Adam's One Lap of America Adventure

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2007 12:28 pm

Hi all,

As the officially unofficial spokesman for the Donate Life/ AutocrossForum.com/ Cannon Fodder Racing BMW M3 One Lap of America team (Wow! That‘s a mouthful!!), I have been tasked with updating the masses about Adam and Peter’s conquests and mishaps. So watch this space as I continue to bring you information about their adventure.

Adam called me last night to tell me that he and Peter had arrived at the Tire Rack offices and were registered. They took some to get the car stickered up with the myriad of vinyl that is required plus stickers for Donate Life, AutocrossForum.com and Tarheel Sports Car Club. I hope to have photos from him tonight to post here. Being the partiers that they are, they ate dinner and went to bed early to be ready for 8 days of fun and excitement.

I spoke with Adam a few minutes ago and he and Peter were on their way from South Bend Motor Speedway to Joliet, Ill for more fun and games at the Autobahn Country Club.

First on the docket this morning was wet skid pad testing at the Tire Rack facility. Adam and Peter were a little disappointed with their mid to high .7 g’s as they were hoping for approximately .8 g’s. The highest figure that Adam and Peter saw was .92 g’s laid down by the Hennessey Viper. Remember, this is the WET skid pad!!! I can’t wait until they do the dry at the end of the event!!!! Hopefully the rain will hold off!

After the skid pad is was a short 34 mile hop to South Bend Motor Speedway. Apparently “speedway” is subjective as SBMS is a ¼ mile oval. Not exactly a “speedway” in my book. Adam felt good with his oval performance and Peter said that his laps looked good. Adam said that while they were getting their car packed up for the next leg, they heard a loud roar from the crowd and lots of squealing tires. Apparently the Lotus Exige S isn’t that great of an oval track car, or maybe it was driver’s error (nah, driver’s don’t make mistakes! It must have been the car’s fault!) as he went spinning. No damage done, so I guess it’s no harm, no foul.

The good thing that came out of this is now Adam and Peter have at least one class competitor behind them because the Exige S is also in SSGT1 Small bore!!

I'll post more information and results as I get them from Adam.

:arrow:

EDIT - Results are posted for the Wet Skid Pad and Adam and Peter are sitting firmly in mid pack at 39th overall and 4th in class. They managed to pull 0.774 g’s. The best overall was the number 3 Hennessey Viper with 0.920 g’s!! First in class was an M coupe with 0.865 g’s which placed him 6th over all. Last place on the skid pad was a Volkswagen Toureg that pulled 0.433 g’s. You can’t count the Newmar Dutchstar as that is the support RV. He pulled 0.218 g’s by the way.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2007 9:24 pm

Just got off the phone with our intrepid racers. They are wheeling their way from Chicago to the bustling metropolis of Pacific Junction, Iowa where they will have two sessions tomorrow at Mid America Motorplex.

I know, you don’t care about what is happening tomorrow, you want to know how they did today. Right? Well today was good. You already know how the skid pad went. The oval at South Bend Speedway was good. At least in Adam and Peter’s eyes anyway. For some reason the website shows them as being a DNS/DNF for the event. Fortunately, I was able to get Adam on the phone before they left Autobahn and inform him of the mistake. The talked with Brock and they said that they will get it figured out. Worst case scenario, they use the in car video to determine a time.

After the oval, it was off to Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois. Autobahn is similar to Virginia International Raceway in that it can be configured many different ways. I’m not sure what configuration that they used for One Lap, but they all look fun. Apparently Adam thought it was fun, he managed to place 11th overall and 2nd in class!!!!!! Not bad for seeing the track for the first time that day while riding a bicycle!!! Adam credited autocrossing for being able to read the course and commit it to memory in such a short amount of time. I think he said that he only got two laps in on the bike.

Way to go Adam!!!

For now Adam and Peter are sitting in 48th overall and 4th in class. This is bound to change as soon as they get the South Bend scores fixed. Not bad for a couple of Lap Puppies!!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2007 7:07 am

Adam emailed a couple pictures..
I think the car looks good all stickered up.

Lined up for his chance at the Autobahn circuit.

Waiting for his turn on course...

An early exit for a beautiful twin truboed Viper...

Not really a stock Shelby GT-H, it has a whipple supercharger now!! I think that voids the Hertz rental agreement!!

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2007 8:49 am

Do they switch to R comps at the track or do they keep their street tires on? Looks like fun. Go Adam!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2007 8:59 am

Nope, no R-comps allowed. Actually the tires they use have to come from the One Lap Approved list and be branded by The Tire Rack with "OLOA 2007" on the side wall. Shaving is not permitted and they must start the event with at least 8/32 on all six tires. Oh yea, they can only take 6 tires with them, the 4 on the car and 2 spares.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2007 1:43 pm

Time for today’s update from Mid America Motorplex.

As our wandering racers arrived in Pacific Junction, they were greeted with a wonderful line of storms. The storms were so bad that the track officials were PUMPING water off the track. Then the fun started…tornado sirens!!!! For those of you not from tornado alley, tornado sirens mean that there is a tornado warning for your area and you need to take cover NOW!!!! So all the drivers got cozy with each other in the men’s room. I’ll bet that place smelled GREAT! They were running the full course here. Yesterday they were on the South course at Autobahn.

Once the track was deemed safe, and the tornado left the area, the event was allowed to start. The delay time was about an hour, but this caused the organizers to make Mid America a single event instead of two (they were originally supposed to have morning and afternoon runs.) The decision was made to allow the racers plenty of time to make the 983 mile drive to Utah.

