Carolina Motorsports Park was definitely the coolest of the tracks we’ve visited so far, and its big, accessible front straight made for some great views of the cars flying by. It also happens to be Steven Rankins’ home track—he knows it like the back of his hand, and he did freakin’ stellar. He’s also a hometown hero: a bunch of local Subaru owners showed up to watch him run, and Dale and Patrick from Boxer4Racing even turned out to see how their team was doing. As a result of this event, we’re now 13th in overall standings, and that’s not counting the event we’re running at the BMW test track in the afternoon.

a href="http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2008/05/one-lap-of-a-12.html#more" target="_">

Check it out if you wanna know what it’s like to ride along in a track-tuned One Lap car, currently through disgusting Chicago traffic. To keep it family-friendly, we’ve been trying so hard not to use any real bad swears, especially since discovering a big old crack in the windshield.

Today was primarily a registration day, where One Lap teams received a huge package of stickers, a stern talking to, and a chance to make last-minute adjustments. At the drivers’ meeting, Brock Yates Jr. told us One Lap first-timers that we are "lap puppies"—it’s only after we come back for a second year that we get to be "lap dogs"—and assured us that, by Monday, each and every one of us would hate our co-drivers, a universal outcome of the extreme sleep-dep experienced during this event. After we stickered the STi in the Tire Rack garage and got our tires stenciled in the registration tent, we had a bit of time to amble around the lot and check out some of the cars we’ll be up against. More soon!

I’m setting out for One Lap of America tomorrow with Steven Rankins’ Boxer4Racing Subaru team, and I couldn’t be more excited! Just take a look at our route map, complete with all the track locations we’ll be hitting—I guess there’s a reason Brock Yates Jr. has called this enduracnce event "a season of racing in a week." Another cool aspect of the tour is that we have to run the entire 4000-mile journey and ten gruelling track events on a single set of tires, when racers will often go through multipe sets during a single race weekend. Steven decided to use a fresh set of the Continental ContiSportContact3′s he ran last year, because they held up so well—and we do get to bring along a spare for emergencies. Stay tuned, as CarDomain’s going to be bringing you up-close coverage of the track racing and the long hauls for the entire 4000 miles. We’ll be kicking off the tour in South Bend, Indiana this weekend. See you there!

Steven Rankins took the Boxer4Racing STi down to Carolina Motorsports Park for some test and tune this week, and the little Subie seems to be in good shape for what’s sure to be a gruelling eight days on the road for the One Lap of America endurance event. Our team of three will be covering over 4000 miles and running in time-trial events at ten different tracks around the Eastern half of the country. All that’s left to do is final prep, like swapping on new brake pads, and wiring up the car for internet connectivity, including the streaming video that’ll be featured on Boxer4Racing’s One Lap page. Check out this clip of the STi making the rounds at the track, and stay tuned: I’m leaving for One Lap in the middle of next week, right after I get back from Talladega.