OLOA Stats

Hello folks.....some minor stats from the 2008 One Lap of America:

• The actual OLOA event mileage (including any detours): 4,240 miles
• Actual engine/car running time during this period: 74 hours, 14 minutes
• Total hours of the OLOA available: 168 hours
• Average engine/car running time as percentage of available: 44.19% or 10.61 hours/day
• Average speed during OLOA: 57.10 MPH (includes all track time)
• Longest transit leg, Pacific Junction, IA to College Station, TX: 893 miles
• Longest transit leg elapsed time: 13.0 hours (2:00 pm to 3:00 am)
• Longest transit leg average speed: 68.69 MPH
• Total mileage round trip (Arlington - OLOA - Arlington): 5,440
• Total fuel used round trip: 190.33 gallons
• Total fuel cost round trip: $736.25
• Average cost per gallon: $3.87 (premium, 93 octane)
• Average MPG round trip: 28.58 MPG
• Killed critters: (1) jack rabbit
• Junk food consumed: Way to much
• Average sleep per day during OLOA (24 hour period): 5 hours
• Total sleep for first two days of OLOA: 6 hours
• Banana peel bomb hits tossed our way: 4
• Banana peel bomb hits: 0 (there is always next year Neil and Woody)
• Speeding tickets: 0
• Speeding ticket warnings: 1, 13 MPH over in 70 MPH zone, South Carolina I-20
• Estimated rain fall encountered during OLOA: ask Noah
• Fun: priceless

One Lap of America Stats

Please check back as I will compile some stats from the trip and some additional stories you may find entertaining.

HOME AT LAST!!!!!

After the ceremonies conclude, we say our final goodbyes to many of the competitors and wish them God's speed home. We look forward to seeing them next year. We pull on to the highway at 3:00 pm with a 9 hour drive ahead of us. If need be we'll stop for the night, but the intent is to wake up in our own beds.

We link up with Mark Simons/Brian Hair, Neil Simon/Woody Hair, and Vic Hall in an all BMW caravan toward home. We make the DC beltway by 12:30 and I have Barry dropped off by 12:45. I roll in to Jackson Street by 1:05. Suze greets me at the door and I am so happy to see her. It has been a great adventure.

I want to give a huge THANKS to all the people who made donations to support the fight against prostate cancer. Because of you, the National Prostate Cancer Coalition is making a difference!

Dry Skid Pad - Tire Rack South Bend, IN

The 6:45 am wake up call comes rather early. So early in fact that I pick up the phone and roll back over and fall back to sleep. Barry has made it back to room - I find out later it was 3:30. The next thing I know Barry is waking me up. It's 7:20 and we are scheduled to be at the Tire Rack for the team group photos promptly at 8:00. Needless to say, we are both moving a bit slow and our heads feel as though they have been used as a soccer ball. Thank goodness Barry woke up when he did. I could have seen us sleeping through the dry skid pad as well.....YIKES!

We arrive at the Tire Rack and unpack in time for the group photo. It's nice to do this as each team will receive a yearbook this year commemorating the 25th anniversary of the One Lap of America.

Barry will do the dry skid pad...happy he will as I am still seeing rather blurry-eyed (so is he by the way). He does well and pulls .950 g's good enough for 32nd place. It drops us one position in the over all to 18th. WE'VE DONE IT!!!!!! Finished in the top 20 over all which is a huge feat. We have also finished 2nd in our class.

The most interesting dry skid pad test is conducted by a team in an IROC - Z28 Chevy. They have been having some transmission problems along the way. As they pull in to the Tire Rack on the final day they are left with one gear. It becomes obvious which gear that is as they approach the skid pad. That's right, you guessed it...reverse. They pull a whopping .336 g's in reverse and finish 66th in the dry skid pad. This is only funnier as they are sponsored by Monster Transmissions...go figure.

We watch the rest of the top dogs complete their skid pad runs and then the have fun drifting by the better drivers. Brian Hair is one of those gents and he goes out for two laps and smokes the tires on the V10 BMW M5. It is fun to watch and a skill I long for...some day! From there we wait for lunch to start and then the closing ceremonies and trophy presentations.

