Many thanks to Woodsy, Bryon Hathorn, Robert Haug, Allen Skok, Herb Smith, Allen Lusk, Bill Sharp, Randy Carter, Mike Sharkey, Bob Harris, John Mahan and Jim Vander Wal for photos and commentary.

The Event

By now every Second Striker should be well aware of the One Lap of America and the stunning successes that Second Strikers Dennis Olthoff, David Sugg, Doug Reed, Clay Gould, and Barry Kline have had in this most challenging event.  For those few who haven’t, a brief history and review of the event.

Beginning in 1971, Brock Yates sponsored a clandestine cross-country automobile rally named the “The Great Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash” or “Cannonball Run” for short.  The event was named in honor of Erwin G. “Cannonball” Baker who with W.F. Strum drove a Type 53 Cadillac V-8 roadster from Los Angeles to New York City in 1916 in a record seven and a half days.

The Cannonball Run had no rules and no routes.  The shortest time from New York to Long Beach won.  By the time the elapsed time worked its way down to 33 hours, it was clear to everyone, including law enforcement officials along the way, that some serious speeding was taking place.  So after nine events, it became a part of automobile racing history folklore.

After an appropriate period of mourning, it was replaced in 1984 with the “One Lap of America”.  The route, about 10,000 miles, was specified.  There were no time constraints; so speeding was purely a personal choice.  The winner was the team with the closest to the official route mileage.  Legal, but hardly exciting.

In 1991, the One Lap adopted its current format patterned to a large part after the grueling Tour de France FIA competition.  The competitors complete an approximately 4,000 mile lap of the US.  Each day they stop at a track along the route for speed trials. 

The speed trails are typically road courses.  Cars are run in groups of five.  Each group gets a single warm up lap.  The cars are then staged and launched one at a time at approximately five second intervals.  The elapsed time is typically for three laps from a standing start. This continues until all competitors have run.  Then it is off to the next track.  One track a day for seven days.  Usually one of the events will be drag racing including best elapsed time and a bracket race.

Points are awarded for position in class and position overall for each event.  The winner is the one with the most points at the end.

There are difficulties. 

The time trials reward speed, braking, and handling.  The long distances between tracks reward some degree of creature comfort for sleep.  Both the time trials and drives between tracks require reliability and stamina.  These requirements are in conflict.  So the race goes to neither the swift nor the sure, but to the one who does both extremely well.

The requirement for reliability is so intense and the competition so good that a single DNS (did not start) or DNF (did not finish) will almost certainly knock a competitor out of the top ten overall and usually out of the top twenty.

There are potential difficulties on the track as well.

Although these are speed trials, one car against the clock, a spin by another car or overtaking a slower car can cost valuable seconds and knock a competitor way back in the standings for an event.

Then there is the weather.  A track may be wet for part of an event and dry for the rest.  The drivers in the wet take it in the shorts.  Simply blind luck of the draw.  But as they say, “that’s racing!”

Schedule

                                   OVERALL    INC    TIME    AVG           LOCAL

EVT LOCATION                         DIST    DIST  ALLOWED  SPEED  DATE     TIME     DAY

    Tire Rack                           0       0       0     0    29 April 0800    Friday

    Registration Opens                                             29 April 0800    Friday

    Registration Closes                                            29 April 1500    Friday

    Drivers Meeting                                                29 April 1500    Friday

    Welcoming Party                                                29 April TBA     Friday

    The Tire Rack                       0       0       0     0    30 April 0900    Saturday

1   Start Event 1 Skid Pad (Wet)                                   30 April 0900    Saturday

    Finish Event 1                                                 30 April 1130    Saturday

    Indianapolis Raceway Park        151.5   151.5    3.5   43.3   30 April         Saturday

2   Start Event 1 Time Trial                                       30 April 1200    Saturday

    Finish Event 1                                                 30 April 1300    Saturday

3   Start Event 2 Time Trial                                       30 April 1530    Saturday

    Finish Event 2                                                 30 April 1800    Saturday

