That picture is amazing and tells such a tiny part of the story. For starters, all three podium teams are husband/wife. The winning team started this event years ago in a Miata and have worked their way up in ability and speed. Ironically that 650hp beast isn't the fastest car in the picture, but they were rock solid consistent and that paid off over the week. Nice people, great driving, everyone was happy for them.
The McLaren came to to the event still wearing paper plates. You can't quite see the zip ties holding the absurdly expensive carbon fiber bits together from a 100+ mph cone strike after Andy cooked a corner early in the week. You ever watch a guy zip tie his new McLaren back together? It's a sight to behold. Andy drove like Andy, clean, consistent and fast. Happy and helpful all week, classic Hollis.
The S2000 is a monster. I'm sure there will be legendary stories told about the car around One Lap campfires for years. It tried so very hard to break both itself and the couple driving it, but they always managed to keep themselves and the car together. Everyone knew they had the speed to win if the car held together, and managing to hold it together for a top three is one of the most epic things I've watched in One Lap.
At the slow end of the field we also had our battles and dramas and friendships and survival stories. You always see the winners photo and think "some day" but that's really the wrong way to come at it. Scroll down through the field and see a bunch of stock BMW's and Corvettes. Scroll farther and find the ratty 130k mile Civic, or the Acura TL, or the nearly stock Miata. If you do track days in a car that you can drive to the track, there is a 99% chance you already have the tool for the job. Come join us next year for one of the greatest automotive weeks in the country.
I have a dream to do this in my 98 XJR.
It will be a few years though, and I'm pretty sure the XJR - though a really nice street driver now - needs a LOT of work before it would be any sort of reliable on track. Something about 4000lbs, supercharger, auto trans, and brakes that fit under 16 inch wheels is telling me that cooling might be an issue.
I should probably start by taking the XJR to a track night in america.
"one of the greatest automotive weeks in the country. " That may be the largest understatement ever uttered on this board.
I notice that each husband and wife team are standing as ar apart as possible while still being in the same photo. (LOL, just kidding)
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I agree as well about the gross under reporting of a very large field over many miles and tracks. I would hope that GRM dedicates one or more people with LOTS of stories, photos and maybe even some videos to this event.
In reply to JimMurphy :
I'll be doing a long winded wrap up in hte next couple of days. It's such a massive event with a lot of things going on I needed a couple of days to decompress before trying to be coherent with my words. I also have a ton of pictures of race cars on track and not many of people. I need to work on that for the next one.
In reply to JimMurphy :
Long story and coverage coming in the magazine!
In reply to Ed Higginbotham :
Always looking forward to Andy writing about the event. He provides a great perspective that is honestly hard to see from the back of the pack as we struggle with sleep and more driving in the dark. More than once I talked to him and he had gotten to the hotel over two hours before me. My five hours of sleep was his seven, and talking to Sleepyhead and the boys, it was four for them. We were trying to keep updated on social media through the event and even then it was a fire hose of trying to keep track of people, where they were, and whether we were in a position to come to the rescue when things happened. Every team has a story that could fill a book every year and there's no way to get it all. GRM does a great job.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
When I got to MSRC on Wed morning and Robert was on the ground in a ball trying to sleep behind the s2000...yeah.. the Big bad wolf tried to break them.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
this. We watched Andy and Anne leave NOLA at 12:25 IIRC. We still had 3 or 4 run groups before Tim even made it on track. Don't read that as complaining, just an observation. I can say though that John and I could have the car loaded in the time it took Tim to get out of his firesuit and helmet. I think our worst was around 7 minutes, best around 5.
