Saturday, May 12, 2012

Day 8 Complete . Last day......

     Well Day 8 of One Lap of America is complete and the Slo-Motion Team has complete their first One Lap of America/Cannonball event.

    What a GREAT week, Spending time with Herman this week ha been one of the best parts, but I'll have to tell you this 150+ MPH down the front drag strip at Brainerd and taking turn one on a track I had never heard if before not to metion never seen before been on at well over 100 was pretty exhilarating.

 Now for the Official One Lap of America results.

    We have won our class, all be it small, and considering we missed a total of four events, we still finished 56th overall ahead of several veteran teams that made to every event this year.

 White Trash overall did Great, even with a few bearing and fuel issues that we had it's still running like a top. Only thing is we may be changing the name to Dirty White Trash as I don't think we will ever get all the bugs and brake dust off.

 And by the way, just in case anyone ask if we would do it again, we are already making on a list of what we need to do for next year..... The top items on the list are... #1 BRAKES, #2 BRAKES, #3 BRAKES, #4 MORE Horsepower believe it or not.... We didn't bring a knife to a gunfight, but we did bring a .22 caliber to a 50 CAL machine gun fight.. With some of the factory teams and hired gun drivers along with the years of experience there from some of the other one lappers that have been doing this for over 20 years, we have a long way to go or a lot of money to come up with to finish well up in the overall. But I have to say for a " one lap pup team " which is terminology for rookies. we fell pretty good overall considering we had never driven any of these tracks at speed and the one that had even been seen was Hastings that Herman got visit.. We have transitioned from "one lap pups" to "one lap dogs"


I do believe that One Lap of America is by far is the best way to see many tracks in a short time to get a quick glimpse of some of the best tracks in the country. Can't wait till it hits more that we haven't seen yet.



The image below is a link for the link to  Highland Design Studio Galleries the professional phontographers that followed us all overer the country.






Stay tuned as when I post videos I will be posting links here on the blog along with as many more pictures as these prior postings have all been on the road and typing in the passenger seat of DWT with just a few hours of sleep which hasn't the most convenient.

Special thanks to GMParts Direct .com , Flow GMC , Kenny and Chris with Verizon, Exclusive Motorwerks, Precision Import Repair, and Ben Christie and the kids.

If you visited this blog and can do so please make any monetary donation possible to the

Thanks for riding with us.

Now on our way home home to see our lovely brides and get some well needed rest.

Day 8 Tire Rack

Tire Rack in South Bend, Indiana and the last event, dry skid pad. With damp air and overcast skys we wondered if it may be our second wet skid pad instead.

Before the last event we are ranked 57 out if 75 cars and first in class with this last event to go.

Can't wait to see how we do.


Friday, May 11, 2012

Day 7 Complete

Car did fine and got a huge workout on the brakes. What a great track. FAST but VERY intimidating.  Super fast corners if you have the confidence in your wheel bearings and brakes? What a great place. I really want to come back.

Hit the road early but got caught in rush hour traffic in Chicago but jumped off the highway to get gas and found an alternate route.

Made it back to South Bend by 10 pm.


Day 7 Road America

What a beautiful track! This palce is huge and very fast. Going to be a big test on these smaller brakes. Great weather and great views of manicured fields and paddock areas. Just beautiful, but now for the bad news as Herman goes on track for the recon lap the brakes go away to nothing. Evidently the dragstrip wasn't as kind to us as we thought. Looks as though the left rear axle nut worked itself loose and the movement after going into turn one pushed the brake piston back into the caliper and he had to pump the brakes get them back so back to the pits to be safe. This was a little unnerving due to the fact that Dubler running the CTS-V Wagon lost his brakes in turn 8 and ended up rolling and flipping over the jersey barrier.

Got the loose nut on the axle tight now and getting prepared to go out for the afternoon session. Now all we have RO worry about is the loose nut behind the wheel......





Thursday, May 10, 2012

Day 6 Brainerd complete.

Well after a great morning run on the full coarse the the afternoon was a little different but still OK.

We lined up in what I thought was a group that I would be in the front so there would be no traffic. Boy was I wrong one of our fellow competitors was not quite as fast as he thought he was and to make it worse tried to block the track and not let me by. A little exciting when he early brake check and I brake late into one. Can't wait to see the video on this one. Bad bad thing is no apology or or penalty for him balking us. Lost tons of time and would have placed alot better,but thats OK.

