JLawton
New member
Hmmmm, you sure about that? Didn't we share some cars at a PDA event once...
Nah, not where you'd notice...in advance...
Honestly, Jeremy, I don't mean to minimize Jeff's accomplishments; I'd drive with him ANY DAY. But you have to realize that endurance racing is a whole 'nother can of worms. If each of us went out there and tried to crack off fast laps, especially in the middle of a 12-hour race, then we're playing with limits we don't need to be. We refuse to go out there at Hour 6 and try to "beat" our co-drivers with fast lap times. Instead, we set a race pace that is significantly within the confines of the car such to give us flexibility and longevity. My personal "success" is one where my laps times are a tight grouping with minimal deviation from a good race pace. If you want to judge endurance drivers, break out your statistical caculator and check for consistency.
I drove with a "team" at a 24 Hour race at Watkins Glen in 1991. Just before I got in for a stint a driver goes out for his. We watched him pull in fast lap after fast lap, dive-bombing into T1 like he was in a sprint race. When he finally got done he brought the car in the with brakes smoking and the car spent; we were still in that first afternoon. He had this big grin on his face and the first thing he noted was how much faster than his co-drivers he was. We were unimpressed, having just watched him waste the car for and hour-and-a-half. I was extremely unimpressed, especially when I lost my brakes going into the turn at the end of the back straight (this was before the Bus Stop Chicane was added.)
Ergo, note that in the 2005 SPR event I set the fastest lap simply by matter of coincidence: I was the last driver in the car. Further, I didn't do it until 11:45 PM or so, and only after our crew chief got on the radio and told us that our lap advantage exceeded the number of laps left and we couldn't lose, and to go ahead and knock off a couple of fast ones. I dropped about a second-and-a-half off my prior laps then brought it home for the beer.
That's the same thing that any of us on the team would have done.
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Lighten up Greg, we're just teasin'!! It's not often we get to play with the Amy ego!!
We just wanted to see how wound up we could get you!! I'm sure if we looked at each others average lap time, I would be way behind!! No doubt!! One of the many reasons why the team does so well and has so much fun is that we can all check our egos in the pits. Hey, how many guys do you know would be secure enough to wear thong under wear over his drivers suit!! (you're lucky I don't still have the picture!!) Little help Kirk??
Thanks for subtly pointing that out!! 