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Zauskycop · 05-10-2015, 09:04 AM

A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 6

We awoke this morning a bit tired from the late night the previous evening, took a quick shower and headed out for a 40 mile drive to Hallett Raceway. Hallett is an older track, but has been mostly repaved. One Lap of America visits this track often as it is at a "bridge" location between the east and west sides of the country. They love us here! We were greeted by a very friendly staff who were excited to talk to everyone and see how their week was going. It also gave the One Lappers who didn't make it to the hotel the previous evening a chance to share their stories with everyone else. There are some hairy stories out there, and thankfully, it appears everyone made it around or through the storms unscathed.
Hallett is a wonderful, short (1.7 miles) combination of blind apexes, blind hills, straights and off camber turns. It is truly challenging for a seasoned driver, let alone someone who is new to the circuit! With all the slow turns and straights, it also lends itself to higher horsepower cars, which became apparent after the day was over.
Jim Bob and Gas Monkey both had experience on this course and kept telling us how much fun we would have, and we were looking forward to it. Jason decided to go first as he still had a chip on his shoulder after the early bracket racing exit. Once again, some video studies, and some track walk and we came up with a plan. Now, to execute.
And that, it seems, is the hardest thing to do. Between the blind corners and exits, and the difficulties in learning the course, neither of us had a particularly good day Jason ended up finishing 4th in class, and Tracy wasn't much better with a 3rd place in class in the afternoon. Overall, these times were only good for 29th, and 24th respectively.
So after today, Team Blenderblaster is still sitting 1st in class, but our point lead has shrunk in half, to 25 points, to the Gas Monkey Mustang and we only have 2 events left at NCM Raceway, in Bowling Green. Strategy is starting to play into our planning now too. Tracy has some good knowledge of NCM from running (and winning!) a Chump Car race there last September, and hopefully this knowledge will play into our hands. We aren't sure if anyone else in our class has run on the very new (1 year old) track, and new tracks seem to play into our favor.
So now we are trekking through Missouri and enjoying some of the nice hilly and winding roads on the way to Bowling Green. Well, Tracy not so much as he is trying to type and update and Jason is JUST NOT BEING SMOOTH! Need to work on being more typing friendly while he drives.
Tracy will run first tomorrow and try to turn that knowledge into another class win, then let Jason study up that video, and try to get a solid finish also so we can arrive at the Tirerack with a 20+ point lead. That would make the skid pad challenge much less nerve racking!
Once again, follow Team Blenderblaster on our Facebook page, follow our Sponsor and Partner in this adventure, Winding Road Racing on Facebook, or at their own web page.

05-10-2015, 09:04 AM	#20 (permalink)
Zauskycop Base Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Hinckley IL Posts: 228 Drives: 2012 370Z, '16 Miata Rep Power: 13	A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 6 We awoke this morning a bit tired from the late night the previous evening, took a quick shower and headed out for a 40 mile drive to Hallett Raceway. Hallett is an older track, but has been mostly repaved. One Lap of America visits this track often as it is at a "bridge" location between the east and west sides of the country. They love us here! We were greeted by a very friendly staff who were excited to talk to everyone and see how their week was going. It also gave the One Lappers who didn't make it to the hotel the previous evening a chance to share their stories with everyone else. There are some hairy stories out there, and thankfully, it appears everyone made it around or through the storms unscathed. Hallett is a wonderful, short (1.7 miles) combination of blind apexes, blind hills, straights and off camber turns. It is truly challenging for a seasoned driver, let alone someone who is new to the circuit! With all the slow turns and straights, it also lends itself to higher horsepower cars, which became apparent after the day was over. Jim Bob and Gas Monkey both had experience on this course and kept telling us how much fun we would have, and we were looking forward to it. Jason decided to go first as he still had a chip on his shoulder after the early bracket racing exit. Once again, some video studies, and some track walk and we came up with a plan. Now, to execute. And that, it seems, is the hardest thing to do. Between the blind corners and exits, and the difficulties in learning the course, neither of us had a particularly good day Jason ended up finishing 4th in class, and Tracy wasn't much better with a 3rd place in class in the afternoon. Overall, these times were only good for 29th, and 24th respectively. So after today, Team Blenderblaster is still sitting 1st in class, but our point lead has shrunk in half, to 25 points, to the Gas Monkey Mustang and we only have 2 events left at NCM Raceway, in Bowling Green. Strategy is starting to play into our planning now too. Tracy has some good knowledge of NCM from running (and winning!) a Chump Car race there last September, and hopefully this knowledge will play into our hands. We aren't sure if anyone else in our class has run on the very new (1 year old) track, and new tracks seem to play into our favor. So now we are trekking through Missouri and enjoying some of the nice hilly and winding roads on the way to Bowling Green. Well, Tracy not so much as he is trying to type and update and Jason is JUST NOT BEING SMOOTH! Need to work on being more typing friendly while he drives. Tracy will run first tomorrow and try to turn that knowledge into another class win, then let Jason study up that video, and try to get a solid finish also so we can arrive at the Tirerack with a 20+ point lead. That would make the skid pad challenge much less nerve racking! Once again, follow Team Blenderblaster on our Facebook page, follow our Sponsor and Partner in this adventure, Winding Road Racing on Facebook, or at their own web page.