2010 One Lap Of America
by David Pozzi
Apr 30, South Bend In. Tire Rack Headquarters WET SKID PAD
After a full year of testing, tuning, running and refining the Optima
Battery One Lap Camaro, James Shipka and I finally begin our adventure.
The wet skid pad looks easy enough but I’ve never done it before. After
a long wait in line it’s finally my turn to see what we’ve got. I
enter the skid pad and begin my run. Right away I see a slightly drier
path just out from the tightest line, I try and keep the outside
tires in this area. The Michelin Pilot tires start to rumble and
vibrate when reaching the limit. There are wetter and drier areas as I
go around and the sprinklers are hitting the windshield, I have the
wipers on high, a few times I go a little too fast causing the
rear to gently step out and I ease off the gas to slow the car down to
get it back on line. I try very hard to stay just under the traction
limit and not get into wiggle mode. Our competition beats us, I find
out their driver is very very good at skid pad testing, their tires are
a bit more narrow than ours and different brand. I realize I was
over-confident in thinking I could beat them with no skid pad
experience, but how do I do better?
6pm we depart South Bend for Road America, this is the first time we
have pulled our little trailer fully loaded. I estimate the trailer
with contents to weigh over 800 lbs. We quickly find that the Aerotow
trailer tows so good it’s like it isn’t there! The only time we can
feel the trailer is when we hit the brakes, it takes longer to slow
down. I made a tow hitch modeled after what you could buy back in the
60’s, it bolts to the bumper and tail pan bottom edge with a
rectangular frame that surrounds the license plate. Around 9 PM
we hit the backside of a huge thunderstorm north of Chicago, the
windshield leaks from both bottom and top in several places. I stuff a
paper napkin in the biggest one that was blowing bubbles at me. We
arrive at the motel around 11pm, and re-set our watches for the hour we
lost crossing the time zone. 235miles.
May 1, Road America Elkhart Lake, WI LONG COURSE
Built in 1955, Road America is one of America’s oldest road courses,
and like my home track Laguna Seca, has a long history. It’s very
long at 4.048 miles and has enough room to get up some serious speed.
Our last change to the One Lap Camaro was to widen the rims and tires
by 1” front and rear, this is our first track outing with the
wider wheels and tires and I’m hoping the understeer we had will now be
gone completely. My single “Recon” lap is begun from the pit lane, it
is a 3/4 speed exploration lap to get familiar with the track. With
that over, I stop behind the others in my group on the front straight
just a few feet short of start/finish and await the flag man’s signal
to begin my 3 timed laps. News comes that the black Cadillac
CTS-V two cars ahead of me went straight off at Canada Corner, rode
over the tire wall and flipped over! Fortunately the driver was not
hurt but the car was a mess. After a long delay we begin again.
Groups of 6 cars are started at 15 second intervals and our main
competition, the white 1981 Camaro of Michael Hickman/Damon Josz is
right in front of me. Hickman is a One Lap Veteran with 5 or 6 class
wins and has participated in the One Lap Of America every year for the
last 20 years. I begin my run and thankfully OLC is handling great with
almost no understeer. I’m cautious in my lines, taking the apexes a bit
late and getting on the power a little late, the last thing I need is
to run off the track the first day, and late apexes are the safe way to
go. As I get more confidence in my lines and the Camaro’s handling, I
apex earlier and hit the gas sooner, I hit 145 up the front straight
and OLC feels very stable at high speed. On my last lap I catch and
pass the Hickman Camaro in the “Kettle bottoms” and I start thinking we
may have a very good chance of winning our class! I finish 1st in
class, 24th overall.
May 1, Road America. Elkhart Lake, WI SHORT COURSE
James runs the short course, our times are added together to determine
our overall starting position for the rest of the week. Our combined
times place us 35th overall, about mid-pack and 2nd in class.
Driving on the freeway OLC runs well but we feel a slight bit of
surging, when we come to a stoplight the engine dies as soon as the
clutch is depressed. We have a problem, we hope it’s just bad gas.
After dark, James is driving and everything electrical in the car turns
off! James turns the key off and back on, the engine comes back to
life, he cycles the headlight switch and the headlights come on. We
have no clue what is going on, but we have to keep going.
Drove 583 miles to motel.
May 2, Mid America Motorplex. Pacific Junction, IA
We arrive at Mid America at 7:45 AM, there are only a couple of parking
shelters, and they are already full. It’s a nice day and not hot,
no great loss.
