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.
is sooooo soon...
Enjoy t he event
We ran the event in 1985.
Still have memories
Have fun, I'll be at HPR on the 6th to hang out. If you need something let me know and I can bring it to the track.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Give'em hell!
I wish I was there. I see you'll be at PittRace (2 hrs from me) but hard to get away on a Thurs. 
Becky in her own while Scott runs at Super Car speeds. Will Scott leave the track two hours before Becky or wait? I guess it's on Becky to lay down a super fast track time to get up there with the fast kids (and away from the "mom-mobiles".) Ha.
Good luck!
I'm following. Good luck!
I learned I cannot do two years in a row. Because year three (this year) is absolutely heart breaking to sit here and watch everyone get ready.
Wishing I could have slipped in there this year! Good luck Tim! Beat some Porche butt!
John Welsh said:In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Becky in her own while Scott runs at Super Car speeds. Will Scott leave the track two hours before Becky or wait? I guess it's on Becky to lay down a super fast track time to get up there with the fast kids (and away from the "mom-mobiles".) Ha.
I'm not real sure what Scott and Becky's plan is... but considering Becky's codriver is Scott's Mom... I think he'll wait for them.
btw... their interview with Solomon & Bryan went up today:
Pad upgrade with fresh rotors in progress. Fronts done other than swapping in a new sensor.
Rears might not get done 'till sticker day... unless there's rain. Otherwise I might push to get them done tomorrow.
Packing organization has started. Cut out some plywood jackstand foot spreaders. Still need to cut out one for the jack... in case HedgeHollow is anal about their paddock pavement. Still want to change the oil... but apparently I need to go buy a 32mm socket.
Getting close.
So, some background on the brake change.
I'd put EBC Yellows on the X1 back at the end of March, mainly because they could be ordered "pronto" and shipped out. With all the uncertainty explained a ove... I'd waited a little long in deciding how to do things this yearI. Fortunately I managed to booked sometime with an old friend and 50-year mechanic who would watch over me on my first brake pad and rotor change. Rob has also had a hand in prepping all my previous OneLap cars. His window to help was limited... now that he's retired, and I needed to get prepared for some HPDE time with GridLife at their CMP event.
I can't thank Rob enough for helping me out, and teaching me things. Getting to use his lift, and lean on his experience gave me a bunch of piece of mind venturing out into a task I'd only "helped" others with before. And, it's the only thing that gave me the confidence to attempt to do this a second time this week.
But, first, GridLife...
The car did well, and the relaxed pace of Sunday even gave me time to practice "hovermode" and swap the tires around to even out wear...
Over all it was a good shake down. The EBC' could get overheated, though. I could drive around that... but talking with Gus we decided to call up GLOC and see if we could rush some more serious pads in time. Fortunately they're all great people over there, and thanks in part to apexanimal's relationship with them, their OneLap recommendations have gotten "more aggressive"...so a set of R16/R12's showed up on Friday. I took my time, and balanced family needs. I also changed the oil.
Buttoned that all up to 90%, and am currently out on a lunch/test drive. So far, has been successful.
One step in front of thr other... and we'll hopefully be in SouthBend in ~30hours!? 
Not much of an update to make; but Jim and I made it to South Bend around 8:15pm. While checking in, ran into Brian & Hal... and both decided to stretch our legs and get dinner. Also ran into a number of other early arrivals.
Meanwhile, Gus is having trouble getting out of Houston; his street flooded and his fence blew down. But, as of now, it looks like he's got on a plane to Chicago. TBD if/when/how he makes it to South Bend.
Give 'em hell!!!
well, after a bunch of airline shenanigans... Gus showed up at South Bend airport at 3:30am. I grabbed a couple catnaps in the hotel lobby, and in the car in the arrivals area, and drove him and another competitor back to the hotel.
I definitely hit the snooze on my phone alarm a couple times this morning. but, we're up, I've got stickers and we're working our way through check-in and registration process.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
How much coffee have you ingested to be this chipper? 
I've cut back to 10oz a day
Good news... we're through Tech (mostly).
We're finishing up lunch.
We've got to hit TireRack and pick up our spare; and we're still waiting to hear the status on Gus' bags.
Stickered up
Credit goes to Gus for accidentally figuring out the design... and the attention to detail with the sticker application.
Today was a long day. Getting through registration, stickering, getting through tech... driver's meeting, picking up a spare wheel/tire. Plus, taking Gus to Walmart to re-fully outfit him with clothes and considering/executing other "back-up, no luggage" contingencies. Then we went out to dinner, and as we pulled up to a hole-in-the-wall-but-excellent BBQ place just south of the hotel, Gus got a call that his bags had just arrived at South Bend airport. So we ended up back there, then to Walmart to return a bunch of the clothes he'd bought to replace what we didn't expect to arrive.
Somewhere in all that I managed to grab a few pictures of the cars that were arounf at the time. so, enjoy...
Skidpad is complete, I think I managed in the 0.82s... but waiting on the official results to post. With the new OLOA website code update this year, I can't use the old trick to navigate to the results page before it's posted to the home page... so I'll have to wait.
No grid pictures today. We had a slow morning start, and timed leaving the hotel with a UPS store opening so Gus could ship some of his Walmart/NoLuggage purchases home. The X1 is full to the gills, although we found about 40L of free space be tweaking the packing tetris upon leaving TireRack.
Gassed up, and Jim is taking the first shift.
I should probably note that this:
Is a Cardinal Coupe by Fields Autoworks, and is being driven in part by apexanimal above (Scott Robertson of RobertsonRacing), who I've been working with for several years now. So, you'll be seeing some content about it and his fiance/mom's ND miata here in the thread this week.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Keep feeding us the Fields. I'm interested in hearing more about the spartan-ness of the interior accomodations.
Well, I guess I can't complain about that. Also, awesome job by Becky in the ND, and Matt/Brian in the M2 (who ran SundaeCup last year in the old Celica).
FYI ... If you want to see the events results, go to the "History" menu on the main site and navigate to "Previous OneLaps" and then click on the 2024 link.
This, some more detail:
Just about 2 hours in, and we've got 425miles (indicated) range on the tank, thanks to ~35mpg highway ability. MPH censored because the gauge is optimistic thanks to: BMW things, and the tires being slightly smaller than OEM.
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