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2002 SEASON :::
MORE RACING NEWS
Johnny O's
Mid-Ohio Race Report:
Mid-Ohio was our fourth race of the season, and our fourth win. It’s not often that you have the kind of success that Ron and I are having. You have to have excellent preparation on the cars, great engineering, and then we have to push hard and stay out of trouble on the track. One other thing you need is luck, and we have for sure had our fair share of that this season.
The race started out looking like it was going to be a truly epic battle between us, the 4 car, and the Saleen which was very strong. Unfortunately for the Saleen, they had a problem which dropped them out of contention, and then it came down to the two Corvettes. Ron and Andy were running nose to tail until the lap that Andy was due to pit. Unfortunately for he and Kelly, Brian Herta in one of the Panoz cars perhaps got a little impatient and turned Andy backwards..costing him about 40 seconds. Then to make matters worse for them, a full course caution came out right after they had stopped. When all was said and done, I was almost a full lap up on Kelly when I got into the car, and then for me the race once again came down to me just driving sensibly, and not getting into any trouble.
 Probably the only difficulty I had was in coping with the heat. It was so hot in the car, and then with about 25 minutes left in the race I ran out of water. So that was tough, but knowing that we were going to win once again made it much easier to deal with.
We did get some challenges over the week-end. Our handling never did get exactly as we liked it as we were having a hard time getting the front tires to work. Our engineer Steve Cole did a great job, and for sure the car in the race was the best it had been all week-end. Mid-Ohio is tough for engineers and drivers in that in every corner they have cut away the asphalt on the preferred line, and filled it in with concrete. In my opinion it just ruins the track as everyone struggles carrying momentum through the corners. That is one of the main reasons I don’t think you see much passing at Mid-Ohio. The concrete makes it so difficult to get a run on your competitors….
Anyway, we were all worried about saving the front tires. As it turned out, our wear was not as bad as we expected, but we were still having to be tire conscious throughout our stints. It would have been great had the race come down to a battle between us and the 4 car, but I have a feeling that before the season is over…you will see lots of battles between us.
Next up is Road America. One of the best tracks in the world, and its about time sports cars ran there again !!!! I love it, Ron loves it, and I have a feeling that sugar ( the new #3 car) is going to love it as well.
Johnny O
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