James and I feel good today, Mid America is a flat track with a fairly
long main straight topping out at 7000 rpm’s in 4th gear near 140mph
with heavy braking at the end. There’s probably a good payoff for
braking at just the right point but it will take more laps than we have
available to perfect it. There are three long looping turns with
super-late apexes that require you to look far ahead to spot them. The
track surface is good but has a pavement lap seam in several turns
running parallel to our travel that upsets the car if you cross it.
There are two turns that require you to give up the ideal line on the
first turn exit in order to exit the second turn carrying more speed
onto the following straight. I hit my marks well, but brake too early
at the end of the main straight every lap, better safe than sorry I
guess.
AFTERNOON: James runs, turns a good time but winds up in second place.
Drive 482 miles to motel, we get there around 11pm, are very tired and go straight to bed.
May 3, Hallett Motor Racing Circuit. Jenkins, OK
The officials warned us that today was the day we’d want to kill our
co-drivers. No sweat for us, James and I are getting along great, - so
far.
The early birds grab the 4 or 5 available shelters, we pit in the open
again, this time it’s on a grassy hillside, we have to block the
trailer wheels to keep it from rolling away.
What a different track!!! After the wide open high speed blast around
Road America, and the flat smooth Mid America, we come to this little
hill in the woods with a race track folded around it! The facilities
look rather old and the pavement has a lot of patches right where you
need to drive. There are many late apex turns, and several blind
crests over hills, much more elevation change than our YouTube videos
revealed. Looking ahead and creating a flow is absolutely essential to
driving well here, you are very busy. Numerous patches vary the grip
level in several key turns and you just can’t see far enough ahead when
you need to. We decide I should run both sessions today, hoping it will
pull us into first place in class. The more I run this track the more I
like it. There is a nice rhythm to this place and the elevation changes
add a lot of character. Our gearing is almost perfect for my cautious
first laps but a I’m already hitting the 7000 rpm Redline before
braking in a couple of longer straights. With more laps here I’d be on
the rev limiter everywhere and there isn’t time approaching a braking
zone to shift up and then right back down again. My
afternoon run felt faster but wasn’t, I was more comfortable but didn’t
push the rev limit as hard and let off a bit earlier in a couple of
spots. I guess I was feeling sorry for the engine. On the front
straight I tried shifting up to 4th early giving me a few seconds in
fourth to get ready for a downshift back to third, then second, while
braking hard for turn one, I think this wasn’t as fast but kinder to
the engine. On my first timed lap with cold tires, I pushed wide in
turn 1 and lost some time, once they got a little heat in them, the
Michelin Pilots held on much better. OLC had great power today but
didn’t idle at times and sometimes would idle higher than normal.
Something is wrong but what?
Drive 48 miles to Tulsa Raceway Park.
May 3 5pm Tulsa Raceway Park
Arrive 4pm and prep OLC for drag races starting at 5pm. James drives, I
take photos. We get points for the first pass, then will get more
points for an ET Eliminator race. The car boggs on the first pass, then
spins the tires hard, turning in the 16’s. Now we don’t know what dial
in to use. James picks a 12.9 turns a 13.1 on the brakes for his second
pass. He adjusts the dial in to a 12.2 and runs a mid -12 if I remember
right.
