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junker-town · 4 years

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‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ is a perfect intro to the best soap opera in sports

The second season of the acclaimed Neflix show sets the stage for F1 racing’s future.

The second season of Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive dropped on Feb. 28, and it’s just as good as the extremely well-received first season. Like any good Millennial, I watched the entire series in a couple of days, even though the new Formula 1 season doesn’t start until March 15. The ten half-hour episodes are extremely bingeable.

Eight teams get significant air time over the show’s 10 episodes. The big teams sat out last year’s show, but after seeing how successful it was, they decided they wanted in on the action. Ferrari and Mercedes feature, but just like Season 1, the really good stuff comes from struggling teams like Williams and Haas.

Notably absent from the show are Racing Point and Alfa Romeo, who almost exactly met expectations last season, and return the same drivers for 2020. The producers opted not to force any drama for those teams. Fans of teenage shitposter/Twitch streamer/McLaren driver Lando Norris will also be disappointed to see that he’s barely mentioned.

What’s missing is much less important than what’s in the show, however. Drive to Survive is still amazing, and a perfect introduction to the best soap opera in sports. Minor spoilers below.

Is it a reality show? Is it a documentary? I don’t know, it’s just really good

I’m not really sure how you would classify Drive to Survive. It’s definitely more documentary than reality television, though the interviews feel very reality TV-influenced.

No matter what you call it, the show is made by the level of access that the producers are granted. Because the teams are promised that the show won’t air until the season ends and the driver lineup for the following season is set, they’re free to be themselves. It doesn’t feel like any of the teams’ drivers or principals are guarded in any way. The result is a show that does a brilliant job promoting what makes F1: Off-the-track drama.

Formula 1 is basically WWE for rich Europeans. The races are hit or miss, but the politics and promos are the really engrossing stuff. If you watch an F1 race without any knowledge of its inner workings, it might not seem that interesting. But when you understand the behind-the-scenes ramifications of a result, a pass for 10th place can feel as important as a pass for first.

The show’s format lets viewers into this world by focusing on the narrative arcs of individual characters and teams, rather than telling a chronological story. And though the show jumps around the calendar, it isn’t misleading or confusing. I imagine this was a difficult choice for the producers, but they got it right.

Most importantly for the show’s purposes, F1 is also involved in the production, so it also works as an advertisement. Viewers are left with an understanding of multiple storylines and who to root for in 2020. I think it would be hard to come away from the show without wanting to follow a team or driver in the upcoming season.

It’s so painful when you know what’s coming

If you did not follow the 2019 F1 season, you will have a different experience watching this show than I did. But if you did follow along last season, you’ll find yourself saying “oh noooo” at the screen several times just before the big reveals.

The results of storylines involving drivers like Pierre Gasly and Niko Hulkeberg, and teams like Haas and Williams, are foreshadowed well in advance. The portions covering the deaths of Niki Lauda and Anthoine Hubert are probably more serious tearjerkers when you see them coming.

If you didn’t follow F1 last year and watch the show, let me know if the foreshadowing was obvious to you. I’m very curious.

Guenther Steiner is once again the best character

The breakout star of the first season of Drive to Survive was Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, a hilarious character who curses at his drivers and staff in ways that American football coaches would envy. English is not his first language, but he’s an artist with the f-word.

Steiner’s home life is presented in stark contrast to the way he acts on the track. He’s very calm and kind with his wife and daughter, and is presented as a loving husband and father.

But then he has to go to work and deal with the mistake-riddled work of his engineers and drivers.

“This is not a fucking kindergarten here,” Steiner says to his staff at one point. Following a collision between Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, Steiner delivers the best line of the series.

“Gene spends 100 fucking million dollars a year of his own fucking money,” Steiner says to his drivers, referring to team owner Gene Haas, “and wants to pull the plug and let everybody down because of two fucking idiots.”

Haas never really got better after that, but Steiner still has his job, as do Grosjean and Magnussen. Their owner has not pulled the plug, though he was unable to recruit a title sponsor to replace the ill-fated Rich Energy.

I have no idea how Haas will do in 2020, but I do know that Steiner will likely be the best character in Season 3 of the show, too.

I empathize so much with Claire Williams

Williams Formula One has won seven drivers’ world championships and nine constructors’ championships under the leadership of legendary founder Frank Williams. But their last honors came in 1997, and Frank’s daughter Claire has been tasked with turning the team around. Thus far, she has failed — Williams was by far the worst team on the grid in 2019 — and it’s impossible to tell if it’s because she can’t hack it, or because of circumstances beyond her control.

