HARRISON: Winning & Losing

What started off as a high, ended with a serious low- all in less than 24 hours.

After coming off a sweep at Road America, putting us back towards the top of the Pro-Am championship points standings, we had one goal in mind: To win the championship.

Our full attention focused on securing two more wins at Sebring before heading into the final round at the Indianapolis 8 Hour, a race that Mario and I won together last year at my GT3 debut with Honda/HPD.

We started the event with two extra practice sessions on Thursday, which allowed us to really fine-tune our overall balance. We gained some ground but still found ourselves searching for grip most of the day– a situation pretty typical of Sebring as ambient temperatures stayed in the 90s all four days.

Going into Friday’s official practice sessions, we prioritized focus on our race pace in light of those “fall” Florida temperatures. The 10 degrees of cooler air forecast for the weekend weren’t going to change much on this track.

I felt confident going into the qualifying session the following morning, but I still knew I had a challenge to tackle based on the timing charts.

In all of the sessions the prior two days, the Am drivers all were within two-tenths of each other and the Pro drivers were also laying down lap times with very little gap to the next car. The teams in the championship battle with us stacked up beside us in timing, so placing ourselves in a good starting spot going into both races became even more critical.

I held P2 for a while in my qualifying session, but eventually got bumped to P4 in Pro-Am. I’d obviously rather have been on pole or outside in Row 1, but I was actually in solid position and starting right beside and behind the two cars I cared about most: the Porsche and Mercedes. I was ready to attack from the green. Mario also qualified P4 in class, but he would line up ahead of both the Porsche and the Mercedes on the grid.

I had a good start in Race 1 and got around the Mercedes before Turn 1 to take P2, then focused my sights on the Porsche. We were full out racing until Turn 7, when an incident in the back of the field right at the start caused a full course yellow.

The caution period gave me a few laps to focus on my next move, which was to get around the Porsche.

Every race weekend I constantly study the drivers around me on track, taking note of their strengths and weaknesses. Starts and restarts are just two (of many) opportunities I can take advantage of with any car regardless of class or position. I’ve been behind the Porsche before on a restart, so I was prepared.

We took the green and I popped out going into Turn 1 and got around him in Turn 3. After taking the lead in Pro-Am and fifth overall, I concentrated on keeping the Porsche and Mercedes behind me and handing Mario our NSX in the lead.

Focus during a race can be difficult with so many elements at stake, including a championship on the line, but my obsession with winning is so strong, I had tunnel vision on that podium.

I didn’t quite have the overall pace of the Porsche or Mercedes, but I knew I was a better racer so I did what I know how to do best: RACE. I brought the No. 93 Harrison Contracting Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 into the pits with the class lead, and our quick stop kept the lead when Mario took the wheel.

He had a fantastic battle with both our championship competitors- everything fans want from racing, but a little too nerve-wracking when you’re the one holding on for the win! Climbing that fence when Mario took the checker was pretty damn sweet.

With that victory, we set a season record of three wins, with a total of four wins for Mario and I this season. With this win, we moved into the championship lead by over 8 points.

I was so thrilled for Racers Edge, Honda/HPD and Harrison Contracting because they really deserved this! I had my champagne strategy ready, but Mario once again destroyed me on podium, per usual. We sure have our fun up there.

Winning is great but our priority was the championship, so we celebrated but quickly set our sights on Race 2 the next day.

*Cue the tragic soundtrack*

Remember my VIR column? Channeling the same feelings here.

Crushed. Disappointed. Angry. Heartbroken.

After gridding from pit lane, Mario noticed something was wrong with the brakes during our formation lap. We had no choice but to bring him back to the box to find the problem and fast.

The crew realized that we were having a major braking issue and scrambled to get us out before the green flag.

I’ve never seen brakes being bled so quickly but despite the crew’s frantic pace, we still missed the start and lost three laps on the field. We set our goal to just finish the race and collect the most points we could manage. Even when I took over from Mario, I knew anything could happen on track but this time, nothing did.

His pace was solid, as was mine, but the entire 90 minutes ran under green and we had no opportunities to regain position.

This week, we head to the Racing Capital of the World for the final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at the Indianapolis 8 Hour.

We’re currently third in the championship, 15 points back behind the Porsche and 1 point behind the Mercedes.

The HPD Racing legacy grew this weekend at Road Atlanta with Mario taking the win in GTD and we want to add more hardware to that trophy case for HPD, clinch the Pro-Am championship and make history.

This iconic track is no better place for the championship fight that’s in store on Saturday.

Racers Edge has been the team to beat this entire season and that’s not about to change for the finale. We’ve never backed down from a challenge and this one will go down to the very last lap. We have everything to win going into Indy, while our competitors have everything to lose.

We’re ready to fight.