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2015 One Lap of America

A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 3 Ahhh..the glory of being a One Lapper. We arrived in Brush, Colorado last evening...just outside of Denver...and joined

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Old 05-05-2015, 07:46 AM   #16 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 3
Ahhh..the glory of being a One Lapper. We arrived in Brush, Colorado last evening...just outside of Denver...and joined the Schauts in a celebratory snack of Budweisers and Ann Hollis' Cookies (trademark pending). Accompanying this fantastic meal was the standard of viewing videos of the next day. Once again we brought out our handy library of videos and pulled up High Plains Raceway.
High Plains Raceway is a track owned BY racers, and provided TO racers. A novel concept! It truly is out in the middle of nowhere. Water is trucked in, the bathrooms and showers (nice as they were) were inside of trailers. It really is a nice facility with some nice amenities, but being in the middle of nowhere sort of restricts the water and sewage facilities. The track itself is FANTASTIC. Just over 3 miles in length, it has one very long straight, one shorter one and then many chutes connecting the wide variety of off and on camber turns. There is no shortage of elevation changes as many of the hills are as steep as the front stretch at Road America!
We arrived early so we had time to walk the course, and were very glad we did. Video did it no justice and seeing the turns and elevation up close gave us a greater appreciation for the beauty of the track. We also came upon the conclusion that horsepower was going to rule the day...and it did. Many of the turns are a slower speed type and speed maintenance is actually very hard here. But out of the turns and into the hilly short straights were the playground of all of the horsepower cars. We would have to just try to do our best.
Jason decided, after walking the course, that he would like to go first, as he really felt connected to the course. He went out and couldn't speak highly enough about the experience of driving....and REALLY wanted to do about 50 more laps!! Sadly our little Z didn't have the horsepower of some of the leaders and struggled to a 4th place in class finish.
Tracy went out next for the afternoon sessions, and had a nice improvement on Jason's times...yet so did everyone else. Once again we settled for a 4th place in class finish. Really not bad considering the number of cars we have in class (8) and knowing how much power each puts out. I also, however, decided that we needed to just stay here a day longer and drive the track more...how we wish. If anyone ever has the opportunity to drive this track, do yourself a favor and DO IT!
After racing, the entire One Lap field headed over to the Tirerack's newest distribution facility in Denver Co. Dinner amongst the tires was provided for all with some yummy local barbecue. It was nice to sit down and talk with all the other racers and shoot stories about everyone's experiences so far. It also was very nice to get some local traffic knowledge which saved us all about 45 minutes on our way down to Pueblo, our next stop.
It WOULD have been a completely beautiful drive except our brief periods of sunshine kept getting interrupted by periods of torrential rain showers. Crowning roads must be a lost art in Colorado as there seemed to be about 1/2 inch of standing water on the roads at times! It made for an interesting drive but thankfully we arrived at the official hotel for an early evening. Early arriving, but there seems to be a little Mexican restaurant next door with a very bright margarita sign!! I look out the window of the hotel as I type this and see all the One Lappers heading over...I realize that I'm going to be late!
So Pueblo Motorsports Park is tomorrow. Current forcast is wet in the morning so this may actually play right into the hands of our Z!! Updates tomorrow on that! We are currently 2nd in class, 25 points behind the leader and hoping to make that up. 21st place overall at the moment and working on improving that also!
Don't forget to follow Team Blenderblaster on Facebook, and check for daily updates, and updates as we experience them all day long.
We also would like to thank our partners in this venture, Winding Road Racing. They have offered us support all along the way, and they themselves are updating their Facebook page with our exploits. Drop by their website and check out not only racing supplies, but shop work if you are local to Texas, and their online magazine that is chocked full of racing, driving, cars, experiences, and all sorts of things that car geeks like us love to see!
Until tomorrow...tequila calls!
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Old 05-06-2015, 12:09 AM   #17 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 4

