Once again, I spent last week at Road America, which is quickly becoming my second home this summer. (And I do not mind that one bit!) We had an absolutely beautiful week, starting with a test that Apex Group hosted.
The owner of Apex, Dan, stuck around to race the Porsche Sprint Challenge weekend that followed. Dan and I are longtime friends, and we had worked together earlier this season at VIR. This was only Dan’s third time in the car this season, so he’s still evolving and gaining essential seat time to continue furthering his racing skills. It’s ironic that Dan spends quite a bit of time at the race track hosting events—upwards of 20 a year—but he’s typically not driving at those events since he’s running them!
We had two practice sessions during the race weekend, but the first one got rained out. It was sunny and dry in the afternoon, which let the series have a single practice session before qualifying. We got Dan dialed into the track and fine-tuned the car setup, and by qualifying the next day, Dan was in a groove and doing a great job laying down his fastest lap times ever.
We had a productive track walk discussing the nuances of the fresh pavement.
The two Porsche Sprint Challenge races were very exciting. Dan not only got to sharpen his race craft, but he also continued to progress with his pace. He had some tremendous battles for position and executed some great passes, and he ended up on the podium in race two!
It was the perfect cap to a wonderful weekend, and it was very rewarding in all aspects as Dan progressed as a driver and had the results to show for it! I’ve known and worked with Dan for several years now, and it’s been fun to watch his Apex events develop from track days into professional race team test events. Now, I get to watch Dan’s own racing endeavors continue to evolve.
This coming week is my sixth and final event at Road America this season, when the SRO World Challenge series rolls in. I’ll be coaching the two teams I’ve been working with in that series, and they’re both having a tremendous season.
The series had a long break—the last race was in June—and now the teams are getting back into full swing as we approach the season finale in October. It’s been an incredibly busy few months at Road America for me, and this will be an exciting cap to my summer season there!