During the on goings, Linda Cheatham from Alexandria, VA takes the mic and provides a few stats on the event. The last of the stats is how much all the teams have raised together for various charities. As she reads the number at $73,000 I wonder if she has in fact included the donations made to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition. I raise my hand and ask that very question. She repeats the donation number in a quizzical manner. I confirm she has heard correctly. The $60,000 raised for NPCC is not in her figure. The tent immediately erupts with applause. This is what it is all about. Giving back in some small way to that from which I take and supporting a great cause in men's health. The eradication of prostate cancer in my life time.

The luxury sedan class winners are announced and our Virginia friends Mark Simons and Brian Hair finish first in this class and 16th over all in a BMW M5. Mike Renner, Jim Byrd, and Chris Thompson take 2nd in the luxury sedan class in the new BMW M3 and 15th over all. Vic Hall, Alex May, and James Clay take first in the SSGT2SB class and 13th over all in the new 135i BMW.

After what seems an eternity, they finally get to the SSGT1SB class. Third in class is our very own Neil Simon and Woody Hair in the BMW M Coupe. We are called next and receive our cheesy little trophy for second in class, but still very proud to have finished where we did. First place in our class is an Active Autowerks supercharged E46 M3 BMW driven by Catesby Jones. An all BMW podium in SSGT1SB....awesome.

Tom Holcomb, my driving mentor, would have been so proud of our effort and finish. I am sure that he was looking down on us and smiling. I know that during my stints on track I heard him say several times...JUST FLOOR IT! This one is for you Tommy and all those suffering with or surviving prostate cancer.

BeaveRun - Autocross

As Barry pulls up to our paddock space, you can see he is clearly frustrated. The car did go in to limp mode and for what appears to be no reason. It was not taken above our self imposed 6,500 RPM red line and all the other issues we concern ourselves with appear to be normal. The only issue now though is that Barry did not see an actual reduction in power?? What this may mean is that the waste gates on the turbo may be stuck closed versus open. In limp mode the car's computer should hold the waste gates open so that turbo boost would be greatly reduced if not snuffed out all together. Thus reduced power and engine preservation. We obviously have an issue to address once returning home.

As per our plan, I am suited up upon Barry's return and ready to go over to the autocross and line up. As I get there expecting a long line of cars awaiting their turn I find out just the opposite. There are no cars waiting and so I opt to just get it over with. Kind of like the Saturday morning love fest with the Doc in the NPCC screening bus.

I take position in the start box and I am given the "anytime you're friggin' ready to go" look from the starter. A little rev of the motor and a quick release of the clutch pedal and I am off. The opening volley of cones is a slalom which is optional on which side of the first cone you can take. To the right of the first cone is the prefered way as it sets you up at the end of the slalom for the left hander. As I am passing the first cone I seem to be down on power. I look down at the console and the engine has gone in to limp mode. Oh well, nothing to do but finish the run trying not to hit any cones which are a 2 second time penalty each and pray for the best. The other option is to light a few candles to the Cone God that a lot folks DNF (miss gates and/or go off course) or mow down a sea of cones. As I approach the very sharp right/left complex at the end of the run I try to shift in to first gear hoping to gain just a bit more speed and torque while in limp mode. As I have never tried to shift in to first the effort does not go well and I am just rolling through the first right. I give up first and go back to second gear and finish the run. I am so upset that I just pass by the station with my time and head back to our paddock space. As I said, each team only gets one run at the course for a time. I did not go off course nor did I hit any cones so at least from that perspective I am hopeful.

I pull in to our paddock and let Barry know how it went. He is as frustrated as I am, but for the second time in 15 minutes. We are lamenting what could have been and are very worried that this may have cost us our top 20 over all finish. Nothing to do but wait for the results to be posted on line. As we pack up and say goodbye to Wayne, Dick Clark and Jerry Clark suggest a stop in Cleveland OH at a well known brewery (Great Lakes Brewery). As our next stop on the last leg back to South Bend IN is a required "sticker" stop at DEI in Avon Lake about 15 miles from Cleveland and we have about 2 hours to kill, the idea goes over well. The word is passed along to several other teams and we have an event in the making.

