Continental Tire IMSA Driver Spotlight: Tommy Milner

Driver Spotlight: Tommy Milner
Driver: No. 4 Corvette C7.R (GTLM)
Follow: @TommyMilner

You and Oliver Gavin finished fifth at Indy. How did the race go?

“[Indy] was a long stint but a lot of fun. Sometimes you are in the car for a long time, whatever that was, and you are racing nobody or anything, and it is boring. But it was the complete opposite of boring. That was chaos. It was just madness on the race track everywhere…every lap. There may have been three or four laps total that I did that were very calm. But it was a lot of fun. The car felt good, so the guys did a great job getting the car to where it needed to be for the race.”

Has the TUDOR Championship met your expectations?

“Not a lot has changed for us [in the GTLM class]. It’s been the same rules, but pit stops are a little bit different, so that’s been a change for the crew guys. For us as drivers, it hasn’t been a huge transition. It’s a similar car feeling from last year. We had a rough first few races, just how they ended up and everything that happened during them, so there’s still some room for improvement. But I’m optimistic about both sports car series being together. I think it’s the right recipe. As long as everyone’s working towards the future and trying to build the series, that would be a good thing.”

How has the transition been from the Corvette C6.R to the new C7.R this year? 

“For us, I think the season so far has gone better than expected in some ways. We have a new car this year, and with a new car comes issues that you find along the way. We obviously had some of those issues at Daytona and Sebring. But the No. 3 car has won three races, so the car is definitely quick. We’ve seen that right from day one. It’s quick in all of the right places. We’ve obviously got massive competition with Porsche and their two new cars and BMW has done a great job with optimizing their package. The GTLM class, every year, gets more competitive and more challenging. We certainly have a great car this year go go to battle with them.”

If you could add a new race onto the 2015 TUDOR Championship calendar, what would it be?

“Two tracks that I’ve had fun at in the past were Mont Tremblant and Sears Point. I think Mont Tremblant is a fantastic race track; it has a fantastic flow to it and Sears Point is fun too. We tested there last year with the C6.R and it was fun in those cars. I’m sure a full weekend there would be a lot of fun. I know it may oversaturate the West Coast end if we go there but it’s certainly one of the tracks that’s good for sports car racing.”

What are some of your hobbies while away from the track?

“I do a lot of sim racing. I’ve gotten more into that over the last year or so. I went out and bought myself a three-monitor setup with a racing seat, a new computer and a new wheel. I did the iRacing Race of Champions at the end of last year, so that spurred me on to do more practice and upgrade my equipment. On weekends, I’d just jump in a hosted race and start racing, whether it’d be a Sprint Cup car or GT racing. I kind of lost track of sim racing a little bit but found it again and definitely enjoying my time with it.”