This past week we were at Sebring for the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge race, round two for Britt Casey, Jr. and I in the No. 77 TRUMPF Audi RS3 LMS. After our TCR class victory in Daytona, the team was still on a high going into Sebring. And we are still new to the team, but we were really able to pick up where we left off from a team chemistry standpoint, so we hit the ground running.
We immediately found success in testing and practice, and then Britt put in an incredible qualifying run to get the TCR pole position. We were really excited for the race. We had focused on the long-run setup of the car, rather than a single-lap setup, because Sebring is such a demanding circuit and because we knew that the higher temperatures on race day would affect our tire performance.
Britt got out to a sizable lead after a great start, and he led throughout the first hour. Our setup decision really came into play through the closing hour of the race, when I was in the car. Much to my surprise, I was able to pull a gap on the other cars in the TCR field—enough that I could settle into a comfortable pace while still maintaining a large lead.
We dodged all the bullets of a late-race full-course yellow that stirred some drama into the mix (just like we had at Daytona), maintaining the lead and taking the white flag knowing that the win was near. But I got an intermittent fuel pressure alarm that rapidly deteriorated into a loss of fuel pressure. Even though I was trying to manage my pace, coasting around the track to limp to the checkered flag, we came up two corners short and I parked on the back straight and watched the race go by.
During my racing career, I’ve been in a lot of great scenarios that turned into heartbreak, like leading the championship into the final round in 2012 only to have a misfire problem that relegated us to second in points, and leading the Rolex 24 at Daytona for 11-plus hours in 2011 only to have a battery voltage issue that relegated us to third (although being on the Rolex podium is still one of my best memories). For some reason, though, this one seems to burn the most, maybe because it’s the most recent. But the key is to redirect all of that emotion into positive performance for the rest of the season.