, some at both ends)). We were both concerned because if you lose all the fluid, the gears in the differential get really hot and essentially weld themselves together. When that happens, the drive wheels lock up solid and you lose control of the car. We were not interested in that happening, so we had been monitoring the situation.

The problem is relatively common; a mechanic in the group told us that it was probably the O-ring on the output flange and that we could just top up the fluid for now and then fix it later. First, though, we had to get the drain/fill plug off the differential cover. BMW and other German automakers use a 17mm hex key to take the plug off. This is a distinctly uncommon part and size, American manufacturers use a much different system. No one on One Lap had one that we could borrow, so we went to the store to see if we could get one along with some heavier weight gear oil.

They didn't have one, but Francis McGyvered a solution for us. Did you know that if you take a Torx T-60 socket, punch the shaft out of the socket and turn it around, that you now have something pretty close to a 17mm hex key socket? I didn't either, but I do now! We put more fluid in (not much actually, the diff holds about 2 quarts and we put in about a 1 - 1 1/2 cups), got everything packed up (we were doing the work in the NAPA parking lot) and then headed for Gainesville.

I was pretty pessimistic about our chances of even running at Gainesville. We had lost a lot of time putting the fluid in and it was getting to be late afternoon/early evening as we headed across the Florida peninsula. Sure enough, the Low ET competition was over and they had begun the first round of bracket racing. We talked to the organizers and they allowed us to make a Low ET run, but not to be in the bracket racing. We lost points because of that, but were not all that concerned as we really never had a chance at a good finish in our class anyway. Francis ran a 14.334, good for 39th place. He has actually run a 14.00 before. Had he done so, we would have been in 36th.

So now it was getting to be about 7:30 pm. Gainesville is about 110 miles from Daytona and about 600+ miles from our next stop, Donaldsonville, Louisiana. 7:30 p.m. is not the best time to begin a 600 mile transit because you end up getting in extremely late. In our case, extremely late turned out to be 3:45 a.m. on May 4. Now you know why I didn't post that day!

Racin': One Lap of America Day 3, South Carolina

I have not been able to write the past two nights as we got in at 1:45 and 3:45 after the last two transits. It's only 11:30, so I'm feeling significantly better.

So much has happened in so short a period of time. We have a ton of pictures and have had some very cool experiences. I'll try to share a flavor of it with you.

When last I wrote, we had arrived in Lancaster, South Carolina. Monday morning arrived with a warm and sunny welcome. We made our to Carolina Motorsports Park, about 15-20 minutes away. Usually when we do One Lap, Francis and I split the tracks. CMP was his as he has done it before and the learning curve for him will be less steep than for me. I've done it once in the past too, but his experience is more recent. Anyway Francis got himself ready, donning the track suit we share and heading down toward where he had the car parked.



Francis did a great job driving; he usually does. Here he is hard at work between Turns 2 and 3 at CMP.



He placed pretty well (44th with a time of 6:02.474 for three laps) and brought us up in the standings. We're not all that concerned for a number of reasons. One, our car, though considered powerful by most people we know in our regular existence, is considered somewhat mediocre here. At One Lap 500, 600 and 700 horsepower cars are common (and the thing most common about the highest horsepower ones is how often they break). Two, neither Francis or I works hard at being an excellent track driver. I would say it is more within his grasp than mine, but neither of us is putting in the effort to get there. To do so would be to diminish something else in our lives and is a choice we have consciously made. Three, we do not get the opportunity to practice on these circuits on a regular basis. Practice is good; more practice is better. So, when we do well, we're happy, but we also know that we are probably going to place in the 40s or 50s overall. We're here to have a good time.

In his second session, Francis put in another great drive; this time placing 28th with a time of 5:46.867. It's not possible to compare the times straight across because they changed the track configuration, but it was still a great effort. Here he is charging down the front straight at over 100 mph.



I mentioned earlier that the higher horsepower cars break more often. We have had an extraordinary amount of attrition over these past few days. At CMP, no fewer than 4 cars broke. This Porsche Turbo overheated and spread coolant over about 1/3rd of the course. Bad Porsche! Bad!



The theory here is that on oil feed line to the turbo came loose on this Mitsubishi Evo. Spraying hot engine oil onto a turbo that is glowing red is generally a great recipe for fire. That's what happened here.



Another Mistubishi Evo cracked its turbo housing. The hot gasses escaping from it fried the shifter mechanism (the turbo was blowing extremely hot air directly on the shifter cables and melted them).



There have been other casualties. Those are the ones I have pictures of at the moment. Fortunately for everyone, the only casualties here have been mechanical; none of the broken cars have caused injury of any type to any of the drivers.

We left CMP in the mid afternoon (3:00 ish) and drove 140 miles northwest across South Carolina to the BMW Performance Center for an autocross on their driver training course. We received an excellent visit from Kevin York, a racer and driving instructor I've known for several years and a man I consider a good friend. Francis placed 47th. Here he is taking off.



