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American LeMans
DRAYSON: Road America ‘Behind The Wheel’
Paul Drayson chronicles his team's first ALMS win as his kids film and produce their own documentary-style video of the weekend.
SPEED Staff  |  Posted August 28, 2010   Bowmanville, ON
Drayson Racing celebrated its first American Le Mans Series victory at Road America. (John Dagys)
We left the disappointment of Mid-Ohio behind us and flew South to visit the southern states on the next leg of our family vacation touring America in between the American Le Mans Series races. First stop was Memphis and Graceland at the start of Elvis week to visit the home of the King. Then on to Nashville, Music City USA and then down to Charleston and Savannah, Georgia before traveling back up to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for Road America.

It is such a beautiful racing track. It reminds me a lot of the Le Mans circuit in France because of the long straights and the run down to “The Kink” and along to “Canada Corner” which is so blistering fast through all the trees.

We knew that we again had a good chance here. The layout and size of the course, being much longer than the tracks we have run on recently, plays to the strengths of the Lola-Judd. However, I don’t think we could have imagined just how well the weekend would go for us. Right from the first practice we got into a good set-up after we had dialed in the optimum ride height to avoid the car “bottoming out” under compression on the run up to the start-finish line.

The Lola is a pleasure to drive fast when the set-up is in the zone. It feels progressive and communicative so that you have the confidence to push the limits of adhesion in the big corners, especially into “Turn One”, around “The Carousel” and through “The Kink”. That’s key to overall lap time, but in the race it’s crucial to consistent pace as you need to feel confident that if you have to make a sudden change in direction when making a pass that the car is stable under you.

Jonny certainly demonstrated the truth of this throughout practice and qualifying. Dominating all three sessions and putting us on pole for six consecutive ALMS sessions and achieving the first back to back pole for any driver this season.

So once again I would be starting from pole. Our race simulation clearly showed that having me start was crucial to our strategy. We needed to be able to exploit the safety car periods that are statistically more likely in the first half of the race to take on fuel. As we run second-generation E85 cellulosic bio-ethanol fuel we have to make three stops for fuel during the race – as against two by the other LMP cars. That’s a big disadvantage to overcome – and only possible if we can refuel and driver change under yellows.

For me, starting on pole again was a great opportunity “to get back on the horse” after the drama of my start at Mid-Ohio. Most of all I knew that I had to make “no mistakes” this time if we were going to get a result. The pressure of starting an ALMS race on pole is really intense, but having done it once before – I felt I now knew what to expect. The key is to work as hard as you can during the pace lap to get heat into the Michelin tires and brakes so that when you come down to turn one, brake hard and turn in – you have confidence that the car will be stable under you.

On the grid before the start of the race there seemed to be a lot of families with children wishing us well, perhaps they had seen the “Behind the Scenes” video on SPEED.com and knew we were a family team. I remember one blond little boy, about 8 years old saying to me on the grid in a very serious voice: “Make sure you win this time!” No pressure there then!

This time everything went to plan. We got a good start; I defended my position well into Turn 1 and then slotted in behind the leaders and settled down into my rhythm. My job was to deliver the car intact to Jonny, use minimum fuel and as close to the leaders as possible. Thanks to a safety car period - which let us top-up with fuel at the ideal point - we were able to pit for driver change just over half way into the race 12 seconds behind the leading car. Perfect.

Jonny then made the drive of his life, pulling quickly into P1 at the restart and then building a dominating lead. We knew he had to because the other cars were on a fuel saving strategy. We had the wick turned fully up now to try and get a big lead that would allow us time for the extra splash of fuel that we would need to finish.

Boy it was close. After pitting for the last time Jonny was back down in fourth-place with four laps to go and his drive from then on was nothing short of sensational. Passing one car per lap he was 4.5 seconds behind Graf as they entered the final lap. Everyone on the Drayson team was shouting and willing him on. I could hear the kids behind us on the other side of the pit fence shouting: “Go Jonny! Go!” And he did! Flat through turn 9 and “The Kink” he pulled up right behind Graf as he got stuck in traffic on the run down to “Canada Corner” and then boldly overtook him on the blast up out of the trees for the win.

It was so fantastic. We all went crazy as he crossed the line, shouting and clapping and hugging each other. James filmed it all for the newest episode of “Behind the Wheel” and I think you will agree he captures the wonderful moment of victory perfectly. It was one of the best days of my life and a moment the whole family will remember. What a race that was!

Now sit back and enjoy episode two of “Behind the Wheel” movie series. It’s a kid’s eye view of racing – entirely written, produced and edited by them. I hope you enjoy it!

~Paul




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