Schaut Speed Racing Blog

The final results are in.  And I’ve caught up on sleep.  One more good night of rest and I think I’ll be caught up….

With a pair of solid 17th finishes at Nelson’s Ledges and then a 21st in the “dry” skid pad (0.947 G’s), along with a little bit of bad luck for the Ultima GTR, Schaut Speed Racing finished the 2010 Brock Yates’ One Lap of America in 9th place!!!!!!!!!  Having wrapped up the Luxury Sedan class championship at Nelson’s Ledges the day before, the single-digit finishing position was a spectacular surprise!

It was an awesome week with a great team.  I can’t wait until next year…..   Over the next week, I’ll slowly update the rest of the blogs to get all those pictures posted up.  Its back to the real world for a while…..

Skid pad event is over. The 2010 One Lap of America competition has come to a close. So, how did the Schaut Speed Racing team do? Well the 0.94 something average G’s gave us a high enough finishing position to stay in the top 10!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!

Actual skid pad finish is unknown, as is final overall place since they are currently compiling the numbers. You will have to wait patiently fling with us……

Awards ceremony will start shortly, right after the delicious looking lunch with fare from each state. Good thing too, since I’m starving!

Right after the ceremony, I will be dropping Nick off at the airport and then heading back to Detroit and my own comfy bed for some much needed sleep. Update tomorrow!

We made the final check point, arriving into South Bend Indiana last night with enough time to clean up before heading out for one last team meal. A few fans of the team decided to show up and join us. And while having a pre-dinner celebratory drink, the results from the second session are posted….

Dan picked up a few seconds on track, and ended up 17th overall And first in class. We now have the class championship locked in!!!! Overall, we have a solid 10th - as long as I can finish the skid pad with a decent time, that is where we will end up.

Speaking of the skid pad, today is supposed to be the dry one. Only problem with that is Mother Nature is not cooperating. Its cold, very windy and with rain falling. Outlook for today looks a bit wet…. I’ll just have to see how much I can improve on the skid pad numbers from the start of the week.

Right now we are lined up for the group photo. Watch Motortrend for the pic; second row, center.

The final track for the 2010 One Lap of America is Nelson’s Ledges.  It is claimed to be “The fastest track in the US”; highest average speed with sweeping corners and a long curving back straight.  Nelson’s is fast and bumpy.  And today it’s also cold and green.  Overcast, breezy, and with dampness in the air the clouds are threatening rain.  Just something to throw into the mix…..  Afterall, it’s all part of One Lap!

Dan will take the last 2 time trials.  We arrive at the track and Dan takes off for his track walk.  Nick and I tackle unloading the car, setting the suspension and conduct a much needed tire rotation.  The Michelin PS2s are grippy, but also wear fairly quick.  We’ve been pushing the car hard all week and the fronts are worn considerably more.

The rain looks like it will hold off for at least the first session.  Dan heads out, the low temps and lack of grip show a bit as on the recon lap, he gets a bit loose coming onto the front straight.  Green means go, but its not the fastest line!  He gets the car back under control and lines up to start his hot laps.  They wave him off and he rockets away into turn 1.  I’m watching from the front straight near the final turn – line looks much better this time.  2 to go.

Next lap around, with more temp in the tires and more confidence in the track, Dan carries more speed through that last turn. A bit too much….  2 wheels in the dirt, and little swagger through the green stuff (that grass was too tall anyway?), back on the black stuff and he carries on…  whew!  Let’s not do that again!  I love racing, but don’t need this kind of excitement right now!

He finishes off with a clean last lap and heads in.  Talking about the session, the slickness caught Dan in a few other spots.  This took a bit of time away, but not much.  It put us in 17th position for the AM session.  Still in 10th overall and 1st in class.  A little further from 8th and 9th, but also further from 11th.

With that excitement over, I head up to an observation deck to watch some of the other cars in action.  Remember that little cliché?   Lap 3 ends in the grass for one of our competitors.  A supercharged mustang blows a motor coming through the kink on the back straight – HUGE amount of white smoke pouring out the back to the car.  He safely pulls off the track near a corner station, leaving a good ¼ mile plus of smoke in his wake.  Soon you cannot even see the car.  I hear someone yell “Fire” through the cloud.  As it dissipates, you can see some flames coming from the tailpipes.  Yikes!  Soon the safety crew get the flames out as the driver makes for safety.

