GreenGSX
DSM Wiseman
- 371
- 5
- May 13, 2002
-
Rochester,
New York
2009 One Lap of America
The RochesterDSM club has formed a team to compete in the 2009 One Lap of America. The team includes Stephen Burke, Mike Hayes, Sean Caron, and Me Tim Harper. Why would we do such a thing? Why not? We’ve been tossing this idea around for a couple of years now and this year a window opened up and we jumped on the opportunity.
For those who don’t know what One Lap of America is here is a little history. The race called the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash started by Brock Yates in 1971. This was a free for all …“the only rule is there aren’t any rules†race from New York to LA which featured every type of car from Ferrari’s to Rolls-Royce and every type of driver from rank amateur to Dan Gurney. The Cannonball run movies were based on the highlights from real race. 1979 marked the end of the road for the race, at least in its original form. In 1984 the Cannonball was back but this time is was a series of time-speed-distance rallies with some autocrosses thrown in. In 1992 Cannonball transformed once again into what it is a today. The race is nearly 24hrs a day driving with competition taking place as time trials on Americas best race tracks. The event is an exercise in endurance and preparation. There are no support trucks, no pit crews, and you race the entire event on the same set of street tires. The scoring is based on your performance on the track but the real test is the car/drivers ability to traverse over 3000 miles without regard to sleep or personal hygiene. The format is grueling for sure with barely enough time to get from one event to the next. The format goes something like this race, pack the car, drive like hell for hundreds of miles hoping to make it time to catch an hours sleep in a crusty motel, unpack the car, race and repeat.
Here is the schedule.
Start: Saturday May 2nd: Tire Rack headquarters, South Bend, In
Autobahn Country Club
Sunday: Bluegrass Motorsports Club
Monday: Talladega Grand Prix Raceway
Tuesday: Sebring International Raceway
Gainesville Raceway
Wednesday: Daytona International Speedway
Thursday: Carolina Motorsports Park
Friday: BeaveRun Motorsports Complex
Finish: Friday, May 9th: Tire Rack, South Bend
http://www.onelapofamerica.com
The car we are using is a 1992 Galant VR4 which belongs to Stephen Burke. The Galant VR4 is a limited edition 4-wheel drive turbocharged 4-door sedan brought to the States in very limited numbers (only 3000 imported). The car was the start of Mitsubishi’s domination of WRC rally racing and the inspiration for the legendary Evolution series of cars. We chose that car because Steve was parting it out and my track car, 1992 Eclipse GSX, was too small. The Galant is in great shape but was not set up for serious track duty. To get the car ready for that task my track car would be stripped for parts. Some of the big items to be swapped are front and rear suspension, wheels, transmission, and turbo set up. Here is a brief modification list of the VR4.
The motor has JE 9-1’s, crower rods, ported head, 1mm Si valves, 264/272 HKS cams, AGP L1R turbo, 660’s, Cozmo pump, 6AN fuel line, meth injection, FP race manifold, 3†exhaust w/dump, oil cooler, and good sized FMIC.
The suspension is Koni/DSS coilovers with 400f/350r spring rates, white line rear sway bar, urethane front and rear, RRE front castor/camber plates, 17x9 Mustang wheels, 255/40-17 tires, and a Baer track brake set-up.
Our first sponsor is ECMtuning which has graciously donated a ECMlink V3 to do the tuning.
Our goals are simple, a respectable finish and bring the car home in one piece. Sounds simple but given the extreme punishment we’re going to put on the car and ourselves we think it sounds about right. A web site will be up soon and we have some lofty goals for live streaming so everyone can tune in and see what we’re up to. This year the event is going to be covered by Motor Trend magazine so keep an eye out for the June issue.
Sometime before the start of the race we are going to be reaching out to the DSM community to help us set up a network of friends along the route just in case we might need a little help along the way. It’s not like you can get parts like injector clips at Wal-Mart.
If you are interested in sponsoring us, lending a hand, or want to be part of the route network drop me a note.