Once we were through at the BMW Center, we packed up and headed for Daytona Beach, Florida. We arrived there at 1:45 a.m. on May 3. It was late, so I didn't do any update on the days activities, even though they had been quite exciting.

It is now early morning (12:44 a.m.) on Thursday, May 5th. I am quite tired and even though I still have two days of adventures to share stories about, I am going to bed. Tomorrow will be another jam packed day and then we have a 700 mile transit to start at the end of it. If I don't get some sleep, I will not be very useful on the drive. Francis is driving Barber Motorsports Park tomorrow. It is a new circuit to both of us, so it should be another adventure. Good night, all.

Racin': One Lap of America Days 1 and 2

We started the official part our One Lap adventure yesterday in the morning rising early and getting ourselves over to Tire Rack for the wet skidpad event at about 8:00 a.m.. The drill for each of the events is similar. Show up at the prescribed venue. Empty all of your stuff out of the car, both to make it lighter and less dangerous (you don't want to have a bunch of distracting stuff flying around when you are making speed). Compete in the event. Repack the car and trailer. Move on to the next event wherever it may be. For this first event, it was only 8 miles away from our hotel, an easy transit.

A skidpad is a circle of concrete or asphalt usually 200' or 300' feet in diameter. Car manufacturers, tire manufacturers, tire resellers (like Tire Rack) and car enthusiasts use them to get a systematic idea of the handling properties of either a tire or a suspension component or set of suspension components. The idea is to drive around the circle as fast as one can in one direction for a few laps and then reverse and drive in the other direction. If you carefully time how long it takes to get around the circle you can use that time and a little bit of math to figure out the average speed around the circle. It is possible (don't ask me how, because at the moment I don't know) to convert that speed into an g rating. This is the most common way that all of the above folks refer to the performance of a tire; i.e., "it is capable of generating .95g on dry pavement."

So the first One Lap event is a skidpad event. In addition, because wet tire performance degrades more quickly than dry performance, the first skidpad event is always done in the wet. Sometimes Mother Nature cooperates and rains all over you; other days you have to make your own. Tire Rack's skidpad is fully plumbed with sprinklers to keep the entire surface completely soaked.

Francis and I have, over the last 6 runnings of One Lap, developed a system for sharing the events. He usually lets me have my pick of them. I am smart enough to know that he should get some that he will enjoy. Anyway, with some of them we just pick and over the years, I have been the one elected to do the skidpad events. We put a new tire on the car this year, a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports. This is Michelin's newest tire in the Pilot series, which is their highest performance series of tire. For the past couple of years (after Bridgestone stopped making the Pole Position SO-3) we have been using the Michelin Pilot Sport PS 2 tire. They are discontinuing that tire and replacing it with the Super Sport. They claim that is has dry performance as good as the PS 2, wet performance that is better than the PS 2 and almost 2 x the durability. I will have the opportunity to test all of those claims during this 18 day period. So far, their claim that the wet performance is better is absolutely true in my book. My wet skidpad result was .778 g, good for 22nd place overall. We are off to a good start.

The next event took place at Grissom Air Force base in Peru, Indiana, 82 miles south of Tire Rack in South Bend. The local SCCA (Sports Car Club of America, not Seattle Cancer Care Alliance) chapter put on an extremely well organized autocross for us. Autocrossing is an automotive competition usually held in a large parking lot, or in this case an the apron of a military landing field. A course is laid out on the surface using cones to indicate the direction you are to drive in. You are timed from the start line to the finish line. Low time is the winner. Your time is measured to the thousandth of a second. For this event each One Lap team would get three runs; the best of three would count.

For the inexperienced, and that would include Francis and I, at first it just looks like a giant sea of orange traffic cones. Once you get a chance to walk around it a bit, it becomes more understandable. Francis ran the autocross for us, so he did the walkaround. For his first run, the first time he had ever done an autocross and the first time Francis had driven the Roadster at competitive speeds in almost two years, he ran a 61.xxx (don't remember the decimal portion). Not great, considering that the fast time of the day was 50.4xx, but not horrible either as there were many competitors at 67 or more seconds. On his second run, having familiarized himself with the course and the Roadster, he cut 4 seconds off and ran a 57.xxx.

By the time he got ready for his third run, Francis was relaxed and ready to go for it. The weather was sunny and windy, but it was a perfect day for a short-sleeved, top-down autocross drive.



After sitting in the staging lanes, he rolled up to the starting line and, on the starter's signal, took off!



He flew through the course and posted his best time of the day, 56.775, on his last attempt. He was flying low moving through the cones.



We repacked the car and trailer and headed for the next event, a time trial on the Summit Point road race course. Summit Point is in West Virginia, up near the pointy part of the top of Virginia. We actually stayed at a Shoney's Inn in Winchester, Virginia for the night. Summit Point is 550 miles from Peru, Indiana, so we had several hours of driving to do. We arrived at Shoney's at 1:45 am today, so I did not spend any time writing a post (which is why you are getting two days in one right now).

