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!

Fuel The Cure!

I went into my decision to do One Lap of America knowing that the teams (and friends) I admire most are the men and women who have raised money for the causes, concerns and charities they believe in.

Here are some inspiring example links:
Robin Sparrow's One Lap Campaign to eliminate Prostate Cancer
Fay and David Teal's "Laps to conquer MS"
Roy, Adrienne and Nancy's work for the Ronald McDonald House
Linda Cheatham's Organ Donation awareness efforts...

I'm a very lucky guy with a great job, great friends, a healthy family and enough resources to indulge my passion for high performance driving. Motorsports and racing related activities tend to be selfish pursuits. The "exposure" we can get in the automotive enthusiast community give us an opportunity to help worthwhile charities.

This is my first self-entry (of my own car) in the Tire Rack One Lap of America. To kick it off, we are pleased to announce that we are raising donations for the Children's Tumor Foundation and NF awareness. For more background on our recipient charity, visit CTF.org but please consider donating to us so we can build a ongoing donation program.

We are offering sponsorship levels that can suit all budgets. We are collecting during the event handing out wrist bands and signature panel stickers that can be signed and placed on the roof of the car as we go. The more stickers, the better we are doing!

For more mature budgets, we are offering event mileage (approximately 3,700) based amounts based on penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar per mile.  Please donate what you can and help our team make a big contribution in our very first outing.

Special thanks to our very first contributor, Steve C. for his generous support!

My contact at CTF.org also posted about us on Facebook on 4/27/11

http://www.facebook.com/racing4research

UPDATE: WOW and WOW!


We are humbled by the generosity of our "early adopter"sponsors.


We've had online donations through the PAYPAL widget and cash donations at Quadratec where I am happily employed.


Steve C.
JG
Chuck T.
Brian R.
Bear P.
John S. (x2 !)
Tony I.


Thanks for reading and for your generous support!

Testing... 1-2-3 Before 3-2-1 Launch!

Action Photo by Susan Dobson

DaveM3Fan's One Lap of America M3 took to the tracks at Summit Point Motorsports Park on the weekend of April 16-18 2011 for our first driver's school of the season. This made for a great chance to do some shakedown runs with the new tires and brakes (as well as the stickers)! 

It was "stress testing" when compared to the daily on-track format that we have on One Lap. At each venue on OLoA, we have only two relatively brief sessions where we get one warm-up lap, THREE hot laps and one cool down lap. 

At the driving school on the other hand, each run group gets four 20-minute run sessions daily. Over the space of 3 days, that amounts to quite a bit of track time if you drive all of each session. At the Jefferson Circuit for instance on Saturday/Sunday we could have driven as many as 76 (roughly 1 minute) laps per day! 

The car is really a STOCK 2011 Competition Package (ZCP) Sedan. To prepare, we maxed-out the factory limit of front negative camber, to a spec of -1.7 degrees. On the weekend we ran the NEW Michelin Pilot Super Sports in sizes 10mm larger than the factory tires: 255/35/19 up front and 275/35/19s on the OEM ZCP Wheels, which measure 19"x9" and 19"x10" respectively.

Nicole Osborne of Otto's Mini posing with the car in front of the Otto's trailer.
WHY? Because she looks one heck of a lot better than I do!

Quick impressions:
On Saturday we had LOTS OF RAIN. In the WET with these tires at full tread depth I drove two complete sessions with the "M Dynamic Mode" traction control still turned on. I figured there was no point in wrecking the car on day one if my brain wasn't "turned on" yet for the season.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon on Saturday!

With these tires, we were really cooking in the wet. They are better than any high performance tires I have ever driven in the wet. In the third session, I finally stopped "cheating" and turned all of the nannies OFF. The tires are brilliant. I'm sort of praying for rain on One Lap, except I don't want all of our belongings to get wet. This is a quandary.

Jefferson Circuit: Clockwise on Sunny Sunday!

Day two was sunny and dry!

I was able to push the tires hard for most of a 20 minute dry session and they did not get overheated or "greasy". They were very consistent. However, the Jefferson Circuit is a tight 1.12 mile course. A 3700 pound car with 414 horsepower does not fare nearly as as well as smaller, lighter and more nimble cars, such as those found in the instructor run group.

The Summit Point main circuit is also pretty tough on tires.

Being lazy and not getting adjustable camber plates for additional negative camber is a drawback here. My front tires' outer shoulders definitely took a beating. That said, Michelin has an impressive product here. Bravo!

ALERT: My Mom Lee Flogaus stole this Ferrari 458 and has not been seen since the weekend! If you have ANY INFORMATION about her whereabouts, please contact all the proper authorities IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner!

Get a load of THIS!

My friend Rusty Ristine generously photographed the car in the studio at Quadratec on Saturday 4/9/2011.

The results are extraordinary!

More photos pending, but this is too good not to share.

DaveM3Fan's 2011 M3 Sedan, to benefit the Children's Tumor Foundation www.CTF.org
Special thanks to our sponsors!

Other VERY cool news for 4/11/2011:

The tires arrived at Otto's BMW on Friday. The Michelin Pilot Super Sports are going on the car today, as well as the track-worthy brake pads. I will tell you more about the new pads after I get a few miles on them and I have established an initial impression. They are an all-new manufacturer and compound for me, so I am excited to give them a try.

