Well, we're about a week out from the start. Seems like a reasonable time to start this thread?
When I plunked down for a reserved spot back in August, I didn't have a car to take to OneLap... nor any idea who I'd convince to come along with me. But, a couple weeks before registration opened, a long-time Onelapper who I'd gotten to know from my first OneLap in 2009 passed away in their 40s.
I'd been loosely targeting 2024 and contemplating going to a one on / one off attendance at OneLap (compared to the back-to-backs I somehow managed to pull off from 2015-2019). But, John's death cinched it, I really needed to be at OneLap next year. So, it's been a bit of a long drawn out process trying to nail down a car... getting access to the car (the sleepywife took a severe liking to it over the winter)... and finding a couple of people to come along.
As it happened, an older neighbor down the street died in September, on their own terms... but I didn't get to realize that until the funeral. She was a great neighbor, and a semi-surrogate Grandma to the sleepykids while we've been here. Her nextdoor neighbor for 30+ years is "in to cars", has a VW Golf R and done 1 FATT at Summit Point with it. Sarah passing meant that Jim seemed to cotton on to the idea to "come along to OneLap", YOLO-style.
So, I needed a car to take... but I also needed to fit it into the "fleet". After a couple months of scouring around, reading up, and almost settling on a CX-5.... we discovered that something else had depreciated quite a bit on the used market. Thus we traded in our MDX and bought a 2016 BMW X1. As I said, Sleepywife really likes it... it's her first "DD" BMW since 2012, unless you want to count the Countryman that got crushed by a tree right before OneLap in 2018 (you can check my 2018 thread for pictures of that).
BMW X1:
Why a CUV!?
Well, we needed something "wagonlike" for the family. It needed to be auto. Sleepywife is a big BMW fan. And getting a CUV meant we'd get advantageous classing into Truck/SUV at OneLap. At the time, the only SUV entries were on the waitlist. At this point, there's 4 entries: Hellcat Durango, a Macan, a 2019 Cayenne, and Buffalo in the Beamer.
And then, in November we adopted a dog, and getting her settled into our house and life has sucked up a bunch of my time (like 2-3hours a day).
I also ran into some trouble trying to scrounge up a 3rd person to come along and help with the on-track driving duties (Jim doesn't have enough track experience and is along 'just to help / transit drive'). About a month ago, I finally managed to nail down someone out of Texas via a FBchat that got started when the GridLife SundaeCup Invades OneLap effort happened over the last two years. His name is Gus.
it's all a long winded way of saying... I haven't been 100% sure this would actually come together until recently (nobody tell Jim that, though). There's still parts on the way, organizing I need to do; and money that has to be sent somewhere somehow... but I'm getting confident enough I'll be in South Bend come next thursday night to start this. And, also, Brock just posted the Seeding Grid...
I don't know what Brock knows... or if he's setting us up this high as a "bogey" for Becky & Karen in the ND or PIHO in the Cayenne (that thing's got 2x the power we do!?). But, it's going to be an interesting one, I think?
Maybe some of y'all will come along for the adventure? You can check in here while you wait for updates from Tom/Andy on how they're doing with the CRX.
