Reall a great experience...
Photography by Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
By Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
We woke up in the middle of Michigan, where we’d found a fairly clean Super 8 motel and a medium-speed DC fast charger next to the truck stop that, as far as we could tell, served as the center of whatever city we were technically in.
The time was 5:00 a.m. We’d arrived at 2:45 a.m. The same clerk who checked us in was still hanging out at the front desk when it was time to leave. We did little more than quietly nod as we shuffled out to our car: a stickered-up Hyundai Ioniq 5 N we’d been driving–and racing–for nearly 3000 miles on the Tire Rack One Lap of America Presented by Grassroots Motorsports.
This schedule wasn’t unusual–even for those driving gas cars who only seemed to arrive a few minutes ahead of us on each transit. It’s just another day on One Lap, and we were in for a treat today: Grattan Raceway, an old-school, wild course in Michigan full of high-consequence blind elements and a literal jump, plus a straight long enough for our SUV to hit 145 mph. Sweet!
We’d never been there before, but at least we’d watched somebody’s YouTube video during our last charging stop the night before. What could possibly go wrong?
So we pulled into Grattan, ate whatever scraps of truck stop snacks we could find in the rear passenger footwell (we call it the snackwell) and started walking.
One Lap of America pairs the challenge of autocross–learn a new track every day–with the consequences of road racing. We promise, it’s fun.
And we spent a little over an hour walking around the track, deliriously tired, arguing about what we’d find over each of Grattan’s blind crests. Calling “right” and then finding a right feels incredible. Calling “right” and then finding a left is a grim reminder that you’re about to, as the kids say, yeet your 4861-pound Hyundai over that crest.
At least we had 2 hours of Super 8 Sleep (TM)! A few exhausting laps and one paddock nap later, and suddenly Andy was at the starting line. Three laps. Standing start. Every single second counts–no “best of” and more importantly, no mulligans.
We crossed our fingers as the Ioniq’s launch control pummeled Andy back against his seat, then ran over to a feature known as “the Jump” with our camera. Hey, we couldn’t do anything else to keep our Hyundai on track, so we might as well document whatever happened.
Andy is a creature of habit and science, famously analytical about his One Lap strategy, normally pre-driving every single track multiple times in the weeks and months before the event. But he’d never been to Grattan.
Turns out it didn’t matter, because he held his own and posted a completely respectable result: 39th overall. He took off his helmet and breathed a sigh of relief. The track was fun, he reported: “It’ll be a blast to come back for a few days at some point and actually learn it! Have fun in the car, Tom.”
Fortunately, the afternoon session–Tom’s session–was hours away. What happens on One Lap during downtime? Two possibilities: eat and sleep. So we did both.
First, we had a gourmet lunch at 10:30 a.m. consisting of a $5 breakfast burrito featuring homemade sausage made by the track’s staff. Then we napped in the car for a bit and generally zoned out before donning our helmets, toggling our Hyundai back into track mode, and lining up on the start line. Hey, at least it was a short transit tonight, meaning a cheap Uber if Tom did yeet the Hyundai into the trees.
For the seventh day in a row, we felt the gut punch of the electric car’s launch control, reached our first braking zone, and settled into the sort of zen mental state that can only exist on One Lap. All memories of the Super 8 and the Flying J prepared foods section melted away as Tom crested 100 mph on his way to Turn 1–again, from a standing start–slammed on the brakes, and started trying to remember that YouTube video: Was it a right over the first blind hill? Or was that an ad break? Wait, do tracks have ad breaks or was that just the video?
Then the car went airborne. Neat, Grattan’s jump really does exist!
Initial panic slowly morphed into basic understanding and, by the third lap, a wide smile and a desperate need to spend all day lapping. But that’s not One Lap’s game: Three laps and then you’re done, so Tom pulled into the pits, pulled off his helmet, and started frantically loading tools and bags back into the trunk so the Hyundai could depart on the next transit.
That’s when Andy walked up with a smile and said, “NICE JOB, SIR!” Turns out Tom had beaten his times–4:36.226 for Tom’s three-lap run versus 4:39.966 for Andy’s. And with that, Andy reminded Tom of the reward: “You get the bed tonight!”
Oh right, at one point, Andy had mentioned that the next hotel was out of rooms with two beds, so we had one bed and one couch for the final night. We’d decided the fastest driver would sleep in comfort. The other would–well, at least the front desk gave us an extra set of sheets.
