Third place at St Petersburg was a good result for the Highcroft team, and Acura again showed that they are a force to reckoned with in the American Le Mans Series as all three of its cars led sometime during the race.
I qualified the Highcroft car fifth in class, sixth overall, and, although I was a little p*ssed not to be higher up the grid, we still felt we had a strong car for the race. At the start, I got a really good jump on the cars around me, but I had to back off as I was going to pass the front row before the start-finish line!
I reckoned that going down the outside would be the ticket, staying away from any trouble, and it seemed to be the right choice, as I saw bodywork flying. I thought that the first corner could become pretty interesting but, as it went, I lost one place, and there were no real dramas from my view point. What I didn't realise was the start Marino Franchitti had. I couldn't work out if he was in front or behind me, but later realised that he was
way in front. I am sure he had a smile on his face. I actually went up to him at before the start to see how nervous he was, and he was a little tense, but I just told him to enjoy himself - wish I hadn't now!
As the race wore on, my car was getting quicker - or perhaps the others were getting slower - but I was stuck behind Butch Leitzinger for 20 laps. Eventually, I took a lunge down the inside and pulled it off. The others were six seconds down the road at that point, but, in two laps, I was right with them and looking for a way round. Then a yellow came out and the chase had stopped for a while. Marino had been hit from behind by Ryan Briscoe's Penske Porsche and went straight into the wall. No more smiling, I'm sure...
On the restart, I went to get past the cars in front, but the tyres got a lot of pick-up on them and then I was just trying to keep the car off the walls. I must have been going nine seconds slower than before the yellow came out. The others were struggling as well, but they were still pulling away a little. When another yellow came out, I came into the pits to change over to Stefan Johansson, giving him the car in third place. For some reason, Stefan was also struggling on the restart, but he soon caught the cars ahead of him and it was great to see the Highcroft car running so well.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Stefan got into the lead as others had troubles, and our gameplan of letting things come to us seemed to be working. We were stretching the fuel a little and another yellow came out to help us. However, this interruption was for Tomas Enge's shunt, which was a big one.... so get better mate.
At this point, our radios went down and Stefan came to the pits by mistake, although he didn't stop in the pit box. Instead, he went straight through, losing the lead to the two Penskes - then got a penalty for entering the pits and not stopping. That dropped us down to fourth.
The Penskes had been two laps down at one stage and now they were in the lead... damn it! We were all having kittens in the pits as the emotions were running wild. All of a sudden, from leading, then we were 4th. Then, just before the restart, Andy Wallace came into the pits with a problem and we were back into third, but with all the P1 and P2 cars on the same lap.
I have to say that the ALMS is producing really strong races this year, which is good. The Penskes are still quicker than we are, and so Stefan had no chance to catch them, but we were pretty pleased with the result because, if someone had said that we were going to have a fourth and third in the first two races, we wouldn't have believed it. Well done to the team and to Acura.
