Schaut Speed Racing Blog

Well, if you are reading this than you know that it is once again One Lap week!   Hooray!!!!!  And I once again will be blogging about our adventures and results throughout the week - Hooray again!

And you may have also realized that i pulled the ultimate drama TV show move, and left one heck of a cliff hanger from last year…   Year, I apparently completely forgot to close out the results from last year.   I’m gonna go with I was just so pumped from how the last few events unfolded.  We ended up tied in points for 11th with David Chow in the other M3 - we ended up taking the win based on total track time - in addition, we took the Luxury sedan class win.  It was all down to the end…  And exciting finish to a great year.

So now that I have that little bit taken care of, enjoy the 2013 edition of the Schaut Speed Racing One Lap of America Blog!

The drive in last night was tough.  The busyness of the week and the many miles have started to wear us (and some of the cars) down.  A good night sleep and forecast for beautiful weather made waking up refreshing, with a hint of excitement!  This is the one track for the year that I know very well, since it is one of the tracks that I frequent with my club racing endeavors.  Not to mention the years and years of spending childhood weekends playing at RA while Dan was racing Sprites and Formula Vs.  We had very good potential to do well here.  The long straights definitely help the power cars, which is both a blessing (more than 2 times the power as 10th place car) and curse (the rest of the top 10 all have 600-800+ HP….).  But track knowledge can overcome raw power.  For safety reasons, we ran the event using the “Bend”, a slow 90 degree left / 110 degree right onto the back straight, instead of the normal, high-speed ‘kink’.

With temps in the mid-60’s, sunny skies and a paddock full of vipers and corvettes (we were sharing the track with a car club), Dan lined up the M3 on grid.  The big 4 mile track can safely handle more cars without concern for overtaking.  8 car in the first run group meant we were out in the 2nd.   After a touch of excitement on the warm-up lap (the ZR-1 that was 10 pts behind us) appeared to be moving off-line, but instead was starting to swerve to warm up his tires, as Dan was passing.  Some quick avoidance move meant only the mirrors touched…  Left one this time!  This actually shuffled the starting order, as Nate in the #47 M3 passed both, while Dan passed the Vette.  With the excitement done, green flag dropped and Dan pulled away, hoping to chase down the other M3 while keeping the ZR-1 at bay.  3 laps latter, Dan crossed the finish line, but no #47 M3 in sight.  Nate had run out of gas on track, coming to rest just after turn 12.  This was David and Nate’s first snafu of the week, scoring a DNF and 0 pts.  Dan meanwhile had a great run placing 11th overall and 1st in class.

One event can change so much.  Just as we had dropped all the way back to 48th at the start of the week due to the 10 second penalty from hitting the cone at the oval, the #47 car lost its points cushion.  After the 1st event of the day, we were now tied for points in class.  It is amazing how we can go an entire week, drive thousands of miles and race so many events, only to have the class championship come down to the last 2 events!

Unfortunately, there was some more carnage today.  Our good friends in the Rochester Evo blew their engine; simply let go on the front straight.   And Dubler in the CTS-V wagon lost brakes going into turn 8.  To try to slow the car a bit before hitting the tire wall, he moved track left to try to use the concrete barrier to scrub some speed.  This worked, but still wasn’t enough, as he made it through the gravel trap in 8, and ended up rolling over the tire wall.  Thank goodness the Caddy has stout chassis, as the driver was able to walk away with only a minor scrape on his hand.

With this being the last road course and the track being just simply awesome, I got to drive the afternoon.  With both of us having good knowledge of the track, there was little concern about losing time to our competitors from morning to afternoon ( most drivers improve a bit from morning to afternoon, just by learning the track a bit, which we both already know very well).  I lined up and noticed that David was riding his bike around, which meant that Nate was going to be behind the wheel - they decided to put the better driver in the car to try to get 1st place back going into the skid-pad.  I’ve been close in time to Nate earlier in the week, and we can only run as fast as we can, so I put that behind me and headed out on track.

