One Lap of America Round 3 - Mid America

Having stayed 2 hours away, in West Des Moines, IA, we had an early start to get to Mid-America Motorplex in the morning. Since we came in 7th in the first event at Road America, we were now running in the 2nd run group, meaning that we had to be there right at the start. With a million other things to do over the last month, I hadn’t gotten around to studying Mid-America. On the drive to the track, I pulled up some video online (thanks to MyTrackSchedule.com for providing in-car wireless internet!) and studied that, along with the track map. It gave me an idea of the shape of the turns and which way the track went.

The weather was clear and sunny, but the track had been rained on, without any rubber laid down following, so it was not the grippiest surface ever. I took my reconnaissance lap and felt it out, though. The track was open and flat, with many quick transitions, a few throw-away turns, all connected by some short bursts of straight-away. In comparison to Road America, this was more akin to a ridiculously fast autocross. Since we had replaced the new brake pads last night, I finally had a confidence-inspiring brake pedal and the car was hauling down nicely.



I was leading group 2, but the driver of the Chariots of Palm Beach Porsche 997 Turbo behind me had been to the track before in a previous One Lap, so I let him lead the group. I started about 20 seconds behind him and ran the course hard in the corners, but I was a little conservative on the first few applications of the new brakes, while working on backing off my braking points later and later. By the end of my 3 laps, I had closed the gap on the 997 to within a few car-lengths. The course was quite fun and my time was good enough for 6th overall!



During the break between sessions, the activity around the DTR / Street Survival E30 had heightened significantly. This was essentially the first time we had pulled the hood off other than to check the oil, so there was a lot of curiosity surrounding just what was powering this boxy coupe. Motor Trend interviewed Kevin and I for both print and video articles and a lot of attendees were taking a peek at Kevin’s handiwork.


In the afternoon, I set out for my second session, this time starting ahead of the 997 Turbo. We had been working on our chassis setup, as we had made a significant spring rate adjustment since our last track test and were trying to tune the balance. The car had been a little squirrley in the morning, so we stiffened the front sway bar a notch to transfer some grip to the rear. It did well in the afternoon, netting us another 6th place finish and bringing us another step closer to the GTI that was leading our class. The only notable thing about the run was almost running off the track AFTER the finish line because I had carried as much speed through it as possible, since I didn’t have to setup for the following turn. A little excitement never hurts, right? So, with the car performing well, we set out for Hallett.