Countdown to the 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America

The 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America is now a week away and the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team of Mary Pozzi and James Shipka is getting ready to take on the challenge of long miles, serious competition, and – by the looks of things this week – the weather. This year’s event will cover over 3,650 miles in 8 days with 18 individual competition stops including wet and dry skid pads, an autocross, some drag racing, and lots of road course racing. Starting in South Bend, Indiana this year’s course will take us down the East Coast as far south as Daytona Beach before heading across the panhandle to New Orleans and finally turning North for a couple of long days crossing through the Mid West to return to South Bend just a week after we left.

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team has made a lot of changes over the winter, hoping to take our performance up a notch without sacrificing reliability: 

• We’ve installed a new Rick’s Stainless fuel tank featuring Carl Casanova’s VaporWorx fuel pump and controller; with the multiple pickups and surge tank design we’ve been able to run the OLC hard in testing with less than 2 gallons of fuel in the tank with no starvation issues.

• We’ve switched over to RideTech’s new Triple Adjustable coilover shocks, softening the shocks while increasing the spring rate to make the car more compliant and increasing the range of adjustability.

• We’ve installed massive Baer 6R brakes on all four corners, the 6-piston calipers and 14 inch rotors giving us additional stopping power with better pedal feedback for a more confident braking feel.

• We’ve moved to new C93 style wheels from HRE Performance Wheels for reduced weight and increased strength. The 18” fronts and 19” rears will allow us to use state-of-the-art supercar tires and look simply awesome on the car.

• We’ve incorporated new ZR1-style wheel bearings up front; SpeedTech Performance was able to modify the low-deflection hubs to work with their ATS Spindles and we’re ready to take on the high banks of Daytona with confidence.

The OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro Team has also had to scramble a bit due to some unforeseen carnage in the months and weeks leading up to our departure. While bedding our new Baer brakes a valve stem attached to our TPMS system broke, flattening a front tire. Fortunately the Run-On-Flat feature worked as advertised (saving our new HRE wheel) but the passenger side front tire needed replacing with less than 50 miles of use. Then, just a couple of days later our clutch was reduced to a smoking, warped hulk at the Editors Challenge Autocross at the Goodguys show in Del Mar. The unexpected destruction left us with only seven days to rebuild and nut-and-bolt the car before heading to the Long Beach Grand Prix – our final stop before loading the OLC and trailer up and making the long journey east.

And now, with only a week to go Mary and I are left to think – or over think – the race ahead of us and question our mental, physical, and mechanical preparation… After running our parade laps at Long Beach before the World Challenge race we found a couple of trickles of coolant pooled on the splitter… is this something? nothing? a leak or just some residual fluid? Have we forgotten anything in the trailer… our spares list is pretty extensive but is there something missing? Are wereally prepared to run on these tracks… our exposure to them is more or less limited to ESPN, Trackapedia, and YouTube. What is the weather going to do… and how are we going to deal with it? 

The ultimate question though is… are we ready for this… I hope that we are.