Pirelli Paddock Pass: Drew Staveley

Drew Staveley is coming off of the biggest weekend of his professional racing career at Lime Rock Park. The veteran racer took home first and second place finishes over the weekend, including an overall win in Race 2.

This week in the Pirelli Paddock Pass, Staveley reflects on the weekend of racing in Connecticut and what made his Ian Lacy Racing Ginetta G55 GT4 such a formidable package on the historic circuit.

What went through your head when you took the lead overall in Race 2?

“Honestly, I didn’t really think about the overall part of it. We were working really hard on beings as efficient as possible in traffic.

“After the pit stop, I passed several guys for position before we go to the lead.

“At that point I had a real good rhythm. As I was catching the overall leader, I didn’t really consider that he was the overall leader.

“I wasn’t aware of it because my crew was telling me to keep pushing because we were gaining on the leader, but I didn’t know if that was the leader in class or the leader overall.

“When I did pass him, I thought to myself: this is a really good time not to mess up!”

In retrospect, does winning overall have a special meaning for you?

“It absolutely does. There were two races in one day on Monday, and after the press conference for the second race I changed and went right to the airport to get back to Utah for work on Tuesday.

“Everything was rushed. Everyone was really excited and I was getting a lot of calls and texts from everyone but I didn’t have a chance for it to sink in.

“I had to get to the airport so I could get to work the next day. Once I got here and had a chance to sit down and relax a little, it was like: holy cow, that was my first professional win at all.

“I’ve been doing this for 17 years, there’s a large gap in there where I didn’t get to race very much, but I’ve been working towards that for well over half of my life and to have it finally sink in that I had won a race overall, I’m thrilled.”

What does it saw about your Ian Lacy Racing team that you were able to accomplish this?

“Our organization is fairly young. Ian Lacy Racing has been around for awhile, but not always racing at this level. We’ve grown a lot in the last year and a half.

“To be competing against teams like the Panoz team, Flying Lizard, Blackdog [Speed Shop], all these championship-level teams, and to beat them outright at such a hard track, it’s pretty special.

“It puts us in another level, which is where we want to be. It means a lot.”

What about the Ginetta G55 GT4 was such a great fit for Lime Rock?

“Going to Lime Rock we knew that with the shorter track with a fairly fast corner leading onto the longest straightaway it was going to suit out car fairly well.

“We could do some things to make it really good for the whole hour rather than just being fast for two or three laps. We were able to do all of those things, and it was pretty cool.”