BMW CCA Roundel October 2011 Issue features my BMW Centric One Lap Article

Roundel is the official monthly magazine of the BMW Car Club of America.

The publication goes to every primary member of the BMW CCA.

I'm proud to say that my 2011 One Lap Article appears in the October 2011 issue of Roundel.

In spite of Team DaveM3Fan's misfortune, it makes a pretty funny story.
The considerable effort and achievements of the other V8 M3 teams are profiled in the article.

My article starts on page 60 of the October issue.
Please see below for the "digital edition" pages containing the article.

Special thanks to Steve Rossini and Bill Guy of Highland Design Studio for the excellent photography.
I wish the magazine had given the photos more space.

I sincerely apologize that I was not able to cover every One Lap BMW team in the 2011 event.
All feedback welcome.

Families touched by NF... The reason for the fundraising

Dear loyal readers:

THANK YOU!

As of 5/13/11, with have about 322.00 in generous PayPal donations (from this blog page) and another 220.00 in thoughtful cash donations from co-workers, friends, and neighbors. We sincerely appreciate this generosity and at the same time we are still looking for more to reach our goal of over 5,000.00 dollars.  

Let me be clear that 100% of all proceeds collected with be submitted to the organization. I am only asking for your donations to come through me so I can make ours a mature and long term campaign for CTF.org 

I realize that leading up to the event, I was so wrapped up with the car, the tires and prep for One Lap that I didn't tell you all very much about NF and why the work of CTF.org is so important.

First, it is worth noting that my family is lucky that our kids seem to be healthy and not facing any known medical issues. We are very fortunate. For many children (and their families) dealing with NF, things are not so simple.

Click here for a real world case of the challenge of living with NF

For as long as I can remember (even from before becoming a parent), I have always felt that one of the most heartbreaking things in life is for an innocent child to face a life-threatening illness. Many of us know someone who has lost a child or perhaps a family that must soldier on through the toughest of circumstances. A local neighbor child with a tough battle has been a very close to home example of this.

As I was eager to find a lesser known charity and then learned more about NF, I wanted to find a way to help families facing this under-publiscized, yet rather common illness.

Special thanks to my friend Seth Thomas at http://bimmerworldracing.com for introducing me to
Jill Beck, Director of the Racing For Research arm of www.CTF.org

Direct link to Racing For Research

In short order, her extensive background in the enthusiast automotive community allowed her to recognize One Lap of America as a good venue for the message. She sent me the wristbands and die cut vinyl logos for the car. She also fielded my many various requests for additional logos and such.
 

The field carries on...

I'm home crying in my soup, and trying to get back to normal... Editing photos, updating the blog and de-lousing the car. But the field carries on, making more great stories and memories.

Here are some links to that great stuff...

Our friends Robin and Woody were on their way to Daytona after Carolina Motorsports Park and at highway speed, hit an Armadillo on the road near Savanna, Georgia!

Read Robin's great story about overcoming adversity at this link:
Part one: Pesky little creatures...
Tale of triumph: They made it to the second Daytona!

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At Daytona, the (currently leading the overall) winning Nissan GTR went over 181 mph on street tires, then proceeded to travel to Gainesville (home of the NHRA Gator Nationals) and went 10.6 @ 124 MPH.

See the Daytona run here: (Leh makes it look easy!)
181 on Street Tires @ Daytona

Read Leh and Doug's blog here:
TopSpeed GTR is incredible!

The Barber run is streaming LIVE as of 9:52 am Eastern here:
LIVE STREAMING!

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My Pals AC and Eric are doing really well in the Semi-Famous Axis of Oversteer Z3 M Coupe!
At Daytona, they went 158.76 up on the banking... Not bad for a 10 year old car!
Rad their blog here:  We're still alive!

Today at the gorgeous Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, it is apparently 71 and Sunny.
Nevermind that it is on eof the world's finest motorsport facilities.

Yep, I'm quite jealous... As you should be too.

David Lee Roth had it right...

"You've got to roll with the punches and get to what's real!"
Van Halen's Jump, 1983

The truth is always stranger than fiction.
We had a easy, incident free run from Summit Point WV down through beautiful North Carolina. We had some decent results and the whole week of fun ahead... We got to the hotel just a couple miles from the track just a tick before 9:00pm.

