One Lap of America Round 7- Mid Ohio

We stayed at friends’ Andy and Sandy Welter’s house on Tuesday night and were just amazed by their hospitality. They had DTR One Lap of America signs on their mailbox so it was easy to find them and they even had a garage space available for us! After getting a good night’s sleep and some morning refreshments, we headed out to Mid-Ohio. Andy is an amateur photographer who has provided many pictures to Roundel in the past. Since I’m writing the One Lap article for Roundel, I had asked Andy if he would like to provide some pictures. He had enthusiastically agreed and he Sandy met up with us at the track. They both kept busy all day, getting as many angles as they could, which was difficult when we were only out there for 3 laps at a time!



I had been thinking about what to do with our traffic cone and came to a decision. After our drivers’ meeting, I requested the megaphone from Brock. I asked all the One Lap participants to sign the cone and we would give it to Glen Dodd. They must have approved, because they responded with a round of applause and people immediately came over to our garage to start signing. I don’t know Glen personally, but he has competed in 21 One Lap competitions, in many eccentric cars. Earlier this year, he fell off the roof of his hot rod shop and, in his words, "should have died." He didn’t compete this year, but his long-time co-driver had picked him up in South Carolina and brought him to the driver’s meeting at the Tire Rack on Friday for the start of the 2010 One Lap. I thought that the cone would be an appropriate gesture to someone who had obviously been a staple in the One Lap community, tactically acquired and given with respect by a couple of One Lap Pups.



In the morning session, we ran the Club Course, which utilizes the chicane between Turn 1 and the Keyhole. We had done all our testing at Mid-Ohio in this configuration but, since then, we felt that we had significantly improved the chassis setup and brakes, so I was eager to see what we could do. Our previous best lap time was 1:41.7.



With familiarity on my side, I was able to hit the track hard right from the start. The car was working well, aside from our continually slipping differential. I felt much better about the chassis balance and finally had a confidence-inspiring brake pedal. Getting the car turned-in, especially for Thunder Valley, was much improved. I was rather proud that I was able to identify the needs of the car and work with Kevin to make the required changes. The car has come a long way since our first track test! I pulled off a 1:40.1 lap and my cumulative 3 laps was good enough for our best finish thus far, 3rd overall!!



We were hugely pleased with the morning performance and, as much as we would’ve liked to repeat it, I knew that Danny Popp would be driving the Z06 in the afternoon. Car owner, Todd Rumpke, had run in the morning, but Danny is consistently quicker. One thing to note was the individual lap time of the morning’s overall winner, Leh Keen. Leh is a professional racer, running in a modified ’03 Porsche GT2. He ran a 1:35 on the Club Course. It simply amazes me that a car can do that on street tires!

I had felt a brake vibration when I was on course and when we took a look at the rotors we found that I had cracked both the front rotors. We had spare old rotors, so we swapped them on, but made an emergency call to our sponsor, Ireland Engineering. Jeff Ireland came through for us, sending out a set of rotor rings via overnight delivery to NJMP so that we could swap them on later.



Running on the Pro Course, the chicane was eliminated and created a heavy braking zone into the Keyhole and drops a couple seconds off the lap times. I drove basically the same as in the morning, but a touch harder. As the ambient temps went up, our pressure gains did slightly, as well. The front tires got greasy as the pressures got a little too high. It didn’t change the outcome, but was good data for us. Overall, though, I was still pleased. With that performance, we came in 4th overall and moved up to 6th in the overall points standings!



We got packed up and headed out on the long leg to NJ. It was a rather annoying drive, as the roads were bad and traffic worse, especially the closer we got. When we finally arrived, though, we were glad to have a suite directly on the grounds at NJ Motorsports Park. Our good friend and sponsor, Scott Barton of MyTrackSchedule.com, had graciously donated our night’s stay! We parked in the garage below and headed to bed.