Sonic does One Lap 2016

I'm disappointed in the 72mph average...I figured you were good for a buck ten.

6th overall driving in wet circles! First in Luxury Sedan and second in Stock Touring. Not bad for your first day.

Sonic wrote: Gamby, I haven't opened Facebook in months, though now race season is starting I will now. Can't say I've missed it much. I think we are going to post updates in the 3PM page. Neither of us are on instagram

I think this would be a very worthwhile experience to instagram. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people out there interested in your adventures with it.

Saw all of the FB updates and now I'm happy.

Might be too late to be of use, but have you tried dyno mode to shut tc and other similar interferences off??

Well, Mazdeuce gave the real update here for us. Not quite sure how I pulled off 6th overall but I'll take it, .732g on a sopping wet track. I'm totally sure this will be our best finishing event, all disappointing from here out.

No real need to go to dyno mode with what we are doing, plus you lose power steering and ABS too.

The Continental DW is a great rain tire. Today was basically all in the rain, so the fresh rain x was awesome. We made it through the passage control, and got to the hotel a bit after 10:30, going to bed now for some good sleep.

At Pitt Race. The #1 GTR that won last year crashed on the first lap as the first car out. Car is a bit bent but driver is OK. Track is wet, storms are coming through on and off. Our tent setup is pretty good and easy to setup/tear down. Now is a whole bunch of waiting.

Well done!

So... how many folks have seen your team name and asked where the 3rd pedal is in the Benz?

The guys who are in it to win it drive HARD every lap. I'm amazed at the risks they take and usually get away with.

They've also pre run all the tracks so they know where to go and many of them are professional drivers...

We finished the wet morning session a more appropriate 44th. The track is drying fast now for the start of the second session. Several other cars broke and did not register a time this morning. We are in line now for Chrissy to run this afternoon. The gridding system is a bit of a mess.

I guess the only good thing about this rain is that you're not shredding tires in it.

Still, much more interested in what you're gonna do in that behemoth at 10/10.

Gridding should get better by tomorrow afternoon when everyone figures out who they should be running with.
For everyone following along, if you're on Facebook they're livestreaming the track sessions. Pretty cool.

We arrived at the hotel last night around 11:45, in bed by 12:30 after watching track video, up at 6, shower and breakfast and out by 6:40.

At the track, we found they had built garages that just were kinda finished last week so we got one of the last spots available.

We feel a bit out of place in the garages with the fast cars, but we were here early enough to get one and will love it when it rains this afternoon.

We walked the track, and wow, the elevation changes are amazing. This view is from the top of the hill, showing two other parts of the track.

Chrissy is going to go out first as it is dry-ish, I'm going out in the afternoon in the rain as I'm more confortable in the wet.

Today's trip computer update from this morning

Update: it is raining pretty well before Chrissy's run, so we both probably get to run in the rain. This makes the garage oh so worth it. Also, heated seats while in grid are just awesome.

That elevation view of the track is spectacular.

Following along with great interest. Sounds like you're having fun!

I was really hoping to make it down there to spectate, but too much going on at work right now. Have safe runs!

I can't tell if the track looks awesome or terrifying or if there is really a difference between the two.

How is the cars' balance in the wet?

When Chrissy was running it was completely pouring, standing water everywhere on track with multiple rivers, what a sloppy mess. Rain seems to have ended for the time being, so much for the forecast.

Steve, the car has similar balance as when dry, understeer with oversteer just a right foot away

The track is both awesome and terrifying. I'm trying to think if I can get our Civics motor rebuilt between the lemons race and the AER race here a few weeks later.

Chrissy ended up in 57th for the morning session, in the worst conditions of anyone, total time of 8:10.

I went out in the afternoon when it was still raining, but not nearly as hard, much less standing water. I was 26th with a 6:42. I started the run group in front and lapped the 5th car as they were taking it very easy as they had a spin in the morning session.

Palmer was a very fun track. I'm looking forward to going back some time when we can spend more time there. They are actively working on the facilities too, but have a great start with the track. The only worry I have with it is the lack of runoff room, which certainly slowed me down a little.

We are now in transit to Summit Point, somewhere in NY heading toward Scranton, then down 81.

I'm 25 minutes away from Summit at the hotel and I can say with great certainty that it's going to rain here tonight. Hopefully it will have moved through by track time tomorrow. You guys need at least SOME dry time this week.

National weather service says 60% chance of showers. Summit is the one track we know this week and have even driven this car on, though I have no idea of the wet lines there. I just want dry at Road America.

GPS says eta at the hotel is about 10:45. Your team was in the last run group, just getting on track as we were leaving.

I'll probably be hanging in the lobby when you roll in. Red One Lap hat.

We are en route from Summit to NCM in Bowling Green, KY. It was finally a dry day for both of us, so nice.

Before we start with the day, here's an awesome can we saw last night. It had the entire roof cut out, and then plywood extensions above the roof 4', and plywood behind the driver. Someone needed more space, so they made it!

We slept in a bit this morning as we didn't need to walk the track as we both know it well enough, so we got about 7.5 hours of sleep which was great. Our car totally wins at transits, and we are pretty good about avoiding stops and keeping up a decent but not unsafe average speed, and that seems to get us in earlier than those who stop more. We haven't witnessed any highway shenanigans by any participant this year.

Here is the trip computer this morning

We started the day by finally meeting Mazdeuce, who is just as nice as he seems, and it was great to talk with him and put a face to the screen name.

Chrissy started us off late in the morning session and was 59th with a 5:21.

I went out a little than earlier in the afternoon session and had a good set of laps, 44th with a 4:40 total, laps in the 1:33 range.

GPS has an eta of 11, not sure if that is eastern or central. Getting out like we did at 2 is nice for getting going on the longest transit we have this year, more than 620 miles. The car is still performing flawlessly, all is well and we are having a good time. These next two days are going to be long and busy.