The Road To Le Mans: Ep 2 - 12 Hours of Sebring 2023

3, 2, 1.

Anyone who drives a racing car dreams of driving at Le Mans.

There's a bunch of unfinished business we need to get ready for this season.

This year we're facing some new challenges that we've never faced before. We came out of there with absolutely the best result that was humanly possible. And you know, it put us in a good position going into Sebring.

It.

Gosh, daytona this year, 2023 was, it was a struggle. One of the toughest races that I've been in and definitely the longest 24 hours I've been in. Our team was very disappointed with the set of regulations given to our new Porsche by the sanctioning body before the race even started. They were nervous that the brakes, brand new Porsche may be too fast or too quick compared to the competition because the car was completely brand new this year, totally redesigned and they put an engine restrictor, they made all the Porsche cars run. That dramatically decreased the performance of the engine. And as it turns out, we get on track, we weren't anywhere near not only being the fastest car, we were in danger of being lapped by the other cars in our class within an hour, you know, and we were facing that. Gosh, we're going to go into a 24 hour race and at our current pace, as fast as a car can go, we're probably going to be lapped by the leaders once an hour. Like the best we were thinking we may could do is finish 15, 20 laps down and hoping for cautions or something or other cars to have bad luck or crashes or malfunctions to compete. And that's no way to go into a race, you know. So, you know, we came all the way out of that race in ninth place out of 24 cars. And it was a struggle, that race this year and it was just really disheartening. So yeah, it was, it was a character building experience.

The following Daytona, historically, It's always the 12 hours of Sebring. Basically everything you learn at Daytona essentially gets thrown away. Sebring is the start of the regular season, so to speak. The rest of the tracks are much more like Sebring. And Daytona kind of is its own beast because of the fact that it is so straight line dominant. So to us you learn at Daytona, once you have that out, basically throw everything out and then restart for Sebring and the rest of the season goes from there.

So the thing that makes Sebring so special is, is how rough it is. I mean it is rough on the cars, the equipment, the drivers the actual racing surface is so bumpy in so many different types of surfaces between concrete and asphalt. And then it always takes place in March, and it's super hot and muggy and humid in the middle of Florida. It just. Everything about the race is really difficult. You know, we've been fortunate enough to win that race. And of all the three big endurance races, it was actually the first one that I won that our team won together. And, you know, I remember the feeling, you know, that that night in 2020, thinking like, man, I won the tough. The first one, right? You know, it should be. It should be downhill from here. But no, all of these races are really, really challenging and require so much to win. Beautiful weather and phenomenal scenes with a capacity crowd. You know, in my experience, life can jump up and smack you in the face and knock you down when you least expect it. And it's going to happen. There were times in my life when I was younger that when those things happened, it really brought me down and it depressed me and it affected me for a long time when realistically, it was just. Life just got dealt a bad card, man, let me tell you, in Sebring, my first laps in the rsr, we were fast. I was feeling the groove.

Everything was going good. And then, boom, you know, right out of nowhere, I get taken out, race over, car destroyed, game over. You know, there was a time in my life I would have let that affected me all the way till Le Mans and moaned about it and thought about it and what could I have done differently? But you know, what? I've learned from those mistakes previously. And bad things are going to happen, and you have to be able to look past them. You have to be able to remain focused and worry about the things that you can control. I was fortunate enough to be able to go right into another race that same weekend and. And compete at a very high level. And earlier in my life, that may have not been the case. But that discipline has really helped me in my racing career to look past the trouble, look past the issues, and there is always a brighter day in the future. The 71st running of the Mobil 112 hours of Sabre about to get underway on pole position.

One minute to start the formation lap. Drivers may start their engines. Please clear the bridge immediately.

Green flag. Start the first of two formation laps.

Clear two. Clear two.

P2 behind you now. P1 behind him.

Turn three is going to be all yours. Nothing around you. Lots of space to settle in. Get the tires hot, press forward.

I just try to really keep focused on hitting my marks, fundamentally sound in the race car with my inputs, the steering, the shifting, the brake and the gas and you know, when I focus squarely on that, the rhythm starts to take place.

Let's get on there, tail and go.

Nice job. In three.

Let's do it like that again. Keep going.

Let's get on it.

Go catch that field. You got one car behind you.

Exit all the way out. Big power.

And so getting to Sebring, man, it was a lot better than Daytona, I can tell you that. It wasn't short of its challenges. Sebring is always a tough race. You know, it's tough on equipment, it's tough on the drivers, right? It's hot. And this year was, was no different. So I will say that the series removed that engine restrictor from our car so we were given the proper amount of power back that we could at least keep up with other cars in our class. And yeah, we were fairly quick throughout all the practice sessions and teammate had a pretty good qualifying session, qualified as fourth out of the field of. I think we had 23 cars in the class so we knew we were in there. You know, we had a car that we could compete if not for a win, at least a podium. We all felt very confident with that. And man, the race got going and you know, I found I drove a lot in the early part of the race and when my driving was done we were sitting in fifth and, and then my teammate Zach, he, he got in the car and he drove phenomenally. I mean, he got us up into the lead at about the seven hour mark and we led the race for, for quite a while and kind of controlling the race. But there were some other cars that were definitely a little quicker than us, but they had some bad luck early on and we could see them coming like working their way up through the pack then, then the race kind of took a turn for the worse for us. While leading, Zach was in the car eight hours into the 12 hour race and he was battling with one of the quickest cars on the track. It was a Mercedes and he was holding his own and going toe to toe, wanting to not really relinquish the lead. And there was contact in what is pretty much the fastest corner on the track. The Mercedes came in and bumped the side of our Porsche. It sent us spinning off into the tire wall. It damaged the Mercedes so he was completely out of the race. It ruined his race. We were able to get back going, but we had to kind of limp it into the pits because it Bent the steering on the car, and our mechanics were amazing. They jumped right on it, they fixed the steering, fixed the car. Without us even losing a lap, we were able to get back out on track in front of the leaders to at least stay on the lead lap. We went from leading the race, kind of controlling the race, to being all the way in the back, having to battle our way back through. But in the last four hours, we did the best we could. We passed a lot of cars. We were one of the quickest cars on the track towards the end of the race, but we made it all the way back to sixth place finish there. We wanted and expected a lot more, especially seeing how well we ran early on, and we knew we had a shot to win. So it was a little disappointing, the result, but it was one that, you know, we did the best we could. Yeah. So we learned a lot in Sebring. Physically, I know that, you know, that is the toughest race of the year, and, man, I've been putting in the work with my trainer, Morgan. Man, we've been putting in the work five, six days a week for a little over a year now, and physically, it was the best. Best I've ever felt. After the 12 hours of Sebring, it usually takes me, like a week to recuperate from. From that race, and, man, I felt awesome. It gives me a lot of motivation and a lot of confidence going into Le Mans that I'm physically in the best condition of my life. And I. I've done that work, and I can focus just executing on the driving and don't have to worry about, you know, getting tired or. Or being fatigued. You know, I'm going straight to Europe here a month early before the 24 Hours of LeMans, and I'm going to do four straight races back to back, four weekends in a row, all racing with the same car, the same team, and against the same drivers that I'm going to ultimately meet at Le Mans. I'm going to go for a month straight dedicating my time and all of my effort and energy into learning as much as I can, because all four of those races are. They're solely a preparation and a stepping stone for being able to compete at an extremely high level at Le Mans.