2003 SEASON ::: MORE RACING NEWS Road America Race Report Man oh man…did I blow that one !!!! There are a lot of things that played into it, but really, I should have been able to hold that little monkey Jan off for another lap !!!! I know that there probably would have been some contact…he was going to try something, but man… turn one…it was a mistake on my part…and then giving credit, a killer move by Jan to pounce on it. Everyone on the three car, and really the four car as well did an excellent job all week-end. We were good right off of the trailer, and Ron and I were quickest pretty much every session….until the one right before qualifying when Ollie got his car working better, and then did another amazing job at laying down a lap. I’ve seen a lot of guys that are good at qualifying, but he is probably the best I’ve come across at just totally hanging one out. I was watching the qualifying on the monitors, and Ron was just awesome, put in an amazing lap, but then right behind him came Ollie, and he did a time that was just out of this world. At the session before qualifying, I started and with the changes we had made to the car, I found the car to be very nervous. Ron got in, they made some changes, and I think he liked it OK, but still wasn’t exactly to his liking. Probably the hardest thing about this type of racing, having two drivers, is finding that set-up that both guys like. We opted to go back to our Saturday morning set-up for the race, and in hindsight, we probably should have done what our engineers suggested which was tuning just a touch more on what we had in the car for qualifying. Not to say our car was not good in the race, but the small differences could have meant a difference. Anyway, in the morning warm-up, we broke a ring and pinion in the gear box, and had to go to another one for the race. This was a big problem in that the gears in the box we would use were a bit taller, and thus we would not be able to get a good run out of some pretty critical corners. For sure it hurt us, and was the difference between how the 4 car and us could lap. We just could not get out of the corners as aggressively as we needed. On the first stop, when I got in, we were already running in second. Ollie had a great run going when he got called in for a stop and go for passing under a yellow. I’m guessing this was a bogus call, in that the rules are such that once you see a yellow, you cannot pass until you get to the next station where they should be showing a green flag. Now when I was out on the track, I saw a lot of yellow flags, but rarely did the next flagging station have a green out. A few times that happened to me while behind a slower car, and man did you lose time. So I’m in the car running second to Brabham, run him down, and really was quicker had I only been able to get close enough to him to make a move. This is where that gearing really hurt us. I’d get close, but then the jump he could get off the corner was enough so that I couldn’t get a shot at him. Towards the end of that first stint, our engineer Steve Cole called me and asked if I could do a double. Man…I was really hot in the car, but they thought they could short fill the car and just give us enough fuel to get to the end. Again in hindsight, it would have been better to get Ron in, as being fresh, he would have been able to push hard, and not make the few mistakes that I made that really ended up costing us the win. So there I am, and I’m able to hold about an 8 second lead. I’m really having a hard time though mentally as the heat has totally gotten to me. I get to traffic, normally something I have no problem with, and then running into turn 5 have a hard time getting a gear, lock the rears up, and just loose a ton of time. Then, on the next lap I make another mistake in trying to pass a GT car on the outside of the carousel, get into the marbles, almost through the car off, and again lost a ton of time. So now there I am, with a Ferrari chewing on my ass all over again. I was able to defend myself for a few laps, but then going into the last lap, I had a call on the radio that the Dyson car and an Audi were coming up. Going into the last corner, I saw them there and was hoping that they would work to my advantage. As we came down the front straight, as we got to the braking zone I moved to make room for what I thought was one of them, and man, Jan saw his chance and just jumped on it. He was totally sliding big time to the outside of the track, and I repositioned to try and get him back on the inside, but then again our gearing was not strong enough and I couldn’t pull it off. I pushed him hard to try and get another shot at him, but it wasn’t to be. You have no idea how lousy that felt, on the cool down lap, knowing that I had made such a rookie mistake. Sure I was really hot and tired, but one more lap…I should have known better. I was bummed that I let Ron and the boys down…and for sure will be thinking about it for the next week or so. One final thing to mention, is the fans at Road America. They are totally great. There is a friend on mine, Mark Rau, and he showed up with all of these cut-outs of my face on sticks…it was totally funny. As I walked up to the podium, feeling like a guy who had just run over his dog, he and his family were there, holding these things up. You have no idea how great that made me feel….thanks guys. Laguna of course is next. I love that track, and hopefully we will have better luck than last year. Wish us luck !! Johnny O 8/27/03 MORE REPORTS...   Site contents © 2003 Johnny O'Connell GM, GM Emblem, Corvette and the Corvette Emblem are registered trademarks of General Motors Corporation and used with permission.