Holter has a strong run at Circuit of the America's in the season opener of the Pirelli World Challenge Series 2015!
The Pirelli World Challenge series kicked off the weekend of March 6th - 8th in texas at Circuit of the Americas. COTA is a 3.4 mile track with dramatic natural elevation changes, including a 133-foot climb up to its signature Turn 1. the 20 turn circuit incorporates some of the best loved and most challenging turn from other iconic Formula 1 tracks. Pictured to the right is the iconic snake tower, or as some call it, the worlds largest mullet, tower. It has a glass floor, while up top you can see the whole race track, for a fee of course....
I arrived on thursday morning during the promoter test day. I could not participate in the test day because of the additional
cost that I would have had to pay. But I drove straight to the drivers meeting, and after that went to get my gear checked, and the car properly set up with sponsor decals.
For this race I had 1 sponsor that wrote a check, www.amberthrives.com which is a health wellness company that I currently use for sustained energy and vitamin nutrition. If you are interested in Thrive, please let myself or Amber know. She is a wealth of knowledge about this product.
I also used a crowdfunding platform from indiegogo. Through this platform I was able to introduce Fuel Clothing socks to a vast group of people. I think I sent out about 40-50 pairs of socks throughout the campaign. check them out at Fuel Clothing In addition I had
Go Puck and Spy Optics represented on the car.
Practice/Qualifying:
The weekend started with a couple practice sessions, the 2nd session turned into the qualifying session. COTA is a tricky course to learn. I kept messing up on turn 6 in the beginning. We had a 8am session and the sun was rising right above the horizon, straight in my view of the corner. First practice i wound up in 10th, about 9 seconds off the fast pace that was set by Johan Schwartz. This was my first time on the track so I wasn't too worried about the time.
Between practice and the 1st qualifying, I knocked off 4 seconds to qualify 7th out of 15 cars. 2:53.6 So mid pack, and I was ok with that. Between getting used to the car again and learning the track, mid pack was alright with me.
Race 1:
In race 1, I started 7th as mentioned above. I was more concerned with just getting faster, smoother and more comfortable with the car and track. Finished 8th, but during this race I ended up running the 4th fastest lap, 2:51.9 which was actually 6/10ths away from the fastest lap of the race by Pirelli Veteran Glenn Nixon 2:51.3 . While the finish was a spot past where I started. I felt more comfortable with the track, and with the car. The fast lap capitulated me into 4th on the grid for race 2.
Race 2:
On the grid, I was stoked to learn that I was starting 4th. TCB class is a momentum class, if you start up front, there is a good chance that with some skill, you will generally stay up front. Something happened to the 3rd place car so on the grid, I was pushed up to start 3rd. Holy heck! THIS WAS SO RAD!!! On the start, for a brif moment, I got the jump on the field and stck my nose to the inside of turn 1, and my nose was in 1st place! I was able to hold my own for the most part of the race as I am aware that I am faster with less fuel in the tank, I bounced between 5th and 3rd. Speaking of 3rd, With 12 mins to go, I found myself making a few mistakes and not focusing 110% as I should be. While riding in 3rd, I remember myself talking to myself and saying, "you are running in 3rd place, this is a podium position, this is prize money that you really need, this is a dream come true, you have been driving your ass off, you have 11 mins to focus, its just 11 mins, that is all you have to focus for, handle your business, hit your apex's, acceleration points, braking points, you know what the car can do! FOCUS!!!!!"
5 mins left, a lap and a half, maybe 2 laps. Coming out of turn 15, Chevy on my right, I was in 3rd, next thing I knew, I was sideways. Dumped on the exit of turn 15. A fellow Mazda2 got into my left rear, not once, but twice! Once to turn me, and another time to make sure I was going to get out of the way for him. You can watch the video to see who it was but personally I don't care that the car drove from Kyle, Texas, a 26 mins drive to the race track. I race clean and I hope that my fellow competitors will also. My hopes, dreams, anticipation, and wallet took a giant turn for the worse. The announcers said that I struck the wall, but I didn't. Twitter blew up, my fans were outraged, my friends were texting me offering words of encouragement, family called and texted. The car that hit me, his hood popped up and he had to come to a rest around turn 16-17. Personally I was glad to see that he couldn't finish. Sorry... The hit could have been avoided, and there is also a reason why he hasn't released Race 2 footage on the internet from his car.
I waited for the driver to come over and explain, more so apologize for taking me out. I know that if I was in that situation, I would go over to the drivers pit after the race, and talk with them about it. But there was nothing. Finished 9th after running 3rd....
A hug from my girlfriend, and we were off to dinner at Salt Lick for some BBQ.
Race 3:
This race began late in the afternoon, the weather was rain and overcast all day. So with rain, you have to get rain tires, which is an added cost. Thank You to my team for working with me on that. I start 9th, the finishing position from race 2. Racing in the rain, for me seems to be something that I cannot escape, amateur to pro races, it always seems to rain. There is this weird grip level that you don't think will happen with rain tires but the Pirelli P-Zero rain tires are amazing.
For this race, the goal was to bring the car home with no more damage than was already incurred for the weekend. I certainly didn't need to have a damage bill tacked onto the rest of the weekend. On the start I gave it a few laps to get my footing in the rain. As the car got lighter, the track started to dry, and my lap times started to improve. The car was safe, and i was driving quick, but more so riding around. I didn't have to, but the car that took me out, I let by without contact. The way it should be. I ended up finishing 7th.
After the race I parked the car, got on the pit bike and went down to talk about race 2's incident. A conversation that should have taken place a day before. It's good to have a talk about it.
Summary:
Overall it was a good weekend. Was great to run up front, to have the ups and downs of a race weekend. Great food and it was great to have my girlfriend with me. I hope that she enjoyed herself. I cannot thank my Breathless Performance Team enough. Ernie, Billy, Adam my crew chief who busted his ass on my car, Dave, and driving teammates Ernie Jr. and Jason Fichter. Thank you everyone for being top notched!
Next:
Next event is at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park ( Mosport ) on the weekend of May 15th -17th. I am currently looking for sponsors in the area. The only way that I will be able to participate in this weekend is with heavy sponsorship support. Please get a hold of me if you feel that we can work together for exposure of your business. I will make your business my priority.
I am sitting 8th in points, and with a strong run at COTA, i am poised to make a serious run at the championship in the TCB Class. I have what it takes and my team would really like to see me in Canada. Plus, I love Poutine, and have never been to Canada.... Even though I live about 9 hours away driving....Lets get it on!
Thank you for reading, thank you to Amber from thrive, Fuel Clothing, Spy optics, and Mazda for the support!
