OneLapofAmerica 2024

[tomfree]

It's that time again! I'm leaving for OLOA on Thursday afternoon. The car is unchanged, other than the tires. I'm running the Bridgestone RE71RS this year, vs the Conti ECS02 that I ran last year. I'm about 90% ready to go right now, and that last 10% can be done in about 10 minutes. Can I skip out on work? Puhleeeeze?

For those who have followed along in previous years, I've blogged/vlogged on a team FB page that I'll be using again: https://www.facebook.com/midenginecrisis . The page itself has been rebranded for my co-driver's team name, Unicorn Racing, but it still the same old URL. For those of you that aren't FB users, the videos will be posted on my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhv2VF__Qdw9oKejsrWwXg

My co-driver flew out from CO last weekend and we ran a Saturday DE with SCCA at good old Summit Pt to give him some time in the car before the event. I ran into @Rocksandblues for a second as well. It turned out to be very OLOA-like weather, as we had everything from cold and wet to reasonably dry in the span of a few hours. In the really rainy session with plenty of rivers and ponding, the RE71RS was excellent. In my final dry session, I was starting to get comfortable pushing the car on a drying track, but the reality is that we're not coming anywhere close to what the tires can do in the dry. We'll mess around with pressures a bit more to find a happy place.

Here's the schedule:
5/4 - Wet Skidpad @ Tire Rack HQ (South Bend, IN)
5/5 - Motorsports Park Hastings, Time Trials 1 & 2 (Hastings, NE)
5/6 - High Plains Raceway, Time Trials 3 & 4 (Deer Pk, CO)
5/7 - Hedge Hollow Raceway, Time Trials 5 & 6 (Garden City, MO)
5/8 - Natl Corvette Museum, Time Trials 7 & 8 & autocross (Bowling Green, KY)
5/9 - Pitt Race, Time Trials 9 & 10 (Big Beaver, PA)
5/9 - Quaker City Drags, Low ET and bracket races, (Salem, OH)
5/10 - Putnam Park Raceway, Time Trials 11 & 12 (Greencastle, IN)
5/11 - Dry Skidpad @ Tire Rack HQ (South Bend, IN)

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[Rensuhlo]

good luck! I had intentions on doing it this year with Gino Manley as my co-driver, but we lost track of time and resources.

 

[Rocksandblues]

Gino can drive. what would you bring to table??

 

[Rocksandblues]

It's that time again! I'm leaving for OLOA on Thursday afternoon. The car is unchanged, other than the tires. I'm running the Bridgestone RE71RS this year, vs the Conti ECS02 that I ran last year. I'm about 90% ready to go right now, and that last 10% can be done in about 10 minutes. Can I skip out on work? Puhleeeeze?

For those who have followed along in previous years, I've blogged/vlogged on a team FB page that I'll be using again: https://www.facebook.com/midenginecrisis . The page itself has been rebranded for my co-driver's team name, Unicorn Racing, but it still the same old URL. For those of you that aren't FB users, the videos will be posted on my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhv2VF__Qdw9oKejsrWwXg

My co-driver flew out from CO last weekend and we ran a Saturday DE with SCCA at good old Summit Pt to give him some time in the car before the event. I ran into @Rocksandblues for a second as well. It turned out to be very OLOA-like weather, as we had everything from cold and wet to reasonably dry in the span of a few hours. In the really rainy session with plenty of rivers and ponding, the RE71RS was excellent. In my final dry session, I was starting to get comfortable pushing the car on a drying track, but the reality is that we're not coming anywhere close to what the tires can do in the dry. We'll mess around with pressures a bit more to find a happy place.

Here's the schedule:
5/4 - Wet Skidpad @ Tire Rack HQ (South Bend, IN)
5/5 - Motorsports Park Hastings, Time Trials 1 & 2 (Hastings, NE)
5/6 - High Plains Raceway, Time Trials 3 & 4 (Deer Pk, CO)
5/7 - Hedge Hollow Raceway, Time Trials 5 & 6 (Garden City, MO)
5/8 - Natl Corvette Museum, Time Trials 7 & 8 & autocross (Bowling Green, KY)
5/9 - Pitt Race, Time Trials 9 & 10 (Big Beaver, PA)
5/9 - Quaker City Drags, Low ET and bracket races, (Salem, OH)
5/10 - Putnam Park Raceway, Time Trials 11 & 12 (Greencastle, IN)
5/11 - Dry Skidpad @ Tire Rack HQ (South Bend, IN)

Have fun! It is most grueling traveling between venues and getting sleep. Will be following!

 

[Rensuhlo]

Gino can drive. what would you bring to table??

Charisma and a shitty attitude.

 

[tomfree]

Aside from bringing the car...I don't even have the charisma...just the attitude.

 

[Rocksandblues]

im just jealous- would love to do one lap w son some day

 

[tomfree]

Better late than never update. We finished 35th overall (77 cars), thanks to my quick co-driver. He put the car in the top 20 at High Plains (his home track) and in the top 10 in the dry skidpad. He was thorough and meticulous about the car and driver prep the whole time, and that was a clear benefit to me as well. We also turned out to be very compatible together for a week stuck in the car. We've casually talked about co-driving again next year, so we'll see how that works out.

I figured out the year before, watching videos by themselves doesn't help me much. I need to put hands and feet together with the visuals. I took a little different approach to driver prep this year, spending a lot of time on my low budget home sim setup running Asseto Corsa. AC had renderings for every track I had planned to drive, with the exception of Hedge Hollow in MO. One of the guys who builds the renderings managed to get a beta of HH done about 3 weeks before the event. I crammed a bunch of laps in the weeks before the event and felt confident in the course layout at a minimum.

My personal performance in '23 was poor and frustrating. I wasn't prepared for any of the tracks, other than Nashville. I was extremely timid at Road Atlanta. My finishing position was typically in the 50s and 60s. This year, I bumped up my average finish into the 40s, so we'll call that a win.

Now with a decent sim setup to learn new tracks, I need to get more focused track time. Specifically, I could use some coaching again. After graduating the student ranks a long time ago, I haven't had someone yelling at me from the right seat to go faster in years. I'm going to get some time with some trusted instructor friends and maybe pay for a weekend for a "pro" coach.

I may make some subtle upgrades to the car this year as well. Looking at the Verus rear diffuser and front dive planes. I'm still on stock springs/dampers, so I'm not ready for "real" aero, but I could use a little help to settle the car down a bit.

Here's a link to my channel listing page. All the videos are here if you need help going to sleep. :-D
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhv2VF__Qdw9oKejsrWwXg

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