It appears that the rumors of the demise of the 370Z were greatly exaggerated...
We woke this morning to a slight tequila haze and wet weather greeting us in Pueblo, and it appeared that our rain dances worked! After munching down a quick breakfast (the quality of breakfast is directly correlated to the quality of the hotel it seems) we were on the road to Pueblo Motorsports Park, which was a mere 15 minutes away.
PMP is a multi use facility that appeared to have not only a 1/8 mile dragstrip and connected road course, but also a large amount of land that appeared to be set aside for dirt bikes and ATVs. I say appeared because we did get quite a bit of rain during the day, and no off roaders appeared.
Note, also, that I said CONNECTED dragstrip. And this is where the problems started. With all of the rain, the dragstrip itself (at least the start to finish lights) was unusable due to all of the rubber and the VHT compound. All of us found it odd that a compound that was used to give traction could be so absolutely ice like when some water was added.
Brock Yates Jr. weighed all sorts of options as to what to do with the event, and ran them by the competitors. The rain had already cancelled the Low E.T. event scheduled, and they ranged everywhere from using a pit access road instead of the dragstrip (too many close guardrails) to an autocross (no timing lights available). We settled on starting where the pit access road connects to the dragstrip, and following the road course until it finished at the drag staging area. This kept us off of the strip, and only lost 1/8 a mile or so off of the course length. It did, however, mean that these were One lap runs so it became basically a Solo 1 autocross.
We had already walked the course planning on running in the wet, so Tracy took over the driving duties for both sessions. Having a lot of Spec Miata experience in the rain, we felt that it would carry over into a solid performance in Pueblo. Once again we disconnected the rear swaybar and headed out onto the track. We both felt that the car looked good and felt it was a solid time, but no results were posted before we had to head up to the line for the second runs.
...And then the rain stopped. We were the 17th car in line and looking at a wet, but drying track. The luck of Mother Nature had reared its ugly head as we went out in wet conditions. Within 15 cars after the track had started drying (which is apparently very common in Pueblo...quick drying tracks) and the last 15 or 20 cars had a very nice drying track to work with.
We quickly packed and on the road to Texas we finally received our results. Our first run netted us a great 13th place overall finish...ahead of MANY top running cars. Unfortunately our second run, while improving our time by 2 seconds, only netted us a 19th place finish as many of the last cars were able to drastically improve their times in drying conditions. Sadly, we only finished second in class both runs, as Gas Monkey Garage and their Brenspeed 700 HP Mustang won both ends of the event and brought themselves up into the hunt for the overall lead. On the good side, the class leader finished 3rd and 4th in their two runs as everyone closed in. So now we sit 2nd in class, and 16th overall!
In one of the oddities of One Lap scoring, we are behind Jim-Bob racing in class points, but 3 spots ahead of them in overall scoring!!
It then was a long 10 hour drive to Texas, and our next destination, Motorsports Ranch - Cresson. Saw some beautiful scenery on the drive through southern Colorado, into New Mexico, and western Texas...along with some spectacular roads to drive. If you ever have time, you may want to explore these backroads!
On a side note, Jason did a wonderful job as when we were about 30 miles from our destination, and going through a right hand bend in the road, we were rather suprised to see another car coming at us IN OUR LANE!! Yikes!! Thank our racing reflexes, and our frequent driving shift changes, and Jason did a little off roading and safely brought us into our hotel for this evening.
And that, my friends, is where I leave you for the night. Please don't forget to follow us on Facebook at Team Blenderblaster for daily highlights and summaries.
...back to doing rain dances....
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Old 05-09-2015, 12:10 AM   #18 (permalink)
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Huge win for Nissans in both "big bore" classes. Great job and congratulations Tracey!
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Old 05-10-2015, 09:03 AM   #19 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 5
First, an apology. I know I am a day late posting this but I anticipate, that after reading this, you will understand. Little did we know what a roller coaster of a day Wednesday would bring us.
We started out our day about 25 miles north of Cressen.
Waking bright and early so we could get our track walk in at Motorsports Ranch Cressen. We had spent much of the evening before looking at video, but I assure you that video gives no justice to this little playpen of a track. Much like the Autobahn in Joliet, this is a "country club" course that can be two separate courses (1.3 and 1.7 mile) or combined into one course that would be 3.1 miles long. Brock had somehow gotten us the ability to run all three!