The power of the M3 certainly makes Road America a different track when compared to racing the Spec Miata.  Speeds are significantly higher, hitting 155 mph in the M3, vs only 120 in the Miata.   Both the car and the track bring a smile to my face - if it wasn’t for the helmet, everyone would have been able to see me beaming after that run was over.  A fast, fun track and a session that I felt good about.  And like father, like son, I came in 11th overall and 1st in class.  And even more amazing, my total time over 3 laps was 8 minutes 11.824 seconds.  Dan’s time this morning was 8 minutes 11.800 seconds.   Not too shabby!

Apparently, there was even less reason to worry about Nate running a faster time and pulling back ahead of us.  Running out of fuel in the first session triggered some check-engine codes which were not going away and has seemed to have impacted the engine.  Dave ended up running the event, and the car didn’t sound the same and was off pace.  Hopefully it isn’t a terminal issue and we see them at the skidpad tomorrow.

Dave ended up finishing 35th overall and 5th in class, but at least he was able to finish and the car is still running.  Renner placed the M5 in 14th, followed by Dawn in the Panamara in 22nd and Rene had a good run to 24th.  Eric was 42nd the #55 S4, and the remaining CTS-V (which incidentally, was the driver/car that lost brakes 2 years ago going into turn 12 here at RA) in 45th.

With today’s results, good on our part and unfortunate on others, we have managed to break into the top 10!  We now have a 20 point lead in Luxury Sedan class and are in a tight battle for 9th place.  We are tied in points at 5570 with the ZR-1, with the ZR-1 edging us out in cumulative time, and Andy Hollis in his CRX is a mere 5 pts back in 11th.   It’ll be a tight race to the finish with the skid-pad tomorrow.  Andy should do well and will likely jump ahead of us.  But with the ZR-1, it could be anyone’s game.  Stay tuned!!!

After a VERY long day on Thursday.  er wait,maybe that was Wednesday.. …  These days have all become a blur.  Let me start again.

After a VERY long drive from Hastings Nebraska to Brainerd Minnesota, which saw us getting in at 1-ish am, and a long day at the track, I decided to skip updates yesterday.  Brainerd saw us with 2 track events, a low E.T. drag pass, and then the bracket drag races.  The road course events utilized both layouts Brainerd has to offer, including the ‘main’ course which uses the drag strip - all of it from the staging area through the complete run-off/shut-down area.  Or an approximately mile-long front straight.  There is one word for a track with that configuration - FAST!

Dan ran both of the road course sessions, and used all the power that the Active Autowerks supercharger could give us.  The power helped, as Dan hit nearly 160 mph at the end of the front straight; and then flew through turn 1 at 120….   Flying around the track, hearing the awesome exhaust note bouncing off the drag-strip walls, Dan came across the line with a time of 5:49.1 which was good enough for another top 10 finish!  10th place overall, and 2nd in class.  Nate had the#47 M3 at seemingly supersonic speeds, especially through turn 1 (their data showed 131 mph through 1 - aerodynamics are sweet!), and placed 5th overall with a 5:32.5.   The #12 M5 used all 550 of its (stock!) horsepower to run a 5:51.9 for 3rd in class and 12th overall.  This track fit the high-horsepower luxo-cruisers in our class well; Dubler was 14th in the CTS-V with a 5:54.6, the Panamara in 17th at 5:57.0.  Eric’s S4 ran a 6:24.4 for 48th, followed closely by the other CTS-V in 49th with a time of 6:26.2.  The #8 M3 ran a 6:30.1 with the Baron behind the wheel for 53rd place.

