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DALY: A Long And Crazy Season
Well, the season is now over -- I finished third in the championship with 1 win, 1 pole, and 5 podiums amd learned an absolutely immeasurable amount this year.
Conor Daly  |  Posted October 28, 2009   Noblesville, IN
Conor Daly was a force to be reckoned with throughout his maiden Star Mazda season. (Daly)
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca marked the end of a long crazy season. Laguna Seca was one of the few tracks in America I had not been too. I was really looking forward to the weekend because I was on a streak of podiums and I wanted to end the year strong.

I started off the race week on Tuesday in Southern California at Sparco USA right across the street from the Orange County airport. I flew into Orange County because I was going to hangout with my teammates Joel Miller and Richard Kent before driving up to the track on Wednesday. After drooling over things at Sparco that I want to put in my road car, Joel picked me up. We then went to LAX to pick up my other teammate Richard. Joel, Richard and I drove around L.A. for a while and then went back to Joel’s house. We got up early the next morning to start driving to Laguna Seca. It was about a 6 and a half hour drive but it was a fun ride! There was a particular stretch of road for 50 miles through some mountains which was fantastic!

When we got to the track I couldn’t wait to start walking it. I really wanted to see what Mazda Raceway was like. I have done millions of laps in video games but never in real life. We started walking out of pit lane and I was immediately impressed. If it wasn’t for all the rubber marks on the actual track surface I would have thought it was brand new. All the curbs were freshly painted and the gravel was all neatly groomed. But let’s get to the most important track and the really coolest part of the track; the corkscrew. On our way up the hill from turn 6 to the corkscrew, my teammate Richard and one of our engineers Geoff Fickling (G-Fro) decided to race each other to the top of the hill. After a long steep run up the hill they immediately regretted their decision! However it was a good close race, G-Fro even lost his shoes on the way up!

It is a lot longer of a hill up to the corkscrew than it looks like. As we crested the hill and started to look down into the corner I was amazed. It was literally straight down hill. I couldn’t wait to drive on it! It looked like a really challenging but exciting corner. After nearly falling down the corkscrew because of how steep it was we came to turn 9. Turn nine was a really fun corner. There was lots of compression and it almost flat out on new tires. Turn ten was another fast corner with a lot of compression. The last corner was then a basic 1st gear hairpin. I officially could not wait to get on track the next day.

Unlike my last few races, practice was a struggle, initially. In the last couple races our cars have been really good right from the get go. This time my car was not handling well at all. The car was very unstable entering the corners which didn’t give me confidence to drive hard down to the apex. The car would then under steer from mid corner to exit. But my engineer Mike Reggio and I worked hard through the first day and by day two the car was getting much better! It really showed too, I think three Andersen racing cars were in the top 4 in both sessions on Friday. I knew I had a good car for qualifying early the next morning at 8am.

It was really foggy for qualifying but I knew since it was a bit chilly the times would be quick. After doing a couple laps on old tires I came in for new tires. Once the new tires warmed up they were incredibly responsive on turn in; a lot more responsive than my car had been during practice. On my third lap on new tires I turned into turn 6 where I normally do and I found myself at the apex a lot earlier and a lot quicker. Unfortunately Mazda Raceway has regular curbs and then in some places big red concrete “mountains” inside of the curbs which basically say “don’t go here.” Well since my car had turned in so quickly I clipped the big red danger mountains. Immediately I went sailing off into the gravel with a broken push rod. I was literally inches from the tire wall but saved it. I kept going but had to come into the pits to make repairs.

Andersen Racing did a fantastic job of replacing the push rod and got me back out with time left in the session. I was really excited to go out and throw down a quick lap to get me somewhere in the top 10. However on my first timed lap I heard very unhappy noises coming from the gearbox area. When I went through the corkscrew and hit the gas to go down the hill I had no drive. It turns out the differential had broken. So no more qualifying for me! I limped back to the pits with an unfortunate 15th starting position.

I was very disappointed because I knew I had a quick car. But I now had to look forward to the race in a few hours. The only thing I was worried about was defending my third place championship position. Unfortunately the person who was challenging me for the position was my teammate Joel Miller and he was starting 4th. I had to have a mistake free race and try and make my way through the field.

On another note, I had a good few family and friends come out to see me at my last race of the season. My Uncle John, co-owner of Ooley & Blackburn (exotic car dealership; he’ll enjoy this plug!), my cousin Baylee, my Mom, and my brother Christian came all the way out to California to cheer me on! My friend Devin and her Mom and Dad from Southern California also came up to watch. Unfortunately I hadn’t given them the best show so far with a blunder of a qualifying session. I was hoping to put on a good show come race time because my Uncle was starting to second guess coming all the way out to California to see me race! Haha! He hadn’t seen me race a big car before, only go karts.

After an autograph session and some mingling with friends and family I was ready to race. I had to get a good start and pass people quickly. I was told it was a difficult place to pass and I had found that out during practice but I was hoping for the best. When the lights went green I got a decent start but not the best. On the run down to the first corner I went down the outside. There was a mess of cars around the whole lap but by the end of it I had moved up a couple positions. I found my self in 10th before halfway. I was methodically moving up through the field. I was doing my best to put pressure on people to have them make mistakes and as soon as a small mistake was made I capitalized on it. I actually made most of my passes into the corkscrew of all places! I had this one pretty insane move that was just one of those things that just happened.

There was a car coming back onto the track from the turn 6 gravel and two cars in the middle of the road heading up to the corkscrew. They all slowed down briefly but I did not. I sliced left and hoped there was road because I was going down the inside no matter what. I went very deep on the brakes and was probably at a 60 degree angle braking for the corkscrew. I managed to get the car stopped and pass two cars. I ended up getting all the way to 4th place with two laps to go! I was catching the top 3 at a high rate of speed when the checkered flag waved. I had probably just completed my best race of the season. When I saw the timing screen after the race I saw I was 2 seconds faster than the top 3 on the last lap. I was pushing incredibly hard!

Well the season is now over. I finished third in the championship with 1 win, 1 pole, and 5 podium finishes. I learned an absolutely immeasurable amount this year and cannot wait to race again. I am now looking forward to testing in Europe over the winter to see what I want to do for next year. My goal is F1, and to get there I need to be racing in Europe.

I want to thank everyone on SPEEDtv.com for keeping up with my progress this year! I am sure I will be writing again soon with some testing updates!

~Conor

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Conor Daly, a second generation race driver, is the son of former F1, IndyCar and Sportscar driver Derek Daly. Conor's lineage of speed also extends to his mother, Beth, a winner at the Jet Ski World Finals. He became the youngest driver in the country to win a Pro kart race when he won the Pro Invitational race at the TaG World Championships, and later won the Stars of Karting TaG East championship.

In 2008, Conor won the Skip Barber National Championship and the Canadian Formula Ford 1600 Rookie of the year title after winning a total of ten races in both series. Along the way he set three new lap records in Canada, and scored ten pole positions in three different classes.

In November 2008, Conor represented the Team USA scholarship when he won the prestigious Walter Hayes Formula Ford Trophy at Silverstone, England. He was the youngest driver to ever win the event and the first American.

Just 16 years old, Conor lives in Noblesville, Indiana with his parents and attends high school while competing in the 2009 Star Mazda open-wheel championship. Learn more about Conor at ConorDaly.net

Conor's columns are produced with SPEEDtv.com contributor Declan Brennan.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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