Jason suggested, and I agreed, that a single driver should drive all three configurations as each separate track would "build" into the longer course. So we walked the courses in the morning and were just awed by the compact nature, and elevation changes in the short 1.3 mile course. There would be no rest driving on this side! Moving over to the 1.7 course, we noted more of a traditional straight and sweeper type course, which was very different from the short course. This side would probably be more demanding physically from the G load going through all the fast sweepers.
The morning session was actually two sessions as we started on the short course, and immediately after finishing, drove over to the long course and ran that. Then we had a break for lunch and finished with an afternoon session on the combined course.
This was the first time on the track for almost everyone, so it was a pretty fair battle for times that would test the driver's ability to learn a course quickly and apply that knowledge. Strapping on the helmet, Tracy took to the short course.
I felt that the Z was handling pretty well here and once the tires heated up and brought up pressures, it was a really fun time driving around that track. One uphill, second gear turnaround I was actually spinning the tires almost all the way up the hill and couldn't stop smiling the whole time. Finishing up that track, hot and exhausted, I headed over to the long course after a quick stop for a tire pressure check.
This was the course where I thought our main competitors would have a leg up on us with all the straightaways. I tried to pedal the Z as fast as I could through the sweepers to make up for the deficit of acceleration to the Mustang and Corvette. This course also had a small VERY technical (think autocross) section called "rattlesnake". I enjoyed driving this side also and was now looking forward to the combined course. It was going to be exhausting driving that one!
By now the course being new to everyone brought out some VERY interesting lines, and all the blind apexes, hills, and speed brought on the breakages. We lost THREE cars from the event this day to various issues, and almost lost a few more.
The long course was a hoot! Raw speed and high G sweepers followed by that bullring on the short course, and transition back and forth. It really tested the drivers AND the cars, as many people complained about cars getting too hot, or just overheating. Even with the oil cooler, the Z was running at 240 degrees on the oil temp!
Well, long story short, we had a banner day! We won class all three sessions, and finished 16th on the short course, 17th on the long, and 16th on the combined! It also vaulted us into the lead in class as Jim Bob racing had quite a few issues on the course and dropped back to third in class behind Gas Monkey.
A quick pack, and side trip to Gas Monkey Grill (event sponsor), the actual Gas Monkey Garage (they were all gone on vacation, just the souvenier shop open), and then we headed to North Star Dragway...a 1/8 mile strip north of Dallas.
Since Tracy drove all of Cressen, Jason was going to get his initiation into drag racing! We talked at length about starts (He had been practicing all week!) and Low ET, and how bracket racing works. We were both VERY worried about his event because, simply put...we were missing two cylinders from all those big V8's. Our goal was to NOT finish last in the low ET, and get a few rounds into the bracket racing. How things changed...
Jason ripped out a darn nice 9.29 in the 1/8 mile which was good enough for 4th place of 8 in class...and actually beat the Gas Monkey 700 hp Mustang! That car basically had a diff hopping, wheel spinning, 1/8 mile burnout. Not pretty, but it enabled us to gain points. Next were the brackets. Jason went up, staged, blinked and opened his eyes to a green light already on. Those who drag race know that this is NOT the fast way, and it spelled an early retirement to us on the brackets.
Jason was a bit upset at himself but having done the same thing myself, I consoled him and let him sit and relax a bit as we loaded up and headed to Stillwater.
There are many stories out there of people detouring, stopping, driving through and around that weather that hit Oklahoma City that night. I won't go into all the details but you can read about it on the Team Blenderblaster Facebook page. I will summarize it by we decided on an early detour east, and JUST ran around the front side of the weather as we went through Shawnee, which 10 minutes later got hit by a tornado. We made it through with some rain and a great lightning show, and arrived in Stillwater and welcomed the rest of the drivers, as they arrived behind us, with a cold beer. Not one person turned that one down!
Once again sorry to be late on this update, and I am posting this and heading right into Day 6! We came out of this day with a 50 point lead in class, and in 16th place in the overall standings. All that is left is 2 sessions at Hallett, 2 sessions at NCM in Bowling Green, and then the dry (hopefully) skid pad challenge at the Tirerack on Saturday. Don't forget to visit our page for updates through the day, and summaries (mostly) daily!
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Old 05-10-2015, 09:04 AM   #20 (permalink)
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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.
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Old 05-10-2015, 09:05 AM   #21 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 7

