1 lap of America 05, Porsche wins

[Series900]

Ahhhhhh, lets just say this was more motor heading, racing fun adrenaline raising vacation? I have ever had. yeah sure 24 hours of lemans may be tough on drivers and cars, try 192 hours on street tires, it was boss!
Congrats to Mark DaVia and Drew Wikstrom with an overall win
(2nd year in a row!)and class SSGT1 BB: Car #1 - Porsche 996 TT
and pelicanhead Dave in Vintage Foreign: Car #20 Porsche 930
David Goodman, Sam Goodman, daves fifth run at one lap finally rewarded!
I contemplated the event for the last six months and in my last minute fashion entered an SR3 Radical, with a total of 80 minutes track time in this rollerskate, 1 day last Nov. to break in the engine at Lime Rock NASA DE, and monday april 18th after a day at nhis helping fellow porsche racers Andy and Laurie, I charged the battery and flew back to instruct at BMWCCA white mountain chapter with the radical. Driving back on rt 89 into the sunset, I was sullen in the fact that I had not commited to OLofA. By tuesday am, I threw the hardtop on that I had built and ductaped the windshield in, tested it for 5 miles, and commited, or should I be commited to the asylum? With 8 days to be loaded on the trailer, the car was not even registered for, uhmm, street use! lets skip the details of that adventure. Off to tire rack for required mounting of street tires sold by tire rack, oh, you mean no correct sizes for this sports racer? Crap, try getting heat into a street tire built for a 3000 lb car on a 1100 lb car in one lap, stop, time trial 2 laps, and hit the road for the next 7 days and 3400+ miles with an average of 3-4 hrs of sleep a day. My rookie attempt, you are known as a lap puppie, had a steep learning curve. Sure I knew 3 of the 10 tracks and multiple layouts, yet I still had to learn the real ins and outs of the one lap rules, Oh there are no rules, well a couple anyway. And untill you figure the protocol, the veterans, lap dogs have the answers , if you ask the right questions! So there I am in a car with minimal, did I say 80 minutes of seat time? and great potential of a car, lined up to run 4 laps total on cold street tires at a track I have never seen, oh yeah< I am reading the track map as I strap in at grid, never mind walk the track! Hoping not to get run over by the dogs, the first qualifying run at IRP had me passing three cars in the time trial and qualifying 35th out of 90. ok, sigh, second session, 8th overall. hmmm, easy? Lets just say the unforseen danger lurks at every corner. Home track advantage? sure, NHIS should rip for me, except when the Mitsu Evo in front of you boost sticks, resulting in a coolant leak in the brake zone, and no alert flagger, has me sliding, not braking into turn 3, banged the wall, missed the escape notch thru the tires by 6". Crap. Figuring I am done, I limp off track into the pits. 1lap rookie mistake, do not grid in back of any highly modified anything, the bomb can blow, and you have to stop in their shrapnel! mistake #2 drive 8/10ths, well of your ability, the car still had plenty more!#3 always pass the start finish after an incident, do not pit or NO POINTS(dnf). Thinking I was done, and only an hour from home, I was disgusted, unstrap, peel the front bodywork off, no rim damage, no a-arm damage, just a bend in the upright giving about an inch of toe out! Within an hour we riveted the left nose and splitter together, bent the upright and reset toe and in LIVE FREE or DIE fashion, were heading to summit point, and live for another day. Ran into either fuel starvation or ECU cutout at the top of first gear for the next three events, this dropped me in points, and position( 10 spots a day, crap) Yet I was determined, and having a hell of alot of fun, to finish. We did. 192 hrs/3400+ miles, 200 fellow nutcase driver/codrivers,90 cars, and we did it in the rookie Radical. Lap doggs came up after and said they gave us 2 days and we would be out. Damn I am IN! Can not wait for next year, now I know the endurance test that this is, thats my kind oif vacation, see america, in the dark, and strap in and drive a new track or two a day. Or you could paint your house, sit on a beach, or some other lame Loveboat cruiseship disney poop.

Congrats to the dogs, their porsches, and the puppies that made it across the finish line on Saturday at Tire Rack!

[masraum]

Sweet, where are the pics, we want pics of the radical too.

