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Continental Tire IMSA Driver Spotlight: Duncan Ende

This week’s Continental Tire IMSA Driver Spitlight: Duncan Ende…

Photo: Alison Merion Padron

Photo: Alison Merion Padron

Driver Profile: Duncan Ende
Driver, No. 09 RSR Racing Oreca FLM09
Follow: @DuncanEnde

How tough is the PC competition in 2014?

“Pretty damn tough! Most of the teams have a very good handle on these cars from an engineering standpoint, and the driving talent taking these cars to the finish is top-notch. I think it will be very difficult to run away and build a comfortable gap once we are into the shorter races this season, especially with cautions bunching the field back up, so I expect to see plenty more shootouts for the win like we had at Sebring.”

How has the merger affected the PC class, if at all?

“It’s been interesting because PC and GTLM were the only two that were basically left completely alone from a technical standpoint. I think that stability, and the fact that our running costs are significantly lower than anything else on the grid, made PC look extremely attractive to a lot of people. It seemed like every week or so you would see another press release from a team announcing they were planning on running multiple PC cars for this season. I think we were up to something like 15 projected entries before IMSA capped our field, scuttling a whole lot of people’s plans. In the end, I think that our team was the only one who actually did wind up expanding and the class actually looks a lot like it did last year!”

What tracks are you looking forward to in the remainder of the season, and why?

“Road America is my favorite track on our schedule so I am definitely looking forward to getting back there – especially since we won last year’s race! I’m pretty excited to get our cars on Watkins Glen and COTA as well, although I think the way our four classes interact is going to create some pretty dicey situations at the Glen. I’m pretty excited to see how much faster VIR will be for us with the new pavement too. All that being said, I’m still gutted we aren’t going to Mosport this year!”

You had some very…memorable facial hair at Sebring. What was the story behind that?

“It was a spur of the moment decision while shaving one day a couple of weeks before the race, actually. I figured it would fit right in with the fans at Sebring, and I thought it would be nice for the paddock to have something to balance out Jordan Taylor’s mullet. I thought it was pretty well received, but my wife was rather less impressed and pleased with it, so it is gone now, if not forgotten. Lucky for her that we didn’t win: then it would be around till at least Laguna!”

We heard you and your teammate Bruno Junqueira like to ride road bicycles. Which track on the TUDOR Championship schedule are you most looking forward to riding on?

“Probably Road America, again. Laguna is awesome, but he’s too damn light for me to hang with on the climb up to the Corkscrew. If I’m being honest, I can’t really hang with Bruno anyway, but at least at Road America the peloton might be big enough for me to wheel suck my way into his general vicinity for a couple of laps!”

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