This all started a couple of years ago... well, let me back up, many years ago. When I was just starting out in autocrossing, and doing some Solo1 events at tracks like Nelson Ledges, I remember a unique event coming to town. A bunch of crazy people were packed into all manner of cars, from super-cars to sports-sedans to pickup trucks; it was the Cannonball One Lap of America, brainchild of famed motoring journalist Brock Yates. I knew then, watching at Nelson Ledges, that someday I wanted to do the event. So, I guess that's where it all started for me.
As far as my co-driver, Richard Fisher, he's a long time car dealer and enthusiast who has wanted to do the event for years as well. After reading each year about the teams criss-crossing the country stopping at tracks each day for a time trial, packing everything up and moving on to the next venue, he had to be a part of it. Richard's dealership, The Autobarn Mazda, began supporting my road racing career in 2006, and Richard and I became fast friends.
As friends do, we talk about events we wanted to do - and inevitably the One Lap would pop up. We talked about doing it in a modified Miata, three-rotor RX-8, all sorts of ideas kept popping up. Late last year, however, Richard had a stroke of genius. What could we take that would be comfortable, roomy enough for all our stuff, and quick enough to place well? The Mazda5 was an easy answer for the first two questions, but the third question... was still a question. Anyone who has seen any coverage of the One Lap knows that it's infested with 500hp beasts. A 300hp car is underpowered for this event, which involves three timed laps on each track with no warmup or practice.
Here's the genius part: MAZDASPEED5. Richard and Eric Vates, the manager of his Countryside Mazda store and fellow enthusiast, bought a wrecked 2008 MAZDASPEED3 to harvest the drivetrain from. They then took a new 2010 MAZDA5, and two talented technicians at the store (Dan Gleason and Tim Guntorius) performed the swap. The Eric worked hard to find partners and suppliers for all the go-fast parts needed to make this Minivan fly. Finally it was outfitted with Nav, radar, wifi, power outlets - all the technology a roving blog would need!
So here we are, at day three of the event - rolling down the highway south of Kansas City, having traversed 5 states already today and done two track events! It's going great, and we're in 9th overall amonst MUCH more potent competition. Further proof of the power of Zoom Zoom!
I couldn't join for the first couple days due to the fact that the race team I'm part owner of, Team MER, was running in the second round of the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship at Road Atlanta. I joined the caravan Saturday night in Omaha, NE. Richard would have to drive the first three events. This worked out fine, since we were always planning on trading off the driving duties.
The first event was Friday at the Tire Rack in South Bend, IN, and it was the wet skidpad. Richard drove the little van to 4th place overall! After a relatively short drive to Road America, he placed 16th in the morning time trial, and 20th in the second. Unfortunately, a penalty for hitting a pylon meant losing 10 spots for that event, but it still left us in 10th overall after three events!
I flew from Atlanta to Omaha last night, and met up with Richard and his friend Carmen who has filled my seat for the first two days. We had a great dinner, and got some much needed rest before attacking Mid America Motorplex today - at track I'd never been to before. With all of my autocross experience, one of my strengths has always been to be up to speed quickly on new tracks. After a quick track walk, I took to the course for my first of two timed runs.
For the morning run, I did a 5:22.9 for three laps - good enough for 8th overall! Of course, feelling like I'd learned something, I set out to go faster in the afternoon... which I did by a whopping 1.6 seconds. One of the curses of learning tracks so fast is that improvement doesn't come easily! With everyone else picking up more time from the morning experience, we only finished 13th overall, but with the dropout of one of the leaders we ended the day in 9th!
Did I mention I LOVE driving this thing around? Today, for the second run group, I was gridded in 8th between a 2010 Porsche 997 twin turbo, and a 2010 Porsche GT3 RS... In our VAN! Let's not forget, our goal was just to win the truck/van category - but here we are, in the top 10 overall and leading the SUV category handily!
With all of this connectivity I will be doing daily blogs, photos, videos and updates, so stay tuned for all the fun and adventure as we try to keep our MAZDASPEED5 among giants in the 2010 Tire Rack One Lap of America!
More info and results are at onelapofamerica.com and teamzoomzoomnation.com
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