EVERSLEY: COTA Debrief

Hey guys, it’s been a while since I wrote in for Sportscar365, but I figured now would be a great time to do so coming off our win at COTA!

We just raced in Austin, Texas and I wasn’t super excited about the trip to be honest. While the layout is fun and it’s a beautiful facility, it doesn’t suit the gearing of the Honda or the BMW for that matter.

Last year we executed a perfect race with strategy and pit stops, and we came home seventh. Seventh just isn’t good enough.

The first night we were at the hotel there was a magnificent thunderstorm. It was shaking the walls of the hotel, and I posted a Vine of the lightning, which looked like it was from a scary movie!

With the storm came the rain, and it was very wet for our first session. While we were as quick as everybody, we weren’t sure if it was going to rain during the actual race.

The second session was very hot and dry and as we figured we were about sixth on the charts with new tires, but immediately faded about two seconds per lap. So we started having déjà vu of last year’s race.

My co-driver Kyle Gimple has been doing an amazing job all season in qualifying. Because of our higher tire wear in the front-wheel drive cars, we have to get our fast lap done as quickly as possible to not wear that tire down too much for the start of the race. True to Kyle’s season long form he once again qualified us fourth and first of the Hondas, which was fantastic considering he only did one flying lap.

When the race started, Kyle was able to battle with the leaders and was running third when he came into the pits just as the rain was falling.

We came out in what would be second place having jumped the Cayman of Eric Foss and Jeff Mosing with our stop, and now I had to chase down Chad McCumbee in the CJ Wilson MX-5.

We gambled on staying on slicks even though the rain was continuing to fall and I was able to pass Chad and start to pull a gap.

Eventually Eric was able to get second place from the MX-5, and when I heard Eric was coming I really put my head down and was able to extend the gap to about 15 seconds.

From here Eric and I would yo-yo on the gap so I just tried to maintain pace and counted down the laps to the checker.

This was one of the sweetest wins I’ve ever had. Our HPD Civic was so good, and it never missed a beat. The C360R guys nailed the pit stop, setup and car preparation while Kyle did his usual awesome job to combine for the win.

I want to thank everyone who believes in me and has followed and supported me to this point in my career. I picked up a Petit ride in the LMPC class, and hope to make you guys proud in that as well!