BYRD: A Winning Weekend

AUSTIN, Texas — 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.

I was sharing the Porsche with team owner and professional racer David Tuaty. My best lap was 2:13.351 in what was only my second session in the car. I also tested the F1000 car for a few laps, with my fastest lap of the day in the second session, a 2:08.909. Compared to my track record of 2:05.556, it was a little off the pace of the F1000 car.

There were only two sessions on Friday, including one in the F1000 car in rainy conditions in the morning and then qualifying nearly six hours later. It was a long day without many laps, but in the end, I was the fastest in the rain, but only fifth in qualifying at 2:13.777.

That was pretty far off the fastest qualifier at 2:09.863.

I had two races on my schedule on Saturday — one in the F1000 car and one in the Porsche. Qualifying 2 for F1000 was first. It was significantly shortened by a black flag, but I was able to improve my best qualifying time to a 2:11.445. That was still two-and-a-half seconds off my best time of the weekend and six seconds off my track record back in February.

I received reprieve from the stresses of the race weekend when I joined Kingdom Racing, a Christian organization, in their go-karting event. I was able to speak and have fun with some fantastic young men who have found themselves in some very hard life circumstances. It was a special thing for me to be able to do that and I couldn’t be thankful enough to God and Kingdom Racing for the opportunity.

Later that day, it was my first race of the weekend — race one in the F1000 car. It went pretty well all things considered.

I started third and made an inside pass on both cars in front of me to take the lead entering turn one. I held my lead through the first lap, before a full-course caution bunched the field on a restart.

It was a green-white-checkered finish and I held my lead over Stuart Crowe, who was driving an old Indy Lights car that was significantly faster than me on the straights. On the final lap, he covered my challenges and beat me to the checkered flag by seven-tenths of a second. It was a fun battle and it was a win in my books despite the fact that, at the end of the day, he’s the one who had the gold medal for that race.

Sprint race 2 for the Porsche was the final race of the day. Tuaty had already finished third in Sprint race 1 in the Improved class.

I started third on the grid and it was another crazy turn one with my car in the lead. I was in the middle of two cars in the braking zone and looked to over-under the leader on the exit. As I turned the wheel, the leader was hit in the side and taken out by a car that had outbraked itself deep on the inside. This ultimately took out the leader and one other car.

That gave me the lead on a golden platter. After a lengthy cleanup, the race restarted and there were only three laps remaining. I had a good restart, held my lead for the first flying lap and ran a defensive lines through the last few corners of the final lap to claim a narrow victory.

It was a pretty satisfying victory.

Sunday was the busiest day of racing for me with three races, including two enduros.

The first race concluded my weekend in the Porsche, the IGT 60-minute enduro, which me and Tuaty would split. He went first and had a great start, battling for the lead in the beginning, taking the lead, then losing the lead, then getting it back.

The car he was battling with for the lead just before he came into the pits for the mandatory five-minute pit stop and driver change was also one of our team cars that was competing in the same class.

This car was one of the new Porsche 992 variants with superior braking and cornering ability. That was enough to make up for our car’s superior straight-line speed because of the improved engine package.

Both team cars pitted at the same time for the driver swap. Tuaty turned the car over to me, and Pippa Mann took over the other car.

I left the pits just ahead of Mann and managed to hold my position throughout the rest of the race. But I was passed by pro sports car driver Mike Skeen, who was in the best car in our entire class, a 992 Porsche that also had the improved engine package our car utilized. 

I kept up with him for a lap, but finished second.

It was a satisfying conclusion to the Porsche weekend as I got my fastest lap on the very last lap of the enduro, a 2:12.836.

Next was race two in the F1000 car. This was an exciting race because there was a Bell helmet on the line for whoever won the race. I started the race on the outside of the polesitter, who got a great start.

He held off challenges from both inside and outside by two faster and superior Swift 014 Atlantic cars.

I outbraked them both into turn one and managed to hold the lead.

For the whole lap, I maintained my lead, but on the front straight heading into lap two, I was a sitting duck. I had no good options to fight off the Swift’s straight-line speed and equally impressive braking ability. It was all I could do to keep up with the two Swifts over the course of the rest of the race. On the very last lap, the second-place Swift spun exiting the esses and I took second place.

Despite the fact I closed the gap on the first-place Swift by a couple seconds on the final lap and ran my fastest lap of the weekend, a 2:07.218, it wasn’t enough to challenge for the lead. I unlocked my car’s true pace a little too late and I paid the price for it, but still finished second. I missed out on the Bell helmet by 1.1 seconds.

The final race of the weekend was the 75-minute historic enduro. I had to compete against a Swift 014 and two LMP1 prototypes, one that is one of the most successful sports cars in all of motorsports and has won Le Mans.

I started the 75-minute enduro fourth, just outside of the Swift 014 that beat me in the helmet race, and right behind the front row that consisted of both LMP1 prototypes. I had a good start, taking third when I passed the Swift on the outside of turn one. One lap later, however, the Swift took the position back. I was attempting to bring the tires in slowly to help them last longer.

These were the same tires I raced in both sprint races which meant they had a combined two heat cycles on them.

Once it was go-time, I went hard and had a good battle against the Swift for a few laps until I managed to pass him on the outside of turn eight. I gapped him enough by the exit of turn 11 to where he wasn’t able to get me back on the back straight like he had been able to before.

I had to focus on the gray Le Mans-winning prototype that was still in front of me. I had this battle with him for about five laps before I finally passed him on the exit of turn 13. I was second place overall for the race with over half of the race to go. 

A few laps later, I caught up to the overall leader, the green-and-white LMP1 prototype, but a couple laps later I had to pit earlier than expected after I got a sustained fuel cut in the carousel. The SVRA’s 75-Minute Historic Enduro also has a mandatory five-minute pit stop for all cars, which enabled us enough time for me to get out of the car, have the car fully refueled, and me get back strapped back in the car.

We left the pits just five seconds over the five-minute minimum which was pretty good, and I just went to work, quickly tracking down the overall leader. I passed him in the turn 12-20 section of the track, and instead of passing me back on the front straight, he ended up going to the pits for their five-minute pit stop.

It would have been smooth sailing for the rest of the race, but the team told me I needed to save fuel because otherwise I might not make it to the end. I did so for a couple laps, and thankfully the team informed me that the race was shortened by five minutes.

I proceeded to go all-out, running some of my fastest laps in a row at the very end of the race, with the fastest lap of the race on lap 28 of 29, a 2:07.876.

I won the race 22 seconds ahead of the second-place car and finished the weekend positively.

With two technical wins and three second-place finishes (really three wins and two second place finishes) I was able to conclude my Formula car and Porsche season on a high note and learn and experience many new things.

I believe I have unlocked new abilities and knowledge about the F1000 car in my final race weekend of driving it this season.

I was also figuring out more and more how to optimize my driving for the Porsche, which was also a great learning experience. This weekend was filled with irreplaceable memories and I can’t wait until I’m back in a Formula car and Porsche next year.