Last week I had the pleasure of being back in sunny Florida to start the racing season. The weather was absolutely perfect virtually the entire time I was there, which added to the enjoyment of racing in an event I’ve participated in a number of times over the years and have fond memories of.
The sunsets at Sebring are amazing, and it’s even more special racing into one at Turn17/“Sunset Bend.”
The Winterfest six-hour race at Sebring is almost like a miniature 12 Hours of Sebring, since it’s half the time but spans from 3-9pm, so drivers get to experience both day and night racing. It’s a great experience builder for anyone who wants to get night driving experience at Sebring, and it’s just a fun week for friends and teammates.
I was at Winterfest to continue working with Ashton Harrison in fine-tuning her race craft and helping her stay active in the driver’s seat this winter. This event format allowed both of those things, with tons of track time and some great racing. She even got to gain valuable night experience that hopefully she’ll get to put to use at Sebring someday soon!
In the end, we not only had a great time, but we really met our goals for the weekend. I’m satisfied with what a good event it was for Ashton, and of course I had fun racing, too!
Since we were already in Florida, we hustled up the road to Daytona to visit IMSA’s Roar Before the 24. I had good friends participating in many of the classes, as well as some clients. The team I’ll be working with again in Prototype Challenge showed a lot of promise and was quickest in practice, but unfortunately, they got caught up in someone else’s incident during the race.
This week I’m excited to be back at Daytona for the Rolex 24 weekend, where the MX-5 Cup Series will debut under the IMSA banner. You can tune in on IMSA.tv for live coverage of the double-header event on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
Overlooking Daytona International Speedway never gets old!