After returning from Japan, I had a busy weekend coaching at Virginia International Raceway for drivers in the IMSA Continental Tire Series and Mazda’s Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup Series.
I’ve been working with Britt Casey, Jr., and Danny Bender this season, helping them maximize their performance in the No. 27 Freedom Autosport TRUMPF Mazda MX-5. It’s been a fun season of steady progress for them, and the results are starting to show with consistent top-ten finishes in the Street Tuner class of the Continental Series. This was Danny’s first race weekend at VIR. Last year, I co-drove with Britt in the Continental race, and we finished sixth.
The race certainly had its fair share of twists and turns. Danny qualified in the top ten, one of his best efforts of the season. Shortly after the start, the sky opened up and we had a torrential downpour. The red flag came out due to the weather, but once we got back to racing, Freedom Autosport had a fabulous pit stop, and Britt found himself in third. It continued to drizzle, and the front-wheel drive cars were able to take advantage of the conditions while the No. 27 MX-5 held on for 10th.
Ashton Harrison also ran at VIR that weekend with her Global MX-5 Cup car. This is the first track the series has been to this season where Ashton has previous racing experience – and it showed! She had great speed in practice, but after a tough qualifying session, Ashton found herself with some work to do for race one, starting 28th. As race one unfolded, she diligently worked her way through the field, well into the top 20. With a few laps left, she was racing within the top 15. There was an incident on one of the last laps that involved several cars. Ashton avoided the worst, but she didn’t come away unscathed and she wasn’t able to get a finish that matched her performance.
The Racing Analytics team did a fantastic job repairing the car and getting it ready for race two on Sunday morning. Ashton had a consistent run in a competitive race that saw the top five cars cross the finish line within one-quarter of a second of each other! (Click here to watch the finish!)
Rob’s beautiful ride into T12, Canada Corner.
The title of Rob Trollinger’s weekend could have been “Rob’s Redemption at Road America.” Last year was his first visit there, and he had some success before getting caught up in someone else’s incident. This year, he was out to better his results and make up for last year! With more cars entered in his class this time around, he had his work cut out for him. Rob improved his lap times and was more competitive, going faster than ever around that circuit. Because of that, he was able to finish on the podium in both sprint races, taking second and third.
The following day, during the 1.5-hour enduro, I co-drove with Rob. This is always a lot of fun because many of my fellow IMSA racers also coach and co-drive in the enduro. Rob had an incredible start, and he gave us a great position to be in for the pit stop. When I got on track, we passed for the class lead and continued to advance up the overall order. In the end we wound up first in class and third overall! Looking back, this certainly was a redemption weekend for Rob, who finished on the podium in all three of his races. A big congratulations to Rob, and I was proud to be part of such a great (and fun!) effort.