2009 Tire One Lap Of America

Edward Loh: Welcome to One Lap of America, we are here in South Bend, Indiana, at the Headquarters of Tire Rack for day 1 and what promises to be an exciting week. Over the next seven days we will be driving over 3300 miles across 8 states, visiting some of the America's greatest race tracks. Along for the ride, are 63 teams with cars including super exotics, to Frankenstein Hot rods to economy cars. So join us as we do what promises to be an exciting, exhausting, but thrilling week. Day1 We are here at One Lap's Tech and Safety Inspection, and what they are doing right now is their engineers are taking a look at each car that comes in, to make sure it is safe, checking for things like the fire extinguisher, fire suits, first aid kits, and also to make sure that they are running on the right tires. Now the deal here is that at one lap also means one set of tires. So these guys come in, they check the tire, they spray paint it, they mark it with a sticker to make sure that these guys don't cheat at every stop along the way. Okay, we are here at Tire Racks headquarters in South Bend, Indiana. We are on their wet skid path for day 1's first event. This is a wet skid path, a 200 foot circle, cars are running around in each direction clockwise, and counter clockwise, and we have done about a half a dozen cars right now, and already, a new record. The Team Cannonball GT-R just did a 0.953 in the wet which is amazing. The record was 0.93 done in 2004 by a 79 Porsche 911. So far so good, I haven't seen any cars go off or destroy any tires. Next up, we are going to Autobahn Speedway in Illinois, so see you there. We are now at Autobahn Country Club which is a 2.1 mile race track which has got about 15 turns and an 1800 foot straightway where the faster cars can reach about a 130 miles per hour. We have hurled about a little bit of mud on infamous turns eight and ten, could make for an interesting day, let us check it out. Alright so what is your strategy here for today winning at Autobahn? Male Speaker: Strategy today for winning at Autobahn, stay on the track, have a great time, keep the momentum going because that is all you need is you have to finish to win, that is no mistakes, no wobbles, just have a great time driving. Edward Loh: Now what about this mud we have here on the track, what do you know? Male Speaker: Well the mud, look out for the mud. You watch that car just spun right there and thrown right out, I walked around, it was some real wet swampy sections so just stay on the car. Edward Loh: So, here we are, behind me is the infamous turns 9 and 10 here at Autobahn Country Club. There is a lot of dried mud here on the track, and a lot of cars apparently beginning a little loose, a little sideways, but no is gone off. It is early days though. We have had some cars go off at turn 1, but no accidents out here. This does end our day. From here we travel 300 miles down to Kentucky for Autocross at Turfway Park. Day 2 Good morning, we are here at day 2 of One Lap of America, out in Florence, Kentucky, at Turfway Park which is horse racing track. Now we are here because this is a sort of make up event. The original blue grass park way didn't go so well. There were last minute problems so we are out here for an Autocross. Now as you can see, it is raining a little bit. There is moisture on the ground, should make things very, very interesting. There is a bit of an elevation change on the track and combined with this wetness, we should see some interesting things happen out there as cars go slipping and sliding. So we are here with local Tony Wiesenhahn, he just pulled off an amazing run in his WRX. Why don't you tell us about it? Tony Wiesenhahn: I have finally pulled the dots together and put off a good run, I was struggling a little bit earlier with the wet conditions but my Turning Concepts WRX pulled through for me. Edward Loh: Cool, now it looks like you are in second place behind the GTR, ahead of the GT-2, how do you feel looking at what is coming up next? Tony Wiesenhahn: I think we are in a good position to finish top 5. I am a little fearful with the high horsepower cars, what is going to happen. You know we get to Daytona and see it running because they are going to - they have quite a bit a lot more power than I have, but we will see what happens. Day 3 Edward Loh: Welcome back to the 2009 One Lap of America. Today we are at beautiful Munford, Alabama, home of the Talladega Grand Prix Raceway. Now you notice this is a NASCAR's Talladega. This is not a big oval. This actually an AMA certified road race course built primarily for motorcycles. Now it has been raining off and on all morning, occasionally hard like this. Yet our One Lap is at managing, turning some very