Sleepyhead's 2017 One Lap

{snort}

Ok, I'm awake... what'd I miss.

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

wa-uh-oh... my goodness.

How about the humbleness to notoriety ration?

Curious to hear about 2009 vs 2017. I've heard rumblings from various folks that one lap has gotten significantly softer in recent years. It still seems tough to us noobs!

That was more for me to go back and compare my times in the TL this year to the times I had in the Fit in 2009 at sebring.

I'll have to see if I can dig up a schedule spreadsheet from 2009. I might only have one from 2011.

As it was, we already put JAH29 into some "sleep awareness" difficulty last night. Mainly being that onelap driving is a little different than other highway work he's done... and he pushed himself a little later behind the wheel than he should have. Nothing bad... but being aware of your tiredness... and being proactive in changing drivers. It's a little tougher on JAH... since transiting is what he's "here for"... vs sharing track time. All in all it was a good wake up call to tweaking our stints in advance of thursday night.

Re:getting softer... l

... !bang! ...

Literally right at that poinr above we hit what we think was a truck tread in the middle lane while we were doing 75 around mile 24 in GA. It came up in the dark while I was typing and JAH was checking the anti-glare effect in the rear view mirror.

It was a heavy hit... that I'm starting to feel in my teeth now that the my ear isn't feeling like I've dived to the bottom of a pool.

We pulled to the roadside and did a quick check then went to the next exit and used the light of a gas station and a harbor freight flashlight checked the underside. There's a pretty good bend in our front valence, and what we think is a tire smear across the left rear ground effects plastic.

The wheels and tires look fine, and we can't see any other obvious damage. So, we're pushing on for Camden, SC... while thinking through checks we should do before we hit the track tomorrow.

As for whether OneLap has gotten soft...

We're supposed to get in at 2:00 and need to get up at 6:00 to get new brakes on the car. Things may be soft on the pointy end of the field but back in all remaining cars land, not so much.

12:30 and we just hit the hotel. 5:30 wake up to get to the track by 7am

sleepyhead wrote: 12:30 and we just hit the hotel. 5:30 wake up to get to the track by 7am

Get some sleep. Hopefully the car is okay, too.

Leaving now for CMP. Posted my cell number in mazduece's thread if you guys need anything.

Steve

nice meeting you secretariata, and dustr!

Today i woke up groggy and with a dull pain at the bottom of the bridge of my nose... left over effects of the that tire hit last night. Now I'm buzzing, not so tired, and still have a niggling sense that someone punched me in the face. Stupid tire.

This morning we pulled the two hondas nose to nose ina shared open-air "garage" stall, and checked the underside of the car (especially the front) for signs of damage. All wr can find is that the drivers side ground effects plastic is marred up some.

We also bled the brakes so I could get some experience with that... and see if that was what I was feeling at sebring. Fluid looked fine, and only three small bubbles came out of the pax side caliper.

Confident in the car, I went out in the morning and over-drove it a bit... getting some brake fade on the last half of the third lap.

These pads have a lit of power... and if I had ducts I could use that power the whole 3 laps. On the list for development.

Lunch time i crashed a bit, without getting actual sleep. And word slowly filtered in that the track was getting greasy as the sun heated up the surface.

I already knew I needed to dial back my braking... any lungering thoughts about it were now dispelled. Then I looked at the dash temp readout waiting in the grid and saw 89.

So I moved all my braking back a 150-ish feet and worked on mid-corner speed and using second gear to oull out of two of the slower corners. I managed to only lose two seconds over the morning... a better loss than I've been able to acheive at sebring.

So some minor victories today... thoughts about moving forward and how to finish this event.

Just a couple of GRMers rolling down the highway.

It was great meeting you guys and hanging out! Good luck in the rest of your One Lap adventure!

secretariata wrote: It was great meeting you guys and hanging out! Good luck in the rest of your One Lap adventure!

Couldn't say it any better

down texas way those loose pieces of truck tread are called 'ROAD GATORS' y'all be careful and keep an eye open...one or the other ....that E36M3 will and can ruin yur day

It was wet today... and it's interesting to me now, sitting in the car in the transit towards michigan, seeing the pixtuees from yesterdayload bright and sunny... while i wiggle my soggy wet toes.

I'm on my second pair of socks today,and I spent about an hour barefoot to try and give my shoes a slight chance of drying off... since my feet were already soaked.

Unfortunately my feet were freaking out mazdeuce... something about them looking like a gangky shriveled head in a jar.

This mirning looked like it was going to be a misty wonderland of wet but not puddling. As seems to be my OneLap fortune, two groups before mine was to go on, that mist turned into a proper rain... that staid steady until it had saturated the track just for my group of cars. So I got to drive through several heavy puddles on the front straight just as I was trying to decide how brave I wanted to be on the braking into turn 1. There were also a large puddle on the exit to turn three, and some more around the curbing of the first couple of back esses. At some point I caught the civic headed down the front straight, and we got it figured out going through the slow speed turn two... right in front of one of the event photographers.

