Day One - One Lap Registration & Tech

The routine at the start of year five's participation in the One Lap of America has become much to familiar. Today was no different than any other for our Day One registration and technical/safety inspection....except for Woody's cold shower.  Appears the control valve for the shower shot craps and so Woody was relegated to what amounted to a sponge bath.  A quick call to the front desk and we had a new room and me....a hot shower.  Voila!!!

After an absolutely lovely breakfast at the Pancake House directly across the street from our wonderful motel we headed to the local do-it-yourself car wash.  It is always wise to remove the road grime before applying yet more stickers.  This must do chore takes no more than 20 minutes and we are off to the Tire Rack headquarters for the first time.

Arriving at the Tire Rack, we are greeted by an employee who provides us our "paddock" assignment for the next two days.  We are literally at the end of the row and the farthest from the event tent.  No worries as it provides some exercise which we all could use.  The next 8 days of eating garbage on the road won't help in that arena either.

As Woody and I walk to registration, we talk with many of the return competitors and friends we have made over the years.  Many of them look the same, may be just a bit longer in the tooth and with possibly a new toy to drive in this years event.  After a quick signature or two signing our lives away we are handed a packet of stickers and this years lovingly prepared route book.   We have been assigned car number 21 for those of you going to the One Lap of America website for timing and scoring updates as we motor through the week.

As we begin to sticker up it is no surprise that the wind is blowing across the open country side of Indiana.  While not a total pain, it does make installation of more vinyl tedious.  It comes with the territory and there has not been a year here that it is not blowing at least 20 mph.  Tomorrow's forecast....even windier!

Within an hour we finish up placing the required stickers on the E92 M3.  Yes, it is true...the more stickers on the car the faster you go.  I estimate from today's activities that we picked up another thousandth of a second on the field.  We're chipping away on them and you can see the fear in their eyes already.

Noon came and went with a nice lunch at AJ's Burger's & Pub which was then followed by the driver's meeting where we all are reminded to place nice in the sand box together.  That goes for the One Lap competitors (duhhhhh) and the general public we meet on the roads.  The meeting wraps up rather quickly and in short order we are packing up the car and headed back to the motel for a good nights rest as tomorrow starts a grueling week.

Peace and good night until tomorrow!!!!  By the way, we are very much looking forward to seeing folks at Summit Point on Sunday, May 1.