In the trailer for Season 1, Claire Williams said something that has stuck with me ever since I heard it: “Every day I break out in a cold sweat thinking, ‘do I have the skillset to do this?’”

This is something that I think a lot of women have felt at work. Plenty of men too, but this is disproportionately a female experience.

In Williams’ case specifically, she has reached the highest position of any woman in F1, an organization that has historically been outrageously chauvinistic. Her detractors will argue that she only has her job because of her father, and her supporters will argue that the most qualified and experienced team principal in the world couldn’t turn around Williams on F1’s lowest budget.

The show follows the Williams team as it fails to finish its car in time for preseason testing. Claire’s rage at director of engineering Paddy Lowe can be felt through the screen, even if she never raises her voice.

I’m not sure if she holds back because that’s not her personality, or because she feels like it would be deemed unacceptable for a woman to do so. When Steiner blows up and calls his subordinates “fucking idiots,” we all have a good laugh. I feel like the reaction would be a bit different if Claire Williams did the same.

“I don’t want to disgrace the Williams name,” Claire says in an interview. “I don’t want Williams to fall apart under my watch.” I wonder how often she feels powerless to prevent that from happening, even though she’s ostensibly in charge?

Leclerc vs. Vettel is the story in F1

In 2020, all eyes are going to be on Ferrari.

Last season, youngster Charles Leclerc signed on to represent F1’s most iconic brand. He knew he’d be a clear No. 2 driver behind four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. But as the season wore on, the pecking order got a lot less clear. As it turns out, Leclerc might be the better driver.

Vettel’s last world championship was in 2013, with Red Bull. He left for Ferrari when he felt like his old team was falling miles behind Mercedes, but he hasn’t been able to recapture his championship form in the famous red car. Following a couple of second-place finishes and preseason hype that he could challenge Lewis Hamilton, Vettel disappointed in 2019, finishing fifth.

Leclerc, meanwhile, exceeded expectations in his first year with Ferrari. Despite Vettel being given preferential strategy in multiple races — a huge point of contention that’s explored on the show — Leclerc outperformed his teammate. His win in Ferrari’s home race at the Italian Grand Prix was arguably the feel-good moment of the year, and he out-qualified Vettel on a regular basis. His fourth-place finish in the drivers’ championship, ahead of Vettel, suggests he should not have to defer to the veteran anymore.

But F1 is not just about who is better at driving. It is a competition that is equal parts skill, engineering and politics. And though Leclerc may be a better driver than Vettel, he’s no politician. Whenever he complains about fairness on the show, Vettel finds a way to take advantage of Leclerc’s naiveté.

However, that’s the only thing Vettel did better than Leclerc in 2019. If all things are equal, Ferrari is going to start siding with the younger driver sooner rather than later.

Drive to Survive sets up 2020 perfectly as the end of an era

This upcoming season is the last with unlimited spending, and most of the drivers will be out of a contract at the end of the campaign. There will be new car requirements for 2021 as well. For this reason, a lot of teams are treading water this season, putting their money into new facilities and preparing for when they are finally able to compete with Mercedes, the runaway leaders, in 2021.

It feels likely that this season will be a ceremonial victory lap for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes before things get tough in 2021. If the two championships are the only things that interest you, I regret to inform you that this F1 campaign is unlikely to be compelling. But in terms of long-term storylines and interpersonal drama, this is going to be one of the wildest seasons in the sport’s history.

Everyone is fighting for their livelihoods. No one’s job is secure. A great midfield performance could position a driver for world championship contention next season. George Russell will struggle to score a single point for Williams, but he’s still trying to prove he’s ready to follow in Hamilton’s footsteps at Mercedes.

The drivers’ and constructors’ championships might not be up for grabs in 2020, but the future of the sport is.

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Q&A: Fast cars, family business, Le Mans – Elkhart Lake, of course – and maybe the Mongol rally

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/qa-fast-cars-family-business-le-mans-elkhart-lake-of-course-and-maybe-the-mongol-rally/

Q&A: Fast cars, family business, Le Mans – Elkhart Lake, of course – and maybe the Mongol rally

Cooper MacNeil competes during the 86th Le Mans 24-hours endurance race, at the Circuit de la Sarthe at night on June 17, 2018. MacNeil and his teammates finished fifth in their class.(Photo: Getty Images)

Cooper MacNeil figures he’s in a race car about 40 weekends a year, and this weekend is the closest he gets to a home game.

