2015 One Lap of America

Zauskycop

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!