05/07/03 - Wednesday
Memphis Motorsports Park

Event 1: 20th place
Event 2: 11th place

Overall: 39th place, 6th in class

The track is a very interesting layout. There is a drag strip that is the main stretch, then a large carousel to a series of "S"es followed by two 90 degree turns. Then the track dumps back onto the drag strip. The drag strip was closed due to the rain, apparently the compound used on the surface for traction in the "dry" makes it extremely slippery in the "wet". Instead of using the drag strip as the front stretch, the track was modified to use the pit lane as the front stretch that chicaned out to the drag strip runoff area. There is only a narrow lane letting cars from the pit lane onto the drag runoff, and it was guarded by cement walls. I was glad John was at the wheel and not me. I did not feel like coming down pit lane at 100mph for a quick left/right to avoid the concrete walls.

The marshals decided to delay the events to let the track dry off. They sent off the first car at about 10:30am - almost two hours late. There was still some pooling water on the track, but that just made for some interesting racing.

John had the hot seat duties today. He ran the first session very well, placing 20th overall. He came in knowing he could do better. The long stretch was set up very well for our high horsepower DTE Vette. We planned strategy over lunch, and took a closer look at the track. It was starting to dry out more, and we chatted with John Boos near the last corner.

Now it was starting to get hot and humid again. The overcast skies gave way to high sun. The tires like it hot and sticky. We began to form up for the second event. John scorched it, turning three hot laps faster than all but ten cars. He even posted this with a slight spin costing us at least three seconds on the last lap. The car overheated again at the end of the second run. We're starting to get used to this. We let it cool down, added some more coolant, and everything seemed OK. Maybe a higher capacity radiator for next year.

We were very happy with an 11th spot finish as we loaded up the truck. Just before we left, we met up with Phil and Chris again with the Black Firebird. They had burned up another clutch and replaced a cylinder sleeve overnite. They hadn't slept a wink in three days.

We decided to leave the track and head SE towards Atlanta instead of going through Nashville. We have a pretty long run tonight, over 650 miles. We were not able to get away from the severe weather though. It began to rain solidly at Birmingham. As I am writing this we are rolling through Atlanta in more rain. The car likes to hydroplane and slide sideways on the interstate. The fun driving isn't only for the track.

The XM boombox we have is on the fritz so we can't listen in on Heidi Selexa with the Eighties on 8. We think it is having antenna problems. We called Delphi tech support and they confirmed it was an antenna hardware problem but couldn't help us. We thanked them for being Masters of the
Obvious and I was proud of John that he didn't swear at the nice man on the phone. I did need to restrain him from throwing the radio out the window.

We are headed to South Carolina tonight and we are praying for clear skies. We are making a very slow pace in the rain. We hope to get to the hotel by 3am.

Keeping it shiny side up,
Mark and John

• Saturday, May 3^rd: Watkins Glen Raceway, New York- 2 time trials and Summit Racing passage control.
• Sunday, May 4^th: Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indiana- 2 time trials and Tire Rack Skid Pad Shootout.
• Monday, May 5^th: Road America, Wisconsin- 2 time trials.
• Tuesday, May 6^th: Hallet Motor Racing Circuit, Oklahoma- 2 time trials and 2 dirt oval time trials at Tulsa Motor Speedway.
• Wednesday, May 7^th: Memphis Motorsports Park, Tennessee- 2 time trials, drag racing and bracket drags.
• Thursday, May 8^th: Carolina Motorsports Park, South Carolina- 2 time trials.
• Friday, May 9^th: BeaveRun Motorsports Complex, Pennsylvania- 2 time trials and a surprise!
• Saturday, May 10^th: Finish at lodge on The Green

You can also learn more about the Cannonball One lap of America by visiting their website by clicking, http://www.onelapofamerica.com/ where you will find links to the different tracks that the competitors compete at, amongst other useful information.