Right now, as you read this, a troupe of truly dedicated car freaks is in the opening stages of the 2022 Tire Rack One Lap of America, a wild 3,200-mile road rally that’s the direct descendant of the legendary Cannonball outlaw road race pioneered a half-century ago by the estimable journalist, Brock Yates. The successor event is captained by the founder’s son, my pal Brock Yates Jr., and is no longer an exercise in public illegality. As its sponsorship indicates, One Lap is also significant business for its participants. This year, two Honda engineers from its Ohio-based North American Development Center are among the entrants, sharing a 2022 Acura TLX Type S sedan as they contest the grind.
Again, the One Lap differs from its spiritual antecedent by being a conventional rally rather than an all-out, coast-to-coast race on public highways. The course begins and ends at Tire Rack’s corporate headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, and the really fast driving is confined to track days at road circuits along the route, including Skip Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and Heartland Motorsports Park in Kansas, among others. Competing in One Lap’s Luxury Stock Touring class, the TLX Type S brings a turbocharged, 355 horsepower V-6 and all-wheel drive with torque vectoring to the event. While largely stock, the Acura is augmented by the same type of HRE alloy wheels used by Acura’s entry in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb; its antilock disc brakes retrofitted with Carbotech brake pads.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 