Huge News from The OneLapCamaro Team!
 

With the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America just over 4 weeks away The OneLapCamaro has some huge news!

This has been a challenging year for us for a lot of different reasons and running the One Lap of America is nothing short monumental undertaking - even with a car that is reasonably prepared and sorted out. The commitment in time and resources is pretty significant as is the mental preparation and the pre-race organization required to at least get to a handle on everything before we even start. I know that on more than one occasion I've looked at where we are - where I am - and said "what the heck am I doing?" or... probably more to the point "why am I doing this again?"

At the end of the day we always come to the same conclusion - because we get to have a ton of fun spending a week doing what we truly love to do and we get to hang out with some awesome people. We've all made some great friends at the One Lap and we've even convinced some of our friends to join us. I think it's safe to say the David, Mary and I have some memories - of both victory and defeat - that we'll have for the rest of our lives. We've overcome obstacles that seemed insurmountable at the time and we have been more than fortunate to be able to say that we've won our class not once, but twice in the two times that we've entered.

At the end of the day - that's why we do it. Fun. Memories. And like that mountain... because it's there. It's the ultimate driving adventure.

Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way of our fun. We dodged some bullets over the last couple of years and we have been fortunate to have been able to find a way to the finish. Usually our challenge seems to come on day 3; this year it's happened before we even got out of the gate.

Unfortunately this year Mary won't be able to co-drive as planned (and David said "heck no, not again" a long time ago). We had been discussing this possibility for a couple of weeks now and today we made it official..

When we first started talking about this we started a search for possible replacements. For reasons that I don't quite understand there aren't a ton of people prepared to drop everything for 10 days and drive around the country, getting little to know rest, in a 45 year old car with no radio. Some guys, Paul Tracy for instance, wouldn't even return my calls while other, less experienced (but incredibly enthusiastic) drivers didn't have the qualifications or equipment needed. It's not like the requirements were overwhelming... some track experience, some familiarity with early Camaro's, a decent personality, some time, and a clean driving suit... and that's when it hit me...

Please join me in welcoming The OneLapCamaro Team's newest member and my co-driver in the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America.... "Hollywood" Carl Casanova!

Oh yeah baby! Great choice James. Carl can even fix things in tight spots up bigger guys can't reach...:D

Have fun Carl! :cheers:

Wow Sweet!!!

Congratz Carl. I'm envious of you guys.

Sounds like fun, good luck guys!

great pick! :thumbsup:

James - I'm not sure you can put the words HUGE news in your title when talking about the addition of CarlC to your race team. Here are 2 average sized humans holding up what seems to be either Carl's driving suit or some 4 year old's "JAMMIE'S" without the feet booties at Buttonwillow last year.


http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5...1091700017.jpg

Did you hire Carl for his talent or the Hype just like Tony Stewart did with Danica? Sometimes sponsorship power is more important then actual performance on the track.


:D :D :D :D :D :D :D - I bet the price on my Vaporworx products just went up with this post.

Perfect combination!

Now I'm doubly happy I kicked some extra into the pot this year! You two will have a great time.


:woot:

Good luck out there guy's :thumbsup:

Who?:unibrow:

Just when I think the guy can't get any more famous---I hear this.

Congrats to Carl--I know this is something he has really wanted to do in his own car---so this is very cool for sure.

Looking forward to seeing this happen and to hear about it.

Doug

I'm NOT a hater, Doug :D ...but that's pretty funny coming form you :lol:

Are you kidding? Carl has no ceiling. He's a freaking media mogul. :yes:

Doug, you could make some duckets on the side as his agent. Market that man!!

You should have ordered those parts when we talked on Saturday. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance......

I just got off the phone with David Pozzi after discussing the finer points of no sleep, dehydration, nasty weather driving, no sleep, cars breaking, no sleep, sunburn, bad food, no sleep, etc. Sounds like fun!

I'm really excited to go. I can't replace Mary, I can only try to hold up my end of the bargain and do the best I can. It's a heck of a Bucket List item for me, and to do it in one of my favorite cars is incredible. I'm very fortunate to be able to have this opportunity. A big thank you goes out to Mary and James for considering me for the "job."

Eight days. 19 events. 11 different venues. 3297 miles. I have a lot to do to get ready and only 30 days to get my act together. If anyone has one of those Rosetta Stone courses for OLoA, I'm in.

Congratulations Carl. Reap it!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
good Luck Guys

Congrats Carl and James, I am looking forward to following you progress.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Greg

It's funny - David talks alot about not getting any sleep during the race but I have a bunch of pictures of him sacked out in the passenger seat. It might not have been good sleep... but there is some sleep to be had. :) That being said, we did learn a lot - the hard way - about the importance of looking after ourselves as much as the car. It's easy to focus on maintaining the machine while overlooking your own well being.