Oh well I still had a blast and learned something else about one lap. Get the stewards involved earlier in the line up if the other slower driver is not willing to move back in the pack for the start.
Lesson learned...

Now on to the much awaited Alxe breaking portion of the event, I mean Drag Races.

It was Great. We just beat ourselves. Herman did great on launch and shift, consistent and smooth on all runs. On the grid round he let off not to break out and a CTS-V inched him out. The good thing is no more stress in the car and we get to load and bit the road a little sooner.

Well now we've loaded up and hit the road. We expect to be in Wisconsin at Road America less than 7 hours with fuel and necessity stops we hope.



Day 6

Welcome to Brainerd, home of the fastest turn one of all road coarses in North America. Wow what a ride. Left alot out there again. Still busting out over 4000 rpms, think that it may be fuel pressure issue ir the 91 ictane as not as bad but still not sure. No pressure gauge at the track to test and wont have time to stop due to the travel coming up. If we are slow on the throttle its not as bad but still there.

Even with issues we chased down a Laguna Seca mustang till I got on the back side. Had a BLAST.

Should start posting videos to you tube soon.  You got to see this.


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Night 5

Just after midnight and still 3 hours of driving to get to the hotel. Atleaat the roads in lower Minnesota are smoother than I thought they were going to be. We did opt to go straight interstate and skip the mule deer trails and the small town constables. While driving through Iowa got to see what looked what UFOs had dropped. Looked pretty cool.

Track events start at 8 in the a.m. so short night tonight but atleast we get a to freshen up. We decided tonight that I would drive the road course events and Herman would do the drag strip. Couple of notes about tomorrows events, the long road course uses a one mile front straight away before going into turn one so brakes are going to be key, and on the drags they are going off straight times not reaction times.



Day 5 MPH Complete

All events done at Motorsports Park Hastings. Thanks Ben for the ice and tail light for the trailer, now we'll have one less excuss to have a side of the road discusion. Hope to see you guys again real soon.

Now to the track details. I ran the first event and auto cross while Herman ran the afternoon track event. Had a good morning run but left alot on the table with all of these little issues coming into play it works on you confidence level knowing that your only half way there and waiting for the next shoe to drop, but knock on wood today was uneventful for us so far, unlike others.

The auto cross was really messed up. No falt of Hastings , George and his crew there was GREAT.  The local SCCA set the coarse up and after the first 10 cars were down to the last run a Mustang got away and tried to jump a fence. We are out west but not that far. They had reset the coarse by shortening one of the corners to tame down the speed so then all that had already competed got to go again so that ran everything behind.

So here we are on the road for 9 plus hours to Brainerd MN for two road coarse events and two drag events.


Day 5 half way

Made it to to Hastings Nebraska after the check engine light came on. Went and checked the code and it was low voltage to ecm. Come to find out after starting we pulled the key back and shut power is all that is was; Cleared the code and did our track walk. Really flat, I mean flat...

Hanging out with Ben at the track and I am planning to go out first run and Herman the second.

11:45 break for lunch. Seemed ok on track except for busting out and stumbling on top end. Lack of fuel maybe? Octane and or pressure? Wont worry with it for now. May get better with higher octane we hope.



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Day 4 Continues

<p>Herman's run had a slight issue. After our repair from Day 3 it seems that we had a new rubbing/grinding noise when under hard throttle and turning right. After his run we looked the wheel was tucked under closer and was close enough to rub the wheel weight till it finally feel off. Something like that just after a repair made you real nervous on track, even with that he finished. Even taking it easy after hearing the noise Herman finished ahead of our competition. </p>
<p>Between runs we made some minor adjustments and all was well.</p>
<p>I went out in the second session and car felt great

We are in transit to Hasting and try to make up some more ground.




Day 4

We MADE IT to High Plains in Colorado and Herman is getting ready RO hit the track.


Monday, May 7, 2012

Day 3 continues......

Made it to Kearney Nebraska and with the help of Ben ,family and fellow Porsche owner, put us in touch with his import mechanic at Precision Imports Repair .

So here is how we stand with the issues at hand.

Issue 1. Not resolved. Still running a bypass to keep coolant out of they heater core.

