I have just woken up in the hotel at Sebring, still asking myself whether we really did win our first race.
I am feel very tired and sore, so something must of happened to my body. I am feeling pretty happy, so we must of won. I think I will go to
Crash.net to confirm our victory over the 'Vettes.
This is how I am feeling at the moment, as it seems a little unreal that we won the Sebring 12 Hours. Going into the race, we thought that a podium was possible, not a victory, as the Corvettes were very strong indeed. The tests during the week of the race were going well and we were pleased with the reliability of the cars and, as the track got more rubber on it, so the cars just got faster and faster, as we fine-tuned them to get the most out of what we knew about the DBR9.
When I woke up on the morning of the race, I felt a quiet confidence that we would do well. Sometimes, these feelings lead you down the garden path, but the race day feeling was a strong one. As qualifying was a wash-out, we started down the grid a bit but, when Darren hit the gas peddle at the start of the race, he soon showed the pace of the car, moving straight up to second place.
The lead 'Vette of Ollie Gavin was pulling away very slowly and the Fellows 'Vette had dropped back down the field. At first, I thought 'what the hell is happening here?' Last year, the 'Vettes just won at a canter, and never showed their real pace all year. Now they had a fight on.
The first yellow came out and we pitted and I jumped in. When I came back out, and all the pit-stops were done, we found we had lost a lap to the 'Vettes. In one fell swoop, we went from being in contention for the lead to being a lap down. They changed the pace car rules and we didn't get it right. I wasn't very happy!