With the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship racing Sunday at Road America, the 25-year-old native of Hinsdale, Ill., is back at the 4-mile track in Elkhart Lake where he spent numerous days of his childhood, watching his father, David, compete in SCCA events.

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase is set for 2 p.m. Sunday. MacNeil, who is fifth in the GT Daytona class, co-drives the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.

He sat down recently to talk about racing, his active schedule and his transition into his family’s company, which has $500 million in annual sales and also serves as the title sponsor for the series in which MacNeil competes.

Q. With driver aids and tests of autonomous cars, we seemed to be headed technology-wise toward cars doing more for themselves. For a racer … nobody’s going to watch a race of self-driving cars, right?

A. We already saw how that worked out. At some street course they had two run together as a demonstration (at a Formula E race in Argentina) and they ran into each other.

Q. But you’re 25. … This is going to progress. Where are we going to be in five years or 15 years?

A. In my opinion there’s nothing like combustion. The old combustion engine. It’s very hard to replace, as good as that is. Sure there’s more efficient ways of racing and conserving energy. But that’s not the essence of motor racing. Not saying it has to be a dirty sport, but to some degree it can’t be a clean one. Hybrid technology is good. The LMP1 hybrid cars. But as far as pure electric cars go, I don’t see it. You might have these small, small series that are electric, but as far as mainstream IMSA, as far as “live on Fox Sports 1” goes, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Maybe 10 years out, there might be something, but people like … burning rubber, burning gasoline, burning oil. People love to hear the sound of the V8 Corvette go by. Take the sound away, it’s like ehhhh, it doesn’t do much for me or a lot of fans.

Cooper MacNeil comes to Road America fifth in points in the GT Daytona class. He’ll share a Ferrari 488 GT3 with Gunnar Jeanette. (Photo: Associated Press)

I know a lot fans can relate to the sound of a car. Especially people with disabilities like I’ve met at the track sometimes, people that can’t see recognize sounds of the car. They know what it is. I think that’s cool. So having an all-electric car or something like that, it’s not all that special.

Q. Tell me about your season so far.

A. It’s going as a racing season does. Ups and downs. That’s the name of the game in any sport, for that matter. We’ve had some trials and tribulations we’ve had to work through. Lost my full-season co-driver (Alessandro Balzan) to a health issue. Had to work through that – still working through at, as he’s gone for the rest of the season and we have to have someone drive with me.

The season has been up and down. We … had a great car at Daytona and had a steering wheel issue and finished top-10 or something, but then we finished second at Sebring, which was great. I felt that was really the start of the bright part of the season for us, and then Alessandro (Balzan) all of a sudden couldn’t drive. It’s tough when you’re driving a car that’s won the championship the last two years in a row with the team that’s won the championship the last three years in a row. So they have the biggest target on their back. The car has the biggest target on its back. And nobody wants to help it. Meaning IMSA doesn’t want to help it (with balance of performance adjustments) because it’s won. They don’t help it as much as they normally help cars that are struggling. So that’s difficult, not to say it should be easy. But obviously a level, fair playing field is all I can hope for, ask for. But when the balance of performance is based on previous race results … the unfortunate evolution of the sport has come to BoP racing. So to win a championship, you have to stay off the radar, which means finishing third, fourth, fifth every race. That’s how you win a championship. You don’t get weight put on the car. You don’t get restricted. You just float there and stay steady. I’d like to go out and win every race, but I can’t. That’s one of the nice things about IMSA is there are eight or nine manufacturers in GTD, so there’s a lot of competition. And competition is a good thing. If it was easy, there’d be no satisfaction in winning.

For instance, Le Mans this year, we were running really, really strong all week. Qualified well and we were running top-three the first 16 hours of the 24-hour race until Jeff Segal, my co-driver, locked up the rear wheels braking too late in the Mulsanne Corner and sailed it off into the gravel and got stuck in the gravel for three laps. We fell to ninth and fought our way back to finish fifth. Bittersweet. Because I really felt we had a podium car there.

(Three) races ago at Watkins Glen, we had two penalties and a fire. My other co-drivers each had one of the two penalties, and when I was getting in the car on pit lane the car caught on fire during refueling. At Mosport, I started and it was a 2 hour and 40 minute race and Jeff Segal finished. I qualified ninth, which the position wasn’t all that great but the times were all close so we knew we had a somewhat competitive car. Not to the Lexuses; they were in a class of their own. I had a great stint. I drove very well. One of the best stints I’ve had all year. Ended up coming in in fifth place, legitimately. Then Siegel got in and blew the red light at the end of pit lane and got a stop-plus-60-second penalty. I had to leave right after my stint to fly to Portland to do a vintage rally with my sister in an old Aston-Martin. I’m not even there and I look at the timing and all of a sudden we’re down a lap. There’s only so much you can do and the rest is out of your hands. When I’m in the car, I try to do my job and do my job to the best of my ability and hope everybody does theirs the same way.