Issue 2 Seems to be resolved with better gas and we have a little extra go juice. We wont really know till we get on the track for sure. Don't like the unknown on this one, we will see.

Issue 3. Resolved. Water temp is down to normal.

Issue 4. RESOLVED!!!!!! Rich and his sons at Precision Import Repair got us fixed while we had a great lunch with Ben and Brent. If your going to miss a day at the track and hang around a shop, I don't think you could ever have a better one.

Now for the best part ......  we are in transit to Colorado for tomorrows event, back on track! The only bad part is leaving as we missed an opportunity for a great dinner with Ben, Christie and the kids, and hang the the animals (Skittles the miniature donkey was so cool).

Thank you guys so much for the hospitality. By the way Ben cool garage.

Also, do you remember Issue #1...... no heater core...... the temp expected at the track in the AM is suppose to be 37 degrees. That's right 37. Sure would be nice for some heat. Wouldn't you know the A/C works GREAT.



Day 3

Well, looked all over Omaha and no bearing.

    We know we are missing Hallet in Oklahoma for sure and now it looks like we are missing High Plains in Colorado as well.

    On our way to Kearney Nebraska where parts will meet us tomorrow so we can get it swapped out and continue with the One Lap group to try and salvage points.

   Hopefully we can at least finish back in South Bend.



Sunday, May 6, 2012

Day 2 NOT SO GOOD! But it's not over......

     Day 2 starts out with our head's finally hitting the bed at 3:23 am Central time for a good nights sleep of about three and a half hours, or so we thought.

    At 5 am I awakened to the sound of tornado warning horns and the building shaken by the wind in one of the worst storms I have seen for about 45 minutes, bad enough I thought to put pants on just incase I got swept out the window in my sleep drawers, sorry I know bad visual there....   Fell asleep finally as the alarm awakes us around 7 so we can be at the track by 9am as we were ranked in the second half of the starting grid. Really all and all, not as bad as it sounds, shoot Herman sleep right through it and doesn't reember me waking him up just in case we needed to take cover.

    After a quick breakfast off to the Mid America Motorplex "MAD" and thats when it starts to get good.

Issue # 1
  
      Less than a 5 minutes from the hotel Herman tells me he has HOT water pooring out from the dash on his side...... not good. We dive off the road to get a quick acessment of the situation realizing we have less than an hour to get to the track and start unloading. First we try closing te partial H valve we put in but it still had pressure dumping into the car, so had to cut the hose and bypass it all.  Got everyting closed up and the fine people of Walgreens allowed us to use their hose to get us filled up.So off to the races,,,,, literally.


     Get to the track in about 45 minutes so all is well except for the stress and nerves, but " it is what it is " take a deep breath and move on.

      Spent an hour or so preping and studying the track map trying to figure out and get lined up in our quilifying spot. Finally calmed down and feeling pretty good about things.

Issue #2 

     WT doesn't like 91 Octane........ At all..... Right out of the gate on he recon lap as I appoach 4000 - 4500 RPM's it starts falling off hard, almost to the point of busting out. What we think is the lower octain higher ethanol fuel caused spark knock to blow the timing out of wack. Still though we went out first in my group and put in an OK time but left alot on the track but still had a BLAST! I think we were 59th over all even with all my off apex issues the lack of house power on top end. Didn't think I would ever say that about WT, lack of horsepower.

 

Issue # 3

      On the cool down lap notice that the coolant temp was rising and almost to 230 which is high for WT, then it kept climbing and climbing and climbing....... We starting pooring what water we had over the radiator and got it down slowly by keeping the fans running cycling the water flow. Looks as though with all of the rushing on the side of the road and the Walgreens parking lot I didnt get all of the air out of the cooling system. that could have been really really bad. But another lesson learned, slow down, don't stress and do it right.


Got the cooling issue resovled and tested and all seems to be well. Utill..........

Issue # 4 and the hits just keep coming......

      On one final check over before Herman takes ove the wheel for the afternoon session, we jacked up the car for a final check over and on the last wheel we check "the left rear" I notice the wheel bearing is almost shot...... we can't take a chance on putting Herman on the track to get a time.


So,,,, now everyone sees why we are late posting today BUT IT'S not over.