This update will be a little different as it is Jason who is updating you. Tracy is pelting down I-65 in Indiana as I type. The veteran One Lappers are called Lap Dogs I am told. The newbies they like to call Lap Puppies and that is what I am as Tracy had already done the One Lap of America several years back and this is my first time. This event is very long and daunting with so much that needs to be learned in order to get your maximum out of it. Let me tell you...at the beginning of the week I was most definately not getting the most out of myself. Tracy was quick and making hay over the competition early and often. I was not. We have both raced together alot over the years and he knew I had the speed in me. He stayed patient and supported me where I needed it to extract that speed. A big shout out to fellow competitors Dan and Ben Schaut who look set to take 7th overall as they too have raced with us in ChumpCar and know I have speed in me. They all helped break down video and get my mind back to the state it needed to be to go fast out on track.
Well where is all of this leading? Today was a make or break day for us at the National Corvette Museum track in Bowling Green, KY. We had a 25 point lead over the 2nd place Mustang of Gas Monkey Garage. This was the last day of road course events so we were down to the wire. Strategy is very important as we have mentioned previously and today we were going for broke. Concept was to put Tracy out there first as he had run a portion of the course with the Schuats in ChumpCar. This panned out tremendously as he was lightning fast out there. He took 13th overall and 1st in class by 20 seconds. As luck would have it our main rival made a large set of black skidmarks as he misjudged the fast chicane at the end of the main straight and made several pirouttes. He still managed to get 3rd place but with our win the lead had extended to 35 points. Now the spolight was being shined brightly in my direction. So far I haven't been able to gain our team points in the manner I would like and we are running short on opportunites to pull this off. I took the video from Tracy's run and poured over it intently then sat down with Tracy and discussed all of the finer aspects of the braking points, turn-ins and throttle applications. As the temperature clibed to 89 degrees so too did my anxiousness. Time to legitimize my invite to join this event. With all of my class competition having run the course in the morning I had to come up big. On the recon lap I worried the C6 Z06 ahead of me enough to get a pass by before the start. That was a boost. I launched with the intent to put the 3 fastest laps I had even run out on that track. Let me tell you those 3 laps were some curb jumping tire squealing vehicle pounding enjoyment. Once I got back into the paddock area Tracy greated me with the news that I had narrowly beat the 2nd place Gas Monkey Garage Mustang by 1 second on his stopwatch. Now it is not easy to time these gaps accurately so we had to wait forever it seemed for the official results. Drum roll please...I took first place by 1.2 seconds over the Gas Money Garage boys in 2nd. My first win in class this week. All of the work Tracy put in with me paid off. With our team picking up two wins today we increased our lead to an unsurmountable 40 points with just the Dry Skid Pad event left tomorrow. Tracy and I have secured the SSGT2 Big Bore class championship for the 2015 One Lap of America. What an event and what a way to spend the week after turning forty. It is now time to enjoy why it is called Team BlenderBlaster...fill up your cup because it's time to party.