quick times with some occasional offs. I am here with Ian Stewart and it looks like you got the fastest time or one of the fastest times of the early morning session. Tell us how you did it in such a high horsepower rear wheel drive car? Ian Stewart: Well the track actually had a lot more grip than I thought it was going to have. It is really surprising how much grip it had in the damp, and the car really did a good job with the tire damp, and I was able to get out of corners real well with it. Edward Loh: Okay great, so what is the strategy from here on now? Ian Stewart: Just keep driving and you know, I got -- basically the plan is trying to keep at top 3 at every event, and just kind of let the cars fall where they remain, if we end up on top at the end of the week, that's great, if not, [Indiscernible] Edward Loh: Same here with Tim Harbor of Rochester DSM and he had a little off track experience today. Tell us about it? Tim Harbor: I was actually chasing this Audi, and haven't timed it right. The car was just ripping, and when you are spaced apart, and you see you are catching somebody, your adrenaline just goes crazy, and it is game on, so I pushed a little bit too far, the car skids a little bit, I let go off the brakes, turned it, she started to turn, and then she started to slide off, and I hit the water, there is a little waterfall, and I hit it early, and I got a DNF. And for that, I get to wear the Nancy pants for going off and getting a DNF. Edward Loh: So that is it for day 3 of One Lap of America. It has been a wet and wild day out here at Talladega Grand Prix Raceway. The only day so far that has had races at one venue. There is a reason for that. That is because right now we have to hop in the car and drive 600 miles down to Sebring, Florida. So we would like to get going, see if we can get in with enough time to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow's three races. Day 4 Okay, it is day 4 of the 2009 Tire rack One Lap of America, and it is a day of many firsts for us. Number one, it is the first day that we are running under full drive conditions. The skies are clear here, weather is great, nice, warm, balmy, but more importantly the track is very, very dry, and very, very quick. Number two, this is the first time the One Lap competitors run at a real big track, this is Sebring, home of the world famous 12 hours of Sebring Endurance Race, it is 3.7 mile track, with 17 turns, a couple of them very, very nasty. So I am here with Derek Whitis and the Freedom Auto sports GT-R. We heard you guys had some sputtering issues out there, what was that? Derek Whitis: You know any time you get a relatively new car, and this is a relatively new car and you start making it better, you are going to run some hiccups, and we are having some issues controlling the boost. It is still great car, and it ran a great first lap. It was unfortunate it is a 3 lap event. Edward Loh: I am here with Carl Warren of the KML Racing Ultimate GT-R. Now we heard you had a little bit of an off track on [Indiscernible], tell us about it? Carl Warren: Yes I did, I went off the - they call it Tower turn, and I came around, and I chipped the fifth group but carried way too much speed into the turn, and I really didn't have much of a choice. I got really hard on the brakes, got a little bit if feet in the brake pedal, pushed a little bit harder, realized I just wasn't going to be able to keep it on the track or I was going to spin, so I chose to go off the track instead, figuring I would lose a little less time, you know going to the dirt, coming back on. Edward Loh: We are here with the Team Sleeper racing STI. We heard you guys had a tough day out there. Tell us what went wrong? Male Speaker2: Well basically the car overheated. We have been, kind of, suspicious of a cooling system problem since the beginning when we came off the track at Autobahn up in Chicago. The car was running a little hotter than it should have been. So we had a concern about the head gaskets, and I think when we got here, along straight ways, you know that much boost, it just pushed it over the fence. So after a lap of running hard, the car started getting hot and we tried to milk through the rest of it and we ended up basically losing the motor and it just not worth fixing it for the rest of the event. We really enjoyed it. We were 6-7th overalls, 6 overall, and had hopes for a top 5 overall finish, so we are sorry to be out of it now, but we will be back next year. Edward Loh: Okay, so it has been a day of attrition here at Sebring. We have had cars go off track, engines go out, even a small electrical fire, and it doesn't get any easier from hereon now. Tonight we have drag racing at Gainsville and tomorrow another big track Daytona.