I think I last wrote one of these at the end of May, and I’ve been meaning to put hand to keyboard for a while, but it really has been an exceptionally busy two months; I’ll try to explain just why in this update.
After the joy and, amazement of finishing second at the Nürburgring 24 Hours with my friends Lucas Luhr, Markus Palttala and Maxime Martin, I didn’t have long to wait before heading back stateside.
Going into the Belle Isle Detroit Grand Prix, my team-mate Michael Valiante and I were leading the Tudor series. I’ve led the championship in the US a few times over the past four years, but for one reason or another, it’s never materialised into a title. I’m not going to jinx myself but saying contrary now, but it feels like we’ve got some gusto behind us now. Leading the points is a nice feeling, but that’s all it is. Halfway into the season the focus is still on winning races and if we do that, the points will take care of themselves.
I like Belle Isle a lot; it has a great atmosphere around the whole weekend and Detroit IS Motor City after all. It’s the one that the US manufacturers in the series really want to win. Chevrolet has had a major hand in updating the track and facilities. My back and backside are particularly grateful some of those bumps have been flattened!
The race itself wasn’t the best. We brought a new Coyote chassis to Detroit and it just wasn’t where we thought it would be, so it was a case of Michael and I giving the Visit Florida Racing guys plenty of feedback to get it driveable. It was basically a fresh start for everyone in terms of data, but I felt like our team did a great job adapting to the changes and giving us a really fast Corvette DP.
The fact we came away with a top-five and were tied for the championship lead still probably says more about the other guys not having a great weekend too, rather than our own performance being good.
When life doesn’t give you Le Mans…
There was a decent gap then until the next Tudor race and with no Le Mans drive this year, I made sure I was distracted by the kids. We booked a family holiday to Spain and the aim was to get some decent downtime. Despite my good intentions I did keep an eye on what was happening in practice and was getting regular updates from the Corvette guys at the track.
When Jan (Magnussen) crashed the #63 Corvette, I got a call to put me on standby, but no sooner had I packed my bags and looked at how long the drive from Spain to Le Mans was, I got a call to say the car was being withdrawn.
Giving it everything at The Glen
A few weeks later and it was time for my favourite race in the US, and the hardest race of the season; the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.
From the outside it looks like an endurance event and it is the third round of the Tequila Pátron North American Endurance Cup, but from my perspective, and I’m sure the other drivers would agree, you tackle it like a sprint race; it’s flat out all the way, no excuses, just an intense level of concentration and speed. We won it last year, but to repeat that in 2015 would be a big coup.
But, that’s exactly what we did.
I got a chance to start the race, which is rare these days as usually we go with Michael. He wasn’t feeling too hot, so I was more than happy to do it, and with qualifying a washout, we were guaranteed a front-row start, so it was a prime opportunity. Or so I thought until I saw the rain rolling in!
To be honest at one point I was thinking, ‘I don’t care who’s where, I just want to get home safe’; it was just rivers everywhere and the car was a handful. Even keeping up with the safety car was a problem, as we had no wipers; these things always break just when you need them. To get a repeat victory there, I don’t know how we did it, but it was such a great feeling.
Mosport Mo problems
Most recently we were in Canada at another classic track, Mosport, or to give it the modern name, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Normally this is a good weekend for us, and it falls around my birthday too, but this year we were on the back foot from the get-go.
Despite our best attempts, it didn’t get much better as the weekend went on. It’s great that we got fourth and because some of our rivals struggled too, we actually built out our championship lead to seven points. Birthday luck? I’ll take it.
While Michael, the team and I are happy to be leading the series still; this isn’t how we want to go racing. We want to win and take podiums and get this title wrapped us sooner rather than later. I guess it makes it exciting for the fans, but we intend to get things sorted out before the next race.
Now we’ve got Road America to look forward to and that’s an outstanding track with a lot of great Corvette fans. Hopefully we can get back on top there and give the Taylor brothers, Ganassi, and the Action Express guys something to think about.
