This Saturday is going to be my 4th 12 Hours of Sebring as a driver. I can’t believe how time flies! I’ve been racing there ever since Mazda introduced their Prototype program to IMSA. It’s amazing to think how the program has evolved over the years. Mazda’s “Never Stop Challenging” approach certainly comes to mind, as every season has been a year of development for the engine program and, now, the new DPi chassis.
I had fun reminiscing about my first 12 Hours of Sebring in 2014 while reading my blog entry about it in the archives. It was a great look back at what we were trying to accomplish in that first season for the Mazda Prototype program and just how successful the event ended up being for us as a team, given that we had a brand new engine and chassis platform. We experienced so much adversity throughout the race, facing changing conditions and working through challenges with the car.
Since it was my first 12-hour race, I took my experience from the Rolex 24 at Daytona and applied it to Sebring. There are a lot of similarities, but there are a lot of differences, too. For instance, the Sebring circuit is ten times more strenuous on the car, which in turn can make it more strenuous on the crew and the drivers! Dealing with traffic is also different on the road course of Sebring, particularly because of how dark it is at night and how narrow some of the areas of the circuit are compared to Daytona’s oval.
For this year, we were fortunate enough to test our new package at Sebring a couple of weeks ago. I’m very excited about all the progress and momentum we have coming into the event. We know that every team will have challenges, and we want to be as prepared as possible so we can perform at our best and shine when it’s time!