2004 One Lap Daily Log 
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Lou and I are heading to the This year we will be starting at the Tire Rack in Southbend, IN and competing at Topeka KS, Pikes Peak CO, Sears Point CA, Las Vegas NV, Pueblo CO, Tulsa OK, Elkart Lake WI before returning to the tire rack on May 8. We expect to cover more than 11,000km in the next week. |
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We are hoping to defend our Vintage Foreign Title and will be looking for a top finish overall.
We will be posting a daily "from the road" report on this page. For detailed One Lap results, surf to the official One Lap of America website and then click on "Latest Results".
Tony Swan of Car and Driver magazine will also be posting a daily trip report at the official Car and Driver website.
Special thanks to everyone who helped us prepare, especially
our
sponsors:
- Sciemetric Instruments
- Burnt Squirrel
- Gamblins and Associates
- K&B Auto
- RS Designs
- Tiina Moore
Glen Clarke
Louis Frlan III
Even with the best of preparation, there is still lots to do before our departure tomorrow for the Tire Rack in South Bend Indiana. The main challenge is that we were unable to arrange the rental of a mini-trailer in South Bend. The mini-trailer is what we drag behind the 911 (yes it has a trailer hitch!) to carry the various spare parts and tools that are essential to surviving the rigors of the One Lap. A mini-trailer was found in Ottawa, but it meant that we had to figure out how to fit both it and the 911 into the car trailer we are towing to South Bend.
The solution was to put the mini-trailer backwards into the car trailer. A set of wood ramps were quickly fabricated so that if the 911 is also backed into the car trailer, the rear of the 911 overhangs the front of the mini trailer. The good news is that it just fits, but does require some precision back up skills!
We were up until 2:00 am removing old decals from the car, putting on fresh sponsor decals, and packing up the mini-trailer.
Up at 5:00 am, to finish the last of the packing and then off to work at Sciemetric. So much for getting a reserve of sleep before the One Lap!
We left Sciemetric at noon for the trip to the Tire Rack. Only 1000 km, we will consider this a short haul compared to what awaits us. This year, we will be driving 11,000 km in one week. 2000 km of that is the round trip from Ottawa to the Tire Rack, and an additional 9000 km in the heat of competition. This will include one extremely challenging afternoon/overnight/morning drive of 2,140 km we'll have to make from Pikes Peak International in Colorado to Sears Point outside of San Francisco.
Settled in at the Holiday Inn in South Bend, after perhaps the only reasonable stretch of uninterrupted sleep we will have for the entire week, we awake to the first day of competition. After applying the required One Lap decals, which as Brock Yates has said at every driver's meeting since the inception of the One Lap will make us "cunningly disguised as race cars" for the highway driving we'll be undertaking, we scope out the competition.
As always, the One Lap attracts an eclectic range of cars. This years' field of 82 cars ranges from a brand new Porsche 911 GT3 to a 1954 Chevy pickup. Not surprisingly, there are many high performance vehicles (e.g., 9 Porsches, various BMWs, Subaru WRXs, Corvettes and Vipers). Sprinkled in there are some less obvious choices for this type of event, including a 1995 Chevy Cavalier, a 1994 Dodge Ram 1500 truck, and even a late model Ford Focus. But in the One Lap, looks can be deceiving. Few cars are stock, and even if the badge on the back indicates that it's an old Volvo 740 sedan don't be surprised if a small block Chevy V8 has been wedged into the engine bay.
In the afternoon, it is off to the nearby Tire Rack for the first competition. This is a real test of the street legal tires that all competitors have to use, running the Tire Rack's wet skid pad in both directions to get the best average lateral G measurement. As with last year, we are running Goodyear Eagle GS-D3 tires, which have proven to be excellent both in wet and dry conditions.
To the surprise we suspect of most competitors, we place 1st
overall in the
wet skid pad test, pulling .93g Not bad for an old 1979 911, and a great
start to the competition!
After the skid pad competition, we start the 1100 km drive to
Heartland Park. Unfortunately, our starter dies so we have to make the complete
trip without turning off the car. The starter then revives somewhat (it's
intermittent) but we may have to replace it later in the competition.
