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What's new...
Well, the New Year is upon us and the Tire Rack "One Lap presented by Motor Trend is but a few months away and it's time for some updates.
The Tire Rack Tire Policy should be posted in the next couple of weeks. For those new to the event, remember entrants cannot order event-legal tires until the policy is posted. Once the policy is announced, registered entrants will be able to order up to 10 tires at the One Lap discount. Please, when you do order, make sure to mention One Lap to get your discount and the properly date-stamped tires. When the tires do arrive, make sure TROLOA10 is stamped on each tire and when mounted, the stamp is on the outside. One change to the policy is that entrants will get the discount at the start of the event in South Bend, not immediately as in the past. This is to insure that the manufacturer discounts are only going to those that show up for the event.
Please hold off on getting those physicals for the event license for a couple of weeks as there may be some changes in the works. Please check back to the What's New periodically for an announcement.
The host hotel will again be the Quality Inn University in South Bend. I know it is not the nicest hotel in the area but I have checked around and it seems to be the only one with a bar and staff that will cater to our needs.
Remember we are planning a Friday night start on April 30th after day of registration and the driver's meeting. I suggest that teams should look into a Thursday arrival to be well rested for Friday's activities and start. We are looking into an informal get-together at the famous Seibkins Bar in Elkhart Lake Friday night before the first racing event at Road America. More on this as the event nears.
I will be posting a list of hotels along the way that offer track or One Lap discounts, but, as in past years, two nights may be difficult to find rooms. The first, and always an issue for us, is Saturday night near Mid America. Somehow, we always manage to be near Omaha when Warren Buffet speaks to the shareholders of Hathaway and there are few rooms left for us. The other concern for rooms is around Hallett where there just aren't many. Make those reservations soon to avoid late-night problems.
At this point, there is no One Lap driver's school planned. If there is enough interest, I will look into it. For those that need schools to participate, give me a call and I'll help you any way I can.
The tracks this year will offer a variety of challenges. As I mentioned above, the Event will begin Friday night at the Tire Rack with the Wet Skid Pad Challenge. We run the wet skid pad first as the wet traction degrades most over the week, Saturday at Road America, the morning session will be on the iconic long course with the very long and fast straights followed by an afternoon on the shorter course where horsepower is not quite as important. Sunday we are back at Mid America, an Alan Wilson course designed with lots of run-off but too with a couple of great late apex corners. Monday will be busy with the day at Hallett, a very technical and tricky track, followed by our drag racing events at Tulsa Raceway. Tuesday we will be in East St. Louis for the first time since Gateway opened and we will be running road course that uses part of the oval. Wednesday we are returning to Mid Ohio. One of the great tracks in the country, it is fast, it is challenging and it is beautiful. If I can put it together there may be an oval event Wednesday night during the transit to New Jersey. More on this later too, if there is any news. Thursday will be at the New Jersey Motorsport Park in Millville. This is a new Facility run by the same folks as VIR that has two tracks. We will be using the Lightning course best known for the two right hand blind corners and the "Lightbulb", a long late apex high speed loop leading onto the front straight.
Friday we will return to Nelson Ledges for our final roadcourse event. After a week of smooth surfaces, other than the interstates, this may be our hardest day for some. The rough pavement and fast corners may be especially difficult for some of the thinly disguised racecars giving some of the softer sprung cars an advantage.
Saturday we will finish after our long week at Tire Rack in South Bend on Saturday, May 8th with the Dry Skid Pad Challenge and the Awards Brunch. I think it will be a great week.
I'm happy to announce that the BMW Performance School is again providing a few of their terrific cars for the One Lap staff to ease gracefully around the country.
We are also pleased to announce that Race Day Vinyl will be providing vinyl and graphics services as an official One Lap sponsor. In the coming days we should have an announcement on how they can help you with your graphics needs.
I hope to announce some more sponsors as the event nears but we're waiting for confirmation, and there may be a couple of passage controls along the way too.
For those connected to the social networking world, I am on Twitter and Facebook. On Facebook there is an official One Lap Fan page and well as a couple entrant generated pages. I hope to start actually using my Twitter account to provide updates and stories through the week of One Lap as well as updating FB along the way.
As a last note, one of our great friends has passed over the holidays. Jon Davis was the rally-master of our event, organizer of the Press on Regardless Rally, rallyist and gentleman. Perhaps we could all sip a little brandy in his memory and remember the what he gave to so many.
Please call me if anyone has any questions: 610-983-3379 or email at byates2@onelapofamerica.com
I hope you can join us,
Brock
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