2002 SEASON ::: Le Mans Gallery MORE RACING NEWS Johnny O's Trois Rivieres Race Report: Argggghhhhh !!! “Rats” !!!! OK, actually I cussed a little bit more than that. It has been a really really long time since I fell of the island so to speak, and needless to say I am still kicking myself. 3 Rivers was an unusual race for us in that it was just a 2 day event. Two hours of practice on Friday, qualify, and then warm-up and race on Saturday. Bad luck hit everyone on Friday as the second session had rain during it, and we lost even more time. Prior to the race I think I had done only about 20 laps total. I would have liked to have done more to say the least, but we just got caught out. In the warm up on Saturday, the car felt better than Friday, and I was really looking forward to battle. Ron and Andy had a great race going with Ron leading Andy until about the 60th lap when Andy got by. He soon after thought he had a tire going down and stopped for Kelly to get in and get tires and fuel. Ron stayed out another 15 laps, which would have been totally to our advantage had a yellow come out, but of course this time it didn’t. As we had to take on more fuel on our stop, when I came out of the pits we were about 15 seconds behind the 4 car. When I got going, the car was handling well, the only problem was that the brakes were a bit soft. It was on I think my fourth lap when I got into the tires. I still don’t know whether I got into some fluid, or perhaps had some pick up on the tires from the previous corner which was breaking up very badly. Regardless, when I got to the arch turn, I did the same thing I had done every other time, only this time the car would not turn. I added brake, took off brake, but then nothing was going to save it once I got off line as the circuit was in such poor shape there. So I go flying into the tires, and say some cuss words… as I think we are totally done. I get the car re-fired, and back it out, and am surprised that the steering wheel is still in the correct position. I know that she is beat up pretty good, but as I start going, nothing feels any different with the car. Steve Cole our engineer takes a look at it as I drive by him, and doesn’t see anything really wrong, so I just go back to driving hard. Really hard. I knew that there was still a lot of time left in the race, and that we were by no means out of it. I could lap at over a second faster than the 4 car, and doing the math in my head figured that by the end of my stint I could be right back with the 4 car. Then I would just turn it over to Ron, and let him and Andy battle it out. Unfortunately we never got the chance. About 30 laps after hitting the tires, I got a gearbox alarm on the dash. Seems that we did not have any pressure and I had to make another pit stop to get it checked out. That is what killed us. Then, once I got going, I got a call on the radio to slow down and look after the box, and just bring the car home. Needless to say, I as so (insert cuss word!) pissed. There are few things worse than being told to slow down, especially when you have it in your mind that you can still win. So we finished second. Again…insert a cuss word. It is a really bad feeling hurting the car. It’s hard to put into words. You feel bad for the guys that work on the car, as they want to win as bad as Ron and I do. You feel bad for Ron, as being in Canada you know he is wanting that win. The only bright spot of the race for me was that I got fastest lap, and really do feel that but for the gear box we might have still pulled it off. Oh yeah, there is one other good thing about the race…and that is that I don’t have to fix the car !!! Now you might wonder, how is the team after you do something like that? A really cool thing is that everyone understands. Bill Delong, Gary Young, Dave Albright and Dave James are the guys that keep our car running, and they were all awesome. OK, Bill was making some jokes to me while I was still out there, but it was all in good fun. I think the fact that I was still running fast after the shunt made it easier for them to take. Ron, well he is a class act always and though disappointed, also felt that but for the gearbox we would have had this one as well. Gary Pratt…the team owner…was also great about it. He used to race himself and knows that sometimes cars don’t come back as pretty as when they start. After the race, I went out to dinner with Ron and his family. His daughter Lindsey is going to be 18 soon, and so it was kind of a party for her. Now Ron has a great family, and I think of them all as being close friends. I expected to get a little ribbing from them during dinner, but only Ron’s son Patrick busted my balls. What can you expect from a 5 year old !!!? Anyway, we all had a great time. Mosport is next…and if you have any money at all…I’d call Vegas and put it all on the 3 car.. Johnny O MORE RACE NEWS & REPORTS...   Site contents © 2002 Johnny O'Connell GM, GM Emblem, Corvette and the Corvette Emblem are registered trademarks of General Motors Corporation and used with permission.