For the afternoon, we used the SCCA club course, which replaces the mile long straight with a very technical and tight twisty section.  Slower speeds, but much more drama.  Instead of turn 1 being an uber-fast right hander, it is a very sharp and slow left hander.  We saw a whole bunch of drivers brake way too late.  Many missed the apex.  A few helped mow the grass…   Dan, attempting the late-brake into 1 on the first lap, ran a good time for 15th overall and 2nd in class.  David Chow was behind wheel of his #47 M3, and had his personal best performance of the event, looking like he was a local to the track, hitting turn 1 brake point and apex perfect each lap and placing 11th overall.  Renner was another one of the drivers that tried braking a bit too late, missing the apex on a few laps and coming in 18th overall.  Dubler’s Caddy seemed to make it through turn 1 OK each time, placing 29th.  The Baron must have though the grass was much too long, especially a ways off track, so he did what he could to trim it, coming in 39th in the process.  Eric in the S4, Howard in the CTS-V and Dawn in the Panamara all had uneventful turn 1s and came in 46th, 49th and 51st respectively.

Next up were the drag races.  I was behind the wheel for both the low E.T. (reaction times dont matter, just get down the track as quick as possible), and the bracket drag (reaction times count, and you have to beat the other driver, but without going faster than your ‘dial-in’ time).  There are 2 things that make a car very fast in a drag race.  Power and the ability to get that power down.  Chow lined up next to the Panamara for the Low ET pass - They finished 1-2 in class and 7th/8th overall with a very close 12.153 for Dave and 12.180 for Bill.  Horsepower and big tires gave Dave the edge over the all-wheel drive and rather sophisticated electronics in the Porsche.  I was lined up next to the M5 for the low ET pass.  ~580 HP, manual trans with me (not so experienced in drag racing…) vs. DCT with launch control.  After way too much wheel spin for me in 1st and 2nd gear, I crossed the line in 12.912 seconds 20th overall, 4th in class.  Renner beat me down the track with a 12.460 for 9th overall and 3rd in class.  Howard came in 22nd overall, and right behind me with a 13.1.  The S4 ran a 13.6 for 33rd, followed by #8 M3 with a 14.2 in 45th and the CTS-V wagon in 48th with a 14.46.

With that done, knowing I could run a better time, I dialed in with a 12.6.  I was lined up next to a Dinan tuned BMW 335, who had dialed in a mid 13 second run.  Since his time was slower, he left the line first.  I took off with a rather poor 0.464 reaction time (yeah, I was sleeping on the line!), but that ended up being a good thing.  I was able to easily chase down the other BMW, winning by 0.23 seconds, and more importantly, my 12.902 did not ‘break-out’.  Had I run a perfect reaction time, I would have run a 12.55, and lost by going too fast.  With 1 win under my belt, I lined up again, changing my dial in time to a 12.8 (even though I knew I could run the time, I wanted to be closer in dial-in times to other cars that had times close to their ETs).  A Boss 302 Mustang was my competitor, with a low 14 second dial-in.  He takes off, followed a bit too late for me.  I was catching him the entire run, pulling hard and making up a lot of ground.  I knew it would be close but couldn’t tell if I had enough distance or not.  It wasn’t enough.  I needed about 2 more feet.  Lost by 0.024 seconds!  so close, yet so far away…   Pass time minus reaction time gave a ET time of 12.4 something - not bad for the track and weather conditions.

After that we packed up and headed to Road America, stopping by my hometown of Wausau, WI to grab some delicious (and VERY unusual) HOME cooked meal!

We went to sleep up to 11th overall, still 2nd in class (but a few more points behind).  With Road America on the horizon, a track that both Dan and I know very well, there was till hope to break into the top 10.  In class, we were solidly in 2nd place, but 1st was a stretch.

Western Iowa, Eastern Colorado and seemingly all of Nebraska are not what you can consider an ‘internet hot-spot’….  I wasn’t able to get reliable internet capabilities on my phone until we neared Des Moines Iowa today, therefore, I have some update catching-up to do!