Q. One of those things that comes up in sports-car racing all the time is driver changes, but I didn’t realize until you walked in, you’re – what – 6-6?

A. 6-5

Q. Do you have trouble with finding compatible drivers that way?

A. No. Surprisingly. The types of cars, the Grand Touring cars we drive are big, where you can put somebody my size in it or anybody that’s smaller than me. We just have a seat insert. In the Ferrari, for example, the pedal box is adjustable, fore and aft, a good amount, about a foot, about 10 inches. And the steering wheel telescopes and goes up and down. So when I get in the car, I slam the pedals all the way forward, which is just a little lever, which is super-easy, and move the steering wheel where I want it and off I go. I get out and Balzan, who is a lot shorter and his legs are a lot shorter, needs an insert that is two-sided so that part of it goes under his butt and part of it goes behind his back to get closer to the steering wheel. I jump out, he puts his insert in, he jumps in, we don’t even change the belts because I’m so far back and he’s a bit … I would say … ‘wider’ than me. So the belts work out perfectly. So to go from somebody that’s 6-5, my height, to Balzan, who’s 5-6, is no problem. In the Porsche, the Porsche is a beetle, it’s got a bigger greenhouse, so there’s plenty of room in the Porsche. Mercedes was a little different in the way it was designed. It didn’t have much elbow room, which was my limiting factor. I need elbow room to drive the car and move my hands fast when I need to. That’s the issue. But the Ferrari, I fit in great, which was one of the reasons we moved to it, because of it being a strong car but also because I fit better. Very doable. Even though the seat is fixed to the ground – it’s not on sliders – everything else moves. No big deal.

Q. You finished your degree …

A. December 2016, I graduated.

Q. Are you putting it to use? What’s your long-range plan for mixing real life with racing?

A. When I was in school (at the University of Colorado), it was balancing racing and school and now it’s balancing learning the company and racing. So my degree is in economics, and every day when I’m at the company learning, it helps for sure.

As far as a long-term plan goes, I’m spending two to three months in each department of the company, learning everything from the bottom up, which is the right way to do it, and putting in my time, basically spending an intensive amount of time in each department learning the company, separately, not taking off too much at once.

I started in sales. I was in the factory showroom from 8 to 5 every day, talking to people, talking to customers all day, every day, seeing what they want, what they like, what they don’t like. … It was a good learning experience. Then I moved to production, so I was standing at a thermoforming or injection molding machine from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. – that’s the first shift – every day for a few weeks straight, making floormats, making mudflaps, making license plate frames, making floor liners, making all sorts of things. So now I’m in the wholesale department, putting in wholesale orders in the computer, talking to the wholesale people on the phone, learning how the wholesale side of it works. Next might be R&D or machine shop. I don’t know. Whatever my dad has me do.

So I’m putting in my time and learning from the bottom up rather than just coming in and trying to tell people what to do when I don’t know how everything works. Not only gain knowledge that way of the company but also gain a lot of respect from the employees for putting in my time, which is important. So a year or two from now, when I’m all done with that, where I’m going to be, I don’t know. But I’ll probably run some part of the company. Or not. I might find myself doing something else. You never know. I don’t have a magic ball that tells me where I’m going to be in three years. Obviously family-run. My dad started it, so I’d like to keep it in the family, and he’s grooming me to do so.

Q. Yeah, I was kind of curious when you’re in a situation like that if following is always the way people want to go or sometimes you want to branch out, like OK, Dad did this and I’ve got this other idea to go off and do another thing.