    BeaveRun                         539.1   387.6   13.0   29.8   01 May 0800      Sunday

4   Start Event 1 Time Trial                                       01 May 0830      Sunday

    Finish Event 1                                                 01 May 1130      Sunday

5   Start Event 2 Time Trial                                       01 May 1230      Sunday

    Finish Event 2                                                 01 May 1530      Sunday

    Lancaster Speedway               752.6   213.5    5.0   42.7   01 May 1900      Sunday

6   Start Event 1 Time Trial                                       01 May 1900      Sunday

    Finish Event 1                                                 01 May 22:00     Sunday

    New Hampshire Int Speedway      1183.7   431.1   15.0   28.7   02 May 0900      Monday

7   Start Event 1 - Time Trial                                     02 May 0900      Monday

    Finish Event 1                                                 02 May 1200      Monday

8   Start Event 2 - Time Trial                                     02 May 1300      Monday

    Finish Event 2                                                 02 May 1600      Monday

    Summit Point                    1742.0   558.3   18.0   31.0   03 May 0800      Tuesday

9   Start Event 1 - Time Trial                                     03 May 0830      Tuesday

    Finish Event 1                                                 03 May 1130      Tuesday

10  Start Event 2 - Time Trial                                     03 May 1230      Tuesday

    Finish Event 2                                                 03 May 1530      Tuesday

    Mason Dixon Dragway             1791.1    49.1    2.5   19.6   03 May 1800      Tuesday

11  Start Event 1 - Low ET Drag                                    03 May 1800      Tuesday

    Finish Event 1                                                 03 May 1900      Tuesday

12  Start Event 2 - Bracket Drag                                   03 May 1900      Tuesday

    Finish Event 2                                                 03 May 2100      Tuesday

    Virginia International Raceway  2082.5   291.4   11.0   26.5   04 May 0800      Wednesday

13  Start Event 1 - Time Trial                                     04 May 0830      Wednesday

    Finish Event 1                                                 04 May 1100      Wednesday

14  Start Event 2 - Time Trial                                     04 May 0900      Wednesday

    Finish Event 2                                                 04 May 1130      Wednesday

15  Start Event 3 - Time Trial                                     04 May 1230      Wednesday

    Finish Event 3                                                 04 May 1600      Wednesday

    CAROLINA ROD SHOP               2104.5   252.1    5.5   45.8   04 May 1800      Wednesday

    Passage Control                                                04 May 2100      Wednesday

    Roebling Road                   2370.5   266.0   13.0   20.5   05 May 0800      Thursday

16  Start Event 1 Time Trial                                       05 May 0830      Thursday

    Finish Event 1                                                 05 May 1130      Thursday

17  Start Event 2 Time Trial                                       05 May 1230      Thursday

    Finish Event 2                                                 05 May 1530      Thursday

    Nelson Ledges                   3139.2  768.7    19.0   40.5   06 May 0900      Friday

18  Start Event 1 Time Trial                                       06 May 0900      Friday

    Finish Event 1                                                 06 May 1130      Friday

19  Start Event 2 Time Trial                                       06 May 1230      Friday

    Finish Event 2                                                 06 May 1530      Friday

    Tire Rack                          0      0       0      0     07 May 0900      Saturday

20  Start Event 1 Skid Pad (Dry)                                   07 May 1000      Saturday

    Finish Event 1                                                 07 May 1300      Saturday

    Finish Tire Rack                                               07 May 1300      Saturday

    Awards Banquet                                                 07 May 1400      Saturday

Classes

The classes listed in the rules this year are:

Seeding

The top seeded class, SSGT1 Big Bore, is also the largest with 20 of 93 entries. It is also the toughest with 6 of the top 10 seeds.  The Superformance Coupe is seeded 4th.

Don't be fooled, by the way. The Dodge Ram 1500 is a tube framed NASCAR truck series truck.

For a full list of entrants, see the One Lap of America website:  www.OneLapOfAmerica.com