2003 SEASON ::: MORE RACING NEWS Mosport Race Report I don’t know what it is about Mosport…but I just love racing there. The very fast corners, how amazing well it all flows together, and all of the local Canadian fans always makes it one of my favorite places to go. And the fact that I have always had good luck there…well you have to take that into account as well. I went up there still a bit angry about not winning three rivers, and was completely focused on giving everything I had on every lap. Perhaps a key to us winning was that my time in the car during Friday practice was to do a long run on the tires we were planning to use for the race. The length of the run was just short of what an actual stint would be, but I learned a lot about how the tires would perform during my stint…and is something I was cognizant of while racing. Once again, we struggled getting the car the way we wanted it. I kind of liked the car on Friday, but then because of tire wear issues, we made some changes for Saturday morning…still the car was ok…but then for the afternoon session we made more changes and I really didn’t like it much. It was very nervous on the entry into corners, a bit pushy in the middle…and then very edgy/nervous exiting the corners. Not the type of car you would want to run in a race. Ron, although I know he was disappointed, did a great job qualifying the car as unsettled as it was. I don’t think we have once this year had a car that we liked going into qualifying. Anyway, we went back to close to what we started the week-end with for morning warm-up…still not really liking the car…and then made a few more changes to the car for the race. Ollie made a great start in the 4 car, and was running really well….leading both Ferraris and then Ron. The 4 car was really hooked up, and my thoughts were that they were really going to be the ones to beat. Bad luck of course hit them when Ollie got pushed wide in a very fast and dangerous part of the circuit, and he ran off in to the tires very very hard. I think we all held our breath for a minute until he got out of the car, and were all happy that he was OK. After the race restarted, the Ferraris pretty much took off racing each other, with Ron doing all that he could to stay in touch. I pretty much knew that our car was not as strong handling wise from just watching the monitors. We got very lucky when a full course caution came out, and well the guys did just an amazing pit-stop, and we beat both Ferraris out. During the caution, Ron got on the radio, told me some about the car and the race track, and it really was helpful as it gave me a bit of an advantage on the restart. Along with the pit stop, it was really the first 5 or ten laps that made the difference in this race as I was able to open up about a 5 second gap to the Ferrari of Peter Kox. It stayed pretty much that way for the majority of the run. Now the interesting part that goes back to that long run on Friday. On my 20th lap, our engineer Steve Cole came on the radio and told me that it was 20 down, about 27 laps to go. Man, I was already fighting what was a very nervous car, and busting my ass to do lap times that could keep us in front. Doing the math in my head, I knew that at the end, based on what I did on Friday, I would totally be struggling with grip. From that point on I changed how I was driving the car to really look after the rear tires, and try to use up the fronts more. With about 8 laps to go, however, I really started having to be sooo careful with the throttle, and I changed my lines even more to take advantage of where the tires were still working well. Now I know from my wife, that on TV, the last few laps were pretty exciting. But I have to be honest…in the car, it was totally no emotion. I knew he was coming hard of course. But then getting to me and then getting by were two different things. Reading and timing traffic were key, but then also placing my car in a position where it would be difficult for him to pass was also important. Going into the last lap, I already had all of my plans in my head, and was really most concerned with turn 5b that leads onto the long back straight. Rather than taking a conventional line, which I knew my tires would not be able to handle, I tightened up a lot, and more or less squared off the corner. This gave me a very flat car coming out of the corner, and gave me a bit of a jump on Peter so that he could not make a move on me going down the straight. As we got to the very fast turn 8, I had one of the Alex Job Porsches in front of me, and as he was running quite quick, he became a rather convenient pick for me as I could slow my speed down some and still protect my position. Definitely one of the more fun races I have been in. Finally, I have to tip my hat to Peter for being the driver that he is. I know that those boys want to win bad…real bad…and he certainly could have turned me around trying to get by. But it was cool in that he gave us the same consideration that we gave them at 3 Rivers. They did a great job at holding us back there, but we never put a yellow mark on their Red cars. I was certainly glad to know that they see the fight the same way that we do. Very professional, and so much fun racing when you can trust your competitors. Road America is next…and man…each fight seems to be better than the previous. You know based on how they ran at Le Mans, that the Ferrari boys will be real fast…but then with our new cars, we should be quite strong as well. If you go…be sure to stop by and wish us luck…. Johnny O 8/19/03 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.