Well, the ALMS’ Lime Rock Park proved itself to be no walk in the park for me and Corvette Racing last weekend, with a frankly unbelievable and random penalty given to my team mate Olivier Beretta for so-called ‘blocking’. We finished 5th in the GT class. We’ve all seen the TV footage over and over, and just can’t believe that the officials handed out a penalty for defending a position, and didn’t even give us a warning before doing so.
It seemed that everything we tried over the weekend just didn’t work out , but at least we came away with a fifth place and some points. It’s massively frustrating that we can’t seem to get a break at the moment in the ALMS. We made some pretty big changes to the car after warm up to try and learn something from the Lime Rock track, and we’ve come to realise we’re having to play catch up to the opposition in terms of performance – not a position Corvette is used to finding itself in. Some of what we tried last weekend worked, and hopefully we’ll be able to employ that in Mid Ohio which is the next round.
I was so mad about it after the race, but have had to bring myself quickly back down to earth as the next couple of weeks are going to be flat out and I need to be forward-focused instead of rear-facing focused!
Today I’m off to Spa Francorchamps in Belgium for the 5th round of the FIA GT1 World Championship. That’s no hardship at all as I absolutely LOVE the place. It will be a bit strange to have just two one-hour races instead of being there for the 24-hour event like last year. In the longer races you get into a great rhythm and can really enjoy the thrill of driving there as well as the heat of whatever battle you’re in.
Spa is a real racer’s track, and one you can get your teeth into; it’s at the top or near the top of almost every driver you speak to. It’s so challenging and just a classic place to go and drive any race car. The GT1 Corvette seems to very much suit this track and it’s a huge amount of fun to drive it there. Spa is a fast track so you really have to work at getting past people, and have to think hard about where you’re going to do it. The weather is often very variable which adds another element to your strategy and planning because, just like at Le Mans, it can be raining on one side of the track and not on the other.
Mad Croc Racing is run by Patrick Selleslagh and his SRT team who are based not far from Spa so it’s their home race. Let’s hope that local knowledge bank, and some good luck (got to be due some soon, for goodness sake!!), will get us a good result this weekend.
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