Participants in the 2011 One Lap of America may have not have got a surprise on arriving at Tire Rack HQ last Friday, but the first event in the series certainly would affect most participant’s choice of tires for the program.
Tire Rack has their own evaluation course at their headquarters in South Bend, IN, and one capability that is built in is wet handling. For the arrival of One Lap competitors on Friday, the company turned on the sprinklers for all to enjoy. We have a few shots of the ROUSH Performance cars heading into the wet performance sections.
A total of 96 cars registered to start the competition, of which 73 posted a result in the first day’s activity. Upcoming events in the series include bracket and drag racing at Gainesville Raceway, as well as time trials at several courses including Daytona International Speedway, Circuit Grand Bayou, Barber Motorsports Park and the Autobahn Country Club.
The Tire Rack One Lap of America is an outgrowth of the original Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, first created in the early 1970’s by Car and Driver Magazine senior editor, Brock Yates. As it has always been, the competition places a heavy emphasis on vehicle preparation and endurance. Support crews are not allowed and teams only have one set of tires. This means that the tires used on the street must also raced on.
When all remaining teams return to the Tire Rack HQ again on May 7th, they’ll do the skid pad challenge all over again, but in the dry.
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