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.
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Old 05-12-2015, 04:16 PM   #22 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 8

8 days a week goes the song and that's what it feels like on our last day. After getting the results from the afternoon runs at NCM, it was a brisk 5.5 hour trip to South Bend on the last leg of the OLOA 2015. We found it strange that, after only a week, a 5.5 hour trip could be considered brisk!

The last hour on the road was a familiar one as South Bend was hit by a significant rain shower and once again the Z was treated to a free car was courtesy of mother nature. But thankfully we pulled into the event hotel, checked in, and joined the quickly growing party at the hotel bar. That was where the fun began. Everyone was commiserating around, meeting up with people they had barely seen on the road, exchanging stories, laughing and finally unwinding after 3400 miles. Thankfully none of us were driving anywhere that evening so we just....unwound.

It was a short night of sleep after a long evening, and everyone rolled into their cars. The group was generally divided into 2 camps. Those who were done driving for the week, and those who had to drive in a circle as fast as they could while feeling a bit "under the weather". Thankfully Jason had the skid pad today, and I only had to unpack the car, and repack after it was all done.

Due to the rain the evening before, we arrived at the Tirerack to a semi damp pavement. We still had plenty of time to go as first thing on the agenda was the "Survivor photoshoot" where a picture is done from a crane of all the cars that survived this years event. Everyone was directed to a place, all the participants stood by their cars and after an hour of placing cars, it was all over in 2 minutes. A bit disappointing but looking around and noticing that a full 25% of the cars that started the event fell out due to some reason or another. This, I was told, was a fairly large amount of cars that didn't finish and we counted ourselves happy to have had such a reliable car as the 370Z.

Now all the cars went back to paddock an started lining up for the final event, the "Dry" skid pad. As I said earlier, the pavement was still a little damp, but we quickly saw that turn to a dry line, and finally just dry by the end of the session. The cars were lined up with the lowest placing car running first, and proceeding up the standings until the leader was the last car to run. Most of the placings were already determined before this event, however some of the overall standings could change, so people were taking this very seriously. Due to our overall standing, we lined up 17th from last (of 45) which was actually 16th as one of the GTRs fell out previous to NCM, but had so many points we couldn't catch them in the standings.

Jason arrived to the skid pad as it was somewhere between a dry line, and totally dry. So fairly good conditions to see what the Z could do. All that our Z had for suspension changes were some camber arms, a front swaybar, and our tire setup. Normally the 370Z comes with a staggered tire setup of 245 width tires up front, and 275s in the rear. Due to the constraints of room inside the car on the transits, I decided to go with a "square" setup and put 285s on 18 x 10 inch rims all around.

We were VERY happy to see that the car pulled a 1.004 Gs on the skidpad! This was enough to place us 14th overall, and JUST out of 13th, and was a great way to close out the event. It was hard to believe, as we packed the car for the ride home, that this week was over.

The event closed out with the awards ceremony amongst thousands of rims and tires inside the Tirerack facility. It overwhelming smell of rubber mattered little to all as we gathered for one last meal together and listened to Brock Yates Jr hand out all the awards for the top finishers, and some of the more special awards given out. We were happy to take home the award for First Place SSGT2 BB, and will proudly be displaying that on my mantle, but for some reason, a trophy seems so much of a sidenote to the entire event. All the miles, the transits, the tracks, from impromtu gatherings to finding a steakhouse on the side of the road. This and more will be soaked in as there is still a 2 hour drive home from South Bend...heck, that is just a drive around the corner now!
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Old 05-12-2015, 07:34 PM   #23 (permalink)
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A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Our Recap

It's Tuesday, and I think I can finally say that I am no longer sleep deprived. It has really taken this long to recover (though not fully) and to soak in all that has gone on during the past 8 days of The One Lap of America. I can honestly say that I'm glad no world changing events happened while I was gone, because there is a good chance I never would have known. The world you live in during the event is so centralized within a small world of your car, the hotels you wake up in, then go to sleep in, and the tracks. Between getting naps on the road (not particularly easy in the 370Z) and writing updates, along with studying tomorrow's track, you just don't have the time to see what else is going on around you.

Little did I know back in December of 2013, when my wife and I bought the 370Z, how this would all unfold. Now, realize, that officially this is HER car...I just have permission to drive it. One of the items we discussed when buying the car was driving it in the OLOA and she agreed to that. We also came to agreement that I can modify the car however I wish...as long as she didn't notice it. That opened up quite the shopping list, but also restricted it quite a bit.

The one thing that she would notice was the exhaust (she agreed it would be okay as long as it wasn't TOO loud) so I had to shop carefully with that in mind. But every modification was carefully thought out to be a bang for the buck, or a reliability item. And after putting it on was the test ride...hoping she didn't notice anything! I just prayed that there were no squeaks, creaks or groans, whining or clunking, that couldn't be covered up with the radio. Oh, I replaced that too so it was a little louder
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.

