Keepsake Farm Racing

05/30/2025

Fantastic article and we’re proud to be featured as the cover photo!

Cannon Ball Baker captivated Americans with his cross-country records. Brock Yates Jr. carries on Baker's legacy with One Lap of America.

05/13/2025

Our final track may have been the most fun. Tucked away in a beautiful stretch of Michigan is the hidden gem of Grattan Raceway. A short, hilly track, Grattan is a delight for momentum cars like ours with the only drawbacks being very little runoff before the wall in turn 1 off the straight and a lake a little too close for comfort around another turn of the track.

My favorite section was also the most nerve-wracking: officially called “The Jump,” the pavement crests in such a way that you can catch air just before turn 5, meaning you have to steady your hands, perfectly time the brakes upon landing, and trust the road will be there to catch you.

The track is for sale, and if I win the Powerball jackpot this week, you’ll know where my money would be going. VIR holds a special place in my heart, but dang if this isn’t the most fun track I’ve been on. Some folks had a little too much fun — one of the Lotus Elises landed horribly wrong off the Jump, sending oil and debris across the track. The team behind that car is scrappy and resourceful, though — and they got the Lotus back on the road with plenty of duct tape and creative engineering.

This was the final track, with just one more short transit and the dry skidpad to go.

First photo by Steve Rossini

Tire Rack One Lap of America

05/11/2025

Just make it to Pittsburgh.

It’s a mantra we kept repeating all week. The meaning was twofold: it’s the place where we had to call it quits on last year’s One Lap so we desperately wanted to get past it, but it’s also the place where THE Paul Wegweiser was going to meet us and do a once-over on the engine.

It was quick work, and a fog delay in the morning worked to our advantage. Paul and Ray exorcised the minor hauntings that had started to manifest throughout the beginning of the week, and the 2002 ran better at Pitt than it did at our first track.

Paul stayed to cheer both of us on, even making the trek back out from his shop to watch my run in the afternoon session. We have nothing but endless appreciation for Paul and his support of this crazy thing we’re doing.

After this, we had one more track to go in Michigan, following a drag race adventure in Ohio.

Last photo by Driftpoint Media

05/10/2025

From NCM, we made what was a very difficult late night transit to VIR. We hadn’t slept in over 24 hours, and pair that with a 9+ hour drive, heavy police presence on the roadways, and a long stretch of winding back roads with a deer population problem and it was the most difficult transit we faced.

We got into VIR at 2am and stayed in one of the rooms at the track. The rest of the day was fantastic. VIR holds a special place in my heart as one of my first tracks, and it’s one both Ray and I know well. The 2002 performs delightfully well there despite a long straight off of Oak Tree, pitching through the esses and gaining on higher horsepower cars.

I may have gotten a little overzealous around Oak Tree on my second lap, skidding into the dirt past the gaiters and sending a plume of dirt through the windows. Got right back on track and got right back into it (though with a little grit between my teeth).

As Virginians, my family (so Ray’s wife and in-laws) came down to cheer us on and brought with them Canine Companions puppy in training Mercury and service dog Buckner with his graduate.

After an exciting track day, we headed off to our much-awaited return to Pitt, which is where we were forced to call it quits last year due to an event-ending mechanical issue. The route took us up through Virginia, keeping everyone on high alert for police, promising another late night ahead of us.

First Photo: Driftpoint Media
Tire Rack One Lap of America

05/09/2025

I was trying to write an update every day but alas, as is the nature of One Lap, sh*t happens.

At track two, Hedge Hollow near Kansas City, the car was feeling fantastic. Raymond put up great times, and I was excited to tackle this track again. Unfortunately, the 2002 had different plans. Just a few seconds into my recon lap, I heard a loud bang and suddenly the 2002 sounded like a GTO. I pitted in, we found the issue, and we made the decision to drive an hour to Kansas to where Hal Boyles lives. He was gracious enough to let us use his garage, source a new header and downpipe, and ask his apprentice Link to help out.

We got back on the road four hours later than originally planned, and while that put us at an expected arrival time of 4:30am for our next stop in Bowling Green, KY, we were just looking forward to a few precious hours of sleep.

But that didn’t come either.

Just 110 miles shy of reaching our hotel, we ran into electrical issues. We had to replace the coil and distributor at an abandoned gas station in nowheresville Indiana in the middle of the night. Gremlins ensued, and by the time we exited off the highway to Bowling Green, it was 6:45am. Ray and I looked at each other, nodded, and both said, “let’s just go to the track.” We rolled in, did an exhausted track walk, and I grabbed a nap on the pavement while waiting for my turn to drive NCM.