The culprit?  One of the pistons disintegrated, opening up a gapping hole for oil to be sucked into the exhaust (majority of the smoke, and cause of the fire).  The loss of the piston also created some issues with the connecting rod – which poked a rather large hole in the side of the block.  The corner workers came by a bit later to hand the driver the wrist-pin from that piston….   Unfortunately, this cars One Lap is done.  The drivers have found a way back to South Bend where they will pick up their truck and trailer and head back to pick up the wounded beast.

With the track cleaned up and lunch consumed (narrowly avoided another burger, with a hot dog…), we take a look at the data, make a plan and get Dan ready for round 2 of this roller-coaster of a track.  Much cleaner session, and faster.  On track with the BMW 335 of Brian Hair and Robin Sparrow (who beat us in the morning), Dan manages to close in and run some solid laps.  We don’t have results yet, but it looked to be another top 15 finish for Schaut Speed Racing.  Great way to finish up the time trials.

We now head back to South Bent for the final event.  I will be running the dry skid-pad tomorrow.  Or wet skid-pad if it decides to rain…  We are sitting in a very good position, with the Luxury sedan class wrapped up (it is no longer feasible for the Porsche of Bill and Todd to overtake us, even if we don’t run) and in a solid 10th overall.  A decent finish tomorrow and that is where we could stay.  Since it is a nice easy 300 miles to South Bend, a group of One Lappers have stopped at a local pub for start trading war stories of this past glorious week.  With that, this blog entry is done.  I’ll post pics up soon, but for now, my presence is requested inside….

It’s never over until its over.  Cliché, perhaps.  But it’s true.  Entering the last day of time trials, we sit a solid 1st in class and 10th overall.  If something as simple as a spin happens, we can catch 9th, maybe 8th.  But 11th, 12th and 13th can easily catch us too.  Anything can happen.  All we need to do is keep up with our consistent finishes and we will stay in the top 10.  Assuming all goes well for our competitors, 10th is where we will stay at the end of today.  Oh, and of course, we need to get to the track….

The end of yesterday was an interesting and unexpectedly eventful one.  I took over after filling up with gas and headed back down the road.  30 minutes or so later, the low tire pressure light suddenly turns on…  uh oh.  We’ve driven through a lot of construction, the tread on the tires are getting low….  Luckily we have a spare if needed, but its one of last years tires and won’t have the grip.  So I pull over and we check the tire for damage.  Not able to find any clear signs, we pump the tire back up with air, waiting and watching to see if the light comes back on.  2 miles down to road it does.  We just lost 10 psi in 2 miles…  Something is wrong, as we are losing pressure FAST!

Luckily we were coming up to an exit, so I slowed the car and pulled off the highway so we could safely unload the trunk and change the tire.  I get out of the car and I look at the tire – and see what looks like the end of the tire pumps chock….  Lucky for my co-drivers, it wasn’t – instead it was the valve stem itself.  Somewhere along the last 3300 miles or so, the outer portion of the valve stem, which screws onto the part inside the wheel, had worked loose.  And with that tight, the rubber seal was not compressed and doing its job.

As a precaution (as a racer, you get in the habit of checking all similar parts when something goes wrong), I check the others.  All are loose; the left front was just the first to start leaking!  Yikes!  With the valves tightened back up and pressure regained, we once again hit the road.  Disaster is adverted and we can continue on for our quest for a top 10 finish.

It’s still light out, and we are only 110 miles from out hotel.  For the 3rd time this One Lap, we are on schedule (even with our little extra stop) to get in before the sun sets.  We do some searches and opt to stop a bit early for a nice sit-down meal.  Youngstown Crab Co.  Man was it good!  I’m going to call it the 2nd best meal of the week!  This place even had a couple of giant parrots AND a lobster claw game!  It is one of those “skill” (er, blind luck?) games where you position the claw above a stuffed animal and drop the claw – only for live lobsters!  For $2 you could get a fresh cooked lobster!

