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2003 One Lap Supra Journal Archive - Our Journey through the One Lap of America

Daily Updates!

• Update #1 Thru Monday 5/5/03
• Update #2 Thru Thursday 5/8/03
• Update #3 Thru Saturday 5/10/03 *Final*

What is the Car & Driver Cannonball One Lap of America? It's just one of the most famous, challenging, and grueling endurance races in the USA. ( One Lap Official Website | One Lap 2003 Press Release ) Through the course of one week, the field of over 100 race teams participate in 19 racing events (mostly road course time trials) at 9 venues all across the country... but there's a twist -- you drive your race car on the track during the day, then pile all your luggage, spare parts, and tools into it and drive overnight to a faraway track for tomorrow's race. 4,000 street miles, 300 race miles, and 100+ race teams battling it out in a single week. Insane? Basically, this is Brock Yates' slightly more politically correct interpretation of the original Cannonball Run for today's times. Did I mention that there are no practice laps other than the single warm-up lap at each track? Or that there is approximately enough time to drive between venues at the speed limit with no accounting for sleep or repairs? The event-sponsored illegality may be gone, but the drama, challenge, and excitement endures.

Last year, the One Lap Supra team aimed for top-10 in our debut effort and brought home a 4th place overall finish. This year, it's not a debut effort -- as returning Lap Dogs, team One Lap Supra was shooting for a podium finish.

The Team: Andi Baritchi and Clint Pohler

left-to-right: Clint Pohler, Andi Baritchi
the door is a souvenir from One Lap 2002.

Andi Baritchi of Boostaholic Racing, pictured above in the black shirt, an avid road racer, made his debut effort in One Lap 2002 in this 600hp Quicksilver Toyota Supra. Although Andi had only previously driven one of the 9 tracks on the schedule, he knew he was a good driver and fast learner, and had high hopes of a top-10 finish. With the help of co-driver Clint Pohler and after numerous unscheduled on-the-road repairs along the way, and with never having driven any but one of the venues before, the team managed to bring home a fantastic 4th place overall finish (3rd in SSGT1 class). Andi has two hopes for One Lap this year: (1) to finish the race with a podium finish, and (2) to not get arrested this time. Luckily One Lap does not pass through Louisiana this year (thanks Brock ;-D).

Clint Pohler, CEO of TurboImports.com, co-drove the One Lap Supra in 2002 and is returning this year for another badass effort. This year his primary goal will be getting main driver, Andi Baritchi, to the next event without delay or police choppers in pursuit. When he's not making sleep-deprived jaunts across the country, his true passion is his TurboLexus, or should we say TurboLexii, as he recently completed his 97 GT76 6spd SC300, adding to his stable which includes his infamous Viper-killing 92 SC300TT. Overall, this guy is best described as a loose cannon who has unknowingly run out of ammo a while back.

Wayne Potts, mad scientist and owner / head mechanic of CTC Motorsports, has been crew chief for the One Lap Supra team since the beginning, and we are delighted to have him as part of the team. Wayne spent countless hours building this Supra and preparing it for One Lap 2003, and we wouldn't be in this race without him. Wayne won't be co-driving this year, although the idea was considererd-- click here for the original team picture (Wayne Potts, Andi Baritchi) as opposed to Clint's "revised" photo above. Next year?

Andi Baritchi
Owner & Race Driver of the One Lap Supra
andi@airmail.net
www.Boostaholic.com

Clint Pohler
Co-Driver
clint@turboimports.com
TurboImports.com

Wayne Potts
Crew Chief
wayne@ctcmotorsports.com
CTC Motorsports
214-575-7474 shop phone

Cannonball One Lap of America 2003 Overview

Spectators are welcome at all the tracks and events. Last year we had members of the great online Supra community greet us and cheer us on at each track all over the country, and I can't express here how cool that was. If you live near one of these tracks and have the free time to come watch, we'd love to see you there. You will get to see lots of badass cars and some awesome racing! :) Oh, I almost forgot, we have an opportunity to walk each track before the time trials.. so if you can bring a bicycle or other such item to assist me with walking a long ass track at any semblance of speed, that would help us a lot. Thanks!

Note: to spectate at Watkins Glen, you must pre-register the day before at the Lodge on the Green, which is the start/finish line of One Lap. All the other venues are open to spectators w/o pre-registration.

Special Thanks:

We would like to thank the following people for their help with the 2003 One Lap Supra team effort. These people have personally sponsored the effort in one way or another, be it a donation, visiting us at a racetrack, giving us good advice or helping with preparations, or whatever... and are mentioned in no particular order:

My family, Wayne Potts, Clint Pohler, Jeff Watson, Thomas Sowell, Lance Wolrab, Peter Blach, Bruce Hadfield, Rob Tuthill, Jerry Lai, Jordan Ransom, Dean Yamada, Larry Prebis, Gary Grossman, Zaidoun Al-Hilali, Arthur Armendariz, Jason King, Jack Currence, Chris Wick, John Purner, Bill Perkins, Sinclair Mudaly, Amber Stice, Darin Wyborny, Jim Connell, Adam Welwood, Eric Michel, Sean Park, Adam Hume, Steve Theodore, Barry Hair, Tom Cardone, Kris Bell, Melvin Peoples, Casey Raman, Geoff Maguire, Stephen Edmondson, Brian Won, Kean Wang, Jimmy Lin, Weiming Wang, Ivan Curiel, Grant Beaty, Randy Barker, Jim Hayes, Ryan Hoskins, Steve Jarvis, Ryan Hawkins, Jesse Hobbs, Maury Loomis, Angel Rivera, JJ, Mike Lee, Thomas Lee, Chris Johnson, Greg Caloudas, Shane Duvall, Ryan Pinkus, Bob Westwater, Dave Campbell, Billy Devizia, Rodney Sizemore, Rick Sizemore, John Boos, Paul Gerrard, Chuck Veth, Brian Smith, Dave Zelkowski, Brock Yates Sr., Brock Yates Jr., Reg Riemer, The Corcorans, Jeff Wall, Brian Denham, Rob Robson.

Thanks to Our Sponsors:

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