    We have plan to miss Hallett in OK and try to pickup a bearing ASAP and and get it installed. We are heading to a local shop in the morning with a goal of being on the road to try to catch up with the group in and keep the points going. Our alternate plan if we cant find a bearing is to order one next day air and have it in so we can be there at Hasting Nebraska event.






Saturday, May 5, 2012

Day 1 into Day 2

2AM est. and still an hour and half to go to hotel. Extra 30 minutes due to the super nice Iowa state trooper letting us know that our tail light went out on the trailer and also reminded us of what  approved state speed limit is on HWY 80.

Thank you Mr officer.

I think we will need to fix the trailer lights during day 2 as we are pretty sure we are not done with the night driving for this week.

Day 1 done

Loaded our gear and left the track. GPS says 7+ hours to the hotel into a blistering sunset. Guess what we forgot.......Sunvisors.....



Still at Autobahn at 7:25 and still waiting to hit the track.

Hermans lap will be our qualifying for our group for the week.


Chilling at Autobahn

Looks like all made it to Autobahn except for an Evo team.

Trying to catch a few zzzzzz's before he hits the track.




Day 1

It has begun.
Two events down for the first day and one to go. Chris did the wet skid at Tire Rack and felt like I left alot on the table, WT didn't get loose at all. Oh well not bad for the first try, just didn't want to get embarrassed on the event out.
Second event for the day was at. South Bend Speedway. Looked as small as Bowman Gray but with banks. COOOL. WT stuck pretty good. Haven't got a clue on times and placement as we had to hit the road quick. We had a little directional malfunction in transit to the SB Speedway but back on track now, did get to see Notre Dame campus. GPS says we should be at the next event at Autobahn by 12:16. Will wait to see what the weather is going to do before we stop to get gas. If its wet we will go ahead and fill up before to add weight to the rear.
Herman is driving now and to get settled behind to do Autobahn.





Friday, May 4, 2012

Last real meal......???

Great dinner at the hotel tonight. Thought it would be a good idea to have real food tonight without having to go out. Looks like this will be the last full night of sleep we will get for 8 days. Looking forward to getting started in the morning.


Back to the Hotel

Well back to the hotel for the last bag back for 8 days. Car and trailer is all set and ready to go in the am for three events, skid pad at 8 then to South Bend Speedway, following Autobahn near Chicago IL.



Drivers meeting at 3

<p>Had our drivers meeting at 3. Touching moment from Brock Jr when he said he dad couldn't make it due to his alzheimers.

Looks like Matt Farah from The Car Show on the speed channel is along foe the ride in a BMW X5. Also plenty of media insure for the registration day.




For Pop and Paw.

This whole crazy idea of Herman and I doing this one lap this year for the first time is one more we can check off the bucket list. We've dedicated this years run for us to the memory Herman's dad Lewis A Porter (my grandfather) and my dad "Pat" Lewis A Porter Jr (Herman's brother) who have both past. It's one of those things we wanted to do for a few years now, we just didn't want to put off any longer as we just don't know what is around our next corner.

We are really proud of our Slo-Motion Speed Shop logo in the center of the hood and our team shirts reproduced by my brother-in-law Keith Lunsford. The other pictures around the logo are of them in their younger days and of us with the family race car.

Remember all we are never guaranteed tomorrow sow live every day at its fullest and by all means HAVE FUN!

Chris


Decals are on

Decals are done.......white trash is looking better.   





Getting ready.

Getting the trailer spares together and starting put the decals on white trash.......in strategic locations of course......


Pulled in Tire Rack

Pulled into Tire Rack this morning for registration and decal day.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

In South Bend

Made it with no problems to the hotel and all is well 688 miles and a few tanks of gas later pulling the white trash trailer. Stopped and meet with a few of the other participants and Brock Yates Jr for some insight on what to expect tomorrow. Everyone was real friendly and very helpful. If the next week + is anything like today it's going to be Great. Looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Tomorrow we will be going through technical inspection and getting all decalled up in time for 3 o'clock drivers meeting.

Passing thru Toledo OH.

Well 7pm est and passed one of our favorite stores but no time to to stop and shop.  Making good time so pressing on. Tow Denali is doing great. Look to be in south Bend in time for a good nights rest. Keeping an eye on the trailer time temps and pressures and seem to be doing fine.