Braun and Hunter-Reay going in circles.

Friday, 29th September 2006

Seventeen-year-old Colin Braun and two-time Champ Car World Series race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay were both selected to join 14 other drivers at a one day driver development test for General Motors.

Previous Page

During his final two runs, Braun focused on consistent lap times and steady lines. However, while adapting to the car, Braun did have one “moment”.

“I had a spin once,” Braun said. “We were just working on braking deeper into the corner, and the crew chief got on the radio and said, ‘O.K., brake this much deeper, brake that much deeper. Woops! That was too deep.’ It was no big deal. It was a lot of fun, though.”

No matter how much fun he was having, he did have to stop to let the next driver, Hunter-Reay, take to the circuit. As Hunter-Reay worked on adapting to the car, he referred back to his experience in the Grand-Am series.

“It was good I actually drove the Porsche [GT car] this year, because it backed all the reference points up a little bit,” Hunter-Reay said. “It kind of taught me to be patient with the car rather than what I was used to in the Champ Car.”

When it came time for his evaluation runs, Hunter-Reay took a slightly different approach than Braun.

“[If] I was going into a race, I would not have driven the car exactly like that,” he said of his run. “I would have saved the tyres a little bit more. I think I pissed the tyres off a little bit by driving it pretty hard for a few laps…but I was happy despite that, because I was still consistent.”

Both of the drivers were satisfied with their efforts, but was GM?

“GM seemed very happy,” Braun said. “They seemed very impressed, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Hunter-Reay said, “I couldn’t ask for the whole thing to go much better right now. That said, we still have another two tests.”

The second test will be at North Georgia Speedway, a three-eighth-mile dirt track oval in Chatsworth, Georgia, on September 19 and 20. Both drivers are hoping to have a strong performance there, as some drivers will be cut before the final test at Nashville Superspeedway on October 10th and 11th.

Sure, these two drivers are going in circles, but they haven’t forgotten how to turn right.

Braun said, “You pretty much have to draw a line in between both of them [DP and Busch car] and know, ‘O.K. this is how to drive a DP car, and this is how to drive a stock car.”