A Look Back at the 2025 Tire Rack One Lap of America

The 41st running of the Tire Rack One Lap of America once again had a massive field, with BMWs and Minis showing up in force. There were nine BMWs and two Minis from 10 different states in the 82 car field, meaning they made up nearly 15 percent of the entries. That included M2s, M3, M4, M5, JCW, 3 and 5 Series and even a ’76 2002.

By: Steve Rossini

With the 2026 edition of One Lap of America happening now, we thought it was an apt time to look back at the 2025 running of the event. – Ed.

The 2025 event was a bit shorter than in the past, and featured a return to some recent tracks, but the traditional One Lap challenges were not lacking. This year we completed nearly 3000 miles in eight days, starting and finishing in Tire Rack’s home of South Bend, IN.

So, what makes a person want to participate in the first place? What makes them return? There were 23 participants—10 of whom were first timers—on the BMW and Mini teams. Most of the teams heard about the event from friends and decided it was worthy of their bucketlist. Jonathan Griffith and Matthew Oaks, who ran a 2006 Mini Cooper John Cooper Works, said, “I wanted to do something to raise awareness for brain cancer. And so, we kind of kicked off this discussion back in October of last year, while working with American Brain Tumor Association.”

One team read about the One Lap in Roundel last year and said this was something they had to do. Dan Corliss, who ran a 1998 M3, read an article and said, “I decided to drag Zane (Erickson) along. He’s the only person I know who could stand to be with me for a week in the car. I’m doing all of the track events, but Zane is going to be helping me out with the transit driving and trying to make sure that I stay sane throughout the week.”

It is also a challenge to drive a track that you may have never seen, then drive several hundred miles to the next hotel, try to get whatever sleep you can, get back to the track in the morning, and do it all over again.

Clay Keel said, “Spotlight Initiative Racing made its One Lap of America debut this year in our 2014 BMW M5 Competition. Our mission—to expose undergraduate engineering students from the University of South Florida to real-world racing and we found a perfect fit in this grueling, unforgettable event. The students played a key role in testing, selecting, and designing the car’s modifications as well as marketing and media support.”

For Ray Junkins and Nikki Chesire driving a 1976 BMW 2002 for the second year in a row—and after a late in the running engine failure in 2024—the challenge was the anxiety of what could happen this year even with all the prep. Nikki said, “Our challenge would be keeping the ’76 2002 running. It’s a spirited old car, but spirit alone has a very limited effect on the mechanical workings of engines. For me, though, the challenge was anticipation. Anticipating something would fail. That it was a matter of when, not if.” This year their prep included a beautiful modified 2002 trailer to haul every possible spare.
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The weather for the One Lap has sometimes been a challenge, with May in full swing. We’ve experienced tornadoes, hail, heavy rains, floods, high winds and even a 2024 invasion of tumble weeds in Colorado. Thankfully, 2025’s weather was nearly perfect. A little damp on day one, but then clear skies and cool to warm weather.

While the transits were not as long as in the past, there were still a few late nights with hotel arrivals after 2:00 or 3:00 AM. For some, that meant driving directly to the track to catch a few winks.

For many teams, especially the first timers, the challenge is doing well on your first hot lap of a track you haven’t seen. Some teams opted for a single-track driver paired with a transit driver while others had two drivers sharing track duties. Kevin McMahon said, “Learning the new tracks quickly is a challenge, then thinking you’re driving hard and fast and results say otherwise. Then managing sleep, exercise, and diet over the long night transits.”

Bowie Gray said it was “The challenge of getting the most out of the car on tracks we didn’t know, with no practice, and every lap counts… That challenge was something different than any other type of motorsports and was very exciting.”

The most anticipated track this year was VIR in Alton, VA, while Grattan in Belding, MI was the one that most drivers were worried about since almost no one had been there before. Most came away loving it.

For a few teams it was the challenge of keeping the car running, and in true One Lap tradition these teams championed on to the finish line. Clay Keel indicated that, “We hit a speed bump in Event 3 (Gateway Motorsport Park in IL) with a wheel stud failure (they blame aggressive spacers and poor hardware), costing us two sessions. But the team rallied by finding a new set of wheels.

