SOME RAMBLINGS BEFORE HOMESTEAD

By Karl Thomson

The shop's been a flurry of activity since we returned from Daytona a month ago. For the first time in three years, all four cars had to visit the body shop after a single race. Other than the damage to 76, which suffered a pretty hard front-end hit, it wasn't too bad, but it does underscore how physical the Grand-Am series has become. There always seems to be a little more contact at Daytona; I put that down to everyone being overly excited coming off the Christmas break. Hopefully the bodywork will stay intact from here on out.
 

It's tough to say you're disappointed with a solid fourth-place finish, especially when it comes at the hands of one of the Rookie-of-the-Year contenders. But after being on the Daytona podium for four straight years (the run starting in 2007 when Billy Johnson and I won in our TSX, continuing when Travis Walker and I brought our Civic home third in 2008; Travis and Matt Pritiko were third in 2009 and David Thilenius and Lawson Aschenbach won last year), we were certainly a little deflated.

I'm thrilled for Andrew Novich, though, who's the latest of our promising development drivers. To have him start the season off in such a strong fashion is great for his Mesco Rookie points. Donald Theetge, who's driven with us many times in the past, did great work in the closing stint and I hope to have Don and his brother Benoit, who own a number of Honda and Acura dealerships in Quebec, back with us as a duo later this year.

For Homestead, it'll be Benoit who co-drives with Andrew in our #77 Honda. As expected, Ben ran up front in the opening stint in #75 at Daytona, filling in for Ryan Eversley's regular co-driver, Keith Carroll, who wasn't able to make the Daytona race. For Homestead, it'll be back to the regular line-up, with Keith and Ryan sharing #75. We recently announced a partnership with the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF), a charity that's been very successful at using motorsport to raise awareness and donations for neurofibromatosis research, and we are really excited to welcome their team and their guests for every race in 2011. Ryan was instrumental in putting the deal together, and I am thankful we've got him on our squad.

At Daytona, our #74 and #75 cars suffered uncharacteristic mechanical gremlins, which put us back in the results. Frustrating after David Thilenius (2010 Champion) in 74 and Ben in 75 did such great jobs in the early-going. Ryan managed to salvage an 11th place in 75 but, compounding our misery for 74, Grand-Am initially (correctly) gave us a wave-by on a yellow flag, but then retracted it, resulting in Zach Lutz being put at the back of the pack, a lap down. The fact that he managed to bring it home 17th is pretty amazing. I'm hoping for a much better race for these two talented guys at Homestead.

In a foreshadowing of our friend Andy Lally's Daytona 500 debut, Dan Rogers in #76 was tagged while trying to avoid a big pile-up, resulting in a lengthy trip to the garage while repairs were affected. The guys did a great job to get Dan's co-driver Carlos Tesler-Mabe out for the last hour of the race, but coming home 32nd wasn't really the plan. Carlos will be back in 76 at Homestead, and we've tapped long-time road racer Bob Beede to drive with him. Bob's got a lot of experience with Hondas, often running at the sharp end of the stick with Fenton Motorsports. It'll be a bit of a homecoming of sorts for him as our Crew Chief for 76 and 77 is Steve Wheeler, who ran Fenton's Grand-Am program for many years.

So, heading into Homestead we've got four guys who know how to start a race (Thilenius, Carroll, Tesler-Mabe, Novich) and four guys who can win in the closing roles (Lutz, Eversley, Beede, Theetge). We're going to have a bunch of CTF families and supporters out for the race, and the plan (as always) is to get all four cars in the top ten, and as many as we can on the podium.

I'll let you know how it goes.

-k-

Photo credits: Sideline Sports Photography