2015 is a year Jonny Adam looks back on with great fondness. Not only
did he win the British GT championship with Andrew Howard and make five appearances as part of Aston Martin’s
GTE Pro line-up in the World Endurance Championship, but the 31-year-old Scot
also saw off Alexander Sims to win the Sunoco Challenge and with it, a plumb
ride in the no. 31 Action Express Chevrolet DP at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
Here, Adam gives The Motorsport Journal the lowdown
on his preparations.
 |
| Racing the Corvette DP poses a very different challenge to an Aston Martin GT car (JonnyAdam.com) |
I first
did the Rolex 24 two years ago with a customer Aston Martin team. I went there
not knowing what the American style was to go racing and absolutely loved it! I
wanted to do it again, but looking at the DP cars then, I thought it would be
so cool to get an opportunity to drive one. I knew of the Sunoco Challenge and
kept a close eye on it, especially on how well Phil Keen did last year, so last
year when I was in the running for it, as much as I wanted to win the British
championship with Andrew, I was quite selfish in that I wanted to win this as
well! Eventually I was told I’d received the prize and it was mega – I got the
go ahead from John Gaw to go and do it, I jumped in the car and loved every
moment of it.
It
is different and it is a step up, but like everything else in racing, you give
yourself three or four laps and you actually want more. Initially pulling out
of the pits I remember thinking ‘this has got a fair bit of poke’, and you
begin to realise it even more when you go past the GT cars. I know from
experience how nice and how quick they are, but you’re flying by them on the
straights – I think it was around 193-194mph coming into turn one. Yet looking
at the data and then experiencing it in the car, it doesn’t feel as though
you’re doing that type of speed. The brakes are probably the highlight of the
car, I’d say. There’s a good balance, with the power it’s got it’s not trying
to kill you all of the time!
The
team were very good at making me feel comfortable in the car. Even just the
little things like doing pitstop practice which can make a big difference in a
long race, because for me it’s so different sliding yourself into an Aston than
it is into this DP car which is quite awkward to get in and out of, but we got
slicker the more practice we did. All three team-mates, Dane Cameron, Eric Curran
and Simon Pagenaud were very welcoming and by the end of day three, we were all
within a window of a few tenths of each other. I think it will be a big benefit
come the race to have four drivers that you can stick in at any point and know
everyone is around the same sort of pace.
Everybody knows the sister
car is quick, they’ve got massive experience and a quick driver in Filipe
Albuquerque who looked very good in the test, so we just have to knuckle down
and see what we can do. It’s an open team so we can share data and setup
information from all eight drivers, so it was nice to bounce ideas off each
other. I didn’t want to give too much information on the car because I’m new to
it, but the other three have driven it a lot more, especially Dane and Eric, so
for me it was all about taking it all in and getting seat time as I could get
in different situations – warm tyres with low fuel and cold tyres with full
fuel at the end of the day. You can get in the car at 2 or 3 in the morning and
ambient temperature can drop to around 6 degrees, so you have to be wary of
these types of situations.
If I could race a car every
day of the week I would, it’s so nice to get straight back in a seat so soon
after the New Year and get going again. It’s such a well-structured team, it’s
not like they’ve thrown me in a team that will be in the midfield with a car
that’s going to fail or team-mates that are going to have moments, so it’s
extra pressure because we’re going for the win really. Let’s hope for a good
result!
No comments:
Post a Comment