It was a good thing the food was so good, since the hotel ranked far down with the low of the low….  I’m rating this one just slightly above New Jersey.  But with the worst breakfast….  Oh well, its all part of the One Lap….

There has been a lot of shuffling and close racing throughout the One Lap field. There are pockets, with the Porsche GT2 and Nissan GTR going tooth and nail for 1st. Then a lone Corvette, followed by a gaggle of randomness. Cars that you would never think of being competitive with each other are battling it out with lap times within a few seconds. Some days, the Corvette, Porsche, BMW, STi or Evo wins; some days its the Honda Civic or Mazda5 minivan…

Currently, this is where the top 20 sit:

1. #3 Porsche GT2 - Leh Keen, Doug Wilks - 5020
2. #4 Nissan GT-R - Catesby Jones, Jose Collado - 4985
3. #5 Chevrolet Corvette - Jeremy Herzberg, Danny Popp, Todd Rumpke - 4795
4. #9 Porsche 997 Turbo - Rene von Richthofen, Hugh D. Bate - 4535
5. #39 BMW 325is -  Anthony Magagnoli, Kevin Kreisa - 4470
6. #8 Porsche 911 GT3 RS -  Geoffrey Bond - 4455
7. #15 Mitsubishi Evo X -  Chris Wirth, Sean Caron - 4355
8. #54 Honda Civic Si - Jonathan Weir, William Chan - 4235
9. #17 Ultima GTR - Carl Warren, Sam kimberley-bryant - 4220
10. #21 BMW E90 M3 - Schaut Speed Racing - 4160
    
11. #55 Honda Civic - Andy Hollis, Ann Hollis - 4015
12. #27 BMW M Coupe - Neil Simon, Woody Hair -  3955
13. #28 BMW 335i - Robin Sparrow, Brian Hair - 3905
14. #6 Subaru WRX STI -  Michael Lattos, Erik Van Cleef - 3840
15. #11 VW GTI - Bill Unwin, Reg Noble - 3825
16. #124 MAZDA MAZDA 5  - RICHARD FISHER, JASON SAINI - 3750
17. #48 Chevrolet Camaro SS - Robert Dubler, Christian Schober, Richard Plank - 3635
18. #10 BMW X6 M - Mike Schnell Renner, Thomas Lappin, Steve Maguire - 3545
19. #20 Porsche Panamera - Bill Treffert, Todd Treffert - 3515
20. #25 Chevrolet Z06 Corvette - Dan Corcoran, Kyle Corcoran - 3490

The One Lap isn’t just about the competition.  Its also about the trip.  And all that comes with driving thousands of miles and staying in some interesting places…

Traveling:

• Miles traveled -3239 (as of 5:13 PM, Thursday, traveling on I-80)
• Race tracks - 7
• States visited - 10
• 5 ft long 4×4 narrowly avoided - 1
• Latest arrival at hotel - just after midnight
• Earliest arrival at hotel - 7:30 pm.
• Longest transit - 580ish
• Horses being corralled in a construction zone - 1

Napping:

• Standard hotels - 5
• Awesome hotels / Bed&Breakfast - 1
• Crap-hole hotels - 1
• Castles - 1 (ok, really just another crap-hole, but at least it had character…)

Eating:

• Delicious cups of coffee - 1
• less than delicious cups of coffee - 5
• Absolutely terrible cups of coffee - one.  possibly 2 but I was too tired to tell….
• Burgers - 3 (this might be a record….)
• meals missed due to being on the road - none!!!! (another record?)
• Gas station dinner - 1 - another record!
• Delicious, sit-down, fill you up dinner - 3!!!

Random:

• Blog posts so far: 24
• pictures/video taken - 333
• Times Dan asked me if I wanted to drive the drag - 4
• Family teams (siblings, father-son/daughter) - 19 (I think)

Remember that ‘long line for lunch’ I mentioned in the last post?  Well, we were still in that line when they started calling cars to grid…  Dang, I would have thought 30 minutes would have been plenty of time to order, pay for and eat food…  After the 3rd time I heard them call “Car 21″, we get our food, jump in the car and drive back over to the paddock spot.  This will need to be eaten after the run….  As Dan gets his driver suit back on and situated, Nick does the few checks of the car, I go and check the results from the AM that are now posted.

