I imagined a performance exhaust, headers, maybe some suspension mods, not to mention some nice big wheels and tires. I thought it would be a breeze to get sponsors who would donate parts. My car, a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R, needed some work-for openers, a new clutch and fresh brakes. Skip ahead to early spring, two months before the race, when I began encountering the first cold realities of motorsports. Still shaking his head, Smith-who has done four Laps himself-said, “Sure, kid, knock yourself out.”Īnd so my One Lap of America ’99 campaign began, and although I didn’t know it, so did the betting as to whether I would make it out of Washtenaw County, let alone out of Michigan. Most of those entries were everyday cars driven by people with varying experience. Although the Vipers and Porsches at the front of the pack were fun to watch, my personal inspiration came from observing the slower half of the field. At some point during that grueling hike around the U.S., I decided I had to come back and compete. That was the response of executive editor Steven Cole Smith, who didn’t seem to believe what he was hearing, although he kindly refrained from adding, “Are you nuts?”īut if he’d asked that question, my answer would have been, “Probably.”Ī year and a half ago, when I was a newly hired Car and Driver road warrior, I went along on One Lap ’98 as a member of the timing crew. You want to race in One Lap, and you want to do it in your own car?”
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