May 3 evening, Alternator dies
Leaving the track at Tulsa it’s 8pm. We are followed by our buddy Mike
“Mr Angry” in his Dodge Charger and two more guys in Corvettes. When I
push in the clutch to downshift, the engine coughs, starts running
backwards, then dies with a wisp of smoke coming out from under the
hood! I’ve seen this before, but for everyone else, panic ensues, after
some under hood probing and a short debate, we agree to restart it and
the engine sounds OK. A check of the Racepak dash indicates battery
voltage is fluctuating wildly from 10.5v to 12.5v, - this is the source
of our problem! We hit the freeway for a while and monitor voltage, it
reads good, then bad, then in-between. When we stop for gas we decide
to try a new alternator. Miles later we locate an O’riley auto parts
store and they have an alternator for us. Our friends hit the road once
they know we are taken care of, we operate on OLC turning wrenches and
dropping them in the dim light of the parking lot. The new alternator
is on by 10 PM, but isn’t working any better, - still erratic, the
store manager has to close up, but invites us to use the garage
at his house a mile away. Once there, James sets up his Laptop,
and we get online advice from Pro-Touring.com forum members complete
with wiring diagrams and some conflicting information about which wire
connects where, both our cell phones are ringing with advice, and there
is so much help we almost can’t work on the car! We test start the car
20 or 30 times, with the battery discharged down to 10.5v. It’s going
to sound like a commercial but it’s the truth, our trunk mounted Optima
battery was simply amazing! After several hours we wind up with the
original alternator back on the car, re-wire the input plug, and think
we have the problem solved. We say goodbye to our host, tie wrap all
the wires, pack up and hit the road at 2 AM. Nearing the Oklahoma
turnpike entrance the battery voltage gets erratic again. I don’t want
to get on the turnpike, be miles from nowhere, and have to get
towed, so we pull into a service station and look over the wiring one
more time. I spot a tiny split in the heat shrink splice for the
alternator switch wire that was shorting against a bracket. We tape it
up and finally have stable alternator voltage! As we enter the Oklahoma
Turnpike the voltage display climbs higher and higher as the battery
charges back up, finally reaching 14.1v. Around 3:30AM, I’m
driving about 80 mph with only the tail lights of a big rig in the
distance, suddenly everything in the car goes dead! The engine
quits, dash turns off and the headlights are out! Without hitting the
clutch I quickly turn the key off and on again, the dash and engine
come to life, a quick flip of the headlight switch brings them back and
we continue on, NOW I’M AWAKE! Did I mention the headlight switch is
inside the console? We drive all night, taking turns, stopping only for
gas and a short half-hour catnap, then we push on across the St Louis
bridge to Gateway. 383 miles traveled, no sleep!
May 4, Gateway International Raceway. St. Louis, IL
After driving all night, we arrive at Gateway at 8 AM. We are both very
tired but excited to have made it here in time to compete. The early
arrivals snapped up the fairly plentiful garages again, we are left out
in the sun, I try and grab a nap during the lunch break, but I can’t
really sleep. We decide James will drive both sessions today, like I
did yesterday. It’s really better if the same driver drives both
sessions, but our original plan was for us both drive each track. Today
at the drivers meeting we are advised to beware of the transition off
the banking into the road course at the end of the front straight. When
watching other cars go through this section they appear to be really
moving and once off the banking hit the brakes very hard. There are
some big loop turns with the usual late apexes. James drives both runs,
looks good.
Drive 476 miles to motel.
May 5th, Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. Lexington, OH
We arrive at Mid Ohio to find lots of nice garages, but every one of
them is already full! We pit in the sun again, it’s going to be warm,
lower 80’s. Our plan is for me to drive both sessions today. I
decide I have enough time and energy to walk the 2.4 mile course. This
track has lots of blind turns with ups and downs with excellent
pavement and curbing. Turn 1 is a blind left hand sweeper at the end of
the front straight, it’s under a bridge and you can’t see very far
ahead, it’s very difficult to judge your proper corner entry speed. I
run the “Chicane” - turns 2 and 3 in the morning run, and we bypass it
in the afternoon runs.
In the afternoon I make my first mistake, at the end of my Recon lap,
I’m bent on aggressively warming the tires and blow right past the red
flag instead of stopping at the start finish line to begin my timed
runs! I’m first in line so I have no one in front of me to stop behind.
The flagman is very low and stands behind the pit wall, far left at
this track, I had tunnel vision and failed to look over there. We get a
10 point deduction for this error. I feel dumb, but we have to
put our mistakes behind us and look forward.
We pack up and are both anxious to leave the track. We have 529 miles
to drive and it’s late afternoon. I fail to grab my usual bottle of
water as we hit the road. Within a half-hour I am in bad shape
with Dehydration. I pull over along the turnpike and quickly guzzle two
bottles of water we had in the trailer. I’m breathing rapidly like I
just ran up a hill, my fingers are tingling, and I feel like I’m
going to pass out! James takes the wheel and I tell him to take
me to somewhere air conditioned where I can sit and drink water. At the
next exit he finds a Diner where I sit and gasp for air for nearly an
hour before I start to calm down. Several times James asks me if I want
to go a hospital, but I know we will lose hours of valuable travel time
if we do that so I say no. After I drink an entire pitcher of ice
water, we eventually get back on the road but I’m really wiped out.