Day 4 - High Plains Raceway in Deer Trail, Colorado.  What that area lacks in Verizon Wireless internet capabilities, it MORE than makes up for it in pure beauty, fresh air and one heck of a cool track!  With an incredibly picturesque backdrop or rolling, green hills and blue skies dotted with clouds that look like they were painted in place, it is hard to beat High Plains on the scenery.  And then there is the track itself.  2.5 miles of twists, turns, and some serious elevation changes!  And that adds up to a fun and very challenging track.  The videos on the internet do not do the amount of elevation justice.  With names like ‘bobsled’ and ‘ladder to heaven’, you might be able to get the picture.

I had the awesome opportunity to race this track, and enjoyed every minute.  Morning session went better than expected, where I ran to a 9th place finish overall, 2nd in class behind Nate in the #47 M3.  In the afternoon, I ended up 12th overall, and 1st in class.  Renner managed to hustle the #12 M5 to 2nd in class ahead of David in his #47 M3.  End of the day, we were up to 13th overall and 2nd in class and closed the gap another 5 pts to 15.

We had a nice short drive from High Plains to Hastings, which gave us a nice opportunity to grab a good meal and some much needed sleep (especially considering I am writing this at about the half-way mark on our trip to Brainerd; and we still have 350 miles to go….).   Internet was non-existent on the road, but we did have some great weather and (at least early on in the trip) some nice scenery to look at.

Day 5 - Hastings.  This track is much like Mid-America.  Flat, and flowing, although a bit shorter and corners that seem to come up on you much faster than expected.  I ran these 2 track events and the added autocross today as well (Dan will take Brainerd tomorrow, with his previous track experience there hopefully giving us some more good finishes).  The week may be starting to take some effect, as I didn’t feel ‘on’ for the morning session.  My time, even though I really felt I had left a lot of time on the track, placed me in 14th overall and 2nd in class between Nate and Renner.  Took some look at the data and video and managed to improve by 1 spot in the afternoon, and 1st in class.  Unfortunately, we lost a competitor car in the afternoon, as the #6 Mitsubishi Evo came to a stop on track (same run group as me).  Event ending issue..

Following up the track events was an autocross.   The SCCA managed to squeeze the smallest, tightest, slowest autocross course I have ever seen into a parking lot that go-karts look huge in….   This didn’t go quite so well, as one of the Mustangs go loose coming onto the1 ’straight’, lost it and slammed into a guard rail, tearing the door right off the car.  Driver was OK, the car has significant damage and is also out of the event.  After that, they shortened the course, eliminating that straight.  They also re-ran all the cars that had put down times, slowing the whole group down by an hour or so…

With autocross, you have 3 runs from a standing start through the sea of cones, with the best time of the 3 being the 1 that counts.  Knocking a cone out of its box (chalk on the pavement indicating its placement) or tipping one over is a penalty of 2 seconds per cone.  My first run was a clean 31.658 second run.  Not terrible and faster than all the luxury sedans that had already run.  Second run was faster, but I nailed a cone.  3rd run was feeling good, ran a 30.5 something, but managed to just nick the base of one of the cones in the slalom.  That cone didn’t move, but tipped over in the box.  2 second penalty.  Dang.  Final result was 20th overall and 2nd in class.  Had that cone stayed up on the last run, I would have been 7th (and still 2nd in class).  These darn cones…..

All in all, Day 5 was a wash.  We stayed in 13th overall and 2nd in class.  We are still 15pts back from Chow’s #47, but within striking distance with Brainerd, the drag races, Road America and the dry skid pad left.  There is still a lot of racing to do!

We are now well on our way for our long 600 mile drive up to High Plains Raceway, just east of Denver, CO.  Long drive, but almost all highway.  And unlike the Great Lakes area, these are nice and smooth!  Traffic is light too, we may just make it to the hotel at a very reasonable time!

