ViperGeorge
Enthusiast
Some of you may know about the One Lap of America (OLOA)but for those that don't here's a quick summary. OLOA is the descendent of the infamous Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, or more simply the Cannonball. In the 70's Brock Yates put on the race to prove that cars could safely negotiate the Interstate Highway system at speeds exceeding the then federal speed limit of 55mph.
The original Cannonball was run for several years but then faded into automotive history. It gained even more noteriety though when the movie Cannonball Run came out. Brock also wrote the script for the movie and all of it is based on real life events from the Cannonball. Even the part with Burt Reynolds driving an ambulance was true. Brock once attempted the Cannonball in an ambulance with lights flashing and his wife as a patient. They even had a doctor on board.
The OLOA is also put on by Brock Yates but is a legal version with racing confined to some of the finest race tracks in the country. Everyday teams compete against the clock and each other on the track. Once the track competition completes everyone packs up and heads to the next track. Often this involves drives of 5-6-or 7 hundred miles. Most of this done at night. As our bumper sticker says "Sleep is for the weak".
Myself and a friend are competing in this year's event in my 2006 supercharged FE Coupe. We're currently on our way to Nelson Ledges in Ohio. The event started last Friday at Tire Rack in South Bend, IN. The first event was a wet skidpad challenge (I sucked at this). Next we drove to Elkhart Lake, WI and Road America, a fabulous race course. This track has very long straights and favors a supercharged Viper. We did great here (at least great for us), you see some of the leading drivers are pros. I mean like Daytona 24 and ALMS pros. Winners even.
After leaving Road America on Saturday afternoon we drove to Pacific Junction, IA to hit Mid America. A fun course. After Mid America it was off to the Hallet Road Course in Oklahoma. Once we completed Hallet we drove to Tulsa drag strip for some evening drag racing. When we finished this we drove to Gateway near St. Louis. This is a roval course and was a blast.
Mid Ohio was the next stop, also a world class race course. From there it was to the new track in NJ - NJMP. As I write this we are on the PA Turnpike heading to Nelson Ledges for tomorrow's event and then we return to Tire Rack for a dry skidpad challenge.
The Viper has been good but we have had to fight a few problems. The first turned out to be a loose C1 connector into the PCM. Kept causing intermittant loss of cam and crank sensor pulses. Dan Cragin helped point me in the right direction so that I could find the loose connector. Next I had the Paxton control box fall onto the gas pedal on the out lap at NJMP. Got that fixed but ran into a problem on the very next time on track. My PLX gauge was flashing warnings about A/F ratios and the engine was running crappy. Turned out to be a loose C2 connector. I could have sworn I pushed them all in yesterday. Oh well.
Lastly we're still on the road because the welds on my trailer hitch broke. The trailer almost broke loose. I noticed it when we pulled into a rest stop for dinner and fuel. Had to pull it off in the parking lot and drive to the next town to get it welded. Then we had to back track to get the trailer. Our ETA to the hotel is 2:20am.
I will post more stories another day along with more pics. For now check out the "URGENT Help needed in OH" thread under the SRT forum
The original Cannonball was run for several years but then faded into automotive history. It gained even more noteriety though when the movie Cannonball Run came out. Brock also wrote the script for the movie and all of it is based on real life events from the Cannonball. Even the part with Burt Reynolds driving an ambulance was true. Brock once attempted the Cannonball in an ambulance with lights flashing and his wife as a patient. They even had a doctor on board.
The OLOA is also put on by Brock Yates but is a legal version with racing confined to some of the finest race tracks in the country. Everyday teams compete against the clock and each other on the track. Once the track competition completes everyone packs up and heads to the next track. Often this involves drives of 5-6-or 7 hundred miles. Most of this done at night. As our bumper sticker says "Sleep is for the weak".
Myself and a friend are competing in this year's event in my 2006 supercharged FE Coupe. We're currently on our way to Nelson Ledges in Ohio. The event started last Friday at Tire Rack in South Bend, IN. The first event was a wet skidpad challenge (I sucked at this). Next we drove to Elkhart Lake, WI and Road America, a fabulous race course. This track has very long straights and favors a supercharged Viper. We did great here (at least great for us), you see some of the leading drivers are pros. I mean like Daytona 24 and ALMS pros. Winners even.
After leaving Road America on Saturday afternoon we drove to Pacific Junction, IA to hit Mid America. A fun course. After Mid America it was off to the Hallet Road Course in Oklahoma. Once we completed Hallet we drove to Tulsa drag strip for some evening drag racing. When we finished this we drove to Gateway near St. Louis. This is a roval course and was a blast.
Mid Ohio was the next stop, also a world class race course. From there it was to the new track in NJ - NJMP. As I write this we are on the PA Turnpike heading to Nelson Ledges for tomorrow's event and then we return to Tire Rack for a dry skidpad challenge.
The Viper has been good but we have had to fight a few problems. The first turned out to be a loose C1 connector into the PCM. Kept causing intermittant loss of cam and crank sensor pulses. Dan Cragin helped point me in the right direction so that I could find the loose connector. Next I had the Paxton control box fall onto the gas pedal on the out lap at NJMP. Got that fixed but ran into a problem on the very next time on track. My PLX gauge was flashing warnings about A/F ratios and the engine was running crappy. Turned out to be a loose C2 connector. I could have sworn I pushed them all in yesterday. Oh well.
Lastly we're still on the road because the welds on my trailer hitch broke. The trailer almost broke loose. I noticed it when we pulled into a rest stop for dinner and fuel. Had to pull it off in the parking lot and drive to the next town to get it welded. Then we had to back track to get the trailer. Our ETA to the hotel is 2:20am.
I will post more stories another day along with more pics. For now check out the "URGENT Help needed in OH" thread under the SRT forum