Today presented competitors with a full schedule of events. First we had the skid pad competition at Tire Rack. This comprises of three laps clockwise and three laps in an anti-clockwise direction on the wet skid pad, with results determined by the car & driver pulling the highest average G loading over the four laps. We’ll return to this venue next Saturday for the dry skid pad test followed by the ever popular smoke show.
On leaving Tire Rack we made a short six mile drive to South Bend Speedway for the first real time trial. A quarter mile paved short track oval, definitely different from many of the venues we normally visit.
Once completed, we were off to Autobahn Country Club on the west side of Chicago for our third and final event of the day. This year we used the south course which is very familiar to us as this is the third time we’ve been here in the last four years.
At each of these venues we must unload all our belongings and supplies, do a visual walk around, check fluid levels and tire pressures, and torque wheel bolts. Then we’ll walk the track to learn as much about the layout and surface changes as possible, hoping Mikewill remember everything observed when our time for our run .
Each time trials consist of a warm-up lap, and from a standing start two or three timed laps followed by a cool down lap. Once the runs are completed, we load everything back in the M5 and head for the next venue.
After these three events we are 25th overall after a relatively cautious start. Now we’ve moved to the road courses we expect to make our move up the leader board. The complete results for each event and all the classes can be found by clicking on this link: http://onelapofamerica.com/
Tonight we’ll leave Autobahn around 6:30pm and drive approximately 450 miles to Council Bluffs, Iowa for a few hours sleep, then head out Sunday morning around 6:30am for Mid America Motorplex ready for a 8:30am start!