As we were leaving the track, there was the first bit of real drama on the track.  One of the Porsche GT3s lost a coolant line, dumping coolant around about half of the track.  Unfortunately, this caught out the #46 Rochester DSM Mitsubishi Evo, who ended up sliding off track in the slick coolant and adding some new character lines to the left front fender.  Luckily it just looks like cosmetic damage, but it did hold up the entire group while they cleaned up the track.

Back to the results - after a great lunch, courtesy of Kicker Audio, and some time studying video and data, Dan lined up for round two at Hallet.  Armed with a plan, he roared off the start line, slid through the corners and put down 3 solid laps.  End result was a 2 second improvement, down to a 4:26.788.  This placed us 11th overall and 1st in class.  Renner also picked up a bit of time, dropping about 2 seconds down to a 4:29.035 for 13th overall.  Chow wheeled his car to 23rd with a 4:35.651, followed by the #48 CTS-V in 25th with a 4:37.048, Baron’s #8 M3 in 36th with a 4:40.632.  Next was the #69 CTS-V with a 4:43.907 in 39th.  Dawn Treffert in the #56 Panamara ran a 4:48.823 coming in 48th.  No time is being shown for the #55 Audi S4 (along with a handful of other cars that I saw at Hallet).

With the set of solid runs today, we have moved up to 17th overall, with a tight pack through 13th place.  Bonus is that we are consistently placing better than 5 of the car in front of us.  We have also whittled Chow’s lead down to 20 points.  It’ll be a battle to the finish!

Looks like its my turn to take the wheel for a chunk of transit driving.  We will be on hwy 70 for the next 350 miles or so…  At least the directions are easy!

Day 3 of the 2012 One Lap of America brings us back to a wonderful little track we have been to quite a few times in the last 7 years of One Lapping.  Hallet Motor Racing Circuit.  Which also happens to be the polar opposite of Mid America.  Counter clock-wise, lots of fun elevation changes, blind corners, and, wait for it…..  INTERNETZ!!!!!!!

We had a mostly nice drive down from Iowa to Tulsa OK where we stayed last night.  Surviving the hail storms and arriving at the hotel just after 8 pm.  A few other one lappers were at the hotel, and invited us to dinner at a Mexican place down the road.  We opted for the nice easy walk across the parking, foregoing extra seat time in the car for a few more hours.  Sometimes the most basic of bars have the best food.  One delicious burger and steak and a frosty beverage later, we headed back to the hotel for a relatively early night.

Today is a nice, cool overcast day.  Light breeze, mid-60’s.  small chance of rain but nothing has fallen yet.  Dan ran this event, and had a very nice morning session.  12th overall and 2nd in class.  This moves us up to 20th overall; still 2nd in class, but with a bit more of a cushion to the M5 in 3rd.  Summers ran the #47 M3 to an 8th overall, 3 seconds up on Dan.  3 seconds back is Renner in the M5.  The luxury sedan class looks like it will come down to one of the 3 of us, and as of now, its really anyone’s game.

Dan just headed out to line up for the afternoon session.  We poured over the Race Technology data acquisition info and found a few areas where he can pick up some time.  We might just be able to break into a top 10 finish this week yet!

With 600 miles or so to go tonight, we are looking forward to finishing up todays events, packing up and heading out.  Packing has already become 2nd nature.  I don’t even have to think about where stuff goes, and in what order it goes in.  Easy as pie!  Until later….

After a long day yesterday (seriously, is REALLY only day 2?  yesterday felt like 2 itself!), a very good meal and dodging the aftermath of a deer + semi highway date, we rolled into Council Bluffs Iowa about 1 am. Around 5 or so is when the storms came through.  Heavy wind, sideways rain and what sounded like hail that would punch holes in the roof.  This left us with a very wet track this morning.

