Daily Journal - Saturday, May 22, 1999

Pictures from Saturday, May 22, 1999

Last night was *TOUGH*. We had some problems with the Seven (a motor mount broke, and allowed the steering column to rub against the oil filter which caused a small leak to form). You can see pictures in the Gallery for this update. We finally got back on the road after a two hour delay, but we were caught in the rain the whole time, and let me tell you, it's not much fun in the Seven! Finally we made it to a hotel for 1.5 hours of sleep (which did wonders!), and it was off to Waterford Hills.

Here's where our luck came into play - going in 18th, 300 points behind 10th, I had little expectations for finishing in the top 10. When we got there the track was still quite wet, and the top 10 guys were all running in the wet. I got out there in the Seven and the pavement was quite a bit dryer, and ended up finishing 12th. Second session in the afternoon was completely dry and good enough for a 7th overall. These two strong finishes allowed us to finish..

10th Overall!

.. and Second in class. To say the last, I'm ecstatic about the way things turned out for us, especially considering the ailing conditions of the car at several key events, Michigan Speedway, Texas World, and Road Atlanta.

Jim drove the car quite well in the first session (15th overall!), but in the second session overdrove the car and lost control going into the front straight.f

And that does it for the 1999 One Lap of America! 10th Overall (and a nice big trophy to prove it!) and a connecting rod for Second in Class (Vintage Foreign). The Eclipse finished 44th Overall, and 12th in class.

The winner of the whole thing is the Raptor, followed by the Diablo and the 318ti (with a European M3 Engine plus a turbocharger to boot for at least 450hp!).

We'll definitely be back next year, though we're not quite sure with what car yet.. In the meantime, the Seven is for sale, so if interested, please e-mail me. Now that the car has completed two One Lap's and has made its best finish, it's time to move on.. :)

Thanks for reading along during this week, it's amazing how quickly the time went!

- Emmanuel