We are listed at 26th with a time of 4:08!!!! What?!?  we had times down in the 3:58 range….  Hum, there was a track-out cone that Dan may have moved a bit out of the way a bit during an exciting corner 7 in the AM session (note: “downshifting” into 5th instead of 3rd can mess up a corner…).  Those cones are up to give drivers an idea of where the turn-in, apex and track-out point are, but are not necessary (not all tracks put these out) and no impact to safety (safety related cones, cutoff paths, lane markers, etc. understandably count for 10 seconds each).   This will need to be studied a bit!  But after the session…

With a bit of prep-talk to get Dan back in the game  (I’ll deal with the cone penalty, its his job to drive the wheels off this thing!), some knowledge gained from studying the data and our make-shift brake duct plugs in place, the session starts.  I head over to turn 7, just for curiosity….

The session looks good from where I’m watching.  Turn entry looks good and Dan carries a bunch of speed through the apex.

First lap he kicks up a bit of dirt at turn exit - maybe as a bit of a brush-of-the-shoulder at that pesky cone laying out there in the field….  What I really should have done was kept the camera out.  As the second lap there was a tad bit more dirt thrown in the same spot.  And the 3rd even more….  At least I got the aftermath…  Someone’s gonna have to clean this thing!

Dirty tires

With a solid looking run we meet back up in the pits.  The brakes were great this time around - our duct plugs worked to help keep some heat in the front brake pads, and once again they have achieved “Excellent” status.  (note to self: work on some adjustable plugs for next year… who would have thought that brake duct diameter could be a tuning tool?)

Just after the run, I went to find the timing and scoring guys to ask about the cone.  3 other cars in the morning hit similar cones.  We then go to talk to Brock.  He kindly reverses the penalty on the grounds that those cones were there as a convenience, not safety.  Not to mention that anyone else who has gone off in7 since it was moved (a lot of dirt was thrown about in that corner…) was no where near the cone, since Dan kindly moved it out of the way…..

We left the track not knowing the final official ruling for morning session, or full results of the afternoon.  Luckily, the excruciating wait of yesterday’s results is not repeated as today’s have already been posted.

Morning session - 13th with a 3:58.059.  A scant 0.924 seconds in front of the #20 Porsche Panamara of Bill and Todd Treffert.

Afternoon session - improving to 3:54.841 and 12th fastest time.

We still sit in 10th overall, and increased our lead in luxury sedan by another 10 pts over the Panamara.  With 3 events left, its going to be close to achieve a top 10 place.  We are 60 pts behind the Ultima GTR in 9th and 145 points ahead of the #55 Civic.  Anything can happen even in the closing events that can change things.  All I know is its close and going to be exciting!

One last cool thing as we cruise along I80 back to Ohio and our next track, Nelson’s Ledges.  As we were leaving Millevill, NJ, a car hauler with a bunch of VW Jetta TDIs on it was heading towards the track.  But not just any old TDIs, as these are the SCCA VW TDI cup cars.  A bunch of youngsters (18-26 yrs) battling it out in identical cars.  All on Diesel power!  Way cool!

The One Lap of America can certainly become “one” with you once you’ve competed.  One of the things about this event that makes it special is that people just keep coming back; even when they are not competing.  It seems that wherever we go, when the One Lap rolls into the various tracks, someone from the area who had run in the past makes an appearance.  Today was no different as there were a few former teams gracing us with their presence and there to enjoy the racing!  It’s in their blood, they just cant help it!

