2003 SEASON ::: MORE RACING NEWS Sebring Race Report Boy. For a week that started out pretty lousy, things certainly did turn out great !!! First off a big thanks to all the guys on the three car, who busted their butts all week, and then did their usual super job on pit stops. As you may know, Dan Binks is now the crew chief on the #3 car, and he certainly did a great job running the show and giving us a great car. Welcome aboard DB !!! Nice way to start the season….but like I mentioned, it didn’t start out that way. Both Monday and Tuesday are critical days at Sebring for finding your set-up as once the official practice starts on Wednesday, you just don’t have enough track time to get things sorted. Well for both of those days and the first session on Wednesday, we were struggling with a lot of understeer, completely unable to carry any speed through the middle of the corners. It was driving us nuts as nothing that we tried would give us what we needed. Finally on Wednesday we compared our aero package to the #4 car and found that our nose height was incorrect. It was great that we found it, but bad in that we had lost so much track time. Anyway, with the aero package better, we began in the afternoon trying to find a good set-up. Thursday was qualifying day, and for this race it was my turn to qualify. Without a doubt we didn’t have the car we needed for it, but I was pleased to still set a time good enough for second..ahead of the Ferrari’s but next to the four car. They had been quicker than us in every session during the week so far, so it was no surprise when they got the pole. We had way to much oversteer in the car…parts of the race track that should have been flat out were a struggle and I had to lift…but in the end…with the car I had …was quite pleased. Still, we were a long way from having a good race car, and with only night practice left, really didn’t have the time to keep improving the car. Friday is the day when we change to the race engine and gear box, and the plan was to do extra running in the last session on Friday tuning the car. Bad luck hit us again when a huge rain storm came in and drowned everyone. I can only imagine what the fans in the infield were doing then…but in the paddock it was chaos. The last session was canceled, so we woke up on Saturday knowing that we really weren’t going to have the best handing race car for the race, but if we kept our noses clean, could still get a good result. Showing up at the track for morning warm-up, I learned that Ron was feeling sick, and just Frank and I would do the warm-up. Now I know that some people were probably worried about Ron, and hey, as his friend I can say he looked pretty lousy….but I had no doubt that come race time he’d be ready to go. Ron is way too much of a competitor and he and I have a lot more races to win. Anyway, for the warm-up the car seemed close, but we were struggling with a lot of mid-corner understeer. It was our hope that we could live with it. Ron made a good start, but it was soon apparent that we just didn’t have the handling of the 4 car and the Ferrari’s…all of whom were flying. Now as a driver, when you see that you might not be the strongest car on the track, you fall back on experience. You work through the race with what you can do to change the car. Tire pressures and bars for the most part. You push as hard as you possibly can each lap, but not so hard that you might hurt it. As the race went on, we went from too much understeer at times, to too much oversteer. Our engineer Steve Cole did an excellent job of fine tuning things, and as the race went on we got stronger. But still, not as strong as the 4 car. Basically, Andy, Kelly and Ollie were having a killer run. No problems. They kept a very strong pace, and though at times we closed the gap a little, they really had us covered. Frank Freon as you know is now the third guy, and he seemed to get the bad luck this race. A quick spin cost us a little time, but then he had the whole battery system die on him just as he came into the pits. That cost us a lap, but there was totally nothing that he could do about it. The same problem hit me when I got in the car after Ron, as the entire car was dead. I jiggled the battery wires and the car came back to life…and was able to get going again, but of course worried that we had a big problem. Luckily we carry two batteries on the car, and when I stopped they changed systems, and we had no more issues with the electrical system. Bad luck hit us again just after I pitted at night as the races only caution came out and we went down another lap to the 4 car (bad luck with the pace car). We changed the brakes at that time, (for some reason we were getting lousy wear) and then went out with the intention of running easy and just looking after the car. As far as we were concerned Ollie, Andy and Kelly had the race in the bag…and really they had all done a nice job. It was a total surprise when Dave Albright told me that Ollie was out…something had broken on the car. Now it’s an odd feeling that you get at that point, as the guys on the four car, drivers and crew, are good friends. Since we were having an off day, I was glad that they were the ones that would get the big win…and I figured we would bring it home second. But it’s funny, once you get over feeling bad for them, you totally get your game face on…get back in the zone…and focus on being as nice as possible to the car. I got back in the car just after 9:30 with the intention of being as perfect with my driving as was possible…total concentration. Speed was not an issue, so I set a lap time target of between 2:07 and 2:09, which was way below what the car could do…but allowed me to baby her. Dan Binks was using the TV monitors in the pits spotting for me, and that was great as he would let me know how far back a prototype was, and then I would alter my speed so that they would catch and pass me in a safe area. It worked great and there were totally no dramas in the last hour. Crossing the finish line…winning at Sebring for the 5th time…man it was incredible. I got a call on the radio not to do any donuts or burnouts on the cool off lap, but hey, to all of my friends in turn 10…thanks for being such great fans…and hope you enjoyed it. Le Mans is up for us next, and for that we will have new cars. We get to run them for the first time in a few weeks, and I look forward to it. Ron and I have had such good luck with both Sweetness, and now Smokey ( the cars we have used over the past two years)…I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next car turns out to be a winner as well. Something tells me that she will be…but man, those Ferraris are scarey with how fast they get down the straights. It should once again turn out to be an epic battle…I’m totally looking forward to it. Johnny O MORE 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.