Qualifying was Scott Maxwell's turn this weekend, and he did a great job in qualifying third, but the
Ferrari was first and a Porsche second. Our other team car was fifth with Tom Milner Jr doing the driving. Looking at the data afterwards showed that Scott was on a flyer, and would have got very close to pole, had it not been for a Corvette diving down the inside of the last corner.
Scott started the race and was running a strong in third, but then he started to drop back quiet quickly. We radioed to find out what the problem was and he said the rear was sliding. This got worse and worse - to the point where he got lapped in the stint, which shows how slow the car was going. We had tried a different tyre to what we used at Sebring and it clearly wasn't working.
With so little time on the track, we had to go for it. Scott came into the pits and I jumped in as we put the Sebring tyres on. Straight away, I was on the pace, but two laps down at this stage, so I just drove as hard as I could. The car was getting better and better as the fuel load was getting lighter, and I was the quickest on the track. I passed the Ferrari and then, all of a sudden in the chicane, the rear suspension broke.
I got it back to the pits and the guys got to work to fix the problem. I jumped out and Scott Jumped in to finish the race as there was not long to go. In the end, we finished sixth but our other team car faired worse, as it had an engine problem after just three laps of the race and stopped.
One of the things I was impressed with in Houston was that I didn't see any of the ALMS cars hit the wall all week. In a street race, that was pretty good. The only pace car situation in the race was to remove the LMP2 Porsche that had broken down, so well done to all the drivers.
After our poor performance, we are now not leading the GT2 championship, but we are still in the hunt. It is on to Mid-Ohio for the next race, where I hear that the track has been resurfaced, so I look forward to going there to get back to winning ways.
All the best,
DB
