I just wrapped up an exciting weekend with the TCB racing team at Road Atlanta, where we were competing in the most recent round of the WRL endurance series.
As you might expect, Atlanta in July is a hot, steamy place, but our team was able to persevere. Not only did the car survive the heat, but so did the entire team, and the crew executed flawless pit stops over the course of the eight-hour contest!
The week started off on Thursday with a test, which was crucial for two of my teammates, who had never had the privilege of driving Road Atlanta before. Kyle Roach and Garrett Higgins both got plenty of sim practice in advance, which surely paid off, since they were able to familiarize themselves with the track rather quickly.
From there, we worked on the finer points of the track, as the sim just can’t do justice to Road Atlanta’s dramatic elevation changes, which create plenty of blind crests and crucial areas to focus on car placement.
After a successful test day, we were greeted with big thunderstorms on Friday, which hampered track time. Despite limited running on that day, my co-drivers would get plenty of seat time in the eight-hour race on Saturday.
Under clear skies, the race got started with Kyle behind the wheel, and he achieved some of his best lap times of the event during that stint. He then handed the car over to Garrett, who did a tremendous job double-stinting and finding a second wind to hone his lap times, setting some of his best laps late in the going, while the track was at peak temperature.
As we all know, in racing, you need some luck, and it fell our way with timely full-course yellows that allowed us to jump cars, putting us in contention for the win. I enjoyed splitting the final handful of hours with team manager and driver Jason Marks. We were able to continue pushing forward, ultimately garnering the top step of the podium!
Reflecting back on such a tremendous result, it really was fun to see the development that both Kyle and Garrett made over the course of the event. Neither one had been to Road Atlanta before, and notching their first victory of the season there was a remarkable feat. I was honored to join the team once again and to help bring them this win, and I look forward to joining them for the remainder of the season.