What a week! I just wrapped up a busy week at Daytona International Speedway for the opening event of the IMSA season. I was excited to be teamed up with my longtime teammates and friends at Automatic Racing, driving the No Limits Aston Martin Vantage GT4 with popular music producer Jim Jonsin and Brett Sandberg.
Jim was debuting his latest work, a song called No Limits featuring Kid Rock, Jimmie Allen, and Austin Mahone. (You can give it a listen here!) The song was released on Friday, synched to the same day as our Michelin Pilot Challenge race. It was also exciting to have Austin Mahone with us at the track! It was his first race, and it was fun to see him taking in all the sights and sounds during the Fan Walk and the race itself.
And speaking of the race, what a race it was! We had been busy prepping the week prior, testing at the Roar Before the 24 and putting final touches on car prep and setup. Jim Jonsin qualified the car with a personal best time at Daytona. He had a terrific opening stint that lasted for almost an hour and a half! He did a fantastic job moving the car forward and steering clear of trouble.
Next, Brett Sandberg got in and continued to drive the car further up the field and into the top 15. He had some great battles with other cars during his stint throughout the middle part of the race.
We had a driver change, and I took the final two stints of the race. The team really nailed the setup and gave me the ability to continue driving forward. I had some exciting moments as we continued to move up the order and into the top five. The final stint brought a couple of yellows that packed the field and made for some really exciting racing in the final 45 minutes, when we saw our Aston Martin get into the top three for a brief time before we finished with a very rewarding fifth.
I was so proud of the effort that everyone put forward, from the team preparation to the engineering to the drivers, pit crew, and everyone who played an important role in giving us a mistake-free race. We were able to keep moving forward throughout the entire four-hour race to get such a great result, and we were proud to be the top-finishing Aston Martin in the field.
If you missed the race, you can tune in to CNBC this Saturday, February 4, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a condensed version of the race.
Check back next week for my recap of the MX-5 Cup races from Daytona. If you just can’t wait, though, you can go watch the online replay of them on Racer.com’s YouTube channel right now! Both races were photo finishes, which is what we’ve come to expect from MX-5 Cup racing.