It is quite moist outside, and our window keeps fogging up. We have no heater or even the duct work for such in the car (unnecessary? weight). Finally we try rubbing shaving cream on the inside of the windshield and that seems to keep the fog at bay.
Heading towards our motel (where we hope to get a few hours of precious sleep), we hit what we thought was only a small pothole. The car is very low in the front, and we do major damage to our front spoiler and front bumper, and the oil cooler is pushed up but not damaged.
We manage to convince the manager of the local NAPA auto parts store to open very early. With a liberal application of fiberglass and duct tape, we "fix" the damage. It may look ugly, but it holds.
Heartland Park has two major configurations (road course and drag strip). During the two road course competitions we finish 20th overall. The car's engine is very strong, but the car feels a bit loose on the track, especially when putting the power down when exiting curves.
We do excellent in the drag strip competition. Overall, we place 15th doing the quarter mile in only 13.33 seconds. VERY good considering we are running a normally aspirated 3 liter motor. The drag races also prove that looks are deceiving. The Dodge Ram 1500 truck brings in a 12.56 second time. Needless to say, that truck's motor is a long way from being stock.
In the bracket drags, where consistency is rewarded, we place 4th overall. At the end of this second day of competition we are leading in Vintage Foreign and are running 11th overall. The Porsche 911 GT3 is the current leader.
Good thing the tires are warmed up from the drag events. We now have a short 880 km drive to Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado to look forward to.
Pikes Peak International is not the famous hill climb venue that most people are familiar with, but rather an oval racetrack with an infield race course.
We do well, perhaps too well. On our cool down lap, we notice engine trouble. Apparently the combination of high speed and banking on the oval portion of the track has caused some oil starvation and we have likely lost at least one main bearing on the engine. In any case, the engine is no longer running.
We have two choices. We could throw in the towel and arrange to flat bed the car with the dead engine back to South Bend where our truck and car trailer are. However, that isn't in the spirit of the One Lap, so we decide that we will soldier on regardless. We are working with local Porsche Club of America members to see if we can borrow/buy another engine to put in the car so we can continue the competition. It is unlikely that we will be able to get an engine quickly enough to also drive the 2,140 km tonight to the next venue (Sears Point). Thus our current plan is instead to re-join the competition at the next venue (Las Vegas Motorspeedway).
If we can get another engine in the car, we still have a fighting chance of winning our class (Vintage Foreign). We are also confident that we can do quite well at the final (dry) skid pad test back at Tire Rack.
Wish us luck!
Almost famous! Tony Swan of Car and Driver magazine has started to post his daily report on the Car and Driver website, and the article for day 1 leads with our accomplishment on the wet skid pad. He refers to our "much-traveled 911", of course not knowing at the time that our traveling would momentarily halt at Pikes Peak.
We say momentarily because we are now in the running again. With some great support from members of the Porsche Club of America, we were able to get a line on 4 potential engines to do the heart transplant on the car. We've settled on a 3 liter engine out of Denver (thankfully close to Pikes Peak, one of the other contenders was as far away as Oklahoma). We are currently at a shop migrating some of the go fast goodies (e.g., our mammoth weber carbs) from our old engine to the "new" engine, and installing the engine. We never leave a wounded comrade in the field; the old engine will be crated up and shipped back while we continue on the rest of the One Lap.
Not that this entirely defrays the cost of buying the transplant engine, but last night when we checked into the hotel we got a $US 20 discount because of Lou's "Hockey Night in Canada" t-shirt. Apparently our hotel is near the center of some serious hockey fans.
We hit the road at midnight to rejoin the One Lap at Las Vegas Motorspeedway.
| A special thanks to all the great help we got from the people in Colorado. Bruce and Dianne Cooper of Alpine Mountain Region PCA went way beyond the call of duty to help us out. We couldn't have done it without them. Also thanks to Bob and Mike at Storz Garage in Denver for helping get our "new" engine ready and installed in record time. |
The long drive to Las Vegas was thankfully uneventful. We arrived just in time for the first of the two events here. We did 30th in the first run, not bad considering we have a lot less horsepower behind us.
