Ride along with GRM at One Lap

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/topspeed-onelap-2011-live

High Plains Raceway stats by bike. Man, I think I'm down on horsepower too. Gotta burn off some calories though from all those stops at McDonald's.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209887458728469596010.0004bf872e1ec7e4fd018

Those stats are from pit out to pit in. I didn't have it in me to finish that straight.

z31maniac wrote: That was pretty good. We were the hillbillies sitting in the bed of a white Frontier down below that grandstand, drinking PBR at 10:30 in the morning!

You make that sound like a bad thing. It's what we do at rallies even if there is snow on the ground!

Here its that ducktail I mentioned:

The runs at High Plains should be interesting. It isn't a very friendly track for the beginner. Those that have run there before should have a huge advantage!

I got to ride a parade lap with one of the guys from SHOtime,the 2011 season winners in LeMons. They're driving a used Spec Miata in the One Lap, and have driven this track before. It was super entertaining.

There have been a few offs, mostly at the corkscrew. A Camaro lost his front splitter and a good portion of his bumper. Blind corner cresting a hill, it's a tough one. Seems like a super fun track once you know it though.

Huh, I didn't come away that impressed by HPR. Hallett was a lot more fun. I've never run a race at either, though, just HPDEs so maybe HPR gets better if you push harder. The flatter corners were actually more enjoyable to me, which is not my usual preference.

You're as close as you're going to get to us. Good luck with the rest of it!

You're right, Hallett looks like it's a much better track. Maybe I was just coming off the high of a fun ride.

Sure does have the puffy cloud scenery though.

On a bicycle, HPR could be pretty entertaining. I just felt the track didn't take full advantage of the potential offered by the topography - you only ever drive straight up hills, there are only a couple of corners with real camber to them. But one of them is probably much, much, much faster than I've ever gone over it. Which would add to the entertainment value considerably.

The blue Golf in that picture looks like a dead ringer for my old one, right down to the very hard to find clear side markers. Looks like a sunroof so it's not mine - but it hasn't been debadged with blue taillights by any chance, has it?

Sorry, we already left and I didn't take a look behind it.

But we did just pass through the "town" of Last Chance. It was as small as you might imagine.

Ah, the heartland. I don't really know what those structures are though. They don't look like the grain elevators I'm used to seeing in Illinois. Can somebody fill me in?

It's hard to tell from the small picture but those look like concrete grain storage bins. So yeah, an elevator.

Cool. Thanks!

It's time for the morning track ride on a folding bike. I wish I had thought to do this from the beginning.

Burning off those burgers. The elevation figures are BS though; Hastings is flat.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209887458728469596010.0004bf9a4b882c495872c

Here's the autocross map. Wondering if my time will be good enough to place.

I took it as straight as possible, but a bike is narrow. There's a short slalom in that first straight.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209887458728469596010.0004bf9abd98f2dc62d60

Loving the updates. It looks like a blast.

Doors aren't supposed to open this way.

In other news, Andy was disappointed in his autocross finish. No official results yet, but he's looking at no higher than 4th place, I think. And tonight we have a long drive to Brainerd, Minnesota.

sorry. keep us posted

I should also say that the Mustang driver was unscathed, except for a bruised ego and dented wallet.

Never having looked at the rulebook for this...

Does the event scoring favor one sort of competition over another? For example, is taking 2 seconds off the autocross course equivalent to taking 2 seconds off the lap time for a track or the quarter mile? Or is it somehow cooked to make all of the aspects equally weighted?

Keith, it's points based on position results per event.

They did the skid pad already right? How did Andy score?

Andy got second on the wet skidpad. Dry skidpad is the last event.

Thanks Doc, that makes sense.