The RochesterDSM One Lap of America Team,
Tim Harper
Stephen Burke
Mike Hayes
Sean Caron
The RochesterDSM club has formed a team to compete in the 2009 One Lap of America. The team includes Stephen Burke, Mike Hayes, Sean Caron, and Me Tim Harper. Why would we do such a thing? Why not? We’ve been tossing this idea around for a couple of years now and this year a window opened up and we jumped on the opportunity.
For those who don’t know what One Lap of America is here is a little history. The race called the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash started by Brock Yates in 1971. This was a free for all …“the only rule is there aren’t any rules†race from New York to LA which featured every type of car from Ferrari’s to Rolls-Royce and every type of driver from rank amateur to Dan Gurney. The Cannonball run movies were based on the highlights from real race. 1979 marked the end of the road for the race, at least in its original form. In 1984 the Cannonball was back but this time is was a series of time-speed-distance rallies with some autocrosses thrown in. In 1992 Cannonball transformed once again into what it is a today. The race is nearly 24hrs a day driving with competition taking place as time trials on Americas best race tracks. The event is an exercise in endurance and preparation. There are no support trucks, no pit crews, and you race the entire event on the same set of street tires. The scoring is based on your performance on the track but the real test is the car/drivers ability to traverse over 3000 miles without regard to sleep or personal hygiene. The format is grueling for sure with barely enough time to get from one event to the next. The format goes something like this race, pack the car, drive like hell for hundreds of miles hoping to make it time to catch an hours sleep in a crusty motel, unpack the car, race and repeat.
Here is the schedule.
Start: Saturday May 2nd: Tire Rack headquarters, South Bend, In
Autobahn Country Club
Sunday: Bluegrass Motorsports Club
Monday: Talladega Grand Prix Raceway
Tuesday: Sebring International Raceway
Gainesville Raceway
Wednesday: Daytona International Speedway
Thursday: Carolina Motorsports Park
Friday: BeaveRun Motorsports Complex
Finish: Friday, May 9th: Tire Rack, South Bend
http://www.onelapofamerica.com
The car we are using is a 1992 Galant VR4 which belongs to Stephen Burke. The Galant VR4 is a limited edition 4-wheel drive turbocharged 4-door sedan brought to the States in very limited numbers (only 3000 imported). The car was the start of Mitsubishi’s domination of WRC rally racing and the inspiration for the legendary Evolution series of cars. We chose that car because Steve was parting it out and my track car, 1992 Eclipse GSX, was too small. The Galant is in great shape but was not set up for serious track duty. To get the car ready for that task my track car would be stripped for parts. Some of the big items to be swapped are front and rear suspension, wheels, transmission, and turbo set up. Here is a brief modification list of the VR4.
The motor has JE 9-1’s, crower rods, ported head, 1mm Si valves, 264/272 HKS cams, AGP L1R turbo, 660’s, Cozmo pump, 6AN fuel line, meth injection, FP race manifold, 3†exhaust w/dump, oil cooler, and good sized FMIC.
The suspension is Koni/DSS coilovers with 400f/350r spring rates, white line rear sway bar, urethane front and rear, RRE front castor/camber plates, 17x9 Mustang wheels, 255/40-17 tires, and a Baer track brake set-up.
Our first sponsor is ECMtuning which has graciously donated a ECMlink V3 to do the tuning.
Our goals are simple, a respectable finish and bring the car home in one piece. Sounds simple but given the extreme punishment we’re going to put on the car and ourselves we think it sounds about right. A web site will be up soon and we have some lofty goals for live streaming so everyone can tune in and see what we’re up to. This year the event is going to be covered by Motor Trend magazine so keep an eye out for the June issue.
Sometime before the start of the race we are going to be reaching out to the DSM community to help us set up a network of friends along the route just in case we might need a little help along the way. It’s not like you can get parts like injector clips at Wal-Mart.
If you are interested in sponsoring us, lending a hand, or want to be part of the route network drop me a note.
The RochesterDSM One Lap of America Team,
Tim Harper
Stephen Burke
Mike Hayes
Sean Caron