Because of Adam’s great finish yesterday, he was slated to drive early in the second run group today. This hindered his performance due to the track still being very wet. He didn’t sound too hopeful with his times since his next closest competitor would be driving on a much dryer track. The results should be posted in a few hours, so we will see how much the track dried out.

One bit if good news for Adam and Peter, the Noble M400 in their class done blowed up as they say in the South. So their closest competitor is on their way back home.

Also, a black Corvette Z06 ended up so far off track today that it had to be pulled out of the swamp, er, mud. This unfortunately gave him a DNF for today. Hopefully luck will be on his side for the remainder of the event.

The scoring foul up from yesterday has been resolved and Adam managed a 16th place finish on the oval at South Bend. Fixing this moved them from 4th in class to 1st and from 48th overall to 17th. Way to go guys!!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2007 2:54 pm

Results are up for Mid America…Not a good day for Adam. The rain REALLY hurt as he finished 50th overall and 7th in class. They are not real happy with that result at all.

To give you an idea of how the track conditions affected the results, the car that finished 1st overall today was the Honda Odyssey!!! Followed by the M5 and the Hennessey Viper in 3rd. Adam was surprised by the Vipers finish since it went out before Adam on a wetter track. I think that the car and the driver are just THAT good!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 9:05 am

A couple pictures of Steve Rankins car being co driven by Dale Teague.

And a car I don't think would have been to fun to drive through a hail storm like they did going into Iowa!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 9:44 am

Well, Adam and Peter are in Utah now. I talked to Adam as he was ordering breakfast ad Ronnie Mac’s. Yummy!!!!

Sounds like it was snowing pretty hard at times during the 983 mile trip from Mid America Motorplex, but they were still able to maintain an 80 mph average and arrived at the hotel at midnight local time. He said that the weather is severe clear but cool and they are hoping for a great couple of sessions today. They are running the East course this morning and then the full course this afternoon.

He said that he will check in as soon as they complete their sessions.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 2:17 pm

I just got off the phone with Adam after this morning’s session on the East course at Miller Motorsports Park. In his words, he “kicked arse!!” Using a stopwatch, so not an official time, the class leader BMS M3 of Kevin Jones and Mark Donohue Williams ran a 5:58 for three laps. The BMW M Coupe of Neil Simon and Woody Hair ran a 5:55. Adam ran a 5:34!!!! This, coupled with a good run this afternoon on the Full course, should put Adam and Peter in 1st place in class.

Now for the damage report for today...

Steve Rankins and Dale Teague suffered a MAJOR set back when the right front rotor broke in the braking zone at the end of the fastest straight. They spun off and fortunately did not get hurt. Unless they can procure a new rotor before 12:30 local time, they will get a DNF for the afternoon session and really hurt themselves in the standings.

Luke Russell and Doug Wilks are out of the event after blowing up the engine in their STi powered Subaru Impreza. They did get a time as the engine blew coming out of the last corner and they coasted across the finish line, but they will not be able to make the call for the afternoon.

The Honda of America Racing Team (HART) Honda Civic Si showed that Honda reliability doesn’t apply when you are trying to wring every last bit of power out of an engine. They apparently broke the crank shaft during the transit from Iowa to Utah. They hope to have the engine back together soon and rejoin the Cannonball in Pueblo, CO.

That’s all for now. Adam is going to call after the afternoon runs to tell me how they did.

Stay tuned!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 2:39 pm

Official results are posted for this morning.

Adam finished 9th overall which puts them in 1st in class and 15th in the overall classification!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 4:07 pm

After noon report time…

Adam ran well but since he was in the 1st run group, he didn’t get to see anyone else. He felt real good about his efforts though.

On to a bit of good news for Steve Rankins and his team. They were able to find a rotor (maybe they had one with them?) and got the car fixed. They had it done in plenty of time to make the afternoon session. Good job guys!!

I’ll post an update once results are final. Look for it around 6:00 or so.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2007 8:17 pm

I know people are anxiously awaiting my report of the results for today...unfortunately, they aren't posted yet. I'm not sure why. I assume that they will be up in a little while and will check back before I go to bed tonight.

I can tell you this...Adam said that they afternoon went so well that he was gaining on the guy who started before him. He said that they start the cars at approximately 15 second intervals to minimize overtaking. By the end of the three laps, Adam was only about 4 seconds behind the car in front of him!! No too shabby!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue May 08, 2007 8:31 am

Well, I fell asleep waiting for the results for yesterday to post. Sorry about that.

So here they are...

Adam laid down a blistering fast time of 5:35.042 over the three laps on the east course, being bested only by cars with more horsepower and one STi. The afternoon was more of the same with Adam only taking 10:28.355 minutes to motor around the 4.5 mile full course. Not bad! And again, he was bested by cars with more power to pull down the straights. Though he did allow two Neons (I know they’re SRT-4s, but they are still Neons in my book!) to beat him with 10:25 and 10:26 time respectively.

Adam and Peter now have a 10 point lead in SSGT1 Small Bore and are sitting 12th place overall!!!

Steve Rankins bounced back and logged a great 8th place finish with a 10:27.087! Good job Steve.

I am waiting for Adam to call this morning to give me the transit report. Today the circus is at Pueblo Motorsports Park (Let me know what government pamphlets you need so they can pick them up!) for two time trials on their 10 turn road course. Peter has driven this course within the last month and plans on driving both heats today. Good Luck Peter!!

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Quote:

On to a bit of good news for Steve Rankins and his team. They were able to find a rotor (maybe they had one with them?) and got the car fixed. They had it done in plenty of time to make the afternoon session. Good job guys!!

Knowing Steven, Dale probably brought two full sets of everything brake-related. :lol:

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