The One Lap of America 1999

As it exists today, the One Lap of America is patterned after the famous and grueling Tour de France FIA competition reported in Second Strike Volume 2, Number 2. (Not the bicycle race, the car race.)

The competitors completed a 4,200 mile lap of the United States in seven days. Each day, they competed in one or more timed trials at a track facility along the way, then drove to the next track. Altogether, there were a total of fourteen timed events, twelve speed trails and two drag race events.

It is truly becoming a world class event requiring power, handling, braking, reliability, and economy of operation from the cars and skill and stamina from the drivers.

The seven tracks are shown in bold and the two checkpoints are shown in italics.

 The One Lap started in Ann Arbor on Sunday, May 16^th and finished up six days later in Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 22^nd.

Look closely at the schedule. The contestants finished an event, then immediately got back in their cars for a long drive to the next event. No lollygaging! The Allotted Time is all the time from one venue to the next and includes driving, eating, sleeping, fuel stops, pit stops, and maintenance. If the average speed shown is over 50 mph, there isn’t too much time for anything but driving.

Points are awarded for track events only so power, handling, and braking are important. But if you aren’t there when your class is running, you can’t run and you don’t get any points. So in addition to being competitive on the track, the car must be reliable, drivable, and reasonably conservative of fuel and other resources. The One Lap favors balanced performance.

Weather forced a change in schedule. One event at Heartland was cancelled and one was added at Memphis to make up for it.

• A minimum of two drivers is required.
• All participants must be at least 18 years old (no problem there, Doug), and have a valid driver’s license valid in all 48 contiguous states (weeds out the scoff laws and the European ringer drivers).
• The track competitors have to submit a competitive history (Doug and Dennis were both qualified on this one).
• Approved crash helmets are required (hard heads do not qualify - an important point for our team).

• The vehicles are two-axle only with a maximum wheelbase of 220 inches (weeds out semi’s and top fuel dragsters).
• The vehicles must be presentable, mechanically sound, and safe. And they have to be street legal and registered to be driven from event to event. No purpose built race cars.
• All competitors must use Michelin MX tires, in their appropriate size of course. The tires must have tread. No shaving down to slicks.
• The same set of tires must be used for the entire event. Cars that chew up tires are in trouble here. Cars that need drag slicks to launch are in trouble too.
• All vehicle modifications are allowed, as long as they are in the spirit of the event and are not inordinately dangerous. A lot of the top competitors make good use of this provision.
• No support vehicles are allowed. Repairs can be made, but only with tools and parts in the car. This puts a real premium on reliability.

For overall points, the One Lap uses a NASCAR type points system. The best time at an event gets 510 points (number of competitors times 5). Second place gets 505, third 500, and so on until the last place that gets 5 points. But you have to start and finish the event to get the points.

The overall positions are determined by the sum of the points earned in all events.

Class points work the same way. The best time in class gets 5 points times the number of entries in the class, second get 5 fewer points and so on to last in class gets 5 points. If there are 10 entries in the class, then first place in an event is worth 50 class points.

The class position is determined by the sum of the class points for all events.

Current Model Classes (1990-99):

SVRA Classes

There is also a claiming class where any vehicle can be entered provided the entrant agrees to sell the car to any other entrant for $1,000 at the end of the event.

Click on "Competitors" to continue...