The Great One Lap of America 2007 Thread

[Lobo6]

Devin, That was a great read. Mr. Murphy always shows up when you are on a tight schedule. Many thanks.

[Eric]

Can't wait for the next installment... and an explanation of "Princess"!!

[Straightsix]

Ken's current roommate, Matt, changed where the link in Ken's signature on the Clemson Sports Car Club boards took someone. Before Matt changed the target, the link took one to Ken's Trackpedia blog. After Matt changed the target, it went to Princess Sparkle Pony's blog page.

It took Ken a couple of weeks to find out about the link. So, it was changed back, and then I made a photochop and we targeted the blog link to this image:



At Rockingham, Jim Pantas announced the Princess Sparkle Pony won for his TT class.

[kbrew8991]

with friends like mine, I don't need enemies

[kbrew8991]

Day 2 - Arrival, Tech, Driver's Meeting, and "Sticker Day"

By Ken Brewer

One detail to add to Day 1: We finally had the car loaded, everything hooked up, and everyone in their initial seats. I go to pull away from Doug’s driveway and stall the car not even one inch into the trip. What a great start eh? At any rate…

The day started off great this morning, we all forgot to set the alarm clock… but we didn’t sleep in too bad and were up, ready and on the road by 8:30am. It was a big case of “I thought you did it!” Despite the later than planned start, we arrived in South Bend, IN (home of Notre Dame) around noon and finally bumped into some other competitors on the road before we stopped for lunch.

Friday before the event is fondly referred to as “sticker day”. We soon found out why. After going through registration, signing a bunch of waivers, releases, and photographer permission slips, we were handed a giant stack of required stickers that took a few hours to apply to the car before we went through tech. We managed to get them all on and get through tech just before the big pre-event driver’s meeting. One of the first questions posed at the driver’s meeting was “who hasn’t done this before”. It seemed like easily more than half of the people at the meeting were new to this kind of ordeal. The rest of the meeting covered topics such as flags, passing procedures, routes from track to track, a quick reminder on the rules of the event (both on and off track) and a few general procedures. After the meeting, we swapped on new brake rotors and pads on the front of the car that Doug bedded in specifically for One Lap at NASA Ohio-Indiana region’s event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course a few weeks ago. From there, we left to eat and drink at the party at the host hotel in South Bend.

The biggest surprise of the day so far to me has been the wide range of cars attending the event. They ranged from the giant RV driven by some Yagermiester employees to a Porsche GT2 driven by 3 time event winner DeVia, and everything in between. Some of the standouts, in my opinion, were a Ford GT, a pair of Lotus Exiges, a variety of C4 and C5 Corvettes, a 2nd generation MR2 (that I need to find out more about of course…), a group of Subaru STis of various levels of preparation, a team driving a retired Police Interceptor with a trailer made from the front half of another Crown Victoria, a Lotus 7 clone that exposes the driver to the elements due to its fully open cockpit design, and lastly one of the most ridiculous Subaru Imprezas I’ve ever seen complete with a newer generation STi drivetrain, homemade rear diffuser, very wide wheels (on the order of 18”x9.5”) and rugged universal fender flares that look more at home on a Jeep than a racecar. That old (circa 1997) Subaru definitely looked all business to me. There were also a surprising amount of paddock girls skating around in various skimpy outfits. We might have to talk to them a bit more… . Today was also a chance to meet some of our fellow competitors and friends we knew from other car stuff that the 3 of us do.

After drooling over the hardware that will be used over the next week, Devin broke out a huge stack of Clemson tiger paw stickers in a plethora of colors. With a twinkle in his eye, he grabbed a handful and began walking around the Tire Rack parking lot. You’ll see more in the photo post below…

Tomorrow we face a triple header of events with the Wet Skidpad tests at TireRack HQ, the ¼ mile oval at South Bend Speedway, and a few laps at Autobahn Country Club a short jaunt from South Bend. From there we will be traveling to the hotel we’re staying at for the night near Mid-America Motorplex.

Thanks for all the support and interest so far! Trust me when I say the best hasn’t even started yet!!

[iflyadesk]

Originally Posted by Straightsix

The story behind this picture:

Ken had asked his family for a SNELL SA2000 helmet (this was pre 2005) two years in a row for Christmas. On the second Christmas, his close friend Rob got one, but again, Santa forgot Ken. So, I decided it would be a really good thing to do for a friend who always gets the short end of the stick for the rest of us to get together and buy him a nice new helmet. I consulted Shaun, the fourth in this clan about my idea and asked if he would pitch in. He seemed to think that there was no way we could be that nice to Ken, but that didn't mean we couldn't somehow use this idea to screw with him. A quick conversation with Rob confirmed that foul play must ensue. So, I set out to find the perfet gag gift, which we would place in Rob's actual G-Force helmet box and wrap up all pretty for Ken. Wal-mart proved as useful as ever, and the Princess Sparkle Pony crown was found.

We packaged it all up in the G-Force box and told him we were making up for his family's lack of interest in racing and giving him the Christmas present he really wanted. The frame-by-frame pictures are the best because you can see his hesitation dissolve into excitement upon seeing the G-Force box. Later, he told us the box was too light, so his suspicion was sparked, but we all know he thought we were going to finally do something nice for poor old Ken.

[SoloEvo]

Day 2: Photos

We made it to Tire Rack now there is just that issue 4000+ more miles...



We ran into some of our NASA friends in this beast for which the pictures can do the talking:





Unfortunately, in events like OneLap, beastly cars such as the Mustang above seem to be almost sedate when in the presence some of the other cars present:

Psst. It's not stock.

[SoloEvo]

Day 2: Photos Continued

This one is obviously stock, though.



... every time this thing starts, a tree looses its hugger



Just your run-of-the-mill 400hp, turbo, orange, caged, Honda Odyssey. Move along.




Would you believe this is in the economy class? It's got a full STI swap, including what's left of the interior.





Nice splitter.




Devin

[SoloEvo]

Day 2: Pictures Continued Again

650hp of American Badassness



600hp of Japanese Badassness



The tire sidewalls are painted with the brand name in order to keep everyone honest about using the tires they start with unless something catastrophic happens, and then a spare can be used.



Finally, let the sticker ambushes begin We printed up enough of these to leave our mark across the countryside from one coast to the other, and we plan on doing just that.

Tire Rack entrance:



Cars (note: we used Doug's camera here, and for some reason, everything is red-tinted):



Can you spot it?







Alright, that's it for the pictures from today. Since we weren't doing much, I had time to take a lot. Time to sleep, ugh.

Devin

[f1rocks]

Cool stuff, enjoy.... but that won't be hard! It's like a fraternity road trip with gear heads!!