Hi Brock, and congratulations on your win at Spa!
Keeping in mind tha type of track, and that your main opponents had ballast for this round, did you expect to win?
To be honest, you never know exactly what to expect when you are racing with drivers of such high caliber, as even just one little mistake or accident with another car can be quite costly in the end. But I knew that I had a very good oppurtunity to win being that my main rivals were carrying a bit of ballast, and Spa happened to be a track that tended to suit the NSX quite well.
You qualid in 2nd. With the discussions during the week about the rules regarding the importance of quali, what did you think before putting your lap in?
Well, I was certainly trying to achieve pole, but unfortunately I made a regrettable, last minute gearing change before doing my qualy run which threw me off a bit when exiting the slow, 2nd gear corners. Looking back though, qualifying on pole at Spa was most likely only going to set me up to get passed once we hit the straight after Eau Rouge on the first lap. So I think by starting in 2nd, right behind Adam, I ended up with the more favorable starting position for the race, although giving up that extra point in qualy is always a bit dissapointing.
In the inital part of the race, you, Adam and Tony had some tight and clean racing. It was very nice to watch you guys during the first stint. After 7 race laps, you decide to enter the pits. Did you feel faster than the other two, and was hoping to gain a couple of seconds to get them off your slip by going in early, or was it a predetermined stop?
Yes, I had planned beforehand to stop for tires a bit early on in the first stint, to be certain that I would then come out in the lead after everyone had made their first round of stops. By pitting early this would then allow me to build up a bit of a gap early in the second stint with fresh tires, so that my main rivals wouldn't have the benefit of using my slipstream once they had done their first pit stops as well.
Pitting early became even more crucial when the start of the race didn't go to plan, as I was hoping to get out in front on the first lap just after Eau Rouge.
To go into more detail, I had discussed with my team mate (who started in 3rd) that he also had a great oppurtunity to possibly pass Adam to move into the 2nd position just after the start, which would then provide me with a bit of a cushion to my main rivals behind. Unfortunately this never came to be though, as I believe my teammate made a slight misjudgement under braking into Les Combes on lap 1, which then resulted in a slight tap to my rear bumper. After this little incident, I then had to use the run off area to slow the car down before re-entering the track in 2nd place. It was a bit unfortunate because this then made the first stint to my race a bit more difficult than it should have been, as well as putting my team mate on his back foot as well.
When pitting that early, your almost bound to re enter track when there's a lot of traffic around. Luckily, you enteed the pits in a gap, so you did nothave to battle some of the drivers in the pack, and could focus on getting laps in. Was this a cruisial part of the race for you?
As you alluded to, it's always a bit more risky to pit early on your first stint in the feature race, but I felt that by that time most of the traffic I would encounter would either be well off pace due to tire degradation, or would be pitting within the next lap or 2. Fortunately everything went smoothly early in the 2nd stint, so I have no regrets on that decision.
And yes, pitting early on my first stint was very important, as I was probably had the quickest car in the race and needed to try and get out in free air to knock out some fast laps in order to pull out a comfortable gap midway through the race.
In the beginning of lap 13, you pass Tony while he's in the pits. At this time, you must've figured that he was attempting a 1 stopper. What went on in your head by then?
Actually, I was a bit suprised when I realized that Tony must have been going for a 1 stopper, as I had chatted with him a little bit before the race and he mentioned that he was probably going to be making 2 stops. With that said, he must have realized that he was only going to end up in 3rd at best if he did a 2 stopper, so I imagine he probably decided to gamble on only making 1 pit stop to possibly fight for the win or possibly 2nd. As 3rd place was probably going to be the worst he would end up with, regardless of what strategy he chose.
When I realized he was on a 1 stop strategy I wasn't too worried though, as judging by the gap at that time and the fact that he was going to be very slow in the latter stages of the race, meant that I just had to keep it on the track with a decent pace, as I would be much stronger in the closing laps.
You constantly put fast laps in, and Adam, who also was on a 2-stopper dropped further and further back. Did you feel that you had the win at this stage?
Yes, I felt that everything was certainly shaping up in my favor, so at that point I just needed to keep focused on doing my job by maintaing the gap Adam and not making any costly mistakes that would prevent me from catching Tony.
You enter the pits for the 2nd and last time on lap 17, and while in there, you got passed by Tony and Red, and you also got held up by the team ARTA crew. It looks like you lost 1-2 seconds there. Dispite that, did you still feel confident to win, or did you worry about tony and red getting a to big of a gap?
Despite being held up slightly by the ARTA crew, the gap to Tony and Rees looked more than manageable once I re-entered the track with another 8-9 laps remaining. I believe Rees had to make another stop at that point, so he was realistically out of contention for the win. That left just Tony to deal with, who was on tires which were roughly 4-5 laps older than mine, and who was driving a much slower car to begin with. At that point all I had to do was just keep focused on trying to bang out solid laps to catch up to him within a reasonable amount of time.
And finally, what are your thoughts on the Nurburgring GP/F race comming up? Ballast? A track that perhaps suit other cars than your own?
It certainly poses an interesting challenge for the NSX drivers, particularly for those who are carrying a bit of ballast as well. I don't think we'll be seeing any NSX's fighting for the win, but it will certainly be a case of damage limitation, and trying to squeeze the most out of the car as possible. I think it will probably be one of the more entertaining and dramatic races we've had thus far, so I look forward to Sunday and having a successful race.
Thank you for your time, and good luck in the PURE JGTS Championship!
Thank you very much!