We arrived at Mid America Motoplex to a light sprinkle, wind and what appeared to be a drying track.  After a track walk to find the puddles and grippy spots, I lined up the car per the finishing order from Autobahn yesterday.  Track was drying out, but not quite quick enough.  Still rather damp for the first few run groups, drying out for the later groups.  This sort mixed up the finishing results, especially within the Luxury Sedan class.   Nate Summers, piloting the #47 M3, a few run groups behind the leaders, ran a blistering 5:18 time placing him 3rd overall.  Next up was the Treffert Panamara and then the Dubler CTS-V.  My slippery track time of 5:35  put me 4th in class and 19th overall.  I eeked out Renner in the M5 by a mere second.   With the mix up of faster cars placing further down the order than normal, this performance was still good for a bump up in overall standings to 25th.

The sun continued to shine on us over the break, dry track for everyone in the second event of the day.  I am getting used to the power of the car again, and the increase in rear tire width has helped the driveability out of the corners immensely.   We can now power through the apex and out of the corner, with the M3 drifting nicely. Being able to change the attitude of the car with the gas pedal is intoxicatingly fun!

Getting more comfortable with the car, and getting more out of her, showed up on the time sheet as well.  I topped the Luxury Sedan class with a 5:20.5 , and placed the car in 11th overall.  Renner wheeled the gorgeous M5 around the track in 5:23.7 for 13th overall.  David Chow was at a 5:29.4 in his M3 for 20th.  Dubler ran another solid run, netting him 25th.  The Baron came in at 35th, followed by Dawn Treffert in 42nd, LeFever in the CTS-V in 44th and the S4 of Scheimer in 60th.

As we sit now, on our way to Tulsa OK for tomorrows events at Hallet, we are 2nd in class and up to 22nd overall.

Autobahn, event 3 of this years One Lap, which could also be called the ‘ranking’ event.  This is the first road course event for the year and where we finally get to see just what everyone brought out to play with!  Results from this event dictate the run order (or at least run groups) for the rest of the week.  It important to run a solid few laps here, so that we can be grouped properly with similar paced cars.  Makes it more fun and safer for everyone.

With his vast knowledge of Autobahn, Dan took the wheel for this event.  A bit of a retribution run from the cone at South Bend Speedway.   The car looked good, and reports from Dan indicate that the wider rear tires definitely help get the power down.  He ran his 3 laps in 5:02.078, placing us 12th overall and a solid 1st in class.  Renner was 2nd in class, 14th overall with a 5:05.0.  In 3rd this event is the Dublers with a 5:14 in their CTS-V, 26th overall.  Rene von Richthofen (AKA, the Baron), piloted his M3 to 29th overall with a 5:15.8.  Next was the 4sevens car of Chow with a 5:16.8 in 31st.  Treffert, LaFever and Scheimer in 34, 50 and 60th respectively.

Some pretty significant order changes in the group has tightened up the competition.  2-4 are separated by 5 pts now.  That’s just 1 event.  And we’ve all closed the gap to Chow.

We are now on the road to Mid America, stopping to grab a bite to eat and then carrying on for the final 275 or so miles.  Until tomorrow, good night and keep the dirty side down!!

The entire One Lap crew is chillin’ out at Autobahn, watching the members of this great track-based country club cruising around the track.  In about 1 hour, we will make the parade that will become the sub-conscious habit as the week progresses.  The event this afternoon will dictate the run order for the rest of the week, so a good solid performance is big here.

This morning, as every year, we started at the Tire Rack facility in South Bend, IN for the wet skid pad.  A sprinkler-soaked 200ft circle of pavement that each driver makes 2 laps in each direction.  Best lap time for each direction are averaged, and used to determine the lateral G forces the car and driver can achieve.  I ran this event, managing to pull a 0.814g.  This was good enough for 2nd in class and 19th overall.  Top honors in class go to David Chow’s Supercharged E90 M3, with an 8th overall at 0.833 g’s.  Treffert was 22nd in the #56 Porsche Panamara, LaFever in the #69 CTS-V was 52nd, Renner in the #12 M5 at 53rd, Dublers in the #48 CTS-V Wagon tied for 54th, The Baron in #8 E90 M3 in 59th and Scheimer in the #55 Audi S4 in 65th.

