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

Sunday May 7, 2006, Day 2
We got to Mid America MotorPlex in Pacific Junction Iowa around 2:00 AM on Sunday. Plenty of time to get some good rest before our second day of competition. The hotel we stayed in was close to the track but pretty nasty. We didn’t care, all we wanted was a little sleep and the shower had better water pressure than ever I’ve ever seen in my life. Since I’d never been there before we got to the track early and I walked it with my buddy George Batejan. It is a flat track with a couple of very long straight-aways, good for high horsepower cars.

As is always the case with the front runners in the One Lap, there's never a lack of excitement. The front runner Mark Davia in his 996 twin turbo Porsche lost a rear wheel on his cool down lap in the first run session. Luckily there was no damage to the car, just an easily learned reminder to make sure you torque your lug nuts before you get on the track. My friend Ron Adee in his thousand horsepower twin turbo Viper has apparently burned up a clutch and has decided to replace it after the second run session.

My first run session went fairly well although I felt like I left a lot on the table. The car still feels very tail happy but the adjustments I made have made an improvement. As the results from the morning session were posted, I knew we had a lot more work to do, we finished 30th and in my opinion well off the pace I would've achieved with last year's car. The afternoon session was slightly better with a 28th overall finish. I decided to wait until tomorrow to consider any additional adjustments to the car. No Problem Raceway is a track that I was on just a month or so ago and I wanted to measure the car's handling on track that was fresh in my mind. I guess the positive way to look at things is that we have won every event in our class and have a nice lead over Bob Murry in his Datsun 240Z. More about that beast (the car) later.

After the second session we packed the car quickly and set off on what was the longest leg of the 2006 One Lap. A seemingly endless 1012 mile drive to Belle Rose, LA. Of the two most popular routes, we chose the more circuitous one that put us on interstates all the way as opposed to the other route which was much shorter but traveled through the mountains of Arkansas. We left MAM around two PM and made it to LA in time to get a few hours of hotel sleep. I can’t tell you how fast we averaged without violating my fifth amendment rights but I can tell you that had we gotten busted it would have been a very long conversation with more than one representative of America's finest. We didn't see a lot of police but the ones we saw were waiting for us. The most amusing of these was a lone state trooper camped out outside of St. Louis. I laughed out loud as 30 cars roared past as he fumbled with his laser gun.

The pressure of the target rich opportunity of a lifetime overloaded his ability to aim the device and we sped on past with barely a lift of the throttle. We found out later that others were not so lucky. A particular Italian couple in a 2002 Subaru WRX were arrested and detained overnight. It was their own fault however, in this country when followed by a police officer with his lights and sirens blaring, the prudent thing to do is pull over. continue>