Q. I come up with ideas all the time for stuff, for new products. Sure, I could go off and do something else. But why? There’s so much infrastructure already there for me to take advantage of, to learn about and to grow. Sure, I could go try to do something else, do it on my own, yeah, and that’d be great. But we recently came out with coasters for cars. We sold different sized coasters for home. And one day working in the showroom, I thought, “Why don’t we make these for cup holders for cars?” So I sent my dad an email, worked with our engineer on designing the thing and sizing and getting the right angle of flanging going into the thing. Two weeks later, three weeks later we had a prototype and then two or three months later we were in production and year to date we’ve sold 15,000 sets of stupid little car coasters. If I wanted to do that on my own, I’d need a machine shop with CNC machines to manufacture, first I’d need CAD design to design the thing, then you go to the production of the mold, after you’ve tested the prototypes, which I don’t have the SLA machines, which are half-million dollars, to make prototypes. And then you go to the CNC to make the mold. And then you go to production – they’re injection-molded – so the injection-molding machine. If I wanted to make a little car coaster without all of that, good luck. So, yeah, I’m going to stick with the company, I think.

Q. So far you’ve got the boss’ ear. That helps.

Q. You mentioned going from balancing school and racing to balancing business and racing. How do you do it?

A. It’s a very interesting question. In school, I had a student-athletic form for racing so I was able to miss classes and miss assignments and miss tests without being penalized. Which was important. You could only miss 10 or 7% of classes, and I missed 70% of classes. So I would have been kicked out a long time ago. That helped. So when I was at the racetrack, I concentrated on racing and driving the race car fast, and when I was at school, I focused on school.

But now that I’m out of school, it’s no different. When I’m at the racetrack, I focus on racing. When I’m at home, I’m at work, learning things at work.

For example (the week of July 15), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, had I not gone to Laguna Seca and not come up to here to talk to you guys, I’d have been at work, learning about the company and then flying to Lime Rock tomorrow morning. I don’t have a 9-to-5. When I can, I do, basically.

Q. It does largely work together because there’s advertising involved for the business (in racing).

A. Exactly. Which is nice. It’s tough, but I try to wear as many hats as I can.

Q. What do you want to accomplish in racing? In sports cars you can go another 40 years. Do you have other things you want to do? Try?

A. By and large it’s winning championships and winning big races. Been on the podium at Sebring three times; won it once. Finished second at Daytona. I don’t have a (Rolex Daytona) watch yet, so I’d like to win a watch. Le Mans … I’d like to win Le Mans, which I know we can do. Last year finished third, this year fifth. I want to win the Ferrari Challenge championship, which I’m leading and there’s three rounds left. I haven’t won that championship ever. For me, the biggest thing is Le Mans. That’s the most prestigious, longest-running, most difficult endurance race there is. Still like to win that.

But I also enjoy cool stuff, like I want to do the Mongol Rally, which is 37 days and 10,000 miles long, which would be super cool. I’ve done Tour Auto twice. I’ve won Tour Auto overall this year in a 1974 (Porsche) RSR with Gunnar Jeanette as my co-driver, which is super cool. Just cool car events. I’ve raced at pretty much every racetrack I’ve wanted to race at, so now it’s about winning big races and championships.

Q. What all are you racing?

A. Between IMSA, the Ferrari Challenge, Le Mans and historics, and testing. So, if I’m not testing the GTD car because I can’t (only four tests are permitted), we’re testing the Ferrari Challenge car. Or I’m driving, like I said, I was driving a vintage car in the Portland Rally, the Sportscar magazine rally in Portland, all last week. Tour Auto, we’re in the car for a whole week. Hill climbs. Wheel-to-wheel racing. That’s all seat time. If I wasn’t at Lime Rock, I’d (have been) out at Road America with my dad … racing a vintage car. I’m racing the Monterrey Historics this year – not the pre-HIstorics, because we’re at VIR, otherwise I’d be there – which is the Rolex Monterrey Reunion thing, which is a great event. And then Rennsport this year. Rennsport it every four years, a big Porsche event. So I’m driving three or four different cars that weekend. Every now and then we do the Classic 24 Hours at Daytona. I’ve also done the Classic 12 at Sebring. I’m sure there’s some stuff I’m missing. Monday and Tuesday at Road America, we’re testing eight or nine different cars for various reasons. But that’s still seat time. Last year it was, like, 40 weekends.

I’m fortunate enough and humble enough where I’m in a position to do that. I don’t have to be at work from 9 to 5 every day. It’s a great experience, and I’m taking advantage of it, because why not?

Q. Your dad still races, but how much was he doing when you were a little kid?

A. A lot. He started racing in 1979 in a Dodge Neon, because that’s all he could afford, and won the June Sprints in 2008. So he had race cars for a long time. Stopped racing in the early ‘90s to fly airplanes. Flew airplanes for 10 years or so before started again in the mid-2000s. Finished second at Sebring at ’99. Mainly he did SCCA stuff. He didn’t have the time or the money or desire for professional racing. His only professional race was ’99 at Sebring, the 12-hour, when he finished second with Alex Job. But growing up I always went to his races. Kind of caught the bug that way, and obviously the business is automotive-related and racing cars is cool. So why not?

