Sleepyhead the Buffalo Does OneLap 2024

Second half of the tank was into head/front-quartering winds, so mileage suffered.  I drove the last quarter tank based the mpg gauge. We're topped up, and showing 535miles on the tank... and 340miles 'till we're at the track.

Learning extra lessons today...

Yikes, what happened? Brake issues?

One caliper bolt backed, and exited the race.

Team Toyota came to the rescue, "amazingly" they had the bolts we need. Also learned the X1's front caliper looks like it's the same as the Supra's Rear Caliper. Y'all might recall that I sang their praise 2 years ago, and I'll continue to do so... now even louder.

One of the things I'd wanted to do was have Gus take a look at my work yesterday. But, with all the other things we were tracking down, that fell by the wayside.

I learned in my early career that any accident is not a single failure.  It's a series of failures that a y one of which could have been fine on their own, but in sequence created the accident. We were fortunate in many ways on this one, and I've learned and reinforced lessons from it.

It's a long week, and we're still in it, learning and adjusting.

Arrived at the hotel.  Short sleep, then the 1hour trek to Hastings in the morning.

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

Team Toyota came to the rescue, "amazingly" they had the bolts we need. Also learned the X1's front caliper looks like it's the same as the Supra's Rear Caliper. Y'all might recall that I sang their praise 2 years ago, and I'll continue to do so... now even louder.

Mental note: if doing the One Lap in a newer German car, paddock near the Toyota guys.

So, the good news is:
the caliper bolts are holding for now, and scored the wheel held up to both track sessions and the wicked pounding on I-70. Thanks to apexanimal, we got some pink paint pen marking on the bolts, so it was easy to check them at dinner... and they hadn't moved.

the less good news:
despite doing a track day less than a month ago, I'm still feeling rusty. compounded by wearing a Simpson Hybrid S HANS device for the first time... I made a dog's breakfast of this morning's session and generally felt "out of sink" with the car; ending up second-to-last on time.

rebound:
Gus rallied this afternoon, and we made a tire pressure change which seemed to help the car. that, plus a few DNF's and driver changes meant that we hopped up to 66th place in time for the session.

While helping and being around the grid before/during Gus' afternoon run, I managed to grab the camera and get some photos of the last two run groups.  The a6300 continued to be a frustrating mess... mis-focusing, focusing on the wrong thing... and zooming backwards of the canon glass I'm used to. Still managed some decent shots, somehow. Then, as we drove after dinner (and a nap), we managed a few cloud/sun pictures that have become a staple of mine at OneLap. Hope you enjoy.

911, 2002, and a.....Corolla!  I love the variety!

Short update for now.

We swit he'd up our plan for today. With Gus driving first, when the faster drivers of our competition are driving, since he is faster than I am and has raced Lemons at High Plains, and see how that fell out.

We went to sighting lap the track on scooters which were much less useful than in the past.  The wind was strong enough to stop us going downhill between turn 5 and 6.  Also, it was a furball of tumbleweeds to tango with.  (Hayward apparently resorted to Tip Toeing).

Gus improved with driving again, and seems to have a handle on the car.  Our tire pressures are getting dialed.  The brakes held up.

My driving was more fluid than Hastings...  UT I was still overflowing and turning in too early.  The HybridS bothered me less,  but I think the head-turning restriction of a HANs is part of why I'm turning in too early; I'm used to turning my head more to see through a corner instead of my eyeballs.

It's hard to tell if I "did better"... time-wise.   But one outcome of this decision was that I was 10sec slower than the Cayenne, which meant we lost twice to them today, and they now take second in class by dint of having a lower elapsed time (we're tied for points).

Oh well.  It was nice while it lasted.

Probably not pictures today. Gus is running weather watching, and Jim and I are going to split the drive, with him taking the first half...and me taking the later dark/raining shift.

Great to meet you today, Sleepyhead the Buffalo, and delighted to share some pictures of you with you! (Actually, I think it's mostly Gus driving from the morning session, but it's still your car.)

I've run dozens of events at this track, including in a spring snowstorm. This was the windiest day I can recall and had a seemingly endless supply of tumbleweeds. Kinda went beyond comical!

Here's a few pictures with lots more to come soon!

we laid back and Jim took it easy across Colorado and the first 150miles of Kansas (Jim took this leg, driving for 4 hours with 2 stops).  Stopped at a place for a leisurely dinner while Gus tracked weather and helped OneLappers over Discord make decisions about sheltering, going, or holing up for a few hours.

Then I took over, and we punched it across Kansas, making one stop on the east side of Topeka.  We managed to ride the back side of the storm, with only a brief 10mile stretch of light rain and just 2 cops.

got in to Harrisonville, MO at 1:34am.  a couple hours, and then we head out of here to be at the track by 7am.

quick update

it's Tuesday, so the toll is beginning to mount of the late nights and early mornings of the the last couple days... especially for the back-end of the field.

we made it into Bowling Green at 1:15am.  The drive was good... other than my getting too invested in a conversation and missing a highway exit... and we got slammed by some very heavy rain around Rockport, KY.  I had to slow way down for one section where I could barely make out the reflectors 20feet in front of the car; but most of it I was able to push through around 50mph despite it being quite heavy.

we get a slight reprieve tonight, being only 15mins from the track.  So, we'll get to sleep in to about 6:15am this morning.

weather forecast looks a bit dire for the back of the field, while the front of the field may get to enjoy beneficial conditions.  it's going to be an interesting day.