Event 2 was a bit of a different story.  If you are a racer, I’m sure you’ve heard the adage of “Use ALL the track”.  Well, sometimes you can use too much.  Like when they have cones on the very edge of the track, next to the wall.  Dan was behind the wheel, and was using as much of the track as he could.  Unfortunately he used a bit too much on one lap and tagged one of those cones.  The 10 second penalty dropped us to 8th in class, 70th overall.  How close was he to the wall you ask?  Well, check out the picture of the right side mirror.  That is a fresh mark courtesy of the South Bend Motor Speedway…

(I am currently unable to upload pics while on the road - check out the facebook page at www.facebook.com/schautspeed to get your fix!)

The #47 Four-Sevens BMW of Chow once again topped the Luxury sedan class with a solid 7th overall finish.   Treffert wrestled that monstrous Porsche to a 13th overall.  Followed up in class by the #12 M5 in 21st, #8 M3 in 24th, #69 in 33rd, #48 in 35th, #55 in 56th place.

As we sit waiting for the event to start here at Autobahn, we are 5th in class and 49th overall.  We have some ground to make up, but should be able to move up the field quickly.  Especially here at Autobahn where Dan will drive since he has spent a good amount of time here in his Spec Miata.  More updates will come, hopefully tonight, on our way out to Mid-America.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to the 2012 Edition of the Schaut Speed Motorsports OLOA blog!

As I finish the last bit of prep on the computer before getting some shuteye on the eve of the Great Vacation that is the Brock Yates’ One Lap of America, I reminisce on the 7 previous years that I have been lucky enough to go on this great week-long journey with family and friends.  By the end of this 8th year, I will have traveled over 30,000 miles along side my father (and a large chunk of that was also shared with my brother).  I will have meet dozens of great people, some of whom have become great friends that I’ll know for a lifetime.  I have had the opportunity to drive, very quickly, on some amazing tracks and have seen the beauty of much of what the US has to offer.  There really isn’t a better way I could have spent a week of my life in each of these last 7 years.

And here I am, 11:30 pm on a Friday night.  Hoping that my pokey old computer can hold together for one more week so that I can share our adventures with all of you.  Ready to sleep, and see the next day when the sun rises and the competition starts!

It looks to be another great year.  I count 74 entries; 7 of which we will be sharing a class with.  Yup, 8th year, 8 cars in the Luxury Sedan class.  And it is shaping up to be a good battle!  From the get-go, there is a whole bunch of potential.  Nearly everyone running has past experience in One Lap; we’ve all been here, we know whats going on.  There are a few stock vehicles - the Porsche Panamara Turbo of Bill Treffert, an Audi S4 piloted by last-year rookies Eric Scheimer, the Caddy CTS-V WAGON of the famous Dubler’s (every want to see a Caddy fly?  keep an eye out on these guys!), another CTS-V (sedan), back for retribution in the hands of Howard LaFever (who rolled his CTS-V a few years back in an odd brake issue at Road America) and last, but NOT least, Michael Renner from BMW Performance Driving School in one of BMW’s awesome new M5s!

And then there are the M3s.  2 extensively modified cars - our Active Autowerke supercharged ride and David Chow’s ESS supercharged / Aero-dynamically enhanced sedan.  And there is the Baron.  Rene, in his modified (but to what extent, we may never get more than a story on that!) M3.  Some seriously potent cars all trying to stay on top as the fastest BMW.  And the BMW’s are all trying to stay ahead of the rest of the class and keep the marque on top in the Luxury Sedan class.  It’s anyone’s game for the taking!

Like I said - it’s going to be another fun year!

Keep watching this space for stories and updates.  Want a quick look at results?  Check out our facebook page at www.facebook.com/schautspeed