D-Brief: A win at last... and a bit of history.
Well, it sure feels good writing this column saying we won instead of saying we are getting close to winning. If you remember from my last message, I said that we were close to winning - and I was right...!
The win could not have come at a better time, with our team sponsor, Patron Tequila, also sponsoring the race in Long Beach, and Honda being based just down the road. Long Beach is the jewel in the American Le Mans Series crown and for Highcroft to win its first race there felt pretty special.
It didn't start off that well, with Thursday's practice showing us 1.7 seconds off the pace. The car just didn't have the grip and we really thought we had a better set-up than the one from St Pete, where we did so well. Not so. On Friday, we went back to the St Pete set-up and improved to 0.7secs behind just before qualifying. It still wasn't enough, but at least we were heading in the direction.
I got myself into a really good state of mind for qualifying and felt good going into it. My first flying lap was a quick one, a 1min 11.4secs which stunned the team as we were miles quicker than everyone else at that stage. Eventually, I dropped to P2, then P3, so I backed off, had a think about it and went for it again. I knew I was on a good one and didn't look at the delta time, which tells me where I am quicker or slower on the track, because I knew. I went down the back straight, braked too late and promptly ran out of talent - and into the wall...!
Only then did I look down on the delta time, and found I was four-tenths up on my best time - a lap good enough for pole as I was only a tenth off. Still, it showed that we'd got the car back to being good, and I was really looking forward to the race.
Scott started the race, and did really well as he was still learning the track at that point. He didn't get a lot of laps before the race, as I was in the car most of the time - but the same thing happened to me last year when Stefan qualified.
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
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American Lemans Series. 17-19 April 2008. Long Beach Grand Prix. Long Beach, Ca.#9 Highcroft Acura, LMP2 winners
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Brabham/Sharp/Johansson - Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01B, Sebring Winter Test, Sebring International Raceway
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Brabham/Sharp/Johansson - Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01B, Sebring Winter Test, Sebring International Raceway
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Brabham/Sharp/Johansson - Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01B, Sebring Winter Test, Sebring International Raceway
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