Personally I think One Lap of America is the Everest of grassroot motorsports. I've done it once and it was brutal, grueling, and epic. But the entry is $3500. What if there were a cheaper option? Something like one road course, a drag race, and 2-3 autocross events? And maybe only 500 miles or so. Do I have your interest? Would you like to see that happen?
Perhaps but that is not totally dissimilar to the $2000 challenge.
In reply to singleslammer :
I suppose, but 4 different locations, driving in between. No budget restraints, minimal ruleset.
Sure, I'll sign up if it's in the Midwest.
There is a trackdays the day after the challenge now... Drag, autox, Track... It's basically there.
Sounds cool. I'm interested, pending location.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Plans are to do this in the Virginia/Maryland area this fall.
How much cheaper? Having an idea of what it takes to organize multi-day events that don't include competitive timing events, I'm actually surprised One Lap is "only" $3500 for the number of timed track sessions you get.
camopaint0707 said:In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Plans are to do this in the Virginia/Maryland area this fall.
Yeah, I am out. I dont think I am willing to go that far east.
Autocross week is pretty close to that. Mid/western PA and eastern OH, four days, probably around 500 miles total, $500 entry. It's all autocross but 2/3 of the venues are non-traditional sites that kind of bridge the gap between autocross and track.
dps214 said:Autocross week is pretty close to that. Mid/western PA and eastern OH, four days, probably around 500 miles total, $500 entry. It's all autocross but 2/3 of the venues are non-traditional sites that kind of bridge the gap between autocross and track.
First time I've heard of this, looks like fun.
camopaint0707 said:In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Plans are to do this in the Virginia/Maryland area this fall.
So...One Lap of the Mid-Atlantic? 
One of the key elements of OLOA are the long transits in your competition vehicle. W/o those, it's just a multi-discipline motorsports competition. Which is fine...but it isn't even close to the same kind of experience, regardless of duration.
What you are suggesting sounds a lot like the SCCA Targa event they did a few years ago. Google it.
In reply to adam525i :
Thats disappointing for the autocross week marketing department lol
In reply to Andy Hollis :
Well I'll be damned. There aren't a lot of articles left on that but yeah. That's kind of it. And before my time. But yeah, "one lap of the mid atlantic" I guess. But we had a different name in mind. But I guess we are trying to be somewhere in between oloa and that scca targa? I get the transist is what seperates oloa from nearly anything else. I won't forget brainerd to nebraska in 2019 either. I still hate brock for that.
I think it's a great idea, I mean, Mid Ohio > Dragway 42 > Nelson Ledges > Pitt Race > Lake Erie Speedway > Mid State Airport would be a nice loop across 2 states. You could include Summit Point and Bristol if you want a bigger loop.
Yes I would be very much interested.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I appreciate the kind words. That is sort of our goal should this become more popular and what not.
Andy Hollis said:camopaint0707 said:In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
Plans are to do this in the Virginia/Maryland area this fall.
So...One Lap of the Mid-Atlantic?
One of the key elements of OLOA are the long transits in your competition vehicle. W/o those, it's just a multi-discipline motorsports competition. Which is fine...but it isn't even close to the same kind of experience, regardless of duration.
What you are suggesting sounds a lot like the SCCA Targa event they did a few years ago. Google it.
agreed. Add in some hella transits, one set of tires and I'd think about it. The grueling week is what drags me in. I'm never more at home than sitting behind the wheel for hours on end.
bobzilla said:agreed. Add in some hella transits, one set of tires and I'd think about it. The grueling week is what drags me in. I'm never more at home than sitting behind the wheel for hours on end.
From the GRM 2022 write-up :
The highlight of the week, though, was not on track. It was cruising a seldom used interstate between Barber and Hallett to complete a 10-hour trip in 8 hours, telling stories and laughing the whole time.
For me, the problem with one lap of america is the two day drive to the start line and the two day drive home. I have to use all my vacation time for the year that isn't already earmarked for major holidays. I am all for long drives and track days. Losing the option of a car vacation and a family vacation spread out through a year is too much to ask.
Andy Hollis said:bobzilla said:agreed. Add in some hella transits, one set of tires and I'd think about it. The grueling week is what drags me in. I'm never more at home than sitting behind the wheel for hours on end.
From the GRM 2022 write-up :
The highlight of the week, though, was not on track. It was cruising a seldom used interstate between Barber and Hallett to complete a 10-hour trip in 8 hours, telling stories and laughing the whole time.
My personal fave was after stopping to help Howard as best we could and got severely behind schedule, making that 4 hour left transit in 3.5 hours to the hotel in SC to find most people still up waiting for us and providing that much needed cold adult beverage.
ojannen said:For me, the problem with one lap of america is the two day drive to the start line and the two day drive home. I have to use all my vacation time for the year that isn't already earmarked for major holidays. I am all for long drives and track days. Losing the option of a car vacation and a family vacation spread out through a year is too much to ask.
Yeah, the before and after travel time from keeping it a loop that has to both start AND end at Tire Rack's headquarters facility every, single, time has to be a killer for most Western people. It effectively requires being willing and able to exhaust nearly two weeks of leave from work and family for a one week event. If we're calling this One Lap of Mid-Atlantic, might as well get more accurate about the big one too and call it One Lap of Middle-Eastern America. When was the last time it involved anything West of the Rockies? I'd love to see a OLOA scale version offered with a greater variety of (Tire Rack owned) start/end points... Either in the current loop format so that the traveling have's vs have not's get changed up each event, and/or in a more linear fashion so that the additional travel burden gets more equally shared by all participants.
Of course, that'll probably never happen since anything that make it easier for Western participants would risk 'alienating' the base of Mid-Eastern regulars that I'm sure they've built up.
I'd like to see some version of One Lap with more track time. Right now you get like 6 laps per track if I understand it correctly.
I thought the SCCA Targa thing sounded really cool...I was hoping they would expand the program into more areas instead of doing it like twice in one specific area and then never again.
A "One Lap" of Track Night events could be really cool as well. You'd have all morning to drive to the next track, then get your hour of track time in the afternoon/evening. I'm sure it would be challenging to schedule, but you'd get the benefit of people being able to do just 1 event or all of them.
When I did One Lap in 2007 we went out to Miller Motorsports Park. Technically just west of the colorado rockies, but not by much. That was a decent route for me here in Colorado, still had to start/finish at Tire Rack, but at least the entire route went west from the start, then looped back.
In reply to CrashDummy :
That's actually a really good Idea. Looking at the schedule there are 5-6 times this year where you could do 4 days of TNIA with reasonable but long transitions between events. There are even options that would have some options for people to do a more "local" one on each end and do some common events (like a 4th event on the same day one in Heartland Park, one at Gingerman).
My year is pretty full but next year I may look at doing something like this just for fun.
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