Some race tracks you really look forward to competing on, and Sears Point is one of those circuits for me. I’ve always had good luck there, and love the place….very fast and very busy. That said, let’s talk about the week-end.

First off, it was our first time racing the new car. It is almost identical to the car we used last year, but has such a better feel to it. The car we used last year had a very narrow window in which it worked. It was very nervous, and you really had to stay on top of it. The new car seems to have a much nicer attitude, and is more comfortable to drive. We started out on Friday and were faster than the Saleen and Ferrari…but still not as good as we would have liked. We were fighting a lot of understeer which was limiting how fast we could go through the faster corners. We continued to work on it Saturday, and improved it…but still not as nice as Ron and I would have liked.

Now over the winter, I had worked out with the team that for half of the races Ron would qualify the car, and for half of the races I would qualify. It was/is important to me that Ron and I be equals in the car, and the team agreed. Unfortunately, the powers that be at IMSA decided to change the rules for how drivers points are given, and that has changed things for me. With a point being given for pole…and a point for most laps in the car…any team seriously running for the championship has to designate one driver to run for the championship…as if they split things up like we were going to do, in essence one driver will be taking points away from the other. That being the case, and Ron having been with the team and General Motors for so long…well it makes sense that he is the one that gets to run for the championship. Now I have to say that I want another championship more than anything, but I also am smart enough to know that were I management, I would make the same decision. Ron is a great guy, a fabulous driver, and as important, a great friend. Anyway, that said, although I was supposed to qualify the car at Sears, Ron did…was quick as always, and got the pole. I think we were both pretty confident leaving the track on Saturday night, knowing that someone was going to have to be awfully good if they were going to beat us.

I woke up race day…looked outside…and smiled as it was raining. These Corvettes of ours really like the rain…as Goodyear has an incredible rain tire. We generally don’t go out in the warm-up if it is raining, but towards the end of warm-up Ron did two laps to get a feel for the car. He came in complaining of grip, so we made a change or two for the race. At the start, he was challenged for a few laps by both the Saleen and the Ferrari, but once the tires got heat in them, he took off. When he finally pitted, and I got in the car, I was one lap up on the rest of the guys, with them right behind me. I was on slicks as the track was drying out, and but for the first few laps, had no problems. Initially my thought was just to cruise, and if they challenged me…not to fight them. But then I figured I would send them a message, and let them know that there was no way they were going to beat us. I was certainly not pushing as hard as I could, but still could pull away fairly easy. So our good luck continued, and we got another win.

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