| thegingerninja |
07-10-2010 03:54 PM |
Yeah - you're definately right about the responsibility of having something half decent to hand over. Luckily the 4 of us who were driving have more than 60 years racing between us, 2 of us had raced against each other before in a one make series, so we have faith in each other. The last person you want is a hero who bins it on lap 3!
For me, the most important part of endurance racing is the other drivers, not the car or the team, or who has the fanciest motorhome / transporter. For example, there was a team who had a very very nice Seat Supercopa and it would have been a great chance to drive one, but one of the drivers came onto the radio after 45 minutes wanting to come in for a wee-wee. Obviously they told him to get on with the job, but sure enough, 15mins later he arrived in the pits and said he couldn't hang on anymore - got out, had his wee-wee, got back in and carried on! I know this sounds quite amusing, but if I was sharing a drive with them, I'd go sodding mental. I know we all do this for fun, but you've got to do it seriously and give your best shot.
I did see Angus's car come past me a couple of times in the night, always looked "on it".
I did feel sorry for the Chevron team who had to retire after 12 minutes. We were sharing a pit garage with them and when it came back to the pits on a tow truck with rear suspension failure. I asked Paul O'Neil what happened - he said "I was about to grab 6th on Hanger straight when the car instantly swapped ends..........at 140mph! It is the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me in all my years of professional racing"
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