AUSTIN, Texas — A trip to Circuit of The Americas is always special. It’s one of the premier racing facilities on Earth.
And for me, it was my final race of a very long season, one that began in January and has continued nearly non-stop.
We headed to the capital city of Texas to cap off the season at COTA, where we participated in the two eight-hour World Racing League endurance races.
Our final hurrah for the season was with Hammer Motorsports. I drove their Audi RS3 LMS TCR car along with co-drivers Daniel Suarez and Lawless Alan. This was my second time driving a front-wheel drive car, the first time being in a Volkswagen GTI TCR car at Mid-Ohio where most of my racing that weekend was in the wet.
This would be a relatively new experience for me, but at a track that I’m very familiar with. Overall, I was positive I would get up to speed quickly. I was also looking forward to learning a thing or two from my accomplished co-drivers.
The WRL uses a low-pressure qualifying day with multiple 40-minute-long qualifying sessions designed to maximize seat time and set the grid in a peaceful manner during what is essentially a lot of practice sessions.
The first half of Friday, it was just me and Lawless Alan taking turns as Daniel Suarez was still flying in from the NASCAR Awards Banquet in Nashville.
I claimed the first session of the day and the track was still wet from the rain of the previous night. I wanted to use it as an opportunity to challenge myself with the car and to see what it was capable of in a low-grip environment. Front-wheel drive cars really excel on that type of low-grip track.
I was fastest in the session, nice but not a complete surprise. As Lawless and I traded times in the car, we progressively got faster as the track dried, and we got more laps. Then, Suarez came in at the end of the day to run the last two qualifying sessions so he could get his seat time in and managed to put down our fastest lap of the day in the fifth and final qualifying session. That was good for fourth on the grid in Saturday’s race.
Suarez was designated to start Saturday’s race. Lawless and I flipped a coin to see who would end up going second and third. I won the coin toss and got to drive the car second.
Suarez had a good double stint. Because of our car’s competitive advantage in fuel mileage combined, with our pace because of our strong driver lineup and the car’s abilities, we were looking good for a podium or a win if we could avoid any issues.
Unfortunately, Suarez’s second fuel stint came to a premature end because the car began to misfire. He pitted a couple laps early and I got in the car.
On my out-lap the car still experienced the misfiring issue that forced me immediately back to the box to redo the process and get the car working properly again.
I left the pit again and this time the fix worked and I was racing. However, from the time Suarez came in until the time that I left the box for the final time it was 13 minutes that we lost on track.
We battled on and I drove what my crew chief, Tim Myers, considered a very good double stint. I ran good consistent lap times in traffic and throughout my double stint felt like I was getting faster as I learned the limits of the car and what was required from me to extract the car’s maximum performance.
Unfortunately, as I was nearing the end of my second stint, I was exiting turn 13 and heading through turn 14, the front axle broke as I upshifted from third to fourth gear.
I limped the car back to the box and the crew pushed the car with me still in it back to the garage. They replaced the front axle in just 30 minutes. The crew did a phenomenal job getting the car back into working order and Alan was sent out to finish the remainder of the race in a double stint of his own.
Unfortunately, mechanical issues ended the day in 31st place, 14 laps down from the winning car.
However, we still had another eight-hour race to contend for a podium or win.
Suarez started Sunday’s race and was scheduled to start in fifth place, despite our race result because of his strong lap in Saturday’s race. A few fast cars from the previous day didn’t show up on time and that allowed us to take the green flag in third place.
Suarez had another strong start, holding third through the first several laps, until the right front shock of the car broke, forcing him back to the pits and eventually the garage. The crew replaced the shock and got him back on track 50 minutes later.
This was a big disappointment to the team because we knew there was no coming back from that in terms of racing for a competitive result.
At that point I was still pumped because I was excited and grateful for the seat time that I would hopefully get.
Suarez ran another 20 laps before coming back to the box under yellow to get fueled and change drivers. Alan was the second driver this time because I went second on Saturday.
I was watching his stint on my phone (which was getting livestreamed to YouTube) when suddenly on lap 67 as he was exiting turn one, I heard a loud rumble come from the car which I could only describe as a crunching explosion.
He lost all drive in the car and eventually came to a stop down in the esses.
According to Alan, “something exploded in the car.”
Long story short, we retired from the race as the ECU (electrical control unit) of the car got fried. Without the ECU, the team couldn’t diagnose or fix any issues as it’s essentially the brain of the car. With no replacements, the team called it a day for the Audi, and I was unable to race in what was going to be my 109th race of the year.
Instead, we end the season with 108 races on what would be considered a low note.
However, it’s hard for me to consider any weekend where I’m racing as being disappointing or a “low-note.”
I learned a lot, got to make new friends and acquaintances, and drove another new car, having some great and thrilling moments throughout.
I must thank the hard work of the people, especially my dad and Kristen Teehee, our vice president, who runs everything at Byrd Racing behind the scenes to make sure the show goes on. Also, my Grams who makes it all financially possible through the family business in the first place.
Most importantly of all, I must thank God for providentially providing all these blessings and opportunities to me and those around me who are able to benefit from this sport and passion that we all share together.
I’m optimistic and hopeful for the future as we at Byrd Racing have quite the schedule in store for 2023.
God-willing, those things will be even greater and even more interesting.
It was another weekend of wild action during the West Coast Swing for the USAC Racing National Midget Championship. It started with back-to-back events at Merced Speedway.
A chance to compete in the same car in back-to-back races at different tracks multiple weeks in a row is the next step in my progression as a race driver.
Instead of the usual fire drill of racing from one car to another, this past weekend at Irwindale Speedway I narrowed my focus — at least for one weekend.
This week, I ran two different cars at Circuit of The Americas. I drove a Porsche 911 GT3 991.2 Cup and F1000 Car beginning with a full day of testing and practice on Thursday.
It was off to Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex to wrap-up a very successful season in the North American Formula 1000 Championship Series with two more victories.
