A couple weeks ago, the 37th running of One Lap of America was held. For those of you who don’t know what One Lap is, it’s a week long event that takes place at different venues. Racers have to drive their cars to each event and race. The races include autocross, road courses, and other vehicle maneuverability challenges.

One Lap started at Tire Rack in South Bend, Indiana, where competitors put over 3500 miles in 7 days of driving. There were 9 locations including Grissom Air Force Base, Nashville Superspeedway, Carolina Motorsports Park, Lanier Race Plex, Barber Motorsports Park, Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, Heartland Motorsports Park, Putnam Park Road Course, and then finishing back at Tire Rack.

Among the McLarens, Porsches, BMWs and other super cars, was a hefty variety of Mopars participating. Peter Bank and David Carr, a dynamic engineer working with Direct Connection, came with their 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat with a Stage 2 suspension system, finishing 2nd in mid-priced sedan class.

Third place in mid-priced sedan class was Matt and Misty White from Texas in their 2021 Dodge Charger Hellcat Red Eye. The car is their daily driver and they drove all the way to the event with all the gear stuffed inside. Matt and Misty have done One Lap three other years with a Hellcat before, so they knew how to properly warm up the tires before hitting the course.

George Batejan from Colorado and teammate Steve Smotrich from New Jersey were in the Sport GT1 Big Bore class in their 1 of 10 2017 ACR Dodge Viper. Standing near this car while it was idling was music to my ears. George and Steve are no strangers to the event having been in attendance for 26 years. They do it for Make a Wish Foundation.

One vehicle that we were surprised to see participating was a 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat with only 30 miles on the odometer. Alex Breneman and Nick Young from Pennsylvania made their first appearance this year in his Hellcat Durango. It received the first oil change during the event.

Alex bought the Durango, took it home and completely gutted it to make it as light as possible. Every piece of plastic was removed inside and out. At the end of the week, he was doing all-wheel drive drifts on the skid pad. Alex finished 2nd in the Truck and SUV class. The crew and officials were riding around in SRT Durangos supplied by Dodge too.

Although we did not participate in the event, it is on our bucket list. It was a joy to see all the vehicles at Tire Rack in South Bend and very pleased to see all the Mopars. Who knew these big boats can go around corners too.

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