good on ya for having two vegetables, Tom!
Photography by Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
By Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis
The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and dozens of wickedly fast street cars were lined up at Tire Rack’s test track for the first official event of the Tire Rack One Lap of America Presented by Grassroots Motorsports, the wet skidpad.
Sure, it was 32 degrees outside, but what’s a little freezing weather when you’re all signed up to drive thousands of miles in just a few days? Day one’s format is simple: Each team does a few laps in each direction, with the winner posting the fastest time and therefore the highest average G-load.
As soon as you’re done driving, it’s time to repack the car and hit the road for the next stop of the week–in this case, a track day at Nashville Superspeedway.
While the wet skidpad’s format is simple, the results usually aren’t.
Why? Because the pointy end of One Lap’s field is usually running Super 200 tires, with this year’s most popular choice being Bridgestone’s new RE-71RZ. That’s what’s on our Hyundai Elantra N.
Our own testing shows these Bridgestones are fast, but every decision has tradeoffs. And these tires just don’t perform as well in cold, wet conditions as true street tires like Michelin’s Pilot Sport 4S or Continental’s ExtremeContact Sport 02. Choices that, for a variety of reasons, the slower end of the One Lap field tends to gravitate towards. So it’s not uncommon for plenty of “fast” cars to be beat by the bottom half of the field.
Case in point: Cars like a S197 Mustang, a Volvo wagon, and even a Chrysler Crossfire finished in the top ten, while Christopher Lin in a 2015 Lexus RC-F won the event, beating a 911 Turbo S and a Dodge Viper on the podium.
Their common denominator? Trackable street tires that aren’t as laser-focused on dry performance as Super 200s like our Bridgestones.
Meanwhile, OE-backed front-runners like Team Goodyear in a Porsche 911 Turbo S and Team Michelin in a C8 Corvette Grand Sport finished all the way back in 34th and 52nd, respectively.
And what about our Hyundai? We finished third in class and 37th overall, right in the mix with the other cars we’re fighting in the economy car class.
Skidpad complete, there was only one thing left to do: Ditch! We threw our stuff back into the Elantra, charted a course for Nashville, and settled in for 500 miles of driving. This counts as a light day on One Lap’s schedule, with a relatively early departure and a relatively short transit putting us at our hotel shortly after 5 pm.
Transit complete and car prepped, we had just one more item on the day’s to-do list: Eat a gourmet meal at Cracker Barrel before going to bed as early as possible.
Hopefully, we’ll be more competitive on track than we were on the skidpad.
One Lap of America: Day 0
One Lap of America: Day 1
One Lap of America: Day 2
One Lap of America: Day 3
good on ya for having two vegetables, Tom!
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Not sure that little cup of frozen broccoli is enough to take that plate into the healthy zone…
Marjorie Suddard said:In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Not sure that little cup of frozen broccoli is enough to take that plate into the healthy zone…
Booger
As in so many things, it's the thought that counts....
I posted photos from the Day 1Tire Rack paddock on the live broadcast thread. Rather than reposting them, here's the link:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/one-lap-of-america-2026-is-live/286386/page1/
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
I see other green stuff in there... 
Whatever the white stuff is in the bowl looks like a morning of constipation ahead. lol I'm sure this is a lot of fun for everyone attending and I envy you for being able to do it!! 
The driving, I mean, not the constipation.
For the record, we both banked “green stuff” points on the transit to Nashville with lunchtime salads at Panera. That should offset some negatives for a couple days, right?
Hey I went to the hotel gym after Cracker Barrel! So it’s basically a salad.
To be fair, I treat road trips as open season. It’s nuthin’ but pork rinds, viennas and chili cheese Fritos for the duration. Tim often has to crack a window.
Marjorie Suddard said:To be fair, I treat road trips as open season. It’s nuthin’ but pork rinds, viennas and chili cheese Fritos for the duration. Tim often has to crack a window.
100% agree. If we stop at a gas station during a trip, I'm going into the convenience store acting like a child with a $100 bill in my hand.
None of what you pick out has to make sense; it just has to make you happy.
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