Interesting of the late arrival of most the fleet.
Late in the week, the fatigue battle is real!
Interesting of the late arrival of most the fleet.
Late in the week, the fatigue battle is real!
Yeah, yesterday's transit was pretty sketchy for most of the competitors. Randy Pobst, in the X3M on well-worn A052s, said they followed just a few car lengths back from a competitor on Michelins in order to drive on slightly drier asphalt...
...for 300 miles straight.
Today's route book entry:
HEARTLAND MOTORSPORTS PARK
7530 SW Topeka Blvd
Topeka, KS 66619
Phone: 785-861-7896
Day Six, Thursday, May 5th, 2022
It's been many years since our last visit here. In the early days of One Lap, Heartland
Park was one of the few tracks in the Midwest and a normal stop as we transited across
the country. Built for the NASCAR Truck series in the early 90's, it has had a interesting
history. In the early years the road course used the drag strip as the front straight
rendering the surface nearly unusable when wet. In the mid 2000's, another straight
was built parallel to the strip so both could run at the same time, allowing safe rain
racing. The first iteration had a kink at the top of the hill on the main straight--really not
ideal. It appears that the kink has been removed making the track safer as I see it.
There is nothing inherently difficult about this track, no real technical corners--all pretty
straightforward curves and straights. I would however suggest a bit of prudence if we
have rain. In past years the outfields would bogs and removing cars was a challenge.
The last time it took a tow truck tied to a tractor to pull out a Corvette. Depending how
far a car goes off, we may have to wait for a dry Summer to get it out.
We will be running four events, weather permitting, two roadcourse, the Low ET and
bracket drag races. Below is a short primer on bracket racing for those that have never
done it. Bracket racing is about consistency, not speed, but finding the right dial-in time
might be a significant challenge.
The first event will be a one-run Low ET pass. Red lights and reaction time will not be
part of the scoring, just the elapsed time of the pass. The second event will be a Bracket
Elimination. This can be quite confusing for those that have never done it before.
With the previous Low ET pass in mind, a competitor will paint a "dial in" time on the
window of the car. This time is based on the expected ET of the car that should not be
exceeded. The car in the other lane will have their own "dial in" and has no relationship
to yours. In a perfect world, though the cars will leave the line at very different times,
with ideal reaction times and predicted ET's, they will arrive at the finish line at precisely
the same instant. However, since this is not a perfect world, there is always a winner,
one that has a better reaction time and is better able to predict the ET of the car. Going
faster than the "dial in" causes a "break out", which is an automatic loss if the other car
stays within the "dial in". If both cars "break out', the one that breaks out the least wins.
To stage for a drag race, pull up to the starter and the lights. As you near the Christmas
Tree notice two yellow lights at the top. As you enter the staging area, you will trigger
one of the lights. This is pre-staging. As the second one lights, staging is complete and
you are ready to start. Do not go any further. As soon as both cars are staged, the
process begins, often before you are ready. The tree consists of three yellow lights, a
green and a red. The sequence is familiar, yellow, yellow, yellow, green at ½ second
intervals. By the time the green lights, you should have started, but not much before or
the red will light indicating an early start and disqualification. Reaction time is the actual
time it takes for the car to cross the start line after the green light. ET is the elapsed time of the run. A drag race is a combination of the two. Consistency and reaction time are
key to the bracket elimination. Competitors can change the "dial in" at any time before
entering the staging area to adjust for changing conditions. In the Bracket Elimination,
there will always be a winner, "two go down, one comes back". There should be plenty
of staff, both One Lap and Heartland Park, on hand to answer any questions.
Once the Bracket Elimination has begun, the Low ET event is closed.
Race Fuel: yes
Concessions: open
Showers: yes
Spectators: free
I borrowed a scooter from the Sundae Cup guys to go check out the track.
8:15 has arrived. Time to head to grid.
And some charging info from the Tesla. They use about 10% of the battery per lap, and charge at roughly 8kw from a standard 50A RV outlet. Assuming 95 kWh of usable energy in the battery (pretty sure that's accurate), each One Lap session requires about 3.5 hours of RV outlet charging to refuel the car. That means they're usually leaving the tracks at about 70% full--no reason to sit around waiting on slow RV outlets when there are Superchargers on the highway. 
If you're curious what your day looks like without a garage rental, well, it looks like this.
Track goes hot in six minutes!
First group is out now, and the Supras have pulled up to the line. These things seem to be more than the sum of their parts, and are running with much more expensive cars.
And the checker just went out for group one. SuperK passed the Tesla, and TomO caught both of them in the Corvette.
Live video on FB, or rewatch it later
Andy's group just went out. These standing starts, especially when wet, are why launch control is a necessity to run at the front of One Lap.
love it!
what is the plan for the drag race this afternoon?
Results from the first two groups are in. Andy currently in P5, but the track is drying quickly.
One of the Corvette's lost a wheel after their brake caliper fell off, and had to patch it up with stock parts. Here's left vs. right.
The caliper fell off? That must've taken some skill.
It's pretty cool to see the wet/dirty car proving McLaren did their homework. Airflow seems clean and attached.
Dirty race cars are cool.
I'm a huge McLaren fan. That said, I'm surprised their engineers designed an exhaust that would damage the rear paint and that deflector.
Do competitors carry stuff for each other? I'm currently daydreaming about the possibility of the One Lap equivalent of a Dakar support truck running at the back of the pack.
Tom Suddard said:And some charging info from the Tesla. They use about 10% of the battery per lap, and charge at roughly 8kw from a standard 50A RV outlet. Assuming 95 kWh of usable energy in the battery (pretty sure that's accurate), each One Lap session requires about 3.5 hours of RV outlet charging to refuel the car. That means they're usually leaving the tracks at about 70% full--no reason to sit around waiting on slow RV outlets when there are Superchargers on the highway.
The RV chargers are just opportunity charging when there's downtime at the track. But yeah, if all the downtime is pre-session and you immediately scamper off into the sunset as soon as you've laid down times, they're not too useful. It's my understanding you get the best performance with a totally full battery so they're probably rolling up to the track entrance pretty close to that already.
Still, any chance for charging when you're not otherwise busy is the car equivalent of taking a nap to catch up on sleep :) This is really interesting. Looks like they're sitting 3rd overall, which is pretty impressive for a 4700 lb four door sedan. That's quite a variety of equipment in the top 3 - a ZR1, a thing that only looks like an S2000, and the big leather lined golf cart.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:Do competitors carry stuff for each other? I'm currently daydreaming about the possibility of the One Lap equivalent of a Dakar support truck running at the back of the pack.
The idea of a support vehicle is against the spirit of the event. Self contained travel is the goal. But, trailers are allowed. This can be anything from a Harbor Freight 4"x4" or as in 2019 some Canadians with a Durango SRT8 brought a 20 ft Toy Hauler style camper (since a Durango is rated to tow something like 9,000 lbs.)
As an example, in 2018, Pros Pastrano and Bilco had a Media Team that followed their Subaru in a Dodge Minivan but sticking with the spirit of the event, the van was not shuttling spares, tools, or other gear.
Now, Dakar style where what were just support vehicles became their own class of competitors....I'm not sure that rule has been "pushed" as hard as it could be. 
Sundae Cup is headed out!
In reply to John Welsh :
But in the same concept as Dakar, what about a race vehicle that happens to be carrying a whole bunch of stuff?
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Envisioning a whole class of vehicles like the Tire Rack van taking high speed turns! And, a tire balancer!
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