I don't know if it is the future of prototype racing, but it certainly is where the focus is at the moment. What happens in three or four years time, I'm not really sure but, at this moment, the P2 category, in the American series especially, is the big talking point.
As I said, I'm really looking forward to getting back into action at Petit Le Mans this weekend. I've been able to see the growth that the event has enjoyed since it began ten years ago because we were there at the beginning - and I won there in '99 in a Panoz. I've seen the event grow and grow - not massively each year, but steadily each year - as it's had more and more people coming to it.
There's more excitement about it and, obviously, the winners now get a free entry to Le Mans, so the importance to teams has grown as it is getting tougher and tougher to get into the 24 Hours. Don Panoz has created a very good event at Road Atlanta, and it's great to be a part of it.
The track has been resurfaced this year, which will make things quite interesting. It has made the track a lot quicker and will help to put on a really good show. We were there a week-and-a-half ago, doing a four-day test. It was mainly running tyres for our partner Michelin, developing tyres for next year, but it gave us a great opportunity to get a feel for the new track surface.
We've been preparing for the event for quite a while, although we don't feel we're going to be as quick as Penske. Audi showed at the test that, with the extra grip, it's played into their hands too. They were doing 1min 7s when the lap record is 1min 10s. We were doing nines and the Penske were doing eights, so we'll see how we fine-tune the cars. There's going to be a little bit of a gap in the race, but hopefully not much.