Q. You got to race with him (as a co-driver) once? Multiple times?

A. Historic racing, the 24 at Daytona. The only pro race is Daytona a couple of years ago, when we were second with an hour to go, catching first a second a lap. That’s because our wing was slowly going from down force to up force, so our car kept getting faster and faster until the wing broke and Shane (Van Gisbergen) went spinning off the track. We would have won. My dad, it was his first time doing Daytona, so he would have been a winner for his first time doing it. Then the wing broke, so we went from hero to zero, as they say. He did one stint … and that was it. That’s the only time I’ve really co-driven with him in a true capacity.

Q.That’s a cool thing from a family standpoint. Is there somebody you’d like to co-drive with from the racing standpoint?

A.My dad’s at just about every race. But he is very supportive of me and very invested in it. So he wants us to perform and do well. He’s always there on the pit stand with a radio, seeing what’s going on and talking to me on the radio sometimes. So that’s cool. It’s nice to have family involved. As far as co-driving with … it’s a good question. I’ve already driven, in my opinion, with some of the best sports-car drivers on the planet. Jeroen Bleekmolen, who I won an American Le Mans Series championship in 2013. Shane Van Gisbergen, factory Red Bull driver. Alessandro Balzan is in my opinion is one of the best, as well. We don’t really hold back when we want to put someone in the car. We want to win. We spend so much money. So we don’t really have a budget, so to say, for a co-driver. Would it be cool to co-drive with Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button or Mark Webber or Kimi Raikkonen or, or, or, or? Sure. But there’s also something to be said for team camaraderie, and bringing one superstar in for one race or two races or something, that doesn’t really appeal to me too much. It’d be cool to drive with some of the guys, but it’s all about building a relationship with your co-drivers, and Gunnar (Jeannette)’s been driving with me for many years and we get along great. And Balzan and I have known each other for three years, and we get along better than Gunnar and I do. That’s important. It really is a team sport. There’s only one person driving the car at one time, but there’s so much more behind it that is important, team camaraderie being one of them.

Q. All right, you live in Northern Illinois and drive fast cars. Hwy 57, there’s a few speed traps. … It’s been 15 years since I met any of the local greeting parties. How about you?

A. No. Not up here. Well, actually … there’s one good story.

Downtown Elkhart, it was 11 o’clock at night on an SCCA weekend, rain, pouring rain. You go around the corner and then there’s that stop sign (at the intersection of 67 and A). … I was turning left to go to wherever I was staying. I was driving a six-speed, E92 BMW M3. Great car. It was wet, and I was 18. You push the “m” button, and the “m” button you can pre-program in the computer to turn off that (driver aid) or leave this on. I had it programmed to turn everything off. Because I’m 18 and stupid. So I’m at the stop sign and I turn the steering wheel left and give it a little stab of throttle and may have had a nice, beautiful drift around the corner. I never exceed 20 mph. Maybe the wheel speed did, but the actual speed of the car never exceeded 15 mph, 20 mph. I’m not going 90 mph.

And, well, what I didn’t see when I was turning left was facing this way was a cop sitting there. So I had this nice little drift, cruising along, no big deal. I turn left into the parking light, there are the lights, here we go, I know what this is about. Well, thank God the cop was a car guy. By the time he pulled me over, the rain had lightened up. He comes up in the parking lot. I’m getting out of the car already when he pulls up. And my excuse at the time was, oh, I’m new at this. I’m 18 years old, just trying to figure out stick shift and I just got out of the gas station back there to put gas in it – which was true – so my feet were wet and slipped off the pedals and I got a little too much throttle in it. Hook, line and sinker, he took it, and then we started talking about the V8 engine and it was no big deal. … And I won the race that weekend.

I learned my lesson a long time ago with the law. We don’t need to get into that.

IMSA weekend

What: Continental Tire Road Race Showcase

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Road America, a 4.030-mile road course in Elkhart Lake

Length: 2 hours 40 minutes timed

TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m.

2017 winners: Prototype – Pipo Derani and Johannes van Overbeek, Tequila Patron ESM Nissan DPi; PC – Pato O’Ward and James French, Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09; GTLM – Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT; GTD – Jens Klingmann and Jesse Krohn, Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3

Source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/motor/2018/08/01/q-imsa-driver-cooper-macneil-leading-road-america/883796002/

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