We all start arriving at the brewery around 3:15. We order up pints and spend the next hour and a half talking about the past week and how much fun we have had. The results for the afternoon track session are posted and Barry's time was good enough for 27th place. We drop to 18th over all. We feel as though we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. Another round of pints and some food are ordered...more stories and laughs. If not for the sticker stop I think would have stayed all night. But it is not to be and we get back in the cars and head down the road pulling in to DEI at 5:15. We are not there long - enough to check in as required (secure our 50 points) and grab a bite of the food provided. We're back on the highway headed to South Bend by 6:00 pm with an arrival time per the GPS at 10:00.

Our GPS does not lie and we pull in to the Quality Inn in South Bend by 10:10. The stop for gas cost us 10 minutes. After quickly checking in and storingour gear in the room, we head to the motels bar for drinks with the other one lappers. Everyone is anxious about the autocross results and we are hearing rumors that many teams DNF'd. This is potentially great news for us. A couple more drinks and a shot or two and we finally receive word on the autocross. I place 18th. There are 21 cars that DNF the course and receive zero points. This is enormous luck on our part and moves us back to 17th over all. We are almost sure to place in the top 20 over all provided we can stand in the morning....hummmm...it's 2:00 am and it's time to call it quits.

BeaveRun - Session #2

After choking down a turkey sub, I head back to the autocross course for a walk. The course has changed somewhat from the morning walk, but not drastically. The major move was to make the finish gate separate from the start gate. Smart actually as any car trying to finish with a lot of power down could get out of control and wipe out the entire scoring system not to mention the folks manning it. The course is fine up until the last few turns where the right then left turn complex is so tight it's as though you're pulling in to a parking space. I am not sure how the Mongoose cars will actually make the turn without requiring power oversteer. Not my problem I decide...it is what it is. I walk the very short course several more times to make sure it is ingrained to memory.

Moving on to BeaveRun session #2, Barry climbs back in the car. The drizzle has long stopped and the track is drying out. There is definitely a dry line established. Barry receives the green flag and starts his run from the mandatory full stop. His first lap is terribly slow at 1:16. We know this from the first session where lap times were in the 1:07 range. You can pitch a tent and cook steaks in 9 seconds. My suspicion is that we have an engine malfunction light again. Barry's next two laps come down dramatically so may be the issue was an off that we could not see. We'll check once Barry comes back to the paddock. It is what it is and hopefully the time will not impact us very much.

BeaveRun - Session #1

Welcome to Beaver Falls, PA. The track is no more than 3 miles from I-76 and about 30 miles from Pittsburgh. We awake to a light mist in the air and trying very hard to turn to something a little more substantial. We hope not to spend another day in the wet.

BeaveRun North Course is a 12 turn, 1.53 mile Alan Wilson layout. It has some rather fast sweepers that will catch your attention...remember CMP also a Wilson design/layout! As we are unpacking the car and getting the canopy up to protect us from the drizzle, Wayne Speight from Annapolis arrives and we begin to chat about the weeks adventure. Wayne is a residential architect in the Annapolis area and a go fast car guy. May be I can talk him in to joining the circus in 2009.

Wayne and I walk down to turn one as the first run groups are headed out on to the track. There is just enough moisture on the tarmac to make it interesting and very entertaining to watch. Cars coming through turn one and the next set of right hand double apexers are getting a bit sideways. YEHAW. We soon join Woody Hair and his son Brian. The Monday Morning Quarterbacking of the driving lines through turns 2, 3, and 4 are heavily analyzed by this group of Michael Schumacher want to be's. The remarks are harsh and frequent. Just as we are about ready to offer our next critique, Danny Popp in a Mongoose approaches turn one and has a spin. He is not able to get the car turned around and headed in the right direction. The car is running, but it appears he may have a transmission problem. In any event a pick-up truck is brought out and the Mongoose is towed back to the paddock. The team will work on the car and have it ready for the afternoon session.

Finally Barry heads out on the course. He looks good throughout the entire session. I still think he could have tracked out a bit more through the turn 2 and 3 complex ;-). There are no spins or issues with the car and he places 18th. Good enough to keep us in 17th place over all.

We decide that Barry will run the afternoon session as well and that I'll make the one shot at it autocross. With that I head over to the autocross area for a leisurely stroll through a sea of organge cones. I am joining up with Woody for our walk and as we are about haf way through, we realize the course "designer" is coming right behind us and changing the cone placements. With that we decide to wait a while and come back after the course is set 100%. Lunch is ordered from Subway and it's a bit more hide and watch until the second runs of the day start on the north track.