Case in point, shortly after we arrived and unpacked our car, this nice silver Porsche Turbo pulls into the spot next to us.  This car, driven by Mark DaVia, last competed 2 years ago.  When he did last run, he won overall.  Along with the previous 4 years!  Same driver, same car, 5 years in a row at the top!  That was quite a team.  He even brought out the trophy from his last win - a special one-off tire with the One Lap logo and Brock Yates Sr.’s signature carved into the tread!  Way cool!  The reason he hasn’t competed the last 2 years?  Well, his daughter was born last year in the middle of One Lap, so he opted to stay home for that and spend some time with the family.  It sounds like he will be back eventually…

The 2004-2008 One Lap Champ

Other than a few familiar faces of friends from previous One Laps, we also got to witness another familiar “face”.  Or more correctly, the back of heads…  Naps are starting to become common occurrences.  While waiting in the rather long lunch line today, I looked over to see one of the drivers of the #54 Honda Civic with his head down while his co-driver was in line.  That car is certainly very fast (300-ish at the wheels I think?), but it lacks what some would call any sound deadening or creature comforts.  I don’t think these guys are getting much sleep on the road….  Welcome to the One Lap, pups!

Its come to my attention that some of my posts were not readable.  It is a formatting issue.  It appears to be a problem with copying content over from Office Word into the blog.  Anyone using Internet explorer is most likely having issues with posts that I wrote in word and copied over (not all were done that way).  I didn’t know if was a problem since Firefox and whatever the Google phones use (Google Chrome?) do not have the formatting issues.

I’m in process of updating the problematic posts…. hopefully it will all be corrected soon.  But in the meantime (and from here-on-out), I highly recommend Mozilla Firefox for browsing….  It just works better!

Honestly, I had no idea that any part of New Jersey was so beautiful.  New Jersey Motorsports Park is located about an hour south of Philadelphia, surrounded by fields, trees and even a bit of elevation changes.  It is a gorgeous facility and where we are today.  Dan is running the events today, trying to hold onto our now Top 10 overall position!

We started the day waking up in possibly the shadiest hotel we’ve been at this week.  Last night I had to go down to the office to get some sheets for the fold-out bed I slept on; these sheets came from the maintenance room, which upon the hotel person opening the door, there was a scurrying of little critters - I’m guessing cockroaches, but I wasn’t about to do a closer inspection…  I might be burning my pj’s after this one…..  Coffee was on par with the low end of the scale (I think I might be getting used to it…) but on the plus side, they had BACON!

Most of the one lappers stayed here, and offered up a few cool shots last night and this morning.  And guess what, I figured out the picture loading thing….  so here you go!  (oh, and I’ll be adding pics to previous posts, so check those out too).

Arriving at the track, we once again unload the car.  Nick and I get the suspension changes done while Dan takes off for the track walk.  Once we get the car squared away and the Data Acquisition setup, Nick and I strap on our running shoes and do a few laps also.  The video we watched of the track does not do the elevation changes justice!  Big rise going into turn 1, followed by a quick drop.  Turn 5 is similar and the last corner has some significant banking.

Here’s Dan all lined up and ready to go.

While waiting on grid, the drivers have a tendency to chat.  Its part of the fun of this event.  Usually talking about some crazy thing that happened on the driver over (like narrowly missing a 4×4 in the middle of the road!), or the track line.  Or I think in this case, how to make the perfect spinach quiche….  I also found a nice little sticker on one of our fellow BMWs - my thoughts exactly!

Dan hit the track and was off.  Watching the car brake into turn 1 and disappear over the hill was nothing short of amazing.  And hair raising!  2nd lap through, he stomps on the brakes, carrying a lot of speed, and misses the apex.  Big time.  Off in the dusty part of the track.  Brake issue?  We will find out shortly.  Somewhere out there on the last lap, a little too much speed through a corner resulted in some agricultural activity…  oops.

It turns out that this track isn’t very hard on brakes.  The effective range of the Cobalts is in the 300-1300 degree range.  With the last 1/3 of the track needing no brakes, and high speed, we found that the brake ducting on the car was cooling the brakes too much.  By the time turn 1 came up, the brakes were cool again.  Hum…  what to do, what to do…  A bit of track-side engineering with a drill, 1 20 oz pop bottle and 2 tie wraps.  Make-shift duct covers. 

Results will be posted from this morning when we can.  Hopefully the off didn’t loose too much time, as we are neck and neck with a few cars for the top 10…