Sleepyhead's 2017 One Lap

Hey John, PM Sent

also, woohoo for page #2 and a cellphone typing test.

I'm not sure how easy it's going to be this week to take a bunch of pictures and type up updates... but I'll try to get a text update out each day.

Looks like phone will work well enough. Although there will probably be misspellings galore, since I've autocorrect turned off. (Trying to type my kids' name took me over the edge with that technology) It also means that there will probably be a number of times when "i" is swapped in for "o" due to proximity. Other egregious manglings of the American language and grammar are all my own fault.

It should probably be pointed out that there's a call for an "Emergency Co-Driver Replacement" here

It's not clear what the details are, and what kind of transit and/or co-driver they are looking for.

Based on the state of things last year, and the current state of one of the entries, I'd guess there is the possibility for another opening for a transit and/or co-driver.

Alright, so the quick update is that we made it to SouthBend.

The longer update stars at 2am Thursday morning when I finished loading up some music onto my phone and making sure that any micro-SD cards I might try and use with a GoPro are clean.

Then sleepyhead#1 woke up at 3am tossing and turning... which gets me up around 4... and I eventually realize the poir thing can't poop. Which is a scary and difficult thing for a 3y/o. Eventually SH#1 conc's out on mommy (who called in).

SH#1 sleeps long enough for me to get the dog over to my parents, and then for me to realize that the pain has eased enough that I can leave for OneLap confident "things are in order".

Just as I finish loading up the car, SWMBO calls me back to the house, and I'm greeted by SH#1 awake, smiling, and wishing me a good time taking my racecar to the racetrack.

All told, I'm an hour and half behind schedule, and running on 2.5hours of sleep and a cup of coffee when I show up to JAH29's place.

I hand over the TL's second set of keys and JAH29 takes the first 360 miles while I get 2 hours of sleep.

We executed a single food/gas stop, and I'm pleased to find the bike doesn't seem to be impacting mpg's much. We made it to South Bend around 8:30, and served as traffic scouts for some other DC OneLapoers that were about 100 miles behind us.

We had a quick dinner at the host hotel... and I spent some time with my OneLap family, while JAH29 called it an early-ish night.

Friday is washing the car, applying stickers, and getting through tech

In reply to sleepyhead:

Keep a spot open for us, we're on our way!

kids always seem to get sick when you're headed out of the door.

Alright, I'd have a picture of the TL all stickered up but my phone is being slow.

We got all the required stickers on and through tech by 12:30, and then got a few more optional ones on before the 3pm drivers meeting.

Sticker/Tech day is always a boisterous one as you meet up with people that you've done onelap before and have only seen on the internet for however long since you and they were at OneLap the last time.

It's one of the few times my introvertism is subsumed without being drained. My other true family is here, and I've got a short time to catch up with them. JAH29 is holding up to the rigors of it nobly.

Skid pad and autocross tomorrow. It'll be the first I've driven the car in anger in the wet or amongst cones. Should be interesting.

25th out of 75 is a very good showing in the Skidpad results!

Well done.

Autox results

Evo IX ftd.
Andy Hollis #2

Thanks John!

Today's been a pretty good day. We got pranked by the OLOA PR team with a "for sale" sign on the car this am. Price: "seat time for Alonso"

Then JAH29 figures out a name for the car: DirTLe 'cause it' black it's perpetually dirty, added to my OneLap reputation for being the slowest driver that completes all the events.

The skid pad I left the traction control on... through shear forgetfulness... and it paid off. Also, there's a secret to doing the pad right at OneLap, that I know.

The autocross was big and open with a few "gotchas". I specced an underinflated tire pressure... and was a little behind the car... first run was a 61.1, second was my personal ftd 57.5 and third run was a 57.7

Am glad i brought my bike... it's not allowed at regular autocross... but is ok at OnLap and it got my mind closer to remembering the course in the four runs I got to get around it before it went live.

10pm is current arrival to memphis. Early night for us.

John Welsh wrote: Autox results Evo IX ftd. Andy Hollis #2

Andy smedgard evo prepped by rs. It's fast, and the dude can drive.

