Conor Daly Blog - Sebring Testing, Sebring Racing...And Pushing Toward Indy

Conor Daly Blog - Sebring testing, Sebring racing...and pushing toward Indy This year has started out as one of the most difficult ones I've experienced in my career. Various IndyCar programs all looked promising from November until late January – and sure enough they all fell apart, as most deals do. As they fell apart, we kept looking forward and focusing on what the next opportunity could be. I got a text from Marco Andretti in early January inviting me out to L.A. for a couple days and I couldn't turn down a trip like that to get away for a couple days. While we were out there we had a brief phone call with James Hinchcliffe talking about what could be going on at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. From that point, we started organizing a test plan with Schmidt and devising ways to raise a bit of money for it. As many people saw, Marco and Hinch were some of the first to contribute, for which I am eternally grateful. Those two guys have been beyond helpful to me as I try to pursue my own IndyCar dream. I then got together on the phone with some of my core supporters back home and we decided that a fresh test could be one of the biggest opportunities for me to get myself back on the American racing map. The test was to take place at Sebring along with a few of the other IndyCar teams. Needless to say, I was beyond stoked to get back to work in an IndyCar. I would also get to drive alongside multiple race winner and Canadian political enthusiast, the Mayor of Hinchtown. It was lined up to be a day full of learning and driving absolutely flat out. I knew I had a point to prove. Leading up to the test, I spent as much time at the team work shop as I could. A test is not just about the driver, it's also about helping the team prepare for the season. I wanted to make sure that I was fully prepared and knew every piece of information about car, tires, and team's goals before I arrived in Sebring. I can't tell you how nice it was to be preparing to drive an IndyCar again. The last time I tested one at Sebring, it resulted in being hired to drive in the Indianapolis 500! I felt really good heading south and I couldn't wait to do a healthy burnout leaving the pits to begin the next day. We were blessed with perfect weather for the test day, and I got out on track as soon as possible. Run after run we kept improving and working through the test plan. I was pretty happy with how we started, but we slowly started working on the car balance to fine tune it to my driving style. By the end of the morning, James and I both went out on new tires and we did times that were within 0.02 seconds of each other. I was very pleased with the morning and the amount of running we were doing. I felt the magnitude of what that day meant to me. I was also running on some serious adrenaline! It was cool to be able to work with an experienced group of guys in the engineering office during the test. Communicating well with the engineers is so important when trying to get the most out of a car. During the afternoon, we continued to improve the car, and I was really enjoying it. The final sets of new tires went on most of the cars around and we went for it. Sadly, on my optimum lap I hit the pit speed limiter button instead of the overtake button (my bad), but I still kept on truckin' and finished the run strong. When we finished our new tire runs, we did something new for me, a fuel saving run. It was part of the team's evaluation of me, since it's so important in IndyCar racing. Saving fuel is almost backwards to what you want to do in the car. Normally, you always want to push and get the most out of it, but when saving fuel you have to convince yourself to back fully off the throttle way before the brake zone and try to brake later than you normally brake to keep your rolling speed up and not lose as much lap time. After a few laps, I was able to get a better understanding of the process, and it was actually kind of cool. That long race run capped off the day for us, and I was spent. I felt like I left everything out on the track. In the end, I obviously didn't get the race seat, but the funding situation was out of my control. What I could control was my performance on track. Here, I really felt like I maximized the opportunity that I had and did everything I could to both prove myself and help the team. I got that same feedback from the team as well. However, as usual in racing these days, there was a budget gap that I could not close, and someone else could. It was not a huge surprise; all we could do is continue to look forward and see what we could do next! A few weeks after the IndyCar test, the Sebring 12 Hours was approaching and I didn't have any plans to go. That all changed on a Thursday the week before the race when I spoke with Brent O'Neill from Performance Tech Racing. I was really pleased to hear they needed a driver because I was ready to race anything! My dad has won the Sebring 12-hour twice and is in the Hall of Fame, so we have a great family history there. Thankfully, I had driven the Prototype Challenge car the year before in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, so I wasn't going into it completely clueless. The team had tested the week before the race, so they were all ready to go. I had two great teammates and they let me use most of the first practice to help develop the car. I could tell it was going to be a busy race considering the amount of traffic and near-misses in the practice sessions leading up to it. We had made steady progress with the car balance every session, and heading into qualifying I was just hoping to at least match the guys who have quite a bit more experience in the car than me. I ended up P4, 0.4 sec. off the pole, so it was an extremely close session! It was great to be competing in such a competitive class full of good drivers. We had a few more changes to make for the race, and I would be the one to start. It was deathly hot in Sebring on race morning. We had a good warm-up that got my teammates Jerome Mee and James French in the car again and made sure we were all ready. The crowd showed up in a massive way on the pre-race grid. It was awesome seeing so many sports car fans excited for the race. I must say we had a bit of extra motivation with the best-looking grid girls in front of our car before the race as well. Thought I'd throw that out there. Anyway, back to the start of the race. It was crazy! The car behind me jumped the start and ripped part of our right-rear body work off when he jerked right to try and pass me as soon as the green flag fell. After the first-lap melee, we settled into a bit of a rhythm but I could tell our rear tires were hurting from qualifying. I had a lot of rear lock-up in qualifying since our brake bias adjuster wasn't working, and it held us back big time during the first stint. Once I got onto a new set after the first stop, I was really happy with the car. I went out and set the fastest lap of the race by about half a second at the time and pulled out a 36-second lead before a yellow flag at the end of my first double stint brought us in for a driver change and we lost our lead. The car was running reliably with my teammates James and Jerome doing consistent laps and keeping the car intact. I couldn't wait to get back out on track. Hour by hour seemed to tick off faster than I thought they would, and in reality I didn't have as much time out of the car to eat, rehydrate etc., as I expected. Mid-race I did another double stint and brought us back from P5 to P2 pretty close to the lead. The next time I'd get in the car would be at night to finish the race! I tried to get some pasta and let my suit dry out a bit, as it smelled like horrible things, but the team told me to stay ready as I could triple stint to finish the race. We knew we could be close to a podium or maybe even a win if we could keep ourselves as close as possible to the front three cars before I got back in. I had a very quick dinner at Marion's with my mom and Chip Ganassi before going to get my suit back on to go racing again.

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