Tom was so exhausted he’d completely forgotten the conversation. Probably for the best, as he’d have launched the Hyundai 5 feet into the air if he’d known there was sleep on the line. We finished loading and hit the road for the final event of One Lap: a dry skidpad competition at Tire Rack’s headquarters.
First, though, we had more work to do. Remember, we borrowed this car, so before dinner we swapped the stock brake pads back onto all four corners. We wouldn’t need our Porterfield R4 race pads for the skidpad, and this would save us valuable time the following day. After the pad change and some barbecue with the TeamPGR drivers in the glow of their Tesla Model S Plaid, we finally, mercifully went to bed at a reasonable hour.
Well, one of us went to bed. The other reported that the couch “wasn’t too bad.” At least this hotel had breakfast.
We gobbled it down and drove the Hyundai over to Tire Rack, where Andy hopped in to do some circles and finally bring this experiment to a close. Our rain-focused tires meant finishing 58th in the skidpad.
The rest of the skidpad event went smoothly. First at this final competition event after a week of hotel pancakes and too many miles on the highway? The Cardinal Conclave 005 team of Scott Robertson and Becky Burton with 1.265g.
Skidpad’s second place was secured by Cunning Stunts, driven by $2000 Challenge pro driver David Marcus and Mike King. Hot on their bumper in third was Flat 4 Funny Noises driven by Ian Stewart and Robert Palmblad. The difference between the two places? 0.003g.
We were tired but elated. We’d finished One Lap in an electric car we’d never driven before, and we’d finished well: third in the Alt Fuel class and 30th overall. (First and second in class? The Tesla Model S Plaid of teamPGR’s Chad Martin–also second overall–followed by Brian Peters and John Hogan in a Corvette E-Ray just two places back overall.)
After Tom did some celebratory donuts, we rolled the car back into the Tire Rack shop to return it to stock, peel off the stickers and send it back to the press fleet.
We’ll have more coverage of One Lap in the coming days and weeks. We’ll dive deeper into what the Hyundai did well and where it struggled. And we’ll tell our fellow competitors’ stories.
But in the meantime, our own story is now complete, and Andy and I had found ourselves right back where we started: sitting on the curb waiting for our Uber, carrying only our helmets, clothes and camera gear, with no idea where our car was.
As we shook hands and headed for our flights home, it was hard not to be a little sentimental for the wickedly quick EV we’d just devoted a week of our lives to.
“Should we hide a GRM sticker somewhere interesting?” asked Andy, hoping the car would pop up again someday, somewhere. Tom replied: “No, sorry, we promised to pull the stickers off when we were done, and press cars are usually detailed pretty heavily between loans, anyway.” Andy sighed, but Tom wasn’t finished: “Besides, I already saved the VIN.”
If you ever find yourself driving a Performance Blue Matte Ioniq 5 N with a VIN ending in 1740, just know that the car is capable of truly amazing things. And sorry about all the snacks we spilled in the snackwell.
Reall a great experience...
Been loving following along! What do you think of as "medium-speed" charging? 6kW, 11kW, 60kW?
With this car, 125kW. That's a little less than half of its maximum rate. But I'd make a solid argument for "medium speed DC fast charging" really being anything in the 50-125kW range.
I really wanted to go and watch at Grattan, somehow it didn't happen. Such a fun track and 20 minutes away, I call it my home track. It can be challenging and takes a bit to feel like you hit a good lap.
This was my test and tune track while building my 92 Mustang, faster after each mod, all seasons and stock brakes set the bar low.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
That makes sense. Since I max out at 7.7kW on level 2 and 170kW max on level 3 I always think of between 12-100kW as medium-speed chargers but 800V really does change the game for charging speeds.
Can anyone explain One Lap classing to me? A Plaid (AWD electric Sedan), an E-Ray (hybrid sportscar), and a 5N (electric SUV) all in the same class is, um, interesting. How many total cars were in the class?
Is that 2nd place in "Stock Touring" also your trophy?
In reply to CrashDummy :
This class was "alternative fuels" so all the EVs were lumped together. I assume if someone brought a hydrogen Toyota Mirai (and the physics breakthrough to make their own hydrogen during the journey) they would also be in that class. Perhaps bio-diesel also?
Love it!! Such a fun journey to follow along with, I'm excited for more unpacking of the deets on how the car did. Congrats on the podiums!
What tires were other "Alt Fuel" competitors using? I'd imagine using the PS5S put you guys at a pretty large disadvantage.
Every time I say "as the kids say" my 13-year old groans and says "Daaaaaad, we haven't said that since like, 2024 Bro" with a massive eye roll. Great story though.
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