Laguna Seca Race Report

Well at least we didn’t catch on fire. For some reason we never seem to run strong at Laguna. I had high hopes that with all of the improvements made to the car and the tires, we might actually find ourselves in a position to run for a win. Unfortunately it became pretty obvious during the first session that the Ferrari/Michelin combination was going to be real strong, and in qualifying we found out just how strong.

Bottom line is they were flying. Both Ollie and I qualified, and though a bit displeased with the amount of understeer and lack of grip I had, I was still surprised to see that both pro-drive cars were well ahead of us both. Ollie ended up third, me fourth, and though our car wasn’t great for qualifying, we were hoping that for the race it would be ok…provided the Ferrari guys had some bad luck.

The race started out well for the 3 car with Ron making a good start, but Ollie got pushed off in the first corner. He fell back a far way, but then pushed real hard and was able to get back up to Ron, who was more or less just looking after things and making sure to not use up the car/tires. Really by about the fourth or fifth lap, the pro-drive guys were out of sight, and that is when you need to look at the big picture and come away from the race with as many points as you can. Ron as always did a great job, and when I got in the car, we were in third, but Kelly who had taken for over for Ollie had already run a few laps and when I was on my out lap he was able to pass me. So that you know, it takes a few laps after a stop for your tires to get grip and pressures to come back up.

So anyway, there I am, in fourth, and Kelly is right in front of me. On my own, I could have run faster, but did not have enough car/tire to get by him. Compounding things was the fact that I knew he did not have a left side mirror, and the last thing I wanted to do was stick him with an aggressive move and have him move over on me…man would the team go nuts if that happened. So really, I resigned myself to sitting behind him and hoping for traffic to present an opportunity to get by, as he was not making any mistakes that I could have taken advantage of.

I thought my opportunity might come when the Ferraris came up to lap us. I tried for a bit holding them back, but with the grip and top end that they had over us, it was not worth taking ourselves out over it. But once by me…man did Kelly put up a fight ! Of course he did not have a left side mirror, so when Brabham made the move on him that he did, I had the best seat in the house for Kelly coming down on him. It was total chaos there for awhile, but when the dust settled, Kelly was in front of Kox, with me right behind. Then Kox made a nice move on Kelly going into turn 3, and watching Kelly trying to counter was totally awesome. Knowing how little grip he had…well he put up a great fight.

In a way, this worked to my advantage in that I kind of figured he had used up more tire than I had, and that near the end of our runs we might be strong enough to get by. I upped the pressure on him some, and was lucky in that after a few laps he got a little rear lock up going into turn two, and then spun. It was actually pretty darn close for me, as with not having grip, I was worried I might not be able to maneuver around him. But I did, and from that point on was able to lap just a bit quicker than when I was behind him.

With about 35 minutes to go, we pitted again and Ron got back in. I would have been happy to finish the race, but during our first pit stop they had not had time to hook up my water bottle, and they made the decision to get Ron back in. He did what he always does, did a great job, and we ended up finishing third and getting more points…which is what we needed to do.

Driving back to the hotel, we learned that the #88 car had failed Tech inspection, and that we were moved up to second place. I was glad for us, of course, but certainly it was bad luck for Thomas and Peter, who really had driven a great race.

So the Pratt and Miller guys once again did a great job, both cars running strong and this year, both going back to the shop without much damage !! I’m off next week to do TV commentary for the SCCA Run-Offs, and having never been am kind of looking forward to seeing it. It will be a lot of work covering all of those races, but everyone associated with Speed TV is totally cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. I’m still surprised that they put up with me and all of my stuttering in the booth !!!

After that of course, we are in Miami and already I am looking forward to it. The asphalt there for sure suits our tires, and with Ron and I having won there last year…and with us being so strong at 3 rivers, I think we should do well.

Johnny O
09/09/03

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