Two Podiums at Road America
Down on straight-line speed at one of the fastest tracks in the country, with a Code 60 penalty along the way, and still P2 and P3 across two 7-hour races, plus a weekend-long fight with our teammates in car #85.
Road America is four miles of long straights, heavy braking zones and fast sweepers, the National Park of Speed. It was my first time there, with two 7-hour races on the schedule, and it didn't take long to find out where our weekend would be won and lost.
We just didn't have the pace on the straights. At a track built around top speed, that's a real handicap: cars would come past on the long runs no matter how good the exit was. So we raced where we could make the difference, carrying speed through the corners, braking late and clean, and keeping the car out of trouble for hour after hour.
“When you can't win the straights, you win everywhere else. Two podiums without the top speed, that's a great feeling.”
— Alex PollardNot everything went our way. A penalty for speeding under Code 60, the full-course slow zone where everyone has to hold a set speed, cost us time we had to win back on track. Frustrating, but that's the job in endurance racing: take the hit, reset, and get back to lapping.
The best part of the weekend was car #85. Our teammates and I spent a lot of those hours nose-to-tail, hard, fair racing between two cars from the same team, each pushing the other to go faster. Battles like that are why you do this. (Two months later, it was the #85 crew who gave me a seat at Homestead after our engine let go, racing each other hard and having each other's backs goes together.)
By the end of Sunday we had P2 and P3, two podiums from two races, at a track where the car was working against us on every straight. Big thanks to the whole Zenith crew for a weekend of sharp stops and smart calls.
Two podiums on our first visit, and a car that still has more to give. Next up: Watkins Glen, another new track and another two 7-hour races.