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A BEAUTIFUL TRACK BUT A DISAPPOINTING RESULT
21/08/2006
Another podium and more points should count for something, but they weren’t quite enough this weekend to make up for a race which didn’t quite go Aston Martin Racing’s way. A puncture in the final stages of the race effectively stole away 2nd place from Darren and his team mate Tomas Enge and, with it, second place in the Drivers’ Championship title race.
In the scenic surrounds of the Wisconsin countryside, the 4.048 mile Road America track is very popular with drivers, and for good reason. Reminiscent of classic European tracks, and sometimes known as the American Spa-Francorchamps, the track follows the contours of the land and has elevation change and a variety of high downforce corners and low downforce straights. So it is a challenge to set up the car.
Darren and Tomas’s practice time was unfortunately limited after an ‘off’ by the Czech early in the first practice session which caused extensive chassis and suspension damage. They missed the remainder of Friday’s running and had to make up for lost time on Saturday – qualifying day.
“Tomas did a great job in the circumstances,” reflects Darren. “He was only one tenth of a second behind Ron Fellows’ Corvette and only three tenths behind Stephane Sarrazin on pole. The guys worked really hard to get the car fixed in time to get us some practice time and I had about twenty laps to learn the track and get a feel for the set up before we were into qualifying.”
Following their usual routine, Darren started the race and made a great getaway to take 2nd place in class by the end of the first few laps although, as he continues, “it wasn’t quite enough to get past Stephane. I picked up some understeer sitting behind him for the first 30 minutes of the race, which didn’t do my tyres much good, but I was well placed to take the lead when Stephane spun off after being hit by a prototype.
“After that, I had an interesting stint which both I and the team were very happy with. Well, I was happy until I had a minor talent failure and ran wide at the famous “Kink” corner. It’s a 6th gear, max rpm corner, and you’ve got about ten feet of grass run off then a wall. It’s a real hold-your-breath-and-don’t-lift type of corner! Fortunately my talent for recovering seemed to be better than my cornering and I managed to avoid hitting the wall and/or ricocheting back into the traffic which was what I was fearing the most.”
At his first pit stop, the team experimented with a harder compound tyre for Darren’s second and final stint, but it didn’t work out as satisfactorily as hoped and the 007 car went from being very competitive to holding on by its fingernails. Darren takes up the story, “The team did a great job with our pit stop which got us back out as class leader and I then tried to hold them all behind me as best I could. I had a great scrap with Olly Gavin for quite a long time and he pulled a good move on me to get past for the lead – despite a bit of contact – but I then spent the rest of the stint trying to hold the car on the track. It was a huge shame Tomas got the puncture in the last bit of the race, and it was a bit gutting to end up 3rd after being so close to a 2nd place finish, but overall it was a good, competitive race which just didn’t fall our way in the end.”
Darren will miss the next ALMS round in Mosport, Canada due to a clashing BTCC commitment but will be back in action with Aston Martin Racing at the 1,000 mile Petit Le Mans event at the end of September.
Darren, 34, lives near Banbury in Oxfordshire. Successful in many different categories of motorsport, his most notable and high profile victories have been at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the British Touring Car Championship. He's a firm favourite with teams, fans, and media alike from around the world.
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