Mazdeuce does One Lap

Yeah, I saw them parked over at the grid when I left, but I was already late enough leaving. Didn't want to make Mrs. Unevolved wait any longer.

I'd appreciate that, thanks.

Spoolpigeon wrote: Just left NCM. Sorry I didn't get to meet you, mazdeuce. Every time I went to your car, no one was there (except for someone sleeping in the hatch when I got there, wasn't going to bother him though).

That was my co-driver. After the course walk he was all "f-this track, I need a nap before I drive". I was over seeking shade under an EZ up and talking to the guys who would later crash the corvette. I'm sorry I missed you.

No worries

Now for some pics!

Proof of miles

Evildky showed up to say hello

This mustang damn near ate it. Came to a stop a few feet from the barriers.

The V with the Corvette Museum tower in the background

Quite possibly the best combo ever in line to go on track

And the best trailer on the planet!

Evildky in action

I love this wing

And these guys win the hardass award. Super nice guys, though.

Spoolpigeon wrote: And these guys win the hardass award. Super nice guys, though.

POTD right here. Bad berkeleyin ass.

gl21133 wrote:

Spoolpigeon wrote: And these guys win the hardass award. Super nice guys, though.

POTD right here. Bad berkeleyin ass.

One of them is Charles Espenlaub.

I'm kind of curious how you would rate yourself on the Tired and Cranky scale at this point.

Woody wrote: I'm kind of curious how you would rate yourself on the Tired and Cranky scale at this point.

I'm cursing. A lot. And I hate everything. I hate the voice the GPS uses. I hate most other drivers. I hate Brock.
My co-driver and I are figuring out what to drive next year.

Tire Rack on the last morning. My co-driver is in the car waiting to start the skid pad. This is supposed to be a dry skid pad but it rained last night and for the early cars it's a moist skid pad. We start in approximately reverse order which means that the slower cars go first and dry it and lay down rubber for the fast cars. We pulled 0.817g. Not bad all things considered, and good enough for 33rd in the skidpad and an overall finishing position of 34 out of 55 cars that recorded times during the event.
One Lap finished with lunch and awards among the tires at Tire Rack. We came home with exactly as many trophies as we expected to. It was fantastic. It was horrible. It was one of the best things I have ever done. In the same breath I'm cursing Brock's existence and figuring what to drive for next year.
I have a lot more to write. Every car that went out has a story. Our stray extra passenger. The few female drivers that somehow managed to look fresh and beautiful every morning while the rest of us descended into a group of hobo refugees. The old guys with grandkids. The guys young enough to be their grandkids. Brock Yates Jr. is a page of stories unto himself.
We're on our way home. The last transit. 1200 miles from Tire Rack back to my driveway. I'm going to rest and sort through pictures and assemble my stories.

Thanks for giving us the chance to live vicariously through you as you were in the middle of this. I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to forget about us and catch a few extra Z's. We appreciate it.

Have a safe trip home.

Outstanding. Looking forward to the post script

Standing ovation!

Back where I started, safe in the Grosh. 6180 miles. Many new friendships. Thanks to those who came out to shake my hand or walk me around the track. Thanks to those that offered help along the way. Thanks to those that read this thread and followed along. Time to rest.

SO glad you made it through without major incident. thanks again for keeping us in the loop!! Get some rest!

Too cool. Glad you made it home safe and sound with the V in one piece.

Congrats on completeing the event.Next year will be here before you know it, Lap Dog!

Great job guys, and I'm not even upset that you're mad at me. :-)

6180 miles...effectively doubled the number of miles you had on the car already?

Dude, fantastic job. Looking forward to the brain dump summary.

I kind of get the sentiment of, best time ever, worst time ever. I am no good at perspective when I am sleep deprived.

Looks great from where I'm sitting though!

Awesome. This thread would serve as an excellent start to a magazine article as well...

Awesome job dude.

Let's start a sweepstakes on the final cost tally inc entry, consumables, gas, needed equipment, food, hotels, licences etc.

I vote for $10,017.36

Winner gets a six pack of their choice hand delivered by Mr Deuce in the wagon

taps foot impatiently for a Grosh update!

just kidding rest up.!

I would be hanging Grosh trusses today but I had to shop, go to the pharmacy, take Deucekid #1 to the eye doctor and then drop the soccer uniforms at the T-shirt shop half an hour away to have sponsor names put on them. I basically spent the whole day driving around. Fantastic rest.

Some thoughts, in no particular order:
We lost 7 cars to mechanical failure and three to on track incidents. That's out of 62 that showed up at Tire Rack the first morning. Finishing isn't guaranteed.
If you do this, wear a HNR. Just about everyone (including me) had at least one off track incident. The Corvette hit the wall nose first at a bit of speed and was lucky that he had only a stiff neck half an hour later. It could have been much worse, but it could have easily been prevented too.
None of the cars wore out their tires. We should drive harder?
Street tires have limited grip. The more tire you can fit and the more driven wheels you have, the better. Standing starts on the first lap amplify this effect.
There's a lighthouse in the middle of Nebraska. It's on a lake. It's weird. Having a good data plan on your cell phone so you can ask your co-driver to look up things like that makes the drive easier. You can also pass the time shopping for early 60's cabover trucks online.
Having matching schedules saves time. Both of us were "roll out of bed and be eating in the lobby 7 minutes later" type of people. Worked great. When we picked up our third guy on day three he had a different schedule. He needed 20 minutes to get his E36 M3 together. That's fine, sort of, but until we explained how we did things on day five, it made us grumpier than needed. We had a talk, and sorted it out and then it was all better. Anything you can do to reduce friction between people in the car is good. You WILL start to develop irrational hatred by mid week.
Getting to the track an hour early has two benefits. 1: You get to walk it. This is a HUGE benefit if you haven't seen it before. Bring a bike if you have room, a razor scooter if you don't, and Rollerblades if it's really tight. Moving faster means more laps around and better visualization. 2. Being early means you get the good parking. There was covered parking at most tracks, but not enough for all of us. No matter where you are you want shelter from either the rain or the sun. When there isn't covered parking there is always some sort of covered spot where you can tuck away your gear when you unload. Picnic pavillians, building overhangs, something. You want that spot, and the only way to get it is to be early.

What did it cost? Lots of you want to know this.
I'll start with what it cost the two of us to do the event itself.
$3000 Entry fee.
$875 Seven nights in hotels at $125 a night. Also two nights for free at my brother in law's house.
$952.05 for 336.66 gallons of gas (18.36mpg for the trip)
$700 for food and shirts and stickers and stuff. We spent right about $350 each.
$5527.05 for two of us to do One Lap of America door to door. We're splitting costs so my part of this is $2763.53
We could certainly have done it for less, but not a LOT less without bringing on a third driver.
Now I'll figure out what it cost me to get ready.

It cost you more than that. You're not including the required set of tires you had to buy from the Tire Rack.

You should also have a line item for the required helmet and drivers suit.

You also may want to add a (discretionary) line item for any parts you added to the car for the event, like brake pads etc.

Once you add in those other bits I think you'll find the number to exceed $8k...