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TOPSPEED MOTORSPORTS GT-R WINS 2011 ONE LAP OF AMERICA WITH THE AMS ALPHA 9 PACKAGE

Imagine a team of two traveling over 3500 miles to race 9 events in eight days at some of the most demanding road courses of the eastern and Midwest United States. Throw in a drag race event midway through the competition along with a wet and dry skid pad event to kick off and end it all and you’d think you’d already have a rough challenge ahead of you. Now imagine you have no transport vehicle, the whole journey would have to be traversed in your race vehicle and you have to do it all on ONE set of tires! That’s what Leh Keen and Doug Wilks had to do in their TopSpeed Motorsports GT-R along with roughly 80 other competition vehicles for a chance to win the 2011 Brock Yates’ One Lap of America.

Competition for the 2011 One Lap of America began at the Tire Rack facility in South Bend, IN on April 30, 2011. The event made its way full circle over 3500 miles throughout much of the eastern and Midwest United States and ended a little over one week later on May 5, 2011. With nine race events and two skid pad competitions, this event was a true a test of endurance for both man and machine.

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It’s update time! The car is literally hours away from firing up but I wanted to get you guys a few more pictures of the progress we have made over the past few weeks.

First was the fuel system upgrade / reinforcement complete with upgraded lines, filter and fuel test port per WC Rules

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Story by:  Davin Patton
Origonal Source – NAGTROC.ORG – 2000 Miles of Discovery Thread

Most who went to the SEMA show had the single goal in mind of partying, and all seemed to accomplish their missions. Las Vegas is, without a doubt, a place where a man can get himself into a lot of trouble. Given that my main goal was to get a lot of things done for NAGTROC, I couldn’t give myself the luxury of getting too distracted. Things do have a way of happening there but, with the exception of one night that involved some Patron, I managed to stay out of trouble and was very productive.

One thing about the SEMA show that always stands out to me is the number of pure show cars. There are cars there that have clearly never seen a drop of water. More than a few were probably born just weeks prior in a warehouse somewhere. Many had likely been taken directly to the show, under full body protection, to keep them from coming in contact with potentially dirty air particles anywhere between the factory they were painted in and the show floors.
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Story by:  Davin Patton
Origonal Source – NAGTROC.ORG – 2000 Miles of Discovery Thread

The weather in Grand Junction seemed to be a repeat of Denver. It was actually a little colder but with clear light blue skies all the same. That said, it clearly wasn’t Denver: when I looked outside for the first time that morning, the mountains were a bit further off into the distance than I expected. The land around looked relatively flat but very green. For some reason I always thought Utah was a barren desert, so the thought of being this close to Utah and it being so green was quite unexpected. Read more…

Story by:  Davin Patton
Origonal Source – NAGTROC.ORG – 2000 Miles of Discovery Thread

The Alpha-9 GT-R roared to life with a strong, purposeful, growl. The engine maintained its high 2,000 rpm cold start before quickly settling down closer to 1,000 rpms. So far, nothing seemed different about the car. I moved the transmission selector to reverse and backed us out. I then slid the gear selector down into drive and we were off. Finally on our way to California.

At about 10mph I switched to manual mode. It wasn’t far to the highway. Already, I was noticing that the car was reacting to everything on a seemingly flat road. It was hard to gauge just how rough the road was, so at that point I couldn’t tell if it was the JRZ coilovers or the road that was making the ride so far from perfect. From a mechanical perspective, the car felt fine though, so we continued on our way. It wasn’t long before it was time to get on the highway, and I took us to the on-ramp and looked downrange to spot the merge point.

Under full throttle, near redline, any turbo car with enough boost pressure will go fast. I was sure the Alpha-9 GT-R would be no exception but I wouldn’t give it the chance. Not so soon. Instead, I wanted to test its drivability and flexibility. Read more…

Story by:  Davin Patton
Origonal Source – NAGTROC.ORG – 2000 Miles of Discovery Thread

It was a Tuesday night when I arrived into Chicago. Chuck got in a few hours before me. He text me a warning that there was bad weather in the area. He said they’d lost power over at the AMS shop the day before. I asked if the flight was fun. He replied that the plane dropped right prior to landing, and that it was fun in a ‘you feel like you’re going to die’ sort of way. So when we approached O’Hare, I expected my life to flash before my eyes in severe turbulence. When we only got minor drops, and I never felt like we were going to crash, I was almost disappointed. Others on the plane weren’t. I guess it’s all about expectations.

Before I knew it I was in Chicago and a couple hours later I was at the hotel. It was a late day for the AMS crew, but by the time I got in, the shop was all but empty.

The next day we got up, bright and early, and made our way to AMS…

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