A brutal day, but the 2002 has a lot of heart, and so do we — so we made it through. Many MANY thanks to Hal, his wife, and his talented apprentice Link for all the help and hospitality. The BMW 2002 community is unlike any other!

Tire Rack One Lap of America

05/05/2025

Gateway was a hell of a track. Short, fast, and with NASCAR banking and an unforgiving wall, it favored the higher horsepower cars and definitely posed its challenges for the 2002. Plenty of people found their car’s limit the hard way — at least six people were towed or trucked off track on flatbeds. One car, a Supra, had their One Lap come to a sudden end. The green Cardinal was stitched back together with copious amounts of tape. Wheels were facing directions they should not face. Hopefully there’s less carnage in the field going forward.

The 2002 has a lot of heart and powered us around the track without issue, and is still running great. We had a short transit last night, grabbed what will likely be our last sit down meal for the next few days, and have an early morning heading to our next track, Hedge Hollow near Kansas City today.


Tire Rack One Lap of America

05/04/2025

So grateful to Blue Ridge Meats of Front Royal for providing us with FORTY fresh, locally-produced beef and pepper snack sticks, the perfect thing to keep us going on long transits between tracks when good food is hard to find! Thank you again for sponsoring Keepsake Farm Racing and our vintage 1976 BMW 2002 as we take on Tire Rack One Lap of America, a 3,500+ mile race around America that challenges drivers’ skills in on-track time trials and endurance in grueling drives between tracks in just seven days.

This is just what we needed!

05/03/2025

Stickered up and heading to Tire Rackfor the official start of Tire Rack One Lap of America 🏁 Time to spin this brick in circles on the skid pad

05/01/2025

In late 1975, the last of the BMW 2002s rolled off the production line.

The remnants of this last batch of iconic bricks are either scattered throughout the garages of its dedicated cult following or left to sit unrestored. They drive to the occasional cars and coffee or pop into town a few sunny days in the summer, never straying too far from their garages or the safety of suburban roads.

But the BMW 2002 is the beautiful result of a paradoxical pairing of sport and pragmatism -- and keeping it locked to local roads feels to me like owning a bird and clipping its wings.

And that's exactly why we're about to do something crazy … again.

For the second year in a row, Raymond Junkins and i (Nikki Cheshire) are competing with Ray’s 1976 BMW 2002 in One Lap of America, a 7-day 3,500+ mile race around the country with time trials at challenging racetracks along the way. Born out of the same mind that created the infamous Cannonball Run, Brock Yates' One Lap of America challenges drivers to weather this test of speed, endurance, and survival on just one set of tires and minimal sleep. With supercars and daily drivers, and with professional drivers and grassroots motorsports enthusiasts competing in the same field, there's not another race like it on earth.

We line up at the start in South Bend, Indiana this Saturday, May 3. Please wish us luck and along the journey. I'll be posting every day here and on our Instagram page .

Let's go 🏁

09/19/2024

We're back baby! Team Keepsake Farm Racing dusted off the cobwebs this past weekend as they gear up for Tire Rack One Lap of America 2025!

Thanks to Jacob Cloutier for the fantastic photos!

05/11/2024

Well, it’s not the outcome we hoped for, but there’s a reason they say it’s about the journey and not the destination.

After the first race in Pittsburgh, we discovered the 2002’s timing chain tensioner had sheared off in the engine somewhere along the way. It had started acting up two days prior, and while some troubleshooting helped a little, the problem didn’t go completely away — and then we found the cause. This unfortunately was an event-ending issue, as the possibility of metal bits throughout the engine would destroy it and there’s no way to be sure there aren’t any without tearing it down and doing a rebuild.

The 2002 may have thrown in the towel, but we didn’t. We rented a car in Pittsburgh, slapped some painter’s tape on the door for our number, and continued on with the traveling circus that is Tire Rack One Lap of America to Putnam Park in Indiana (where we stopped to help the Tesla team along the way) and then to the finish line in South Bend.

A bittersweet end to an indescribable journey. Once I’m home and have had more than three consecutive hours of sleep for the first time since this whole crazy adventure began, I’ll gather my thoughts and write a proper recap.

We’ll trailer the 2002 home from Pittsburgh tomorrow, and while we don’t know the full extent of the damage to the engine, we do know one thing for certain: we’ll be back at One Lap. The 2002 will be back at One Lap. And we’ll make it across that finish line with all three of us next time.

Thank you to everyone who donated to Canine Companions to help us fundraise and to everyone who cheered us on along the way.