Well, our first Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race is in the books. It has been a long winter preparing and testing for this event, but you never know how it is going to turn out until you are actually at the track. For the most part the weekend was smooth, slowly figuring out the cars with each session.
The biggest issue we had was the huge disadvantage in power compared to the new Fords and BMWs, which are nowhere near as heavily-restricted as our engines. We were over 8 mph down on the BMWs, and over 4 mph down from the Mustangs. Combine that with Daytona’s insanely long straights, and it is basically a lost cause. Hopefully Grand-Am will look at the results and dyno some engines so that the rules can be made more even for all competitors.
Having said that, we had a great Fresh From Florida 200 race weekend overall. Unfortunately the 05 Camaro (Jeff Altenburg and Jeff Nowicki) ended up in a tangle with another car early on, which took it out of the race. Daniel Orr and I drove the 06 Camaro to a top 10 finish, which considering everything (new team, new car, new teammates, and the performance disadvantage), we were very pleased with the outcome. Daniel did an excellent job in the first half of the race, taking care of the car and staying out of trouble so I could take over at the halfway mark and drive it hard to the checkered flag. A good teammate is very important in this form of racing, and I definitely have one!
We had a great dice with Ken Wilden for the last few laps of the race, and managed to race side-by-side through the bus stop chicane without banging fenders. We raced hard several other times with out contact. I finally managed to get a gtreat run on him on the final lap and was nearly past him when I ran out of fuel! I switched to the reserve fuel tank, but the engine stumble during that transition cost us the position.
All in all, a great weekend. I want to thank my entire crew who worked hard and had great, fast, and accurate pitstops. TC Kline, Matt Blansett, Bob Jansen, Ron Carroll, Jon Buck, Cody Young and Daryl Barrett. I also want to thank Ray Butler and his wife and daughter for all their support.
I can’t wait for Homestead!
JORDON, YOU ARE WHAT MAKES RACE FANS WHAT WE ARE…..YOU ARE DEDICATED TO YOUR CRAFT, AN EXCELLENT COMMUNICATOR, AND DAMN GOOD LOOKING. KEEP UP THE GREAT DRIVING…GIVE YOUR FANS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT….MS PAULA
Thanks Ms. Paula… you are too kind!
Jordan glad to see a great start to a fresh season… Top 10 considering the disadvantages presently that you are dealing with is great!! wish you the best this season!! Justin.
Heck of an achievement, lots of work by lots of people. First race, new car, new team, top 10 and moving up when the flag dropped, outstanding. Looking forward to seeing what happens as it gels.
Seeing the cars at Daytona, gotta be a dream come true right there.
The note about Jordon being good looking, hmm.