2007 Cannonball One Lap of America

The 2007 Tire Rack Cannonball One Lap of America will be the 24th edition of this famous driving enthusiasts' extreme challenge organized by Brock Yates. And like its recent predecessors, this year's event will test the endurance of the vehicles and their drivers by allowing them to travel at legal speeds on the highway from the Mid-west to the Eastern United States and back, while measuring and scoring their performance at each competition venue they visit.

The 2007 event schedule begins at The Tire Rack in South Bend, Indiana with registration on Friday, May 4th, and competition on the morning of Saturday, May 5th when The Tire Rack Team will host the One Lap of America competitors to a "Wet Skid Pad Shootout" (either due to rain or the test track's in-ground sprinkler system). Finishing positions in the Wet Skid Pad Shootout will be awarded by measuring and averaging the maximum cornering forces each vehicle generates while driving laps in both directions on the test track's 200-foot diameter skid pad. The competitors will then run competitive events at Autobahn Country Club, Mid-America Motorplex, Miller Motorsports Park, Pueblo Motorsports Park, Hallet, O'Reilly Raceway Park and Mid Ohio Sportscar Course. On the morning of Saturday, May 12th, they will return to the Tire Rack for the final competitive event, which will be a Skid Pad Shootout to be held in dry conditions, weather permitting.
There are other so-called endurance racing events that vaguely resemble this event, but they are pale imitations. There is only one Cannonball Car and Driver One Lap of America. The faint of heart need not apply.

The Car and Driver One Lap of America began in 1984 as a 8600 mile road rally circumnavigating the United States. It has evolved into an event that features legal-speed transit sections with high-speed time trial competition at some of America's most challenging racetracks. The seven-day event is open to anyone with some driving experience, a valid driver's license, and a street legal vehicle. There are 10 classes including every type of car, from economy cars, vintage cars, near-wrecks, to the current high-performance sports cars.

Brock Yates, of Car and Driver magazine, started this event as a successor to the infamous Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, run 7 times through the 1970's, to enjoy the roads and racetracks of America. In the 15 years of One Lap, 3000 entrants have competed at 30 racing venues, logged some 10,000,000 miles, and driven some of the country's finest highways, in great cars, strange ones, against some of the world's great drivers.

Once a road rally that circumnavigated the United States, the Michelin One Lap of America has evolved into an event that features legal-speed transit sections, with competition taking place at famous race tracks across the United States. Media and/or public relations events are also held at dealerships, or as part of
civic celebrations.

The 1999 Michelin One Lap of America will be run from May 16-May 22. The start and finish will take place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters to Car and Driver magazine. One Lap will challenge an estimated 100 entries with a total of 14 competitive high-speed, time-trial and bracket drag racing events.

Transit sections, which total 4,200 miles, will utilize roads of the Central, Western and Eastern United States with vehicles restricted to legal highway speeds.

One Lap also raises the awareness of, and is used as a catalyst for donations to several different charities. Among them are Ronald McDonald Children's Charities (RMCC), The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Laps To Conquer MS, Inc. (LCMS), Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) and various Ronald McDonald Houses.

With a 24-hour-a-day format, the Michelin One Lap of America qualifies as one of the most unique and difficult events in all of motorsports. Comments One Lap creator Brock Yates, "In my mind, anyone who even takes on the challenge is a winner! It's akin to an entire racing season in a week!"

Brock Yates is one of the best-known, most respected automotive journalists in the world, achieving recognition in the fields of magazine writing, books, screenwriting and television.

He is Editor-at-Large and featured columnist for Car and Driver magazine. He is also a commentator on the new Speedvision motorsports cable network.

Yates is the former winner of the Ken Purdy Award for Automotive Journalism, Playboy magazine award for editorial excellence, and numerous other journalism prizes. He has written extensively for Playboy, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, American Heritage, Reader's Digest, Boating, American Spectator, and the Washington Post Sunday Magazine.

From 1984 to 1992, Brock co-hosted the award-winning sports series, The American Sports Cavalcade and hosted his own show, The Great Drivers on TNN. He also worked as a CBS Sports color commentator from 1976 to 1984. As an expert on the automotive industry he has appeared on several major TV shows, including Today, The Tonight Show, CBS Morning News and This Week with David Brinkley.

He wrote the screenplays for The Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit II, both starring Burt Reynolds. Brock recently completed a made-for-television screenplay for Universal Studios.

Yates' books include The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry, Dead in the Water, Sunday Driver, Enzo Ferrari, The Critical Path and his most recent, Outlaw Machine, to be released in 1999 by Little Brown, about the social history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

He is the originator and organizer of the famed Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash and the more recent internationally-recognized One Lap of America endurance event.

A Ramirez Consulting Solution