We thought we had a big problem before we arrived... Man if we only knew!
Our "so called problem" was that we couldn't buy a six pack in South Carolina on a Sunday night. We had actually been directed to go to an unlit wrong side of the tracks speakeasy to acquire some, but when we drove by it did not appear that we we be the "appropriate demographic" to shop there. We kept going.

So, we were actually a fair bit ahead of schedule while others stopped elsewhere for proper dinners near Charlotte. We squeaked our way into Kershaw SC and pulled into the "Executive Inn" under the registration car port. All 3 of us exited the car and went in to the office. Unfortunately, none of us knew the last driver did not completely engage the parking brake and the car was not in gear.

It was 2-3 minutes of standing around while another guy was fussing over a missing reservation with the desk clerk. It was a normal wasted moment where you are just waiting for your turn... We heard a really sickening thud and when I looked our the door, THE CAR WAS NOT THERE.

It rolled with a partially engaged parking brake down a pretty steep hill in the lot, crashing into a parked Honda Goldwing, past the tipped over bike and into the motel wall! Thankfully, nobody was outside and no people were injured. Unbelievably, it missed another competitor's car and two pickup trucks, all of which would have been insanely worse. The gentleman who owned the bike was as gracious as anyone could possibly be in the situation. He and his friend made a special trip to COME SEE One Lap at Kershaw.

I have almost never felt so sick with confusion and awe. The Kershaw Police handled the paperwork with dignity and respect. The motel owner literally said this was "the best thing" that had happened there recently. Mr. Bike owner (not naming to protect his privacy) must still be in shock. My insurance company was not alarmed... I guess they usually hear worse.

To keep it in perspective, this is an freak accident with no human casualties, and some repairable stuff is bent up, but I can still barely believe it. The "last driver" is one of the best friends I have ever had and we will simply move on from this.

Apologies to all of our friends, family, sponsors and supporters for the very disappointing news. After some additional repairs in SC, The car will make it home, but it is not safe to continue in competition this year.

Day 2: home field advantage cuts both ways...

After getting into Winchester VA at 12:45am after a properly long haul from Peru Indiana, we did get sleep. We were up and rarin to go and try to get some shelter in case the weather turned poor. We got one of the good spots and it did not rain while we were there.

Summit Point is the track where I first drove on a road course in 1994. In the early days we did 2-3 events annually at the good ole Main Circuit. It is a 2.1 mile course that has a devious blend of high speed, elevation change and techincal aspects like changing camber and uneven paved surfaces. The ruddy grounds and paddock have played host to some of he best moments of my driving life.

In recent years, I've only been geting to drive it about once annually. That said it still feel like home base. To boot, my dad "Bad Bob" and our friend Steve Fisher came down to watch and cheer us on.

The pesky part is that our most aggressive rival has Summit Point for his home track as well.
Brian Hair drives at Summit Point one heck of a lot more than I do these days. He was not taking prisoners on Sunday. He turned in killer performance in the morning with a 6th place against all the big guns!

I lined up to run early because I was anxious to go. Our other friendly rivals, the Schauts had their supercharged and more aggressively modified version of our car in front of me. I figured I would try to see how fast they could disappear with more power and grip.

It was dry but overcast and chilly and the track was not only covered with dust, but also had a lot of new pavement installed just since two weeks ago when I was there for practice! Knowing my tires and brakes are best COLD, I took off with aggression and squirmed around a fair bit with the car. The apex of 6 had some new curbing that was actually falling apart lap by lap!

Dan Schaut was cookin, but I was able to keep him in sight, so I didn't think we did so badly. The result was 15th out of the entire field for that run and going intok lunch we still had 10th overall. Dan took an excellent 10th. Another highlight was getting some good video with the cool "Harry's Lap timer" iPhone app, which was useful to help Mike.

Teammate Mike ran the second session and this was his first ever time to drive summit point. He took 27th with one slight bobble into stony exit of turn 3. He brought it back alive and had fun. Monday's tracks in South Carolina will offer another chance to shine.

We are 10 points out of the top 10 holding 15th as we drive to South Carolina. We just departed I81 with no Virginia enforcement issues and if we an find some on a Sunday night, we may just have time for a beer or two before bed!

