2013 One Lap of America - Day 7

Friday May 10th, 2013

This morning started in Beaver Falls, PA at the Holiday Inn Express just off Big Beaver Road.  Like any other morning the day started with controlled chaos - get up, get ready, unplug and stow a million chargers and devices and head to the luxurious OLC Trailer for breakfast.  Breakfast today was the same as it has been every day this week - two Advil, a cliff bar, and a bottle of water.  Nothing but the good stuff.

Suitably fed we stopped for gas (before arriving at the track this time) and made our way to the Pittsburgh International Race Complex (formerly known as BeaveRun) for hat would be our last road course event of the day.  The rain started almost as soon as we started unloading at the track.  Carl and Jon had grabbed a spot in the pits before we had arrived and initially we pulled up and pitted beside them.  Until the rain... and until I saw the garage spaces.

I ran up to the front gate and asked about garage rentals... They had one spot left.  I think I had my money out before the words left his mouth.  Given how close competition in the Vintage Class was this year I am reluctant to give out any really good advice but when you run One Lap the first question you should ask when you arrive at the track is "are there garages available?"

The rains lasted about as long as it took for Mary, Jon, and Carl to walk the track and although brief they left the track a wet sloppy mess.  Neither Mary or I have a ton of wet driving experience and Mary was certainly concerned as she began her mental preparation for the first run of the day.

All too soon cars were on the track and we lined up for our turn on a still damp racing surface.  Mary went out followed by Damon, Jimi, and Jon as our Vintage American run group continued together.  Mary looked a bit slow in places, Damon was fast, as was Jimi but Jon looked amazingly quick in the wet.  It's tough to gauge from the sidelines but there was no doubt in my mind that Jon was top dog this morning.

The results came quickly after a very efficient morning session and they confirmed it... Jon took first, followed by Damon, then Carl and then Mary.  Mary had a couple of small errors - a week without proper sleep, diet, and focus will do that to you - but was confident that she could get it back in the afternoon - as long as the track stayed dry.

With severe thunderstorms in the forecast the One Lap organizers accelerated the schedule a bit to try to get everyone on the road as quickly as possible after lunch.  Mary got a partial track walk in during the brake and returned to the car with more
 confidence and ready to run.  We lined up in the same order as this morning and took the final road course laps of the week.

The results this time looked, and were, much different than the morning.  In fact they were completely opposite!  Mary took first place over Jimi, Damon, and Jon.  Mary's margin of victory over the AMX was less than 3/10ths of a second!

With only one event remaining the Vintage American running order looks like this:

Team OLC - 430 points
The Centerforce AMXess - 340 points
The Honor Flight Camaro - 325 points
The Original One Lap Camaro - 300 points
Team MustangRabbit - 80 points
Glen Dodd's '48 Plymouth Coupe - 55 points

That means that Team OLC has unofficially clinched 1st place but second through fourth are all very much in play tomorrow.

Overall the OneLapCamaro has slipped a spot to 22nd but we're only 5 points out of 21st; 23rd through 25th are nipping at our heals so tomorrow's dry (?) skid pad should be interesting!

400 miles to South Bend...