I'm sure the BBQ place was awesome!
Photography by Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
By Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
Sailors often speak of the calm before the storm, and it’s hard not to draw parallels to day three of the Tire Rack One Lap of America Presented by Grassroots Motorsports.
We spent it at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma, where we were treated to the best weather we’ve ever had on One Lap: 80 degrees and sunny, with a nice breeze to keep us comfortable.
The calm before the storm.
What storm? The massive one is forecast to span multiple tracks and multiple days of our future, and is a serious problem for our dry-focused Bridgestone RE-71RZ tire decision.
So we started the day at Hallet by doing some future-proofing: Andy rotated tires on the Hyundai, swapping our worn fronts to the rear and placing our like-new rears on the front. This should keep all four tires wearing relatively evenly, making the car more predictable (and therefore faster) in the rain.
What’s the downside? Like most Super 200s, these tires don’t manage heat very well at full tread depth, and need to be treated with kid-gloves on track to avoid heat-soaking and losing pace.
But hey, we’re pros, right? Andy at least drove like one, leaning on his significant experience at Hallet to ace his morning session and notch three nearly-identical laps and a fantastic finish: 25th overall and first in class.
But then it was Tom’s turn, and those finicky tires paired up with his limited track knowledge (three laps total, and all the way back in 2023) to ruin all the fun.
After a decent first few laps that landed half a second off of Andy’s times, his third and final lap was two full seconds slower–the result of overheated front tires that simply stopped working. This was disappointing but not tragic, as it was still good for first in class and a finish of 27th overall.
At the front of the field, David Marcus and Mike King continued to rebound from their abysmal wet skid pad performance with a pair of strong session wins. Their ZR1 has a very distinctive exhaust note akin to a fighter jet going full afterburner–with acceleration to match.
Other strong showings came from Chris Mayfield and Julian Garfield in their Lotus Evora at P2 in the am, with Andrew Brownfield and Justin LaChausse at P2 in their Toyota Supra in the afternoon.
Driving complete, you can probably guess the next step on day 3: Haul ass out of there! We steered our Hyundai west, crossing flat, empty Oklahoma on the way to flat, empty Kansas on our way to flat, empty eastern Colorado before finally rolling into our hotel near High Plains Raceway at about 8:30 p.m. local time.
Along the way, we even managed a sit-down dinner at a local BBQ joint, proving that this really is a luxury experience if you squint really hard.
Squint really hard, and ignore the forecast. We’re not exactly sure what awaits us tomorrow, but we know it will be wet, and we know it will be memorable.
At least we got to spend today enjoying the calm before the storm.
One Lap of America: Day 0
One Lap of America: Day 1
One Lap of America: Day 2
One Lap of America: Day 3
I'm sure the BBQ place was awesome!
Congrats on the strong finishes! Really sells the Elantra N as a major performance player for a very good price. Keep up the storytelling, we’re all curious to see how it goes!
nickydh said:Really sells the Elantra N as a major performance player for a very good price.
Yes, what you said. It's a lot of fun for not a lot of money.
excellent driving!
I skimmed the thread titles and read that as "'clam' before the storm" and was like "wow that's cool they're finding good seafood between Oklahoma and Colorado."
Hope you packed the winter shorts.
JG Pasterjak said:I skimmed the thread titles and read that as "'clam' before the storm" and was like "wow that's cool they're finding good seafood between Oklahoma and Colorado."
Hope you packed the winter shorts.
I thought those were called “kilts”?
How about Randy Probst in the Lucid Sapphire. Whirr,whirr
morning results...
I'm guessing the Toyota GR is on Michelins? AWD probably helped, and I wonder if it dried out a little bit for the "back middle" of the field?
class points, unofficial like, as they stand after both session at High Plains:
I can gin up other classes, if need be
High plains is my favorite track!
Yall camping?
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