Later on I drive for a couple of hours before it gets too dark, but
James does most of the late night driving. I feel bad that I’m not
holding up my end. Each time we stop for gas I hit the bathroom to pee
but not much happens, I’m dried out! We arrive at the Motel around
12:30 AM. Now I’m up repeatedly during the night to pee, all that water
I drank is finally moving through me. I’m happy things are working
again but I need some SLEEP! Mary texts me that our little Miniature
Pincer “Ruby” is missing, they are searching for her.
Drove 529 miles.
May 6th, New Jersey Motorsports Park. Millville, NJ
This track has no garages, so we pit in the sun the same as everyone
else. A brand new facility, NJMP sparkles like a new car, there are two
courses, “Thunderbolt” and “Lightning”. We are at Lightning, a 1.9 mile
course that features a large looping banked turn that leads onto the
long front straight.
I’m feeling very tired, weak, and queasy from yesterdays dehydration
episode. I slowly walk to the restrooms then on to the hot pits and
look over the pit wall, it’s about all the walking I can muster, I just
have no energy! I talk to the Ambulance guys about what I should be
doing, “drink water” they say. I tell James I can probably run the
morning session but he should drive in the afternoon when it’s
hotter. I get some better advice from a registered nurse to drink
Gatorade instead of water, which by evening starts to help my energy
level. I talk to Mary on the phone, she’s in tears, she found
Ruby at 2AM out in the front yard, - cold, bleeding, and chewed
up, it looks like a Coyote grabbed her. Time will tell if she lives or
dies, she’s at the Pet Hospital with a punctured lung & loss of
blood. I’m depressed and I wish I were home.
I’m at a disadvantage not getting a good look at the track but my Recon
lap is very helpful. All the apex points are marked with small cones
and I figure out pretty quickly where the line is. The front straight
is very long and I suspect I may be in 5th gear near start/finish. My
main concern is turn 1 which is a blind crest over a hump and there are
no good reference points. Our Camaro is very well suited to this track,
and I feel I’m getting around pretty quickly except for turn 1, I
know I’m not doing well there. On my last lap, I’m in 5th gear really
moving down the front straight, I hit the brakes hard, the pedal is
high and firm, but the pads fade, OLC pushes wide and I enter turn 1
way off line, costing me several seconds, - the only good news is, I
didn’t flat spot the tires, or go off course, but it was a close one.
After my run, James fixes a short in the tail light plug that was
blowing fuses the night before, it was no fun driving with no tail
lights! James drives the afternoon runs and looks good, but spins in
turn 6. Our pit neighbors offer me their canopy to sit under, we loan
them our jack. Everyone pulls together here, nice people.
Drive 439 miles to motel.
May 7th Nelson Ledges Road Course. Garrettsville, OK
I don’t know why, but many of these rural Race Tracks have very
inconspicuous entrances. At Nelson Ledges, we spot a tiny sign by the
roadside nearly obscured by foliage, enter via a barnyard, sign in,
then cross the track to the infield, zig zag down unmarked dirt roads
to find ourselves in a grassy paddock next to some old barn-like
buildings and sheds. There are only a couple of shelters, - already
taken of course, I really hate those early birds!
Nelson Ledges looks like it has been there since the 50’s, half the
course is surrounded by thick woods and we are warned to watch for deer
on the track. The course has thousands upon thousands of old tires
forming a wall on either side of the track, the pavement is old
and cracked, with lots of bumps and patches. The track is pretty
narrow, I wonder how hard it would be to pass on it. This has to be one
of the most punishing paved tracks a car could ever run on. Turns 7, 8,
and 9, all comprise a huge banked loop onto a straightaway of sorts. I
say of sorts because it consists of turns 10 and 11 that are just kinks
but you are bouncing over bumps in near panic mode as you approach
them. The car rocks side to side and you feel like you are going
to be thrown off the track and into the waiting jaws of that
black snake of a tire wall. I’ve seen a lot of tire walls in my life,
but never as many as at this track. I guess it’s better than
hitting the trees behind them but those tires are just piled up
randomly making a mound that a car can ride up on and over. This may
tend to launch a car over instead of stopping it like a flat wall of
stacked and banded tires.
