LEXINGTON, Ohio – My first American Endurance Racing weekend was a weekend of redemption that also featured development, progress and dominance.
This was a redemption weekend in three ways for me. One, I have had less than stellar performances at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course prior to this weekend. Two, because my performance there in wet and changing conditions had been somewhat suspect.
Finally, the third thing was I needed redemption for what happened in Friday’s American Endurance Racing practice. Six laps into practice on the cold, slick and wet track I managed to put the car in the tire wall at the exit of turn seven.
I was the first driver in the car and was running an aggressive rain line, one that turned out to be too aggressive. I ended up changing the direction of the car too much and driving off track, dropping two wheels into the grass and hitting the wall at around 20 to 30 mph.
The crash broke the front splitter’s connection to the undertray beneath the car, and caused some mild damage to the car’s front bodywork. I probably also messed up the car’s steering alignment a little bit as well.
The mistake cost the team some practice and qualifying time in order to repair the damage. After that I felt like I had to redeem myself.
Qualifying went off without a hitch, with Chase Outcault setting our fastest time while myself and the rest of our drivers spent just enough time on track to count as having qualified. I probably got the fewest laps of our group.
We ended up qualifying at the top of Class 4, which was exactly where we wanted to be. That put us in prime position to get a class win on race day Saturday.
It rained almost all night leading into Saturday’s race day. The track was still slick and wet and it was also very cold, roughly 47 degrees Fahrenheit. The track was not going to be dry anytime soon.
Because of this, the team decided it would be best for me to start the race given my previous experience on wet tracks. I initially was going to ask the team to let someone else start the race, but the team put their trust in me, so I took their confidence and ran with it.
I was determined to be cautious and conservative, even if that meant going 5 mph through a corner. The last thing I wanted was to take any unnecessary risks. I successfully managed to avoid the first corner, first lap incident
By lap five I took the overall lead in the race while avoiding another incident that happened right in front of me. The Volkswagen GTI TCR I was driving is a front-wheel drive car, which does better in wet conditions. As a result, I had an advantage against the rest of the field.
On top of that, as I got more comfortable in the car, I was also improving my race line and learning the car. I kept improving and continued to be the fastest man on track even as the track started to dry and speed up.
The steady increase in grip and drying of the track coaxed me into carrying more speed through the corners, gradually transitioning to utilizing more of the dry line. I continued to be the fastest on track until the driver change.
By the time I got out of the car we were two pit stops ahead of our competition in terms of mandatory pit stops. We were also well ahead of our competition in Class 4, which meant if we kept up the pace we would easily win the class by a few laps.
However, as we all know is the norm in motorsports, things didn’t go to plan. The first wrench was a window net issue when we completed the driver change. I tried to get the window net locked in, but failed to do that and we had to make an extra pit stop to fix it.
Speed was also an issue for two of our team drivers, who at best broke even during most laps or losing time. We also had two make two unplanned pit stops for fuel. All of those issues led us to finish second in class, but we still had an 8-hour race on Sunday to make up for it.
Unlike Saturday, Sunday morning was cold and dry. However, the forecast all week had been calling for rain on Sunday and sure enough, that’s what we got. About halfway through the race the rain was expected to arrive.
After a conversation with the team, it was decided I would be the third driver to get in the car, which in theory would put me in the car at about the time the rain came. We also got moved to Class 5 since only one other Class 5 car was expected to start the race. We had an early issue in the first stint when a tire chunked itself and led us to make an unplanned pit stop.
Our first driver finished his stint with solid pace, but still lost a second or two per laps to our main competitors AF Racing. They were pushing hard to gain time because they struggled in the rain on Saturday.
Our second driver got in the car and was matching the lap times et by AF Racing, but we were getting destroyed by the Class 5 Corvette by about five seconds a lap. That said, we knew they wouldn’t be an issue once the rain arrived.
We had to make another unplanned stop during the second stint due to another chunked tire. We knew that once the rain hit we wouldn’t have that issue again since the tires wouldn’t be running as hot.
The rain arrived not long after and just as we expected the Class 5 Corvette ran into issues and spun in the initial light rain. AF Racing also fell out shortly thereafter with an engine issue, ending their race.
However, that didn’t mean we were free and clear. We had a lot of time to make up on a Porsche being run by the Sahlens’ team, which had entered two cars in the race. When I got in the car the track was still somewhat dry, but was rapidly losing grip with each lap.
I gained a lot of time in some sections and ended up going on average 12 seconds a lap faster than our chief competition. I didn’t run into any issues during my stint other than a few close calls and I eventually got us back on the lead lap.
The work wasn’t done and I kept pushing, eventually making up another complete lap to pass the Porsche to take the lead. I nearly caught them again before the end of my stint to put them a lap down, but had to turn the car over to our fourth driver before I could do that.
As long as our fourth driver could keep the car in one piece and maintain a solid pace, we should have had the win in the bag. Unfortunately he struggled to find pace and was 15 to 20 seconds off my benchmark speed in the rain.
I gave him some coaching over the radio about finding the line and working through the keyhole corner before leaving to use the restroom. When I got back I found out that he had unfortunately crashed the car and our race was over.
He apparently lost grip on the back straight at the kink and likely overcorrected, resulting in oversteer that turned him sideways. He slid for a while in the grass before hitting the tire wall.
By a bit of good fortune we still ended up finishing second because the second Sahlens’ entry ran into mechanical problems. That left the leading Porsche at the front and they won by several laps.
Despite the results of both races being not what we wanted, I gained a lot of experience from the weekend. Going from wet to dry conditions Saturday and then from dampening to wet conditions Sunday gave me some of the best practice and training I could’ve asked for.
Going into the weekend those were my two biggest weaknesses and I feel like I stepped up my performance as a result. I now feel a lot more prepared for my next race, the 24-hour World League Racing event at Sebring (Fla.) Int’l Raceway.