One Lap of America May 6 to May 13, 2006
Article provided by David Goodman.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Saturday May 6, 2006, Day 1
We got up this morning, got a good breakfast and went to Tire Rack for the first event which is the wet skid pad challenge. The goal of this competition is to see who can turn the highest lateral G forces while driving around a wet skid pad. This is the same skid pad that Tire Rack uses to test its tires when they rate them on their web site. I usually don't do very well at this event, it is very hard to keep the car turning consistently with the turbo boost. After the skid pad, Sam packed the car, I fixed what I think is the problem with the boost controller, and we drove to Audubon Country Club for our first qualifying/road course event. Sure enough after a few full throttle pulls it appears the problem with the boost controller is fixed.

We arrived around noon and since the event didn't start until 4L00 PM we had plenty of time to sit around and relax. I was commenting to the guys that it's the first time in a year and a half that I was able to sit back and not think about what I was going to bolt onto the car next. Sam and I sat around and smoke a couple of cigars, chatted with our neighbors and watched as the local Italian car club drove their cars around the North course. Some very cool cars – Alfas, Ferraris, Maserati’s and various hardware from other countries too.

Around 4:30 p.m. I got the car on the racetrack for its first time ever. I've been working so hard on it I just haven't had time to do any testing. I was a little nervous because you never want to take a car out and compete with it right out of the box. These are things that you want to kind of ease into. No time for that now we’re just going to have to figure this out on-the-fly. The car had very good power but as I expected I'll need to make some adjustments to the suspension. The rear end of the car was very tight and I had a hard time keeping it behind me so when I got off the track I made some adjustments to the rear sway bar, hopefully that's going to do it. I'm very happy with our progress today, before we left Audubon we got an update on the skid pad results and I was able to finish 8th overall, this is typically my worst event.

Sam and I are now on our way to Pacific Junction, Iowa after completing our first day of competition. Sam appears to be having a great time; so far his only complaint is that his ass is killing him. What I didn't realize is that the race seat that I installed this year has very little padding. Right now he is sitting on a memory foam pad and a pillow and he says his ass still hurts. We have about a 450 mile drive tonight so it looks like we'll get a decent amount of sleep tonight.

Just a quick note on the dictation software that I loaded last night. It is working beautifully; I was able to write this entire account without typing on the keyboard. The suspension in the car is so stiff it would be very difficult to type while we are driving. continue>