Schaut Speed Racing Blog

Today continued to be gorgeous out full of sunshine!  I even got rid of some of that pasty whiteness I tend to get over the winter…

Now if I can just get my photos uploaded, I can make this blog a bit more colorful…..

Dan once again slid in behind the steering wheel for the second session of the day and the 3rd event.  This time starting order would be based on the morning session.  Here’s a shot (once I get it posted…) of the top of the field.  Porsches, Corvettes, GTRs, Ferrari, BMWs.  Ah, what a glorious site to behold!!!  For this session, they shortened the track by using a cut-off road between turns 13 and turn 5, with the start/finish on this cutoff.  With a sea of cones to help guide (and slow) the competitors, event 3 started.  Just to give you an idea of what these guys had to deal with, here (eventually) is a shot of Leh Keen in his Porsche GT2 (fastest guy in the AM session) coming onto the start/finish straight.  Yikes - they do really get less than a foot from that wall!

Dan headed out on track for his recon, promptly putting the left tires in the dirt on turn 1 exit.  Hey, the whole track is paid for, why not use everything there is to offer?  Green flag falls and he’s off.  First lap finished and from my vantage point something looks odd about the front tires.  Lots of camber on the left front.  Maybe right front too.  Hum….  Does the car seem a bit off coming through the short chute?  I cant tell, but he keeps lapping; and keeping pace with the 2010 Porsche Turbo that started in front of him…..  All seems well but I’m concerned.  One Lap just isn’t about driving all-out-fast for 3 laps.  Its about being consistent and finishing the event.

Speaking of consistency, Dan finished a blistering 13th overall, and WAY up on the next Luxury Sedan (the Panamara).  His time of 5:28.858 for the 3 laps was right in a very tight mix of cars.  5 cars with times between 5:28.305 to 5:28.868 covering places 10 through 14!  Amazing how close these results can end up!

Nick and I meet Dan up at the paddock.  Driver indicates a  fairly solid run but some funny brake feel, like they were not as effective as they should be.  A quick visual inspection and I see too much camber, and a chunk of toe out (A likely cause of the brake feel - without the proper contact patch, the tires cant work to slow the car).  Um, not good!  How did this happen?  The culprit ended up being a slipped Caster setting.  2 small bolts hold a plate in place on the top of each front shock.  instead of being all the way in (arrowed in the picture), they are all the way out (line)….  Time to do a “quick” fix.  With some team work, an hour and some dirty hands, we get everything back to where its supposed to be….  Time to hit the road.

With the car fixed, and results in, we are now a “mere” 110 miles from our destination for tonight - Council Bluffs Iowa.

Schaut Speed Racing is sitting in13th overall.   Ties for 1st in class.

After putting in the first 300 miles or so of todays transit, I for one am ready for a good night sleep.  And getting behind the wheel of this spectacular car to run the Mid America events tomorrow….  Until then, good night!

We started our day 2 waking up in nice comfy beds to some delicious smells coming from the kitchen of a nice little Bed & Breakfast in Elkhart Lake, WI.  This was easily the best accommodations we will see for the next week of our lives!

With blue skies and a slight breeze, we headed out to Road America for the start of the first set of time trials at one of my favorite and gorgeous tracks in the world!  Being his ‘home’ track (with at least a few laps around….), Dan took to the wheel of the Bimmer to see what we can do against all the competition.  The starting order for the first run was based on car number.  So we lined up behind the Porsche Panamera (leading Luxury sedan going into today) and a slightly modified Dodge Viper coupe.  With the rest of the 7 car group lined up, they waved off the cars for the start of their hot laps one at a time with about 10 seconds gap (as is normal practice for the One Lap).

Dan was HAULIN’ out there!  at the end of the 3 laps, he was right off the rear bumper of that Viper.  If it hadn’t have been for the extra 330 horsepower (claimed 750 HP in that thing!), Dan would have beaten him up the hill and to the finish line.  He picked up a touch more than 10 seconds.  And more importantly, gained about 15 seconds on the Panamera.  Official results showed Dan bringing the #21 BMW M3 in at 10th overall and 1st in class!  Woo Hoo!

One Lappers are an interesting group of people.  Coming from all over, driving all sorts of cars and all just a bit crazy.  Part of this event is the fun.  And as you can see here, some guys just have too much space in their car!  (The Panamara is a cool car.  and its big.  I guess when you have a over 6ft father/son team, a larger car and a huge chair are in order….)

The first time trial event was not without some problems, drivers finding limits and some heartache.  One of the RX7s paddocked near us spent some time cleaning out a whole bunch of gravel that found its way into the car when the driver found his way off the track….  A Mitsubishi Evo lost his power steering coming into the track, with a broken pulley/belt - hopefully these lap puppies can get the car fixed and catch up with us at MAM!  A Corvette lost some engine accessory, and a bunch of oil on the track.

The big one, which we never ever want to see or hear about - The #69 Cadillac CTS-V (from our class) had a big issue going into Turn 12, Canada Corner, and went off.  This corner is at the end of one of the highest speed areas on the track (The M3 hit ~148 mph here).  With seemingly little to no brakes, the Caddy went off the end at high speed, rolled through the gravel and managed to get through the fence and into the woods.  Luckily, the driver is OK.   The car, not so much….  But in true One Lap spirit, the team got a ride into town to the local rental place to find a car they could use to run the rest of the event.  One Lappers prevail; we will see them again!