Finished One Lap

[WestTexasS2K]

Well we finished the One Lap of America. It was no small feet I can assure you. We had a very rocky start and we had to play catch uo for the rest of the week. We started with the wet skid pad at the Tire Rack headquarters in Southbend In. We knew this was going to be one of our weaker events due to the light with of the car. The front wheel and all wheel drive cars dominate this part of the competition. We quickly loaded and ran to a small 1/4 paved oval with 16 degree banking. We get to take 1 warm up lap and then stop at the start finish line for a combined 3 lap run timed run. The Ultralite redeemed itself on this run from the wet skid pad. I just left the car in 2nd gear ran it up to 9000 in the straight when it hit the rev limiter tap the brakes and turned in and power thru the turn. The little vtec engine at 9000 rpm bouncing of the concrete wall received a standing ovation from the spectators in the bleachers. We place 7th there up from 60th in the skid pad. (92 cars started the event). We then headed about 200 miles to Joilet ILL to run at Autobahn CC. As we got closer to the track we noticed a strange noise coming from the rear of the car. We traced the noise to the rear diff. So we jacked the car up and pulled the diff out in the grass area of the track to see what the problem was. We quickly noticed a large chunk of metal stuck to the rear magnet and upon investigation found the pinion gear missing a tooth. We had no choice at the moment but to run the car because our run group was quickly approaching and no time to go get a spare. We ran this event at about 65% so as not to cause alot more damage and to give us a chance to find a place to find a spare. (Remember no support vehicles or tow vehicles are allowed. YOu are on your own) We called a few local yards that had just what we were looking for but they all were closing in less than 30 minuetes and still had the diffs in the car that they were not willing to pull out until monday. Not and option for us since we were suppose to be in Salt Lake city that monday morning. So we call our good friends Chuck and Barb Spera because I know he has spares. We had just left him 3 hours earlier at the Tire Rack facility, He was returning home to ready his car for an autocross on Sunday. Now Chuck lives outside of Detroit some 3 hours away from Tire Rack and We were about the same distance so we agreed to meet at change the diff out. Chuck not only dropped his car prep and race to bring us the diff but wouldn;t take a dime for the diff or gas money for his 6 hours of driving to save us from sure failure. What great friends. So a diff change was performed in the parking lot a midnight by flashilight and headlights from chucks truck. At this same time we noticed a heavy oil leak with was traced to a cracked brass T that feeds t he supercharger. When we tried to remove the fitting it broke off in the block flush. We had no EZ outs available but manged to get it out by driving a torque bit into it and easing it out Luckily we had a spare set of fittings with us. We hit the road a 12.30 am head for Mid America some 650 miles away we were due at 8 am. We drove all night in the pouring rain doding numerous tornadoes to arrive at Mid America at 900 am late for our session but due to the heavy rains the track was muddy and had large puddles of standing water to clear off. We performed poorly there due to the wet track. See skid pad results. We placed 60th overall. same as the wet skid pad. Our next stop was a measly 1080 miles away west of Salt Lake City Utah at possibly the nicest race track in america Miller Motorsports park. Now the Diff the Chuck had brought us was 3.54 we had originally had 4.11 so the car just didn;t have the drive out of the corners that we wanted and it place our shift points all out of wack. We did ok placing 19 or so there on both events. We decided that a 4.11 had to be loacated for us to do well. So we found a local yard that had a 4.11 on hand so we left the track and headed to the wrecking yard to fi

[slngsht]

I need to go lay down after reading this. You guys are super humans :lol:

[solder_guy]

Oh my gosh .. I'm glad you are still walking and talking after an eventful week!

 

There's a certain amount of misery that I can tolerate .. working 24 hour shifts .. I think you have topped out! Sleep well!

 

I have yanked diffs in the junkyard twice .. and installed in the parking lot of the junkyard once! Not my favorite thing to do on a sunny Sunday off. (I like magnetic drain plugs too!)

 

Rob

 

[R1 Seven]

I think that "good effort" might be an understatement here...

 

Thanks for the writeup...that is a tale you can pass on for generations to come. :thumbs:

[11Budlite]

WOW!!! You've done yourself and the Se7en community proud!! Congratulations Loren and Kevin!!!

[locost7018]

Your nutzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Welcome home and a job well done, Russ

[Al N.]

Loren- Awesome job and recap! Now take a few weeks to recover physically,mentally, and financially, then load up the trailer (the one that hitches to your Ultralight) and let the rest of us see the Se7en that runs One Lap! No worries if you can't make it, of course. Thanks for representing the world of Se7ens in spirited fashion. And for those of you who have not done hard miles in the pouring rain...I highly recommend it. Nothing helps you bond with your car like an epic drive that requires literally bailing out your cockpit afterwards — and I think Loren's car doesn't even have the benefit of a half-top.

[powderbrake]

Awesome, Loren,.... simply awesome !!!

 

You are truely an iron man to go through all of that without throwing in the towel.

 

I wonder what you would do if you ever got the chance to finish a car ahead of time , and have a couple months to sort out the gremlins. At least you could get some sleep, and I am sure you would really scare those Vipers and Vettes. There were a lot of fantastic cars in the 68 vehicles that were behind you in the standings.

 

Congratulations on an awesome finish, #2 in SSGT2SB class, just behind the #3 overall event winner with the professional drivers.

 

:hurray:

[xflow7]

Wow. Thanks for writing that up. Amazing story and I'm impressed at how well you placed in the various events given all the unforeseen issues along the way.

 

I've always thought One Lap would be fun. Not so sure now!