We're currently violating everyone of Andy Hollis's OneLap rules.

We were chatting earlier about Cracker Barrel records. FWIW, the bar is 20 minutes from parking to getting back in the car. Anything more is amateur hour. 

Tom Suddard said:

We were chatting earlier about Cracker Barrel records. FWIW, the bar is 20 minutes from parking to getting back in the car. Anything more is amateur hour. 

This was a 70minute meal stop.  (I got out-voted).

Don't tell Andy... he might have an aneurysm?

Probably not, because he's not impacted by it.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

70 minutes?!

We've decided our flat tire was the One Lap gods revenge for those sit-down dinners we enjoyed earlier in the week. 

100% no joke.

Facilitated by taking 421/50 around the major accident that was screwing everything up southwest of Cincinnati. (which is also adding 30mins... although that's better than sitting in accident traffic?)

Made it in to Beaver Falls.

It looks like Gus might have gotten Truck/SUV FTD Ian the autocross today... so we're still only 5 points out of 2nd place in class.  But I don't think we'll be able to overtake them currently.

Still, it feels good to keep the competition tight so far.

So the 5 points out of 2nd is now 15.

The morning session Gus was out in was dry and he was 5 corners from finishing when an M6 went off, and the corner stations black flagged him (instead of red flagging)  so, he (and two other impacted cars) got to re-run after the final group {Gus was originally in the second to last run group}.  Which meant that it opened up raining as they pulled in the M6.

I put Gus in again this afternoon; because he didn't get to run NCM, and so he could put his now 19 laps of experience to good use.  The Cayenne apparently did the same thing and rocked a 33rd place (and their first first in class placing).  Gus managed a "pretty much dry" afternoon session and managed a 53nd overall and 2nd in class (the Macan went out in earlier wetter conditions).

So, we're still in 3rd in class and effectively locked in place... barring unforseen circumstances. That's OK, though.  With only 240hp, we've managed to hold a 650hp Cayenne with carbon brakes to a fair middling of point win.

Also, just finished up a leisurely "Robertson Racing & Friends" (non-exclusive) dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant in Columbus.

2h 45min to go for the night.  Potentially our first arrival before midnight since I can't remember when.

Last track, Putnam, is tomorrow. Gonna put Gus in for the morning, and I'll do the afternoon. Should be dry?

I have just seen the future of discount hotel rooms being contemplated.  My reaction and perception of it are currently revolving around the word "dystopian".

today was Putnam park.

the last few days, we've been a bit worried about tire wear.  I don't recall if I stated it before, but these Continental Extreme Contact Sport 2's transited down to CMP (~400miles), did 4 sessions of HPDE there with GridLife, transited back 400miles, before transiting 600miles out to the start of OneLap at South Bend before beginning competing at OneLap.  All of this on a ~3600# camber-limited CUV.

The center of them still looks good wear-wise; but we've been leaning on the shoulders too much.  Thus, the last couple of days we've been rotating them front-to-back each morning.

Gus took the morning session, and did a stellar job, clocking a 66th position and a 4:44.8 cumulative time.  He then borrowed Becky & Karen's ND miata and took Jim out for parade laps.  It's been interesting to watch the two of them form a friendship from nothing over the last week.  Gus has been an unexpected and welcome surprise in his talents, abilities, and ability to fit into the traveling circus that is OneLap.  He and I have managed to find a way to work through decisions and share the responsibility for making sure we get through the event, collaboratively.

I took the afternoon sessions.  I overcooked one of the corners on the outlap, but finished the recon well.  I was heads-up enough to let the Cobra Mustang around and be head-down for the start of my laps, which felt good.  But, after the first turn of my second lap, I began to second guess how much I was pushing-on / scrubbing/sliding the front left tire; aided by being unsure if I was hearing the tire buffet or the wind buffet.  So, I dialed my speed back to save the tires, because we've got the skidpad tomorrow... and then another 600mile transit to drive home.

I ended up 67th with a 5:04.5 cumulative time.  Currently we're 63rd overall and 3rd in class with the Cayenne leading us by 30points (they did well today).  It's been a joy this week to be amongst the All Remaining Cars run groups, while also having fun/interesting conversations/interactions with people up and down the grid as well as the husband-wife team piloting the Macan.

One more event to go tomorrow, after the survivor's photo.  I'm not sure how hard I'm going to press the tires... since we do have a 600 miles return trip to accomplish... and I don't want to have to buy and wait around for a new set of tires to mounted to our competition wheels just for the drive home.

well, it's almost midnight, and I've had a bunch of late/short nghts last night.  so, I'm going to shutdown have a good night's sleep tonight.

I made it home.  the last hour and twenty was another of piece of the driving we did getting to Hedge Hollow... although that section into MO was only about 10mins in comparison.  This started on I-70 back 15miles before we dropped onto 15S... and continued all the way onto the street Jim and I share.

all of which (in hindsight) was premonition ed by our coming across white precipitation gather on the road in the mountains of Pennsylvania:

It's good to be home.  I've got a number of pictures to work through to get up... plus I probably have a number of days terse updates to flesh out with more time/detail, which I'll try to work on.

for now, this Buffalo is going to hunker down with its herd.