Sep
7
So much has happened since I last wrote a blog that I’m not sure where to start! We had two back-to-back races in the ALMS which topped off the end of a month-long stay in America and Canada. Some of that was holiday with my family, which was great, but it’s a long time to be away from home and it was a fantastic feeling to walk back through my own front door a week ago.
The Road America race in Wisconsin’s beautiful Elkhart Lake area was a classic example of the highs and lows that racing can dish up. It was very hot, humid and with loads of bugs, and we had a massive thunderstorm on the Friday evening which ruined plans for a big charity bike ride around the circuit which I was due to do with my daughter, Lily. GT pole position the following day put all that in the shade though – a great feeling to be back on top, and a good continuation of what we’d achieved at Mid Ohio two weeks before, finishing a close second to the Ferrari.
The race didn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped as both Corvette cars and a number of other competitors all struggled with pick up on the tyres early in the race. We just couldn’t retain enough grip to challenge for the lead all the way to the chequered flag, and there was a lot of head scratching going on up and down the paddock afterwards. We think that some of it may have been due to the re-surfacing of parts of the track that was going on prior to the race and the sealant that was used. We still got another podium finish though, coming through from ninth in the final hour, so I’m pretty pleased with my performance even though the outcome wasn’t the win we were hoping for.
Straight after this one, we all went up to Mosport in Ontario, Canada for round 8. The track had some big, big accidents over the weekend and the drivers were lucky to walk away unharmed. The circuit is a favourite for lots of us drivers as it’s fast and very challenging, but there’s little margin for error and perhaps the owners need to look at some new barriers or run off areas in places to balance the new, faster cars that race there. The race actually finished half an hour earlier than scheduled due to an accident which was hugely frustrating as we’d been in a good position to push through for a podium finish instead of 4th.
In amongst all this, the GM management decided to have a re-shuffle of drivers and I raced at Mosport with Jan Magnussen. It took a while for him to get comfortable in my car, and it wasn’t a particularly easy situation for any of the four drivers to deal with – I’ve raced with Olivier for 8 years which is a long time.
I also decided to call time on my 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship season. As well as needing to concentrate on the ALMS season due to the cut-throat intensity of the GT class, to say that my team mate at Mad Croc Racing was challenging was something of an understatement. Racing is my job and my career, but it’s also supposed to be something I enjoy doing and I wasn’t enjoying it there. Enough said! The upside of that is that I’m now available for the Goodwood Revival meeting and I’ve got a couple of drives lined up for that…can’t wait as that’s fun with a capital F.
John in Florida