Jeff Lacina (L) and Evan Smith accept their 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America award
The Roush Performance entry in the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America presented by Grassroots Motorsports magazine powered their way to the SSGT2 Big Bore Class Championship in dominating fashion. The team consisted of Car Captain, Jeff Lacina, Owner and Lead Instructor of Track Guys Performance Driving Events, and co-driver, Evan Smith, Editor of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords magazine.
In addition to their class championship, the duo also notched a 3rd place finish in the “Stock” vehicle category and a 16th place overall finish, placing ahead of numerous, more expensive SSGT1 Big Bore cars and teams. The 2012 event drew a total of 75 entries and featured teams and drivers from Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany and Canada.
Day 1 started with a wet skid pad competition at Tire Rack’s South Bend, IN facility then moved to a deviously-tricky oval track. Check out Evan Smith hustlin’ the 2013 Roush RS3 Mustang around South Bend Speedway’s 1/4-mile banked oval – much more difficult than it looks!
Go for a ride with Lacina during his afternoon time trail run at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma…this was on Day 3 of One Lap.
Lacina pilots the 2013 Roush RS3 Mustang through Brainerd's very fast turn 10
The One Lap of America is often referred to as the most grueling motorsports event in North America as teams are pushed to the limit both on the track as well as the long “transit” legs between competitions. “You have to be a pretty serious driver to competed in this event,” said Lacina. “Running smooth, clean, consistent and fast laps on the various race tracks is one thing… now combine that with an week-long road trip of epic proportions and you have quite the mental and physical challenge. It was a lot of stress, a lot of fun and we got to meet and race with some great competitors.”
In 2012, the One Lap included a wide range of points-earning competitions, including: wet skid pad, 1/4-mile paved oval, road course time trials, autocross, ET drag racing, bracket drag racing and a dry skid pad event. By the end of the event, Lacina and Smith had driven 4,043 miles through 13 different states, visited eight different race tracks and competed in 19 different points-paying events in just seven days of competition.
Event Recaps:
The Roush Performance entry of Smith and Lacina provided daily updates during the competition to their respective Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Lacina also posted “day by day” photo galleries on his Facebook page and Roush Performance blogged about the team’s success on their web page.
Please visit the following pages for additional information and summaries of the event.
* Jeff Lacina’s personal Facebook page (click on photos to access the galleries)
* Track Guys Performance Driving Facebook page
* Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Facebook page
* Roush Performance blog
* Tire Rack One Lap of America Results page
* One Lap of America SSGT2 Big Bore results page
Returning the car to Roush Performance... safe and sound and number 1 in class!
From Smith and Lacina: “We want to thank the entire team at Roush Performance in Plymouth, MI for your confidence in us and our abilities to properly showcase your 2013 Roush RS3 Mustang in this real-world demonstration of their world-class combination of driving comfort, reliability and championship-winning performance. An outstanding car from an outstanding group of professionals who “get it”! Check out this fun video the team at Roush put together at the start of the event…it’s stuff like this that kept us going. Thanks again to everyone at Roush Performance.
A huge thank you to the incredibly dedicated (and slightly demented) One Lap of America Team, lead by Brock Yates, Jr. This is truly a world-class event thanks to your efforts and dedication. Well done!
And finally, we must thank all our friends and colleagues for your support during this grueling event. We especially want to thank our wives and families for your unwavering love and support for our passions for performance driving, adventure and sharing it with our readers and our students. We simply could not do this without you…”
- Cool down lap at Brainerd: Saluting our friends, families, spouses and corner workers for their support and encouragement.