Having had two successful runs at Las Vegas, it was time to jump back in the car for some long distance motoring to Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo Colorado. Our first run at Pueblo was good and we are waiting for the second run of the day.
We have to admit that last night was the most tiring drive of the event so far, 1300 km that just seemed to drag on forever. We've probably burnt through whatever sleep reserve we had. Thankfully the drive to the next track (Hallett in Oklahoma) is only 900 km!
Our friends Garth Gullekson and Scott Darlington will be leaving Ottawa tonight to meet up with us at the last two events of the One Lap (Road America and the dry skid pad contest at the Tire Rack). Garth is another One Lapper, having done the One Lap '99 in a 1978 911 and the One Lap 2001 in his family Volvo station wagon, both with Chris Kirby of K&B Auto. Garth is driving the Volvo down. It still has a few of the One Lap decals on it, maybe they'll let him on the track :)
For the second straight year we picked up a puncture at Hallett
(near Tulsa, OK) but with a little help from Roy Hopkins we were able to repair
the tire and continue.
The second event at Hallett was run backwards. When we scouted the track we
thought that we would be able to enter corner 2 flat over the hill. Maybe
in theory, but not in practice. A bit of luck kept us on the track. The Babcock
Audi was not as lucky. You can see the video of their high speed wall encounter
at: www.lake-effect-racing.com/Racing/onelap/2004/index.htm
Roy and Lou fix the tire
Long time One Lapper and Kicker VP Global Sales, Rob Limbaugh, (www.kicker.com) provided lunch and a number of very interesting cars including a Nash Metropolitan with a huge stereo system. The Kicker factory is close to Hallett and the factory bussed all of their employees to the event.
Kicker also provides the OEM stereo equipment for the Dodge XRT-4.
Road America is one of North America’s great tracks. It
is over 4 miles long with very long straights. Many of the top cars were hitting
speeds over 160mph. Our newly acquired engine is working hard but can only
push us to a top speed of 108mph. (According to our data logging system we
are only getting 100hp at the rear wheels.)
Taking a bit more risk we decided to leave our braking to the absolute last
second on every corner. One of the competitors had given me a braking tip.
“When you think it is time to brake, count to 3 and then brake hard.”
It worked and we managed a great result for such an underpowered car.
The Firestone brothers were not having as much luck. Andrew was receiving
a lot of media attention and one of his “Bachelor-ette” friends
was visiting. Unfortunately he entered corner 5 a little too quickly and punched
the concrete wall. The car was seriously damaged but fortunately he was not
injured. Scott managed to get the entire crash on video. (Watch this space)
Leaving Road America we hit Chicago at rush hour. Not fun.
We left the interstate and drove directly across Chicago. Because we were
not in a hurry to reach South Bend we decided to stop for a nice dinner. The
first restaurant we came across was called Niko’s (Italian). Although
everyone was dressed in a suite and tie, the maitre-de assured us that our
dirty One Lap clothing would be fine and he seated us right next to the piano.
The food and music was fantastic but I could not shake the feeling that we
were sitting in the middle of a Soprano’s episode.
The final event of the 2004 OLA included a dry skid pad. Based on our wet skid pad results, we had been looking forward to this event all week. We did manage to place 8th in the skid pad but unfortunately we did not break the 1 G barrier.
Once the skid pad competition was completed, an impromptu Drifting competition was held for the top 10 finishing cars. From a pirouetting EVO to a 1000ft burn out by the Viper Truck, it was simply awesome. David Murry, in the GT3, put on a display that rivals the RUF Yellow Bird at the Nurburgring. Scott took some amazing video and we hope to be able to share it with you shortly.
In the end we managed to defend our Vintage Foreign Class Title and placed 23rd overall. Our engine change did not allow us to attain our goal of a top 10 finish but we still managed some great individual results and look forward to improving next year.
Thanks to everyone who helped us prepare and complete the event.
Highlights
Class: Vintage Foreign Winner
Overall: 23rd Place
Wet Skid Pad: 1st Place
Dry Skid Pad: 8th Place
Bracket Race: 4th Place
