Screeeeeeeeech....WHAP!, Nothing is more effective at waking you from a sound sleep in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle. The suicidal buck on NY 17 had taken out the radiator on Ted's suburban tow vehicle. Although concerned that this was a bad omen, I was thankful Ted had been behind the wheel, freeing me from future guilt of tearing up two of ted's fleet in the same week. After stopping to refill the broken radiator every ten miles for the last 100 miles of the trip, I busied myself (in the motel parking lot) by hammering the burb's core support straight and fitting a new radiator.

We had decided to run the T-Bird with full boost for qualifying, a decision that resulted in a detonated piston, which pressurized the crankcase and blew out both end seals of the intake manifold. Before the first scored runs, we re-routed the crankcase vents into "puke cans" to give the vapors in the crankcase a place to escape, and turned the boost down to 7lbs. The driver (me) wasn't up to the task at the beginning, limited road racing experience, 500hp, and a 4,100 lb car resulted in a "death grip" on the steering wheel. After a stop in Wyoming, NY, we headed across Ontario for Day 2 in Michigan. We were smoking like a sky-writer, but at least we were heading closer to home.

Ted and some volunteers pushed the car through the sign-in line at the drags while I crawled under the hood to swap out the first set of oil-fouled plugs. Ted ran the drags, because he's got a lot more experience and has always been at least .10 faster than me down the strip at Indianapolis raceway park when we've tested there. What neither of us knew was how bad the car would be without drag radial tires. A couple of hours of free time after arriving at M.I.S. allowed us to swap in another set of plugs.

M.I.S. gave us a better result. A total lack of grip on the crappy infield section of the track was negated by the T-Bird's power on the oval section, resulting in our first class win.

The highlight of the all-night trip to Topeka was a stop at Holmes Radiator Shop in Des-Moines. We parked the 'Bird, stretched our legs, and stocked up on mountain dew. As we walked back to the car we saw the GSR replica spinning its tires in an impromptu "water box". I pulled into the water box, engaged the line-lock (which locks the front brakes on), Uttered those famous red-neck last words-"hey Y'all, watch this", and let the clutch out in 2nd gear and gave those Michelins a 20 second torture test. We heard later that the cloud of smoke prompted the arrival of local law-enforcement personnel.

I drove Heartland Park like an idiot, but at least now I was a relaxed idiot. If I could resist the fun of driving the car sideways, maybe we could have done better than 2nd in class. The break between sessions gave us the opportunity to put another set of plugs in. The car was now eating at least 2 quarts of oil with every tank of gas....but maybe we saved some mid-western farmers money on crop-dusting.

The relatively new pavement at Motorsport Ranch seemed to have a lot of grip, we scored a 2nd and a 1st in class. The break between sessions gave us the opportunity to put another set of plugs in. After the 2nd session, we threw 3 cases of oil in the back seat and took off for Atlanta.

"You've got to be kidding me! "I yelled at myself as I was completing the reconnaissance lap and seeing Road Atlanta for the first time. On all 3 laps I braked for corners that weren't there and ran past the ones that were. The break between sessions gave us the opportunity to put another set of plugs in. I studied the in-car video from the first run so I could find the corners on the second run. I was doing better, but the last time down the back straight, the left rear tire said "uncle!" and threw off a foot long section of rubber at 140mph. (remember that burn-out in Iowa?). Despite the vibration , I kept my foot down and finished the run, taking a 1st in class. I do not believe there is any defect in the tire, anyone who saw the way I drove the car can confirm that I was abusing the tires to the extreme.

"A horsepower course", was how the first V.I.R. course was described to me...It was, we took 1st in class. The break between sessions gave us the opportunity to put another set of plugs in. The front brakes were shot. We were carrying another set of rotors and pads, but the pads were not the same compound as what we had been running. On the 2nd. V.I.R. session the low-torque brake pads made the car feel like it wouldn't stop...I was braking at the start finish line for turn 1. I took 2nd in class, and after stopping to buy a few more cases of oil, Ted got on the cell phone and ordered some brake pads to be shipped to the Glen the next day.

The brake pads didn't show up in time, but one of the great things about One Lap is that you've got a nice long highway drive to plan strategy and think about what you've done wrong. I'd decided since the brake pads were so low in torque, they were impossible to lock up, and I needed to just slam them on as hard as I physically could. That's how I drove the last three events at the Glen, I pulled my foot back and stomped on the brake pedal with all the force I could muster. The braking technique, combined with driving less-sideways resulted in class wins in the last 3 events. The break between sessions gave us the opportunity to put another set of plugs in.

It was too late though, the Becker/Hopkins had beaten us for the Mid-price sedan title. We did, however, finish ahead of our class competition in the overall scoring.