The Shoney's was nothing fancy anyway and I would have been surprised if they even had wireless access. We slept there for about 4.5 hours, got up and headed for the track. That may not seem like very much sleep, but it was horizontal, quiet, and vibration-less. All three of those are not achievable in any car, so even a shortish sleep in a hotel is preferable to none at all. Summit Point was about 15 miles from our hotel, so we got there around 8 or so, signed in at the gate (at every venue you have to sign a waiver that says something to the effect of "If I maim or kill myself or anyone else, I will not hold the organizers responsible." You don't have to sign, but if you don't, they don't let you come on the property either) and proceeded to the paddock where we parked and got the trailer unhooked and the car unloaded.

We decided that I would run both time trials today and Francis would do both of tomorrow's at Carolina Motorsports Park. I'm in pretty much the same boat as Francis; I hadn't driven the Roadster at competitive speeds in almost two years. To say I am rusty is a disservice to oxidizing metal. I have never run this track before, so that added to the difficulty factor.

Because Summit Point is relatively close to Washington, D.C., many of the BMW club members in the Capitol Region regard this as their home track. An old One Lap competitor/friend of ours, Neil Simon, who lives in D.C., was there. He's not competing this year, but came out to say hello to old friends. He took me into the track's classroom and explained the racing line on a big map of the track. The racing line is the theoretical fastest way around the course. That explanation is all well and good, but doesn't really give you any of the visual landmarks you need when negotiating the track at speed.

I was really nervous about my first run. The combination of a long lay off and a brand new unfamiliar track was part of it. The other part of it was my competitive nature bashing up against an honest evaluation of my skill level. To put it charitably, I'm not that fast. After my first time trial, I found our just how not-fast I was.

For any of the road race time trials, the procedure is the same. You are directed out onto the track and given the opportunity to run one reconnaissance lap. You cannot learn a new track in one lap, but it is better than nothing. At least all of the corners won't be a total surprise. After your reconnaissance lap, you line up at the start/finish line with the others in your run group. You are waved off one at a time, with enough space between you that there generally won't be any possibility of passing or getting passed. You run three laps and then come in off the track.

In our run group I was slotted ahead of Pete Zekauskas. Pete and his brother Matt have been running One Lap at least as long as Francis and I. They are really good guys and are fun to hang around with. Unfortunately for me, Pete had done a driving school at Summit Point a month or so ago, so he knew the track. With him behind me, I wondered if he would pass me. The Roadster is much faster in a straight line than their car, but skill in the corners and knowing how to set up for them, is a large advantage.

My first lap was ok. I was getting a feel for the track. Here's as picture of me coming through Turn 10 and onto the front straight which is pretty long.



The car is just coming down to the apex of the corner and is leaned over pretty well as I am already on the gas and accelerating through the corner.

On lap 2 Pete had caught up with me by Turn 10. Here he is chasing after me on the main straight.



I'm actually pulling away from him here because I have way more horsepower and torque, but he would catch me later in lap 3. As I came out of turn 1 and 2, I noticed that I had not turned the automatic stability control off. This is a good thing to do on the track, but a bad thing to do on the street. On the track, you know it is off and are aware of the trade offs; you get better performance but need to be careful as you could spin out if you put too much power down in the wrong place (like in a wet corner). I had forgotten to do this; it would bite me. Because the ASC was on, when I hit the gas in a slow corner, the wheels would want to spin. The car, sensing this, would cut back on power and make things slow down for was seemed like an eternity. Not what you want to have happen when you know someone is chasing you.

Pete caught me in the back section of the track and I let him by. If someone comes up behind you, whether it on the track or the highway, they are going faster than you. The polite and courteous thing to do it to pull over and let them by. I was polite and let Pete by. Unfortunately that slowed us both down. I ended up in 66th spot, running a 5:10.844 for three laps. That meant that I would start in the very last run group in the afternoon session.

As we waited what seemed an interminable amount of time, it began to get dark and sprinkle rain. I remembered to turn the ASC off this time and felt much better about my run. Here I am running through Turn 8/9 and working hard. Francis found a great place to take pictures from on the back side of the course, a photographers' platform at the top of a grandstand.



You can see just how dark it had gotten. Here's a shot of my halfway through Turn 9 and accelerating toward the track out point.



Unfortunately for me, the time clock does not lie. I actually had a slower time in the second event, posting a 5:20.985. This was good for 65th place and will definitely drop us in the standings.

We packed up the car and hooked up the trailer. We were the very last competitors to leave the lot. We pointed ourselves toward Kershaw, South Carolina and Carolina Motorsports Park, 400 miles away. Because we were leaving at 3:30, we got into our hotel by 9:30 p.m.. I've spent the time since then downloading photos from the camera to the computer, uploading photos to Photobucket and writing this post.

I have more to write about why I come on One Lap and some of the conflicting emotions it brings up in me, but it is now after midnight and I am going to sign off for the night. I will write of this another time. 6:30 a.m. wake up calls come early.

Mileage today: 445 (including Summit Point track miles)
Mileage to date: 3,330
Wildlife seen: Francis saw two deer and we think we saw a coyote in North Carolina.