Carl is going to be a great addition to the team. Back in January we were talking about the OLoA - Carl was (and probably still is - for now) thinking about running it next year in his car and wanted to get the skinny on what to expect - and he suggested that if we ever needed help, he would be there. Fast forward to last month and when it started to look like Mary wouldn't be able to make it, Carl was the natural choice.

Sometimes there just is no 'good choice'.....



:rofl: :rofl:

Good call! Memories of a lifetime :thumbsup:

Carl, you will be fine for everything that One Lap can throw at you. Coming from a seat behind high-horsepower yourself, you'll find the OLC a dream to drive as it's predictable and very confirmed in its job. Even when pressured, it won't bite the hand that feeds it ...

You and I are about the same size and I was able to catch sleep when I needed it. My only complaint was during that 72-hour "race-drive-race-drive-hit raccoon-drive-break down-wait for eternity for transport-catch an hours sleep-wait for another transport-watch repairs taking shape at Prodigy-driving another 10+ hours, race, and then drive finally ending up in Birmingham, AL" marathon, we caught an hour of sleep at some highway rest stop and James would not share his blanket, big poop that he is!!

Bring your own fleece blanket ...

I'll be watching and following along each day.

Mary Pozzi

^
Possibly some revisionist history going on there... as I remember it you not only had a blanket at the time, you didn't even clearly remember my stopping for sleep until well afterwards. And besides, it wasn't raining that hard.

Very cool... I guess neither Todd Akes nor Cris Gonzalez returned your call. :rofl:

That's funny I don't care who you are

I got part way done dialing Todd's number but figured he'd just get frustrated pumping the gas before trying to start the car all the time and didn't want to fuss him with all the "new tech" stuff... :)

Chris has been overwhelmed with his "how many test pilots can I get in this car" contest and I figured he'd be too distracted to think about it right now. and another :)

o man ! james from the sideline with a double play!:lol:

:rofl: :thumbsup:

F'n PERFECTION right there!



:rofl:

Maybe we can get a team Lat-g/PT or Team Camaro going one of these years!! Running the OLoA is on my bucket list as well and I'd love to do it in my car or participate in some way one of these years. At the very least maybe we'd get a discount on shipping multiple cars from CA back east :unibrow:

That's what we're doing for shipping this year... Catching a ride with a Ferrari F-something-or-other and a slightly insane Nissan GTR. It will help with the shipping - at least a bit.

It would be awesome to get more board members out to OLoA and the Silver State. SSCC is even set up for a Team competition as it is and I know that there are a couple of board sponsors that would be all over something like that. On fact the invitation has been there for a while... Just no takers. With more cars getting finished though, maybe it will happen - hope so!

I have had the Silver State on my to-do list since I was in high school. Would be awesome to get a few of us over there and many of us around here aren't that far away. :thumbsup:

I'd be down to try the Silver State. I never looked into it much. Was just checking out their website after reading your posts. Looks like they do the event twice a year. May and September. I probably wouldn't be ready for May given that it's April and I don't have a running car. September is the same weekend as Buttonwillow.

When are you next doing the Silver State James?

I was going to run the Silver State but was turned off by cost and 1st year speed limitation. I'd still like to do it one day. Maybe in a different car at a much higher speed. :unibrow:

I'm going to run in September - assuming everything holds together until then... That will probably be the last event for the OLC for a while. We'll probably run 135 or 140 depending on how the car feels.

The first year speed deal is what it is... a starting point. It's a cool event and probably one of the few true "grassroots" events out there. Yeah it's competitive but when you have an entire town taken over by car guys it's something to be a part of - at least once.

I thought about it in the Porsche I had but honestly that car was too smooth and uneventful at very high speeds. I really think doing 100+ in our cars would be so much more rewarding, exhilarating and impressive.


I think it was a Stacey David show recently that profiled the week and you could totally tell how cool it was how the town was taken over. Reminded me of what it appears to be like at the 341 Hill Climb too.

testing... (ok - posing - they don't call him Hollywood for nothing)

http://www.onelapcamaro.com/2012OLC/carl%201.jpg

nothing like the PCH when you want to put a couple of hundred miles on the hotrod!

... I was disappointed that he didn't wear his driving suit....

Well at $495 to run 90 miles you are getting more seat time bang for your buck than say an RTTC event :p

Poser






The weather is beautiful..... wish you were!

...and the crowd's mood is gettin' ugly.


:lol:

Hey now, that car can make even me look good!

Looks like Big Sur to me,I can see Bixby Creek bridge in the background...:yes:

Yesterday was SO beautiful,I hope you guys had a blast! :thumbsup: