A yellow came out and we were one of the few not to pit. I thought to myself that we could go up a lap on everyone if it all played out in our favour - but it didn't. When I got into the car, we changed tyres and I came out fifth in class and seventh overall. On the restart, I chased down the cars in front, first the Andretti Green car, then the Fernandez Acura and, finally, the Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen. All I had left was Romain Dumas in the other Penske.
I could see that I was quicker in the corners, but he was quicker on the straights, so I knew I needed a bit of luck with the traffic. Eventually, I got a good run on him down the back straight and he went right to protect his line, so I went left. As we got closer to the corner, he went left and I had to jump on the brakes to avoid him!
As I am a big believer in karma, I thought something would come up after that - and it did. With two laps to go, we got into some traffic and he got a little sideways out of a corner and I got a run on him. I went left, then he went left, so I dived down the inside on the right into turn eight. He also went right to protect his line - and actually hit me - but I got through, much to the delight of the Highcroft team.
After that, I pulled away on the last lap to win, and was so happy crossing the line that I punched the air all the way to the first corner. Then, as I turned into the first corner after the screaming and shouting, Dumas hit me again....!
I won't write what I said, but it didn't really matter because we'd won our first race.
In the press conference after the race, they made mention that I am the only driver to have a win and a pole in all four classes. That's cool.
That night, as you can imagine, we had a huge party with all the team and Patron guests. People who know me well know I don't drink that much, but that night I got wasted on tequila...!
DB
