OLOA Preparation

It’s Sunday about a week and a half before One Lap begins and I figured I ought to describe some of the activities that took place in the last month.

First, I must thank my best friend (and soon to be brother in law) Joe for donating his time and expertise and installing oodles of new parts on my ’03 BMW 325i sedan. He’s also been quite accommodating with the myriad questions I’ve asked leading up to this event. Without him, we might not have been headed on OLOA this year (and the car might still be in my garage sans a wheel or two).

Secondly, I need to thank the guys in Ganley’s BMW parts department (in Cleveland, Ohio) for helping me with the many parts needed for this project. Their support was invaluable and well appreciated.

Leading off was a complete replacement of the cooling system (including the radiator, water pump, thermostat, expansion tank, hoses, and belts) as this is a reasonably common failure point on my vehicle. Also being replaced was the valve cover gasket (leaking), a cam positioning sensor (also leaking), and spark plugs (they were right there…). Dinner that night was a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich, fries, and frosty (one of my favorites).

A few days later, the campaign moved into a bunch of shiny new bits from Tire Rack – including an H&R Touring suspension (shocks / springs), braided stainless steel brake lines, and Hawk brake pads (HP-Plus). They squeal like a banshee – but they stop faster than one.

It’s always a good idea to justify a few new goodies for a big project…this time it was a set of new lightweight wheels to improve the performance. The new wheels (Kosei K1s) are 16.8 lbs versus the 23 lbs for the OEM units – a nice improvement. One Lap of America’s rules indicate that all tires much be purchased from Tire Rack (to keep well connected individuals from running special rubber – but mostly because they’re the main sponsor). Over the years I’ve purchased untold numbers of tires and wheels from them and I’ve always been happy with their efficiency and prices.

With all the new hardware installed, it was time to make sure it all worked well prior to One Lap’s start on April 30th. I used the BMW CCA Driver’s School at Mid-Ohio on April 2-3 to verify that Ronnie (my car’s name) was good to go. Also, this is one of the eight tracks on One Lap – so it was a great refresher and, as always, lots of fun.

I was fortunate enough to meet a veteran One Lapper at the event and was able to get a lot of good advice on what to expect and helpful hints on the preparations. Thank you Matt!

Another friend of mine was testing his heavily modified BMW E30 at Mid-Ohio in preparation for OLOA. He and the guys at DTR Performance have really put together a nice setup. I’m impressed and only slightly jealous. Follow them at http://dtronelap.com/

Did I mention it was in the mid 80’s that weekend? We had initially planned on bringing a propane heater as April in Ohio doesn’t normally yield such mercury readings. The event proved that Ronnie was good to go and the emphasis then turned to making sure that we had all of the supplies and required items needed for the journey ahead.

Since everyday there is both transit driving and on-track adventures, part of the challenge is to keep your stuff organized so that it can be taken in and out of the car quickly and easily.

So…yesterday, my Dad and I measured the trunk of the car and headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to find some strategically sized plastic bins. Normally males need to be chaperoned in this store – and, after a few minutes, my Mom and sister arrived with enough coupons to get all 10 of the plastic bins for 20% off (I’m not sure how they found out we were unsupervised – but my wallet was thankful). We declined the glass cleaner they offered us at the check out even though it had received good housekeeping’s recommendation.

After the Bed, Bath, and Beyond experience, my Mom and I headed to Costco to gather all sorts of consumable supplies for the event. A case of 5 hour energy anyone?

Until the next post…Dave