When we started the week we had looked over the entry list and had seen all of the big V8s in the class. We had confidence in our driving ability, but little confidence that our "Big Bore" V6 could overcome the horsepower deficit that, with some cars, was double ours! That lasted until the first track where, at Mid American Raceway, we got a glimpse of what was possible with the 370Z. The car performed flawlessly! The only issue we had was some brake pad deposit on the front rotors, which we changed out. It just goes to show what good and careful preparation will get you in an endurance event like this.

We studied the weak points of the 370Z...brake cooling, oil cooling a few smaller things that could go wrong on the trip. We tried to use what is a great platform, and smartly accentuate the strong points of the car...the handling. That was, in the end, the one thing we had that others had a hard time matching. Oh, don't get me wrong...there is more to do! But we feel that we have made a great start on the project.

I would like to thank my wife Marci for putting up with all my crazy modifications in the car, and letting me take her pride and joy on this adventure. Hopefully she knows that this isn't the end of this, and the car needs more work. Hopefully she won't notice!

I would like to thank my codriver Jason Cange and his fiance Connie for letting him go for a week. Jason and I have been racing together, in some form or another, for the past 15 years and this week just culminated it. He did an incredible job getting behind the wheel of an unfamiliar car and over the week picked up his pace until he was getting top finishes at the end. Not to mention his patience and latitude with putting up with ME for a week! We truly did have a great time together in the car, at the track and everywhere in between and there isn't anyone else I would have wanted to experience this with. And everyone has asked so here is the truth. Only at the end of one long commute (Pueblo to Texas) very late at night when our GPS units were arguing (his won) did we start getting a bit snippy with each other...it truly is a test of a friendship.

I would like to thank Winding Road Racing for their support during this week. Tom and Juliann were truly excited to partner in this event, and saw the possibility of the nationwide exposure, but also saw a couple of fellow SM racers going out on an adventure. I truly believe that this is what racing is truly about for me. Big events are nice and flashy, and some of them even have good racing. But the uniqueness of the OLOA, the huge variety of cars, from Nissan GTRs, to an Ariel Atom...American Muscle to American Stationwagons...everything was seen. It's the same variety and uniqueness you see when you read Winding Road Racing's online magazines, and talk to them in person. Truly wonderful people within the racing community and I thank them for the opportunity to represent them.

I would like to thank all of the fellow competitors in the OLOA. We were quickly accepted into the fold as racers, and always offered help if needed, advice if asked, and a driving partner down the road if we went fast enough! It truly is a big family and I can't wait to see all of you next year.

And of course, I would like to thank all of you, the followers of Team Blenderblaster. You made us laugh, made us think, made us push our limits until we finally were able to fulfill the promise that the 370Z had shown, and take the victory in our class in the 2015 One Lap of America.

Only 355 days left....

Tracy Ramsey
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Old 05-12-2015, 07:35 PM   #24 (permalink)
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I would also like to give a thank you to the many people who helped me to, cost effectively, get the Z up to snuff for this event. I ended up wasting ZERO dollars as all of the mods I did for the car I did only once...pretty spectacular if you know me, and how picky I am! Thanks again!...you know who you are

Tracy Ramsey
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:42 AM   #25 (permalink)
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Video from NCM Grand course in Bowling Green. Badly pulsing rotors (replaced after this run) slowed me a bit, but came through with a 13th place overall finish...not so shabby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qb8xR8ldQw
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Old 05-14-2015, 08:23 AM   #26 (permalink)
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Great read, Tracy! Thanks for sharing. It sounds like an incredible event
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Old 05-14-2015, 04:38 PM   #27 (permalink)
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Ive got to read through all this still.

Just wanted to comment... last night I saw a white 370z with several stickers on it headed west on interstate 88. I was driving my mustang and thought about chasing it down, but I figured I would never catch it
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Old 05-14-2015, 09:29 PM   #28 (permalink)
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HAHA, yes that was me heading to the SCCA BOD meeting! I had to stop by a sponsor and get pics. It gets "destickered" this weekend. My wife will be happy....

Tracy Ramsey
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Old 05-20-2015, 12:16 PM   #29 (permalink)
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Just read the write-up - sounds like an awesome time was had!

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