My morning run turns out well, I nearly catch up to the Corvette in
front of me, the high speed run through turns 10 and 11 feels like an
off-road event, I remind myself to look ahead, it’s important
here. My afternoon run feels better, I’m getting more
familiar with the track, but on my second lap I think I see the
checkered flag in the high flag tower above start finish, - am I
done? I look ahead and see the other cars still going hard, so I
continue my run. Now I start to wonder what happens if this WAS my last
lap and I take an “extra” lap. It’s sure to be a 10 point penalty and
we don’t need that! I decide to ease up when I get to the pit entrance,
look for cars exiting, and if the flagman has the checkered flag out I
will keep going. I round the last corner and as soon as I ease up, my
friends all wave me to stay out and finish. I get back on it and finish
feeling pretty tired and stupid, - again. Due to Michael Hickman running
out of fuel my time is good enough even with the slow down to stay in
1st place. I’m feeling pretty lucky, but mostly tired. I want this to
be over. We leave for South Bend, hitting rain off and on but nothing
severe. We see lots of competitors along the way and it’s great feeling
knowing we have made it this far and it’s nearly over. James is driving
and we notice the clutch is slipping when he hits the gas. I tell him
don’t do THAT anymore! It will be OK for the skid pad tomorrow, but JUST.
I drive the last leg into South Bend, park in the motel lot and want to
get out and kiss the ground! I hear from Mary, it looks like Ruby is
going to survive, she’s in a lot of pain & very chewed up,
but they are taking good care of her.
Drive 295 miles to South Bend motel. I want to crawl into bed and
hide from the world. I nap for a few hours, spend a couple of hours
socializing with the gang in the lobby, eat a real dinner with some One Lap friends, and turn in.
May 8, South Bend In. DRY SKID PAD
One last event! I ask around and get some tips, generally to not over
drive the car on the skid pad and keep in tight to the cones.
It’s a cold windy day so I push hard to build a little heat in the
tires as early as possible, when I begin my first lap, I try to keep
the tires at their limit but stay in close to the cones. The run goes
well but maybe I didn’t push quite hard enough. We score 2nd in class
for dry skid pad. The balance felt great and I don’t know of any
handling issue we could have fixed to do better. All the entrants were
very close in this event, so even a tiny bit better G would move you up
in the standings. The clutch held up too!
WE ARE DONE! 1st in class by 5 points, 36th overall, Total miles 3,528.9
Lessons learned
When asked to do this I knew it would be tough, - and it was. I knew
lack of sleep would be hard for me to deal with, but I was pretty
pleased at how well I was doing up to the 5th when I got Dehydrated,
that really set me back but by the 7th I was feeling pretty good again.
The
Optima Battery One Lap Camaro required no major repairs or maintenance
other than the alternator issue and mystery power outages. We got
compliments on the car everywhere we went, and it hauled butt on the
track while being pretty comfortable on the road. James and I got
along well the whole trip, we both made mistakes and got a little goofy
near the end from lack of sleep, but that’s to be expected. We did far
better than we had hoped, and met some really great people. I’d bring
less spares and use a stock passenger seat that you could really sleep
in, seal around the shifter better so we can run with windows up more
for less road noise. I’d learn what it takes to turn good skid
pad times, wet and dry, eat proper food, not gas station munchies. We
later learned the Alternator issues were caused by a shorted alternator
wire hidden in the harness.
What's in a name?
Another side issue was over was the name "One Lap Camaro" used by James
Shipka. When he decided to build a Camaro to compete, it naturally was
called his One Lap Camaro, kind of a no-brainer. However there is
another One Lap Camaro of Michael Hickman that has competed for many
many years, with many Vintage class wins. In retrospect it was not such
a good idea to name a newcomer car the same name as a long time
participant of the One Lap Of America. While not much was said to us at
the time, I think it caused some head shaking and made a poor
impression with some of the veteran entrants. Chalk it up to our
ignorance and enthusiasim I guess, but we meant no dis-respect to the
"Original One Lap Camaro" which is what Mike began calling his car.
They were great competitors and were very friendly towards us. I think
we would have done anything to help each other keep running if need be.
I really want to thank our internet forum supporters who cheered us on,
bought our T shirts and a lunch here and there. Half the fun of
doing an event like this is sharing it with others. I don’t know
how we could have done this without help from our sponsors: Optima
battery, Hellwig Products, Isis Power- Intelligent Multiplex system.
Speed Tech Suspension, Tilton Engineering, Problem Child
Customs, Marquez, Heighton Restorations, Rick's Stainless Tanks, Camaro
Performers Magazine, Pro-Touring.com, Piloti Driving Shoes. and many
others. I think James would agree we both want to thank our wives for
supporting us in our adventure.