Hartog: Title Reward for “Eye-Opener” Rookie Season

Loek Hartog said he “still has so much to learn” after provisionally clinching the championship with two races to spare in Porsche Carrera Cup North America, hailing his rookie season in the U.S. as “an eye-opener.”

A runner-up finish in Friday’s second race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta ensured the Dutchman can no longer be overhauled in the points standings during the season finale at Circuit of The Americas next weekend.

Seven wins from 14 races contested thus far ensure Hartog has been provisionally crowned as the successor to 2023 champion Riley Dickinson.

Although he described the title win as “fulfilling”, adding he “wouldn’t have thought to be sitting here a year ago,” Hartog struck a self-critical note, saying there is “still so much to learn.”

“I think we went into every round of the championship trying to win and do as best as we possibly could,” he told Sportscar365.

“So every time we set the bar of doing as best as we could deliver. I think we had a few rounds this year where we could show actually in qualifying what we are capable of.

“Unfortunately with this championship, there’s so many factors that come into play with having a clean qualifying as well, which also happened to be the case over here.

“So unfortunately I didn’t have a clean run and I couldn’t show what I was capable of in qualifying, which made the race starts a little bit more difficult here.

“So if we would have been in free air, I think it could have been a little bit different. And now I had to fight through the dirty air, which I made happen today.

“Yesterday was a little bit more tough, but unfortunately I still made too many mistakes to actually win.

“So I think it shows that, yes, we won the championship today, and yes, we did a good job, but there’s still so much to learn, and so much we can do better.

“So that opens my eyes every time and just very thankful to also take these lessons from races like today and to progress as a driver as well.”

When asked to characterize his title-winning season, Hartog replied: “I would say an eye-opener and definitely a very good challenge in challenging myself to become even better, even more complete.”

Hartog was beaten to victory by Zachary Vanier and Ryan Yardley during the two races at Road Atlanta, noting that he encountered alignment issues after hitting a curb on the opening lap on Thursday and subconsciously took a more careful approach into the second race.

“I was just maybe a little bit cautious with overtaking because yesterday I was a little bit too overenthusiastic with defending into [Turn] 10,” he said.

“Today I lost multiple positions because of that. So that’s what I’m saying, so many things that can be better.

“So I’m not fulfilled with the result of today, but in general, if I’m looking at the entire year, we can be very happy.”

Friday’s Race 2, meanwhile, was also not without issues, as Hartog revealed.

“I think with 16 minutes to go, I went with four wheels through the grass out of the last corner,” he said. “Just didn’t anticipate on an aero wash, which wasn’t nice, but I made a rookie mistake of getting my entire grill filled with grass.

“I lost power steering and also I got my oil temp up. So I had to back off.

“From that moment on I really didn’t have the speed anymore to overtake. So after that I had to settle for second.”