[Series900]

Overall winner ONE LAP of AMERICA
Mark DaVia and Drew Wikstrom with an overall win
(2nd year in a row!)and class SSGT1 BB: Car #1 - Porsche 996 TT



pelicanhead Dave in Vintage Foreign class win and 13th overall: Car #20 Porsche 930
David Goodman, Sam Goodman





and yours truly running the SR3 in rookie (lap puppie!)mode, finishing 7th in class SSGT1 Small Bore, 41st overall

[TWork]

Holy Stream of Consciousness Batman! ;-)

[ChrisBennet]

Excellent work guys!
-Chris

[Series900]

just to give you an idea of the fleet of outlaws that managed to return to the finish at Tire Rack. this is a must do in your lifetime In Brock's words" Run with the big dogs , or stay on the porch."And this year once again, it was Porsche, not porch.

[cowtown]

That's great Damon! Really fun to read about your adventure.

[Jim Garfield]

That's pretty cool that you did it in the Radical. Any police issues along the way? ( "Son, y'all got a registration for this thing?") Your ears must still be ringing after 3400 miles in 8 days in a Radical!

[stefang]

Everyone that runs that thing is a little loony (yes, I'm jealous), but in a radical?? Yowsa. Did you win some kind of prize just for that? And having that thing "registered" for the street. Hmm, I guess we should't dig too deep? Anyhow, congrats on finishing.

Stef

[MichiganMat]

some photos from CarAndDriver.com

[JeremyD]

Wow - that is radical...

[ValveFloat]

Series900, you are my hero!
So please share, what did it take to get the Radical registered?
I talked to a Radical representative at the PRI show last year about the posibility of building it as a "kit car" and getting it registered, and he just shrug his shoulders and said he doubted that would work.

[Glasgow 911SC]

I want a Radical!!!!!!!

[Series900]

Never stopped by the law, we were heading from Roebling Road Ga. to Nelson ledges on the Blue Ridge Parkway, bout 2am And Brock jr passed me in one of the Magnum wagons, flashed his lights and we were off like bandits, speed not to be disclosed, several miles later , a diving right turn, and a cruiser bolts out in front of me and I laid the anchor out, Nabbed the wagon, and I cruised thru. Brock, in typical fashion explained we were on a "charity" run, chatted up the radar functions, and left with a warning! Don Kahn set a record in the Ultima GTR, pulled over within 100 ft of leaving the Tire Rack at the start of the event. The Radical Rain shot above was the first event, wet skid pad at Tire Rack. Second Pic, think main straight, nascar south oval, back straight, lean to the left for a hard right onto the back course at NHIS. Home track, and I knew the speed,braking and street tires. What I did not know was the built EVO running in front of me was smoking for the 2 hot laps, flagger ignored it, fans saw it, and I came in on ice, he was leaking coolant. I did everything to save it, knowing there was a notch in the wall, shielded with tires, I missed it by 6". Thinking I was all done, THUD! I proceeded to the pits, rather than limping past the start finish, I scored a DNF, no points. Rookie one lap move. Whatever it takes, finish each time trial. It was fortunate the left upright was track repairable, reset the toe, and the body guy that I am packed poprivets, aluminum sheet, washers and racing tape. After we were repaired I realized the splitter was in fragile shape, used a pepsi can flattened for the repair!The other problems I ran into, fuel starvation at Beavrun, and ecu red line cutout at the drags, this nailed me at VIR also. Then I started short shifting first, and making sure the tank was topped. Other late night blunders, forgetting to put the gas cap on, 300 miles later at some hotel, who knows where, finding it under the wing , where I had my sailing dry bag stuffed under the wing, bunggeed, with helmet, racing suit , shoes, and dry socks and underwear. The next night I pulled the same move, the gas stop was closed, boogied back on the thruway 10 miles, stopped for a fill, no F'n gas cap, back track and found it 50' out of the last stop, damn, the car gods were watchin. I have been negotiating terms with Radical, and will be a northeast distributor/service. We can discuss the ins and outs of leagal beagals later, PM me on that issue! One Lap of America is one of the 100 adventures you need to do in your life, you do not need to win, just finishing, with like minded people, in one week , you will never forget.