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GRAND-AM
IN THE COCKPIT: Andy Lally, COTA
To be honest, we finished second on Saturday, yet it was one of the more frustrating podium finishes of my career...
Andy Lally, on a happier day at Daytona. (Photo: Magnus Racing)
First off, for anyone who was listening to our in-car radio during last weekend’s race, I need to apologize in advance. I may have, ummm, dropped a few choice words. A lot. I was pretty frustrated with some of the antics out there, and I tend to let my team know so they can understand the struggle I have internally. There were a lot of moments where I wanted to retaliate by smearing someone in to the wall, but I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt our chances at the championship.
More on that later…
The new Circuit of The Americas is a pretty neat place for a lot of reasons. The fact that this was an open field just a little over two years ago, and now sits as one of the nicest, if not THE nicest, garage and infield in North America is pretty incredible. To be honest, when I first heard of the big plans I thought this was someone's pipe dream. We often hear of these ideas, but almost never see them followed through. The pipe dream is complete and it is real. Well done.
The track layout itself has its ups and downs; both figuratively and literally. There is the obvious monster elevation change that we go through entering and exiting turn one, but there are also other more subtle elevation changes that give the track some real character. Unfortunately, there are some other corners on this track that interrupt what would otherwise be a nice flow. Personally, I’m just not a fan of really tight corners leading onto really long straights. Oh well, it was still a very racy circuit, and better than what I expected from first look of the layout.
Outside of the track, the city of Austin is much different than I expected, and nothing like the rest of Texas, at least that I have visited. The city's moto "Keep Austin Weird" is alive and well among its natives. Everywhere we went there we cool things to do, and from what I could see, very mellow attitudes (until I was awoken by a gun shot and witnessed a car jacking the morning I was leaving to come home... but that’s for another column).
The race was pretty intense. John did a great job in qualifying, one of his best yet, to start seventh. This is a hard track to learn and he did a great job setting very good times in both practice and qualifying, and then backed it up with strong times and good race craft at the drop of the green. He handed me a car in great position, and when we finished our pit stop (with another lightning stop from the guys) we were on track in fourth place.
The battle was on right from the get-go.
The track layout has a few hard braking zones and seems to bait guys into ambitious moves. Our series is normally pretty aggressive, and we have our fair share of guys we always keep an eye on. There are a few who are prone to "low percentage" passing attempts, and this track seemed to bring that trait out in a lot of drivers this weekend.
The challenge with this is the Porsche is one of the more fragile cars when it comes to contact. It’s very easy to pop a tire or blow a radiator hose, so you can’t really lean on a guy too hard. This makes playing hard-ball when these guys lose their head incredibly difficult. To be honest, we finished second on Saturday, yet it was one of the more frustrating podium finishes of my career. I know I can’t come back at my aggressor because we simply can’t risk losing focus on the big picture.
This leads to me having some pent up aggression climbing out of the car, and I have to restrain myself from walking straight into another car and beating the snot out of someone. If this kind of driving from everyone continues, this scenario is inevitable.
Like I told the MRN guys after the race, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up making my fair share of contributions to Camp Boggy Creek. The gloves are off and we are only two races into the season.
(Editor’s note: Drivers who conduct actions unbefitting to GRAND-AM are fined in the form of donations to Camp Boggy Creek.)
Andy Lally is one of the most successful drivers in GRAND-AM history, and one of the highest regarded American sports car drivers on the circuit. As GRAND-AM’s all-time mileage leader, Andy has won four different times at The Rolex 24 at Daytona, three GRAND-AM championships, and has had over 100 starts in the Rolex Series. Beyond road racing, he is also the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year, and even a two-time Classic Luge World Champion.
More on that later…
The new Circuit of The Americas is a pretty neat place for a lot of reasons. The fact that this was an open field just a little over two years ago, and now sits as one of the nicest, if not THE nicest, garage and infield in North America is pretty incredible. To be honest, when I first heard of the big plans I thought this was someone's pipe dream. We often hear of these ideas, but almost never see them followed through. The pipe dream is complete and it is real. Well done.
The track layout itself has its ups and downs; both figuratively and literally. There is the obvious monster elevation change that we go through entering and exiting turn one, but there are also other more subtle elevation changes that give the track some real character. Unfortunately, there are some other corners on this track that interrupt what would otherwise be a nice flow. Personally, I’m just not a fan of really tight corners leading onto really long straights. Oh well, it was still a very racy circuit, and better than what I expected from first look of the layout.
Outside of the track, the city of Austin is much different than I expected, and nothing like the rest of Texas, at least that I have visited. The city's moto "Keep Austin Weird" is alive and well among its natives. Everywhere we went there we cool things to do, and from what I could see, very mellow attitudes (until I was awoken by a gun shot and witnessed a car jacking the morning I was leaving to come home... but that’s for another column).
The race was pretty intense. John did a great job in qualifying, one of his best yet, to start seventh. This is a hard track to learn and he did a great job setting very good times in both practice and qualifying, and then backed it up with strong times and good race craft at the drop of the green. He handed me a car in great position, and when we finished our pit stop (with another lightning stop from the guys) we were on track in fourth place.
The battle was on right from the get-go.
The track layout has a few hard braking zones and seems to bait guys into ambitious moves. Our series is normally pretty aggressive, and we have our fair share of guys we always keep an eye on. There are a few who are prone to "low percentage" passing attempts, and this track seemed to bring that trait out in a lot of drivers this weekend.
The challenge with this is the Porsche is one of the more fragile cars when it comes to contact. It’s very easy to pop a tire or blow a radiator hose, so you can’t really lean on a guy too hard. This makes playing hard-ball when these guys lose their head incredibly difficult. To be honest, we finished second on Saturday, yet it was one of the more frustrating podium finishes of my career. I know I can’t come back at my aggressor because we simply can’t risk losing focus on the big picture.
This leads to me having some pent up aggression climbing out of the car, and I have to restrain myself from walking straight into another car and beating the snot out of someone. If this kind of driving from everyone continues, this scenario is inevitable.
Like I told the MRN guys after the race, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up making my fair share of contributions to Camp Boggy Creek. The gloves are off and we are only two races into the season.
(Editor’s note: Drivers who conduct actions unbefitting to GRAND-AM are fined in the form of donations to Camp Boggy Creek.)
Andy Lally is one of the most successful drivers in GRAND-AM history, and one of the highest regarded American sports car drivers on the circuit. As GRAND-AM’s all-time mileage leader, Andy has won four different times at The Rolex 24 at Daytona, three GRAND-AM championships, and has had over 100 starts in the Rolex Series. Beyond road racing, he is also the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year, and even a two-time Classic Luge World Champion.
Road Atlanta
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