This past weekend was the annual IMSA event at Virginia International Raceway, and I was there driving in Lamborghini Super Trofeo with Ashton Harrison. VIR is my home track, and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and so much fan support throughout the weekend! My family got to attend on Sunday, which made the weekend even more special.
The event got off to a great start with a charity pro/am karting event. It was a lot of fun, and it supported a great cause, too, since it was all done to support CKG Foundation. What made it even more fun was the fact that it was our team standing on top of the podium at the end!
It was my first time driving the Lamborghini at VIR. It’s an incredible piece of machinery, and at VIR, it reaches over 170mph on the back straight! Our Wayne Taylor Racing stable was competitive right out of the gate, and we were poised for strong results to extend our lead in the championship.
The start of race one was hectic, with an incident in turn one. Ashton did an awesome job avoiding any trouble and made her way back up through the field. After the pit stop cycle and a continued push forward, we found ourselves in second place and catching the leader. With only a handful of laps remaining, though, a left front spindle failed, which sidelined the car. It was our first DNF of the season, and it definitely did not help our championship hopes.
After an amazing start in race two, I found myself in the pro/am class lead. The car had a great pace, so we felt really confident about our chances to win. Unfortunately, bad luck struck just 20 minutes into the race, when a car from another class hit and spun me around in turn one, which put me right in the path of another oncoming car. That ended our day, as the damage was extensive. Despite the offending car getting a drive-through penalty for the incident, there was nothing that could be done to right our situation.
Walking away from the incident felt like a bad dream that I couldn’t wake up from. After a nearly perfect season of results, to come away with zero results in the final two rounds was just unfathomable, especially considering our performance in both races. I feel horrible for the team and for Ashton, but unfortunately there’s nothing you can do when you have a mechanical failure in one race and get taken out in the other. It certainly wasn’t the home-race weekend I was hoping for. Still, we had an amazing season overall, so stay tuned for a post in the near future about all of the things we accomplished.