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Race Report 2000Michelin Car and Driver One Lap of America
Lime Rock, May 11, 2000
I got an e-mail today from my co-pilot from last year and he called me psycho for running the Michelin Car and Driver One Lap of America again. At first I laughed but thinking about it over the last few hours, I think that he is right. Conditions, they never got better and actually took a turn for the worse. Sleep? What is that? My co-pilot Tom Moore and I had a total of 11 hours of sleep for the entire 6 nights of this week long endurance event.
Lime Rock park was a great time. After sleeping only two hours, I actually felt refreshed. I felt like I had slept in! I was excited about the day because I loved the track. It had stormed our whole way in that night and by morning the track was damp and the weather had finally cooled off. My first run was spectacular. This was my track. Lime Rock is small and tight so car control and skill was much more important than horsepower. The BMW Z3 M Coupe worked like a champ and we were able to pull off a 16th place finish out of 113 cars. In my second run, I had picked up more speed and I started to have trouble because I was between gears in a few corners and had to shift in the middle. My time for the second run was equal to my first session but a few other cars moved up and I place 24th. For the next stint, a writer from Men’s Journals, Mark Haley tagged along with me. My co-pilot Tom rode to the Cannonball Pub in Wyoming, NY in a fellow competitors twin engine Cadillac Eldorado. Can you say fast? That has two, 4-liter engines pushing that automobile! Mark and I chatted about the event, driving, and the media ride that I gave him that day. Mark was joining our convoy of Ron Wood, Jeff Telman, Billy Edwards and Larry Smith for the rest of the trip to write about this wacky event for his magazine. At the Pub, Tom hopped back in my car. The legendary pub was cool with spectators lined up and down the streets to check out the cars as they rolled through town. We picked up our check point sticker and then headed on to Nelson Ledges. Traveling in a pack worked well for us. We usually put the Viper in the middle because he attracted so much attention. Over the week we became good friends, ribbing each other at every opportunity. Mostly we were all scared about being the one who had to make the crew stop because they drank too much soda. This was cause for extreme teasing. Pulling into Nelson Ledges a whole 3 hours to spare, the crew caught up on enough sleep as they could. I didn’t know the track so I made everyone up an hour earlier so that I could walk the track. Needless to say, I wasn’t very popular!
Walking this track was important. The legendary Nelson Ledges is a very rhythmic track. Horsepower excels here. I studied hard but with few tight turns and mostly momentum carousels I gave my first run the best shot that I could. About a half an hour after my run it started to rain making the track wet and slick for about the remaining 30 people. After another local TV interview and media ride I went out for a second shot. Having an average run again, we packed the car and moved on to our next stop, the Hotel in Greenville, Indiana. Stopping at the hotel was moving. People had been waiting for hours for the One Lap cars to show up. The local people made us feel really welcome and honored to be there. A lot of people talked to us about our cute little Z-Coupe and asked us questions about the event and if Tom and I were still getting along. We assured them that we were and that actually we made a great team. Our convoy had been shortened to Ron Wood and Mark Haley in the Viper. The rest of the crew went on to Gingerman Raceway, which was our next and thank god, our last stop. We made it back to South Haven with 3 hours to spare. We were excited that we got back with time to "sleep in". As we pulled into to the track we were relieved to have made the trip safe and without any speeding tickets. We were also sad that it was about to be over. The day started out with me doing my one dumb stunt of the trip. Pulling out of the pit for my reconnaissance lap I wanted to push hard and try a different line through turn 2 and 3 to see if I could make my lap faster. I burned out of the pits, on my cold tires and turned left. I happened to hit a puddle and dropped a wheel in the grass. The car got in a wild tank slapper and I spun the car in the grass and sent a huge wall of water in and all over the car. OOPS, what a dumb move and everyone was laughing. I knew the jetski jokes were on the way. (FYI… I race Jet Ski’s Professionally for 7 years.) I had to quickly dry off the tires, stop laughing and concentrate by the time that I got to the starting line. My session went well. I drove harder and faster than I had run my last lap there a week before. Unfortunately, everyone else had too. With two more events this grueling week was done.
We placed 14th in class and 27th overall. 103 of the 113 cars made the whole trip. My partner in madness, Tom Moore and I gave each other a high five. To us we had won. We were still good friends and the BMW drove perfectly and comfortably the whole trip. Our special thanks to the crew at One Lap for their hard work and to BMW for letting us use such a cool and well handling car. We also want to thank Ron Wood and Michelin for the opportunity. We are already planning next year. Modified all the way. Watch out you other lap dogs—maybe next year we will run nitrous, multiple motors, turbos or a big old V8! --Terri Hundertmark
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