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Hello race fans! It's time for another update from Sebring!
Well to start, I'm still sick. After some driver-change practices and a handful of laps in the car yesterday I was really starting to feel better, or at least I thought I was. That ended when I woke up this morning and felt like all the cars on track had run over my head. So, I've been in hibernation all day again. Fortunately I wasn't slated to drive at all today since Johannes was qualifying, so while he did all the work, I've been hacking up a lung, blowing my noze, getting an IV or two at the track medical center and trying to sleep this thing off. Nothing like waiting till race week to get sick, huh? But either way, I'm ready to give it hell tomorrow. TO THE FRONT, I say!
As for the team, we hadn't been quite as quick as we were in testing just a few weeks ago, and the cars had been pretty unhappy and difficult to drive. Fortunately the brain trust at ESM stumbled across a few things and we're now back on the road to having that amazing car we had just two weeks ago. Only problem is, we're now out of time to tweak on it some more. After a bit of a clutch problem at the start of qualifying Johannes got out and threw down some quick laps to put us 7th in the EXTREMELY competitive GT class.
I'll be starting the race tomorrow, and ready to hand it off to Scott Sharp after about an hour or two with a handsome lead. Tall order? Absolutely. But I'm going to enjoy trying!!
It's a long race, folks - stay tuned, and wish us luck!
Guy
Here's a photo by John Thawley from night practice - just awesome!
;)
We've done a bunch of testing recently with ESM Racing in preparation for the 2012 season and Sebring in particular, so we opted not to test on Monday here at Sebring, but hit track yesterday for the two one-hour sessions in the afternoon. For those of you that don't know, I was moved over to the 01 Ferrari for this race in an effort to put our best foot forward for a win here at Sebring, with an all-ESM driver lineup. We want to win this race badly and what better way to do it than with all of us 'pro's' in the same car together? However, I'm sad to leave Ed Brown behind as my teammate this weekend, but he's in great hands as we've brought in Jeff Segal and Anthony Lazzaro to drive with him. Still an extremely strong driver lineup!
Yesterday we had a gearbox oil leak in the 01 car that kept us from running the first session, and the 2nd session saw us bedding brakes for the week and for the race, so losing the first session meant we really didn't get to 'run' at all. I managed to get in the car with just a few minutes remaining in session 2, which got me one full-timed lap before the checkered flag. But at least I hopped in to see what the chaos on track was like - and it was NUTS! 60-something cars from 7 different classes - crazy!
Today we're not on track at all, which worked out perfectly for me as the sickness hit me hard last night after dinner and I've basically been bed-ridden all day, despite a few media obligations this morning.
Tomorrow the event really gets underway with two official practice sessions and night practice. Be sure to follow ALMS' live timing & scoring (click my link on the left) and visit their website for all the event information, and of course check back here often to read up on my Twitter feed and for my daily updates!
Here's to vitamin C and some sleep! Use hand sanitizer out there and cover your mouth when you sneeze & cough, kids! :)
Guy