One Lap of America: Project One Lap – Driver Bios

Source: Project One Lap

Josh Wyte

Josh has been a car guy as long as he can remember. He started getting Road and Track magazine at age 12, and cut the magazine up to tape the cars on his walls. He’s been a die hard VW/Audi/Porsche guy since junior high school. His first VW was a ’91 2l 16v GTI, which ended up with a Corrado G60 motor. It was featured in the January ’97 issue of European Car magazine. Since then he’s pretty much owned almost every VW/Audi model out there and have modified all of them significantly.

Josh’s first Audi was a ’97 A4 1.8tq that was modified with a K04 turbo, suspension and brake work. It opened up his eyes to the “Unfair Advantage”, which he definitely enjoyed living in New England at the time.

He got heavily into tracking my cars when living in Cleveland, where he was only 30 minutes away from Nelsons Ledges and a little over an hour away from Mid-Ohio. Josh has gone to track events at all the tracks wherever he’s lived, ranging from Watkins Glen to Nelson’s Ledges to Mt Tremblant to Miller and Pueblo. He has worked his way to being an instructor for several of the car clubs and run time trials with NASA. Josh’s next project will be building a Spec E30 for NASA.

Josh has had a long time interest in running One Lap of America. A few of his friends have done it for many years and it always looked like a car guys dream. This year he was fortunate enough to have the time available to run One Lap, so he formed a team and looked around for sponsors.

Josh’s current car is a ‘01.5 S4 Avant, the 2nd S4 avant that he has owned. He really likes the combination of utility and performance that the Avant offers. There’s nothing like having a 450hp daily driven grocery getter!

Ed Casey

Ed Casey grew up on the remnants of his families dairy farm on the Massachusetts South Coast. At a young age stump jumping the “big wheel” and hay loft drops on the “hippity hop” were clear signs he had inherited his father’s “Car Guy” gene as well as his mother’s “no fear” attitude coupled with her relentless drive (To be more precise.. “stubborn & crazy” were the comments noted on his preschool report).

An interest in precise machinery and explosions led him to discover the perfect pairing of both worlds.. the modern combustion engine. Since then “mo’ power. mo’faster.. mo’better” has been the anthem.

Early fasciations with Jeeps lead to Chevy small block V8 conversions and ultimately the dreaded Chevy Camaro IROC. After spending more time working on the IROC than driving it, and having “T-tops” stolen on a weekly basis…he defected to the Autobahners.

A BWM 325ic.. then 328is, followed by a long list of other cars, most notable a VW Corrado SLC. If there was a handling or VR6 power modification to be made the Corrado.. it got it, springs, strut towers, coil-overs, sways, BBKs, quaife diff, GIAC chips, autotech exhuast, Schrick VGI & 268 cams followed by, DSR cams and an original VW Motorsport VSR. Finally an EIP turbo.

After blowing a rod through the block at its inaugural NHIS event the next step was Audi Avant. A few German bahn-burners later, Ed’s current passion is a 2.7T 6 speed allroad quattro.. PPPSStttt .. please don’t tell anyone it’s a B5 S4 in sheep’s clothing!!!

Kasim Esmail

As a Colorado native, Kasim is a fan of year round driving, tarmac or snow and ice – it is all a great time.

During the week, he serves as a network/security engineer with Boulder based Applied Trust Engineering. Away from the computers and technology, Kasim indulges his driving hobby by serving as a board member and instructor for the Audi Club of North America/Rocky Mountain Chapter as well as a group leader for the NASA Rocky Mountain Region. A 2006 S4 Avant currently fills the garage, a spot formerly filled by multiple other Audi quattros including a 1993 90, a 2003 A4 1.8t Avant, and a 2002 A4 3.0.