Now that you have had the opportunity to shake down the car and run a few practice runs, how does the car feel and how close are you to getting it ready for race day?
The car right now feels really good; its performance is just a testament to the time and effort that my father and I put into it during the off season. We can’t take all the credit though I owe huge thanks to Herman Gantt for all that he’s done for us. He was so patient with me and helped us tremendously as far as properly setting up the car is concerned. From what we saw in practice the speed is there we just really need to work on getting me comfortable inside the car. I’m pretty programmed from 30 lap races because that’s what I’ve been competing in my whole career so trying to make myself comfortable and increasing my endurance for much longer races is definitely a priority at this point.
Practice photos can be viewed here - http://www.dancoracing.com/2011_LM_Practice/main.html
How different is it to run a Late Model compared to the Mini Modified?
Bobby Labonte said it best during last year’s 24 hour race at Daytona “It’s just a race car, and I’m a race car driver”. There are very distinct differences between the two no doubt. The late model is a bigger, faster, rocket ship of a machine compared to the mini; but at the end of the day it’s just another race car. All the same principles apply they’re just on a larger scale with greater speeds. Does a 15 second lap time feel different than a 17 second one? Absolutely. I don’t drive based off of lap times; I drive whatever car I’m in as hard as I possibly can to the loss of grip. A 15 second controlled lap is no harder than a 17 second lap with your hands full. The challenge in this division isn’t the car or the speed, it’s the competition.
Any jitters while awaiting opening day?
More like sleepless nights. When you’re like me and you consume yourself with this sport you carry it with you at all times. I wake up thinking of ways to be a better racer and a better athlete, then I’ll go to sleep thinking not only how to do both of the things but also a laundry list of other things like… What can I do to improve my car? How can I be faster? How can I get sponsors? How do I beat these guys? How do I keep these guys from beating me? It never ends! Jitters for opening day? No, not really because for me racing season never ends. I work so hard during the winter months in preparation for the upcoming season that my mind never fully leaves the track. I’ll probably have a slightly different response to that question say a day or two before the first race, but for now, I’m overwhelmed with trying to perfect myself and my race team that I really don’t have time to be nervous or have jitters.
