This past week I was at NOLA Motorsports Park for the second round of the SRO World Challenge championship. I was there working with a team that I’ve known for some time, Krugspeed, but until this event, I’d never had the opportunity to work with this current driver lineup. Jaden Lander and Anthony Geraci are shaping up to be a great pair of co-drivers!
The challenge going into the event was that this circuit was new to both drivers. Our pre-event prep paid off, though: Jaden and Anthony got up to speed quickly, despite the wet weather that started off our week.
After fine-tuning the car setup and continuing to further refine the drivers’ approach to NOLA, the team had a solid qualifying result, with both drivers inside the top 10. (Typically, there are two 1-hour enduro-style races each weekend, with one driver starting the first race and the other starting the second one. But with the unpredictable weather coming off the Gulf of Mexico, our first race got washed out, so there was only one race at this event.)
With more than 40 GT4 cars on track (close to 20 of those in our class alone), it was by far the largest group during the event. Our team was able to push forward and have a clean race, despite all the craziness that over 40 cars on a tight track brings!
Air time!
There have been several rule changes within SRO this season, so in addition to helping Jaden and Anthony learn the track, we also had to ensure the drivers were up to speed on the new rules. Making sure everyone was aware of these rules made a difference for us in the race, since several teams received time penalties for infractions while we ran a penalty-free event.
With an excellent strategy and some good fortune, we were able to undercut several cars in our class during the mandatory pit stop and driver change, moving from ninth all the way up to third! This was a really rewarding move for me, as not only did I have the opportunity to coach the drivers, but I also got to call some strategy, and making a big impact like that feels so good.
Post-race podium smiles!
We were able to cross the line with third place, giving the team a great podium celebration. Meanwhile, after post-race penalties were finalized, that third actually wound up being second place!
This was a phenomenal result for the team’s first race of the season, and I’m excited to continue working with them at the next round, which will be held at Circuit of the Americas in a couple of short weeks.