Early in the week, Jonathan Griffith and Matthew Oaks said that, “the endurance (Transits) from track to track are not that bad. Yeah. No, it’s actually not bad”, then the transit overnight caught them and changed their week. Jonathan said, “It started with a deer strike in Missouri on day three. The front end took a hit, but we were fortunate no one was hurt, and the car had only cosmetic damage. However, we lost a headlight and a taillight and were pulled over twice that night as a result. We fixed the taillights and pounded some dents. Then we noticed the front suspension was lose and discovered a control arm bolt had worked loose.”

As the team continued through the week, they developed an oil pan crack, fixed it, but then a suspension ball joint sheared off. They fixed that issue at Grattan Raceway the next day.

Ray Junkins and Nikki Cheshire, on their second One Lap and avenging the DNF from last year, were worried about the reliability of a nearly 50-year-old 2002. On day three (Hedge Hollow, MO) as Nikki began her recon lap, she heard a loud bang as a weld failed on the exhaust header. They needed to drive to Kansas City for repairs, then nine plus hours to NCM in Bowling Green, KY. More issues plagued them with a failed distributor, which led them to arrive at NCM at 6:45 AM. They went straight to the track with no time to sleep.

With all the preparations you can think of, you just never know what will happen. Michael D’Abreu found this out when his team installed what they thought to be a bullet proof differential. Michael said, “I considered our custom 215mm, eight clutch diff to be the most stout component in the driveline, so that failure was shocking; however, with a quick decision to pick up a junkyard open diff in Chicago, and working hard to swap it out plus a manifold failure while at Gateway/WWTR, we only missed one track session as a result.”

Then since things were going well, they rejoined the track action at Gateway. Michael continued, “The Cardinal Conclave dropped oil on track. So, I was on the banking during my second hot lap and then came right across the oil spill at over 100. So there was immediate snap oversteer, and I nearly lost it in the wall.”
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For the rest of the teams, the BMWs worked as planned. For Matt Getty and Brian Ledbetter, “The M2 is just great on the track and excellent for an event like One Lap. The seats are plenty comfortable for any transit too. We had no issues, the brakes were fabulous, and uneventful in the best possible way.” Bowie Gray and Jeff Young agreed, “Our car did great with no issues throughout the week. Tire rotations and a brake bleed halfway through was all it needed. Didn’t even need any oil. Although for team 62, “The hardest part was the nasty cold we shared. My co-driver was down and out for 2+ days during the event and I’ve been sick ever since. It’s a hard enough event when you feel good, it’s darn near impossible when you don’t.”

When we asked Brad and Hal Mintun what brings them back, they said, “We like the challenge, we like the people. Yeah, it’s a great group. Yes, it’s a competition, but mostly it’s a big motorsport party with like-minded people that’ll do anything for you, and you know, it’s just a great group. I mean, there’s probably 10 – 12 people who really take it seriously. The rest of us are here to have a good time. Everyone helps everybody, get to the finish, and that’s the whole idea.”

Hal summed it up: “The highlight was certainly spending the event with my son as well as the amazing community which is One Lap. Renewing old friendships, making new ones, and seeing a lot of the country… though much of it in the dark. Great event. Now starts the lobbying at home about next year.”

Only one BMW—Mark Mattice and Erick McLaughlin’s M4—failed to make it to the end due to alignment and tire issues. Still a great record for all the BMWs and Minis that ran this year.

When the week is over, it is time to celebrate at the awards banquet. The banquet is held at the Tire Rack warehouse and also the scene of the annual Brock Yates Memorial Auction for Alzheimer’s research. A special auction as a tribute to the founder of this event.

At the banquet, the topic always seems to come down to, “well, what about next year”? And the reply for most of this year’s participants is always, “Hell yes, and here is what we need to do for next year.”

After 41 years, this event has endured many challenges and continues to evolve, but the future looks good.

Brock Yates Jr. said in a recent interview, “I want everyone to have a good time, play nice, be safe, finish with a smile, that’s all I want. I want everyone to get around the country, have some fun, see the world, laugh, giggle, make more friends, that is really what it is about.”