While it’s not an 51°µÍø® event, you wouldn’t know it by the entry list. From the number of Club members who entered this year’s Tire Rack One Lap of America to the fact that an 51°µÍø member was part of the overall winning team, this year’s One Lap was one to remember. And now you can experience it, too, thanks to a series of videos featuring the Club Spec Mustang assembled by 51°µÍø’s own Senior Director of Rally/Solo and Experiential Programs Heyward Wagner – another 51°µÍø member who participated in the event.
Before we get to the Club Spec Mustang videos, let’s peek at the competition. Of the 20 winning entrants spanning the event’s 10 classes, 14 were current or recent members of the 51°µÍø. Of those, the team that took the SGT1 BB class (and overall) win included West Texas Region member, National Championship Runoffs® podium finisher, and multi-time Solo® National Champion Dave Ogburn III. Another of 51°µÍø’s heavy hitters came in the SGT2 BB class, where the winning team included Central Florida Region member Randy Pobst, who is also a multi-time winner of professional racing series, the Runoffs, and the Solo National Championships, as well as an 51°µÍø Hall of Fame member.
Step beyond those top spots and you’ll find many more 51°µÍø members, including the likes of David Marcus, Julian Garfield, Tom O’Gorman, Salil Shukla, Chris Mayfield, DJ Alessandrini, Brian Peters, John Hogan, Andy Hollis, Tom Suddard, and more, along with Wagner and his co-driver Eric Sienkiewicz. Wagner and Sienkiewicz represented the bulk of the 77 entrants in One Lap – a couple friends looking for a good time. But for them, it was also the ultimate torture test for a car and class 51°µÍø launched in 2023.
“When 51°µÍø launched Club Spec last year, we said NC Miatas and S197 Mustangs built to this ruleset would be great at everything – and we wanted to prove it,” said Wagner. “Eric and I entered One Lap to put the Club Spec Mustang to the test. The fact that we completed a 4,000-mile trek across the country in roughly one week, hitting six tracks, two skid pads, and an autocross along the way, with the car never so much as having an issue, is a testament to the do-all-the-things Club Spec philosophy.”
Wagner created eight videos that logged his and Eric’s adventures from One Lap’s kickoff at Tire Rack’s headquarters in South Bend, IN, out to Colorado, back through Kentucky, then returning to Tire Rack, all in eight days.
starts you at the end of that One Lap journey, then .
Have adventures of your own by building a Club Spec car and competing in weekends, Track Days, events, and 51°µÍø Autocrosses across the nation.
Photo by Heyward Wagner