It's running 315's... and has some... creative body mods so they only have a "cheeky amount" of tire sticking out #projectbinky

We're in to the hotel in TN... after crashing a prom at the walmart up the road from the track.

I'm not sure what to make of the hotel manager having the front door locked at 10:30 on a Sat. Hopefully the car's fine tomorrow morning.

We're not at the "official" hotel, but we're in the same neighborhood, and we had to buzz our desk clerk too. Local custom?

Could be... but were in an industrial part of ChiTown last year and walked straight in.

Maybe it's 'cause it's prom season, and they don't want to deal with dudes being upset about not getting a room?

Fun watching y'all out there yesterday. Sadly, when working we don't get a whole lot of time to intermingle with the drivers as much as we'd like.

Bobzilla wrote: Fun watching y'all out there yesterday. Sadly, when working we don't get a whole lot of time to intermingle with the drivers as much as we'd like.

I was going to try and give you a wave, but I couldn't figure out where you were working. I also had my hands full with Dirtle rolling every which way... and bedding in the new front brake pads at the autoX.

It's 12am and we just pulled in after circuiting around Atlanta at "staying with Atlanta traffic" speeds. It was fun.

We had a long-ish dinner stop, plus I made it into the fourth round of the bracket drags. I'd managed to get lined up against slowe cars and zeroed in in my reaction time after botching it on the first low ET run. Then it was a matter of staging second to "ice" the other driver, and then watch out the sidemirror for how they were coming. This worked well until I lost rack of RPM watching the viper take off, and I busted my redline.

The track sessions were good, and I'm learning to enjoy the modular nature of the g-loc pads in allowing me to better trailbrake into corners. The civic and I are running about the same times, in part because i'm hauling around an extra 500#s on a softer spring setup that is probably also more warn out. I really have to wait for the body to roll and take a set before being confident the back end isn't going to waggle on me.

I'm definitely muttering about back-ordered shocks once a day.

A tidbit we forgot about from yesterday.

We were rolling down the highway sometime after my nap, and came across a late '80s pickup going... bu about 5 under the limit with something hanging down. It turned out to be half a leafspring and the mounting shackle!

hey what's that noise? yu hear anthin' jethro?? naw........

Alright, I've had a shot nap.

This morning went pretty well after an inauspicious start. I was pedaling up the hill after the first turn... standing in the cranks... and diwn shifted the front gear to have the chain come off. The pedals have plastic toe clips...so I came to a stop quickly and fell over.

Got that fixed and proceeded to do three laps around the track and a fourth trip under the bridge and down to start finish.

I've never been here, and i was way off line those first three pedal trips through. The fourth I figured out what I was doing wrong... but not quite how to get it right.

So,I took it easy there and relied in my youtube watching/learning to get me around the rest of the track.

That was good enough for 52nd place.

The afternoin was a little more difficult in that we had a bigger group that included the LTD. I caught them to be lapped on my third lap, right in the middle of three... and then I got half way down the back straight and saw the gas "empty light" come on.

So, I backed off WOT and took it a bit easy to start/finish... and then hypermiled as much of the cool-down lap as I could. The light went back off as i entered the pits.

I don't know how much time I lost to those two things... but I din't really care. I learned a lesson about the car, and we're not going to repeat it.

And, after all, as was hammered home by a vette loosing it in turn 7, this is not a 10/10ths event.

We're having fun, and doing well enough.

Cool, thanks for the updates. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

In reply to sleepyhead:

I managed to catch your morning session on FB live from OLOA FB page.
Great stuff.
Atlanta is an amazing track. Blind drop off toward the end just about takes your breath away.

Some topucs I'm going to put down here for later discussion:

Ego (big stuff, small stuff)

Communication

Sleep (and how lack of it can amplify small irritations)

Brakes

Highway surfing

And 2009 vs 2017

Man, that might turn into book length.

Alright, I require a nap in the time before we get to GRM

I'm pretty sure we get to discuss my ego/talent ratio. It's way above 1.