Summit Point (with the Delaware Valley Chapter BMW CCA) is this coming weekend. Photos and a full report will be issued ASAP after the event!

Stay tuned!

Team "Only if its easy racing" Mark II

After a needlessly long delay, it is time to introduce the rest of our team for the 2011 effort!

A favorite of virtually every One Lap of America competitor I know,  Mike Babcock is a seasoned One Lap Vet with a diverse sportsman driving resume. He is more experienced in competition than I am and he's been a heck of a lot more successful in One Lap than I have previously. 

As I learned in elementary school gym class, always pick the best and most popular guy first!

Michael Sterling Babcock: Seasoned & Successful One Lap of America vet,
actually named for Mike Hawthorn and Sterling Moss!
Photo: Highland Design Studio 2006

If it pleases the court, I submit the following exhibits:

Mike Babcock was named after two former greats, Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss. He was destined to be a gear-head. Mike entered his first auto competition at the age of 14 as a co-driver in his father’s SCCA Pro Rally car, but by the time he was of legal age the rally car was gone and dirt bikes were the order of the day.

Mike and his father ran the enduro circuit aboard a pair of Husqvarnas until he moved to Arizona. Later, Mike campaigned a Husky WR430 in some desert races until marriage brought his motorsports career to a screeching halt. He then turned to BMX racing with his son Josh for a couple of seasons… but then Josh turned 16, got a driver’s license, and discovered girls… all at the same time. Needless to say, the BMX days were over.

Not long after that, the marriage failed, leaving Mike with a wealth of free time on his hands. Until December 14, 2000, when his father called, looking for a co-driver for the 2001 One Lap of America. Three days at the Bondurant school left him with a serious addiction to feed. A half-day school at the Motorsport Ranch in Texas, coupled with some track time in the family Audi S4 only made things worse. He ran Virginia International Speedway in the One Lap for his first competitive venue in the S4, and took 1st in class. Confidence was high. On the very next session… he went out and spun the car three times in as many laps. (reality happens fast!)

Since then, Mike has run Targa Newfoundland Rally, the One Lap of America eight times, three shots at the Open Track Challenge, and nine seasons of club racing in a Spec7 car.

Not ones to demand creature comforts, Mike and his father Norm (Team Iron Butt)
brought this warm and cozy vehicle in 2006... No, I am not kidding.
Photo: Highland Design Studio 2006

Based on Mike's background, I plan to have him share the on-track driving duties in my rather tame M3 sedan. Compared to some of his crazy rides in the past, we may have to prod him to stay awake in the Lexus-like bank-vault M3!

My next victim, oops...

I mean to say team mate is Ed Narewski.

Over the past few years Ed and I have talked each other into a host of stupid ideas.

From elective engine swaps, to unnecessary car purchases and insane european travel, Ed is a quiet guy of enormous talent. Laboratory tests have proven that his voice is actually a frequency I cannot hear, which makes conversation that much more nuanced.

I asked him to use his own words to describe his lifelong mental illness:

As a young toddler growing up in Roxborough (Philadelphia). I would ride my big metal Tonka truck down our street. After getting into trouble for riding where I wasn't supposed to be, I would grab my brothers Hot Rod magazines and read 'em cover to cover.

At home there were many large cars to be explored. We had a Torino wagon, a LTD wagon, a Volvo and a 1967 Mustang.  My sister taught me to drive in the Torino wagon when I was the ripe age of 12. My older brother would let me help change oil and perform general car maintenance. I loved taking things apart and ALSO putting them back together.  

As a young teen, it was BMX racing.  I loved the speed, the jumps and the very cool bikes. But, it was never enough, I needed a car. My first car was the coolest 1970 Volkswagen Beetle ever. It had no heat, no air conditioning, holes in the floor pans and needed help starting much of the time.  Regardless, it was mine and I was determined to make it great.  So, my love for detailing cars begins.  

Cars ought to be fast and perform well, but to me they also need to look good. I have a large collection of cleaning and detailing products.  I have been detailing for over 30 years. I frequently work with a close friend of mine detailing special cars for events such as Pebble Beach. Through this skill I have been privileged to have "hands-on time" with some very special cars such as  Ferrari 275 GTB twin-cam, Ferrari Lusso and an 8 liter Bentley.

I have owned quite a few German cars over the years.  One of the best was my 16v Volkswagen GTI.  Frankly, this car was the best GTI on the east coast.  With attention to detail I was able to win all the major Volkswagen shows in the mid-atlantic region for three years running. With the Delaware Valley Chapter of the BMW CCA I was able to enjoy the GTI at its limits on track.  I was also involved with the build and crewing for a BMW SCCA Pro-Rally team. This was my first experience with crazy high-mileage road trips for the sake of automobiledom.

Life moves on.  I now have a 95 M3 and also a 94 BMW 325is M-Tech.  I am once again a member of the BMW Club and throughly enjoying the track events. With my knucklehead teammate I have enjoyed a couple of trips to Germany and have logged many laps on the Nürburgring.  In 2011 I will be attending a fair amount of BMW track events, as well as a few Road Rally events (with the Main Line Sports Car Club) and participating in (my first) One Lap of America.

Ed will be handling a good bit of the transit driving, troubleshooting where necessary and "taking in" the general insanity of One Lap.

A few years back, I gave Brock Yates (Sr.) my own take on One Lap of America:

"One Lap is the circus that truly needs all of its clowns"

I'd say we are each "guilty as charged"!