One Lap of America Wraps up at Gingerman Raceway

By Tim DeLong - May 16, 2014

I made the 3 1/2 hour drive down to South Haven Michigan to check out the machinery as the One Lappers made their way to Gingerman Raceway. The weather was sporadic. The morning session began with the big bore cars running in the wet and very windy conditions. About mid way through the session the weather cleared up and the track began to dry out . That break in the weather drastically shuffled the line up based on lap times. Those who got a dry track had much faster lap times.

At one point a Chevy HHR led the Vipers, Corvettes, and GTR’s. I heard the track being described as an “equalizer”. One gentleman stated that “You may have 800 to 1000 Horsepower, but this track has tight corners at the ends of the straights. If you don’t have the grip, all that power is useless if you can’t put your foot down. That’s why the smaller cars with grip can do well here, especially in the wet.” That gentleman was right. Subaru’s took the top three places overall, with RMF Motorsports, our boys in the beards, Drew Rosek and Dylan Helferich taking the top spot overall with an impressive accumulative time of 5:17.09.

This year’s One Lap of America suffered quite a bit of attrition. A large number of the competitors became ill with what could have been food poisoning and were forced to withdraw. Those that made the entire 3500+ mile journey made their way to the TireRack.com headquarters in South Bend Indiana on Saturday. The cars ran a dry skid pad event followed by an awards banquet. The teams are now settled back into their regular lives, waiting for next year’s One Lap to start.