The afternoon was back to misting... and I managed to pick up some time. And jumped up to a 40-something finish mainly due to the number of "dns" attrition of cars.

Also, it was nice seeing family, that made it down to the track.

Safe travels on the transit! See you tomorrow! We watched your session from the warmth of the 2nd floor. You guys definitely got screwed weather wise today.

{meh}

That is just the way of things... especially for the lowly champion of All Remaining Cars. I mean, if I had a grand for each time that's happened to me... I wouldn't have to pay an entry fee for a long time.

We've just completed our second stop. 300 miles left to go.

Just called the event hotel... based on the schedule, I decided not to book one... since there was a very real possibility of not needing one. No oval, a number of mechanicals for the other competitors, and ok-traffic means we're 3 hours ahead of predicted eta. So, I called up the event hotel... those mechanicals means we've also scored a reservation for tonight. !yay!

Funny thing seen tonight: On I-76, while OneLappers were blowing by at... rapid pace... we saw a forlorn Mitsubishi Colt pulled over. Who knew those were fast enough to get a ticket in a 70mph zone? Must have nabbed them going downhill?

Final thought from today that I forgot:

DirTLe seems to have picked up the "Colin Chapman" spirit and has started voluntarily adding lightness. Specifically a part of the intake piping popped off the body and dropped in to one of the fans.

Shouldn't be a big deal... especially as we ascend to cooler latitudes today. Guess the car is telling me to go buy/make a CAI?

So despite making 4 stops, the last one beimg 30mins out from the hotel, we still beat the civic in to the hotel.

We kept our stops tight, and our over-the-road speed up. Food was mostly gas-station grazing... since the ohio service station service was lacking in the food court tonight. Still, with both speed on the road and short stops for gas, we were able to make our stops "schedule neutral".

My wet feet were itcjing, and I was getting some lower leg funkiness... the time apent in the car adding up... which meant I didn't get setled in to a nap until about 10pm. JAH29 crushed it, though with a stint that went 'till 12:30 (allowing me a 2 hour nap), that clawed back our 10min stop in Ohio.

The OneLappers apparently ganged up on the hotel staff and they took a smoke break just after we checked-in, ti find that about 6 cars had creatively parked around the entrance pavilion. The manager was making a lot of noise about towing cars. Could be an interesting morning... and anither example of why I don't like tagging along a trailer.

After, moving the car and grabbing my clothes, I was walking back to the front to find the roadkill crew rolling in.

So, what happened today? We went to a Jimmy Buffet concert last night and the One Lap posts dropped to page 5 of the Latest Topics? WTF?

Ha!

I was thinking about how to start this post being along the lines of "on the last day of one lap, the rhythm changes"

So, secretariata, that's the short answer.

The longer answer is I spent time today chatting up roadkill, talking with dome LapDogs about alternate classing ideas that are similar in spirit to what JRW started with the Aristocrat class at challenge.

The morning session I spent gaxing at a VW way down off the track by a telephone at turn 10... and udderly ruining my line and speed between 7 and 10, and 3 and 7... so basically half the track.

I spent a lot of lunch talking with friends, and then the afternoon I went out and picked up about 5sec.

During the open track session we had thanks to: fewer cars, better organization, and close proximity to South Bend... I took a 15 year old spectator out for a few laps, then mazdeuce, then mazdeuces co-driver, before mcd took me out for a few laps in the civic.

That was an entertaining and elucidating experience that I think we gained from.

Then it was back to the hotel for some celebrations, some food, and then more celebrations.

Now it's time for bed before the group photo at 8am.

sleepyhead wrote: Ha! The longer answer is I spent time today chatting up roadkill... and then the afternoon I went out and picked up...

So, busy setting up for the post track activities?

sleepyhead wrote: That was an entertaining and elucidating experience that I think we gained from.

What them big words mean?

I got a Saturday hall pass.
Enroute to SB. If you see a Q45 there it might be me.

Elucidating:

To shed light on; To bring enlightenment to a subject. $10 word for holy E36 M3, that's how that works!

Well, OneLap is all over except for the transit home.

I managed to get a 0.899 on the pad. I'll have to look later to see how that compares to my previous attempts. It means that I just managed to squeak past the Helcat and stay ahead of the killer rabbit for 56th overall.

It was great seeing and talking with John Welsh and the other two GRM'ers that showed up at the tire rack (sorry that my fried nuerons left your names some where in the parking lot).

Current eta is 11pm back to JAH29's place (we've been on the road for about 3 hours). So, now it's time for my nap so I'm ready for the 7-9 shift.

sleepyhead is a good writer. I don't dock him for spelling because I know he doesn't have time to proofread.

Congrats on finishing the One Lap! Very cool.