One Lap of America May 5 to May 12, 2007
Article provided by David Goodman

Introduction & Car Preparation
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Day 1, Saturday, May 5
Day one of the 2007 One Lap of America started with a wet skid pad challenge, a quarter mile paved oval, and a single qualifying run at Audubon Country Club in Joliet, Illinois. The qualifying run determines your run group and running order for the rest of the event. It's pretty important to score well in the qualifying session. The reason for this is because the goal is to finish as soon as possible and get on the road to the next track to maximize the amount of actual bed rest you get before the next event.

I was really hoping to come out of the gate with a good jumpstart, instead I just ended up digging a little bit of a hole for myself. I turned out a mediocre 31st at the wet skid pad, a 20th overall in the paved oval, and a 19th overall in my qualifying run at Audubon Country Club. After these three events, this put us in 20th position overall at the end of day one. It looks like our main competitor this year is going to be Bob Murray in his 1972 Datsun 280Z. This thing is no ordinary Z as it's got a high horsepower Corvette motor in it. It's clear also that he brought his A game, because he beat me in the skid pad and the paved oval to take the lead in Vintage Foreign and capture 14th overall after day one.

I say this every year and every year it's absolutely true. The level of competition both car and driver keeps going up. Even as capable as my car is, I feel like I brought a knife to a gunfight. The One Lap is a long event though and it's really an endurance test for both the car and the driver. A lot of those high strung cars end up blowing themselves up about halfway through the event.

We got a good early start coming out of Audubon and made great time on our way to Pacific Junction, Iowa for Mid-America Motorplex tomorrow. The only thing that slowed us down were torrential rains and tornado warnings through the last half of the trip. The lightning was spectacular. continue>