Victory! After an extremely intense four-hour IMSA Continental Tire Series race at the Daytona season opener, Britt Casey, Jr. and I came away with the first series and U.S. win for the new TCR class! The whole race went really smoothly for us in our No. 77 TRUMPF Audi RS3 LMS.
Britt qualified second, giving us a front-row start, and we had smooth sailing from the green flag. We led the most laps of the race and had some really exciting battles with not just other competitors but with our teammates as well, which was a lot of fun. It was an incredible effort by the entire Compass Racing team to not only get our Audi ready in a week’s time, but to give us a car capable of winning. Handling, strategies, pits stops: everything came together so well.
Coming to the final restart, with just 20 minutes to go in the race, the field was packed so it was really anybody’s race. I was lucky enough to be leading, and I had a great race with teammate Kuno Wittmer. We even exchanged the lead a couple of times, but I managed to get a rhythm going and pulled a little bit of a gap to come home with the victory. You can watch the broadcast on Saturday, February 10 at 8a.m. ET on FS1.
In the end, it was an overwhelming feeling to win at Daytona. It was my first win at that track. To make it even sweeter, it was Britt’s first win in the series, even though we’ve been on the podium several times together. Compass Racing got a 1-2 finish, which was a great way to start the season. It’s really exciting to think about and appreciate all of the things that have come together to put us in the winner’s circle. Now, we’re thinking ahead so we can start focusing on Sebring!