Day One: wet skidpad challenge and Grissom AFB Autocross

Each official start at the Tire Rack begins with the wet skidpad competition. It is a smooth 200' diameter asphalt surface with Sprinklers arranged at regular intervals in the center AND around the outside.

With the sprinklers doing their thing and with wipers running, each driver is to attack the pad for two timed laps counter-clockwise, then you turn around in the delta to take two timed laps clockwise. The highest speed you can carry without spinning out against the time over distance allows the judges to calculate the g force. Michelin makes some lofty claims about the wet performance of the Pilot Super Sport tire, and at full tread depth, this challenge is an ideal way to see if Pierre is full of Brie or not.

Brock Yates Jr. First did a demo run in the 550hp X5 M suv. Is is a heavy but powerful truck. The top seeded leaders went in order of car number.... Our car number is 18. Regardless of All wheel drive, tire width, power or otherwise, none of the big dogs was able to beat Brock's G reading.

Brock's Demo: Photo by Solomon Rosenthal, Rosenthal Media

We ran some higher than normal tire pressure, put the adjustable shocks on soft and put the car in "M Dynamic Mode". As I approached the line for my turn I was able to go slowly but saw at the steering wheel to try and put some heat into the tires. Nothing too fancy but a little quick slaloming.

With wipers swishing away I did my circles and the car felt really great considering the amount of water. Second gear was just right to balance the car. Turns out I was the first to beat Brock's number and by a fair margin!

My car during the run... Photo by Tire Rack

We were happy with that and we departed for the next destination assuming that some of the smaller and more nimble front wheel drives with exotic setups would beat our number.

The incredible 93 Civic of William Chan and John Harrison: Photo by Solomon Rosenthal, Rosenthal Media

Catesby Jones' Nissan GTR: Photo by Solomon Rosenthal, Rosenthal Media

In the end, NOBODY beat my score and we took 1st overall in event #1,
briefly leading the entire event... As my friend at Speedco often says, that certainly "did not suck"!

Mike Babcock about to start: Photo Cyndy Yates

At Grissom AFB, we did a full SCCA rules autocross. I would euphemistically describe Mike and I as "reluctant" auto-xers. The 3700 pound M3 may have disregarded the rain, but on dry grippy concrete runway affair, the "normal" state of affairs resumed. We managed 32nd overall in the autocross.
This placed us in a tie with two cars in the 11th-13th range.

Mike getting it done in front of the "Bunker of Doom": Photo by Solomon Rosenthal, Rosenthal Media

Mike in the high-speed slalom: Photo by Solomon Rosenthal, Rosenthal Media

Summit Point main circuit is my home track and I will lead-off in the batting order on Sunday morning.

We have a friendly BMW competition with some of our pals, we have tentatively dubbed "the Johnson Cup". More on that later, I suppose.

My eyes and thumbs are tired!

First day of camp... Start out on the red eye!

It's about 640 miles from Spring City to to South Bend Indiana.
Ed and I did not want to spend a whole vacation day on the transit, so we agreed to depart Thursday evening after a "normal day" at work and to say proper goodbyes to the families.

Annie issued stern warnings to behave myself!

Our teammate Mike Babcock flew in on his own red-eye from Phoenix, AZ to Detroit and then to South Bend. Ed and I wanted to pick him up at the airport for a little team building moment.

After a 11:40pm departure, we drove thru PA, Ohio and into Indiana without incident, and ultimately made the airport 30 minutes after Mike got his bag. Thru the night, Ed and I swapped driving... But Ed did more of it because I crapped out after a short stint in early Ohio. The M3's passenger front seat is better for snoozing than I remembered.

Mike, Dave and Ed enjoy the freezing wind of the Tire Rack HQ Parking lot

One Lap is very social, and as I mentioned Mike is quite a popular fixture with the One Lap family. Our friendly rival Brian Hair had some die cut vinyl stickers made up based on the "For Norm" plate we are running to memorialize Mike's dad, Norm Babcock. Many cars in the paddock are now wearing these.

In between socializing, we discussed how to manage all of our stuff, washed the car and applied even more logos. The car is really pigged up now! On the roof, we installed the donor stickers we have collected thus far from generous friends and neighbors.

The donation signature stickers begin... Thanks everyone!

The real action starts Saturday.
Stay tuned!