News

• Montreal, Canada 31st Aug 2010

  This weekend saw the Grand AM series take to the Legendary Streets of Montreal Circuit, Gilles Villeneuve.

  On the evening that I arrived to the hotel I had already been impressed by the Montreal area. The taxi driver had shown me a few places, including the track and a few other local attractions. I was told we would be catching the underground train to the track and I was intrigued to find out that all the land removed to build the Metro system was the base of the man-made island that holds the Montreal Circuit.

  This weekend was another NASCAR / Grand AM weekend, and thousands of Canadian fans surrounded the track for the race. We first set foot on the track on Friday, and John Edwards was first out in the car. However, he only managed to complete a single out lap as one of out competitors had laid down a slick of oil from turn 2 until 9 where they eventually stopped.

  This took a chunk out of testing while the marshals put down sand to soak up the mess. Eventually the track was reopened, and I was able to complete a few laps, although there was a lack of grip the whole way around. I’m sure the oil had something to do with it, but the track hadn’t been used since the F1 Grand Prix earlier in the year, and this also was likely to be a factor.

  Throughout the day the track improved. We pretty much a whole day of testing before qualifying in the early evening.

  I was one of the first out the pits, but the track temperature was down from earlier. It took a few laps to get the tyres up to heat, and I started pushing when the start of the lap felt good. That was until I reached turn 9 under the bridge which lay in the shade – I couldn’t slow the car down quickly enough – and I took a quick detour across the grass.

  I made my way back to the pit lane just for a quick once over to make sure there was no damage, then got back to the business of qualifying, Marcus my engineer radioed-in to tell me that we had 4 minutes to go. I hadn’t even completed a fast lap yet and was currently second from last. I knew I only had one more lap, maybe two, and the pressure was on.

  On my last lap I jumped up the standing and straight in to 4th position where I would start Sunday’s race. I was happy with the qualifying position, also being the top Mazda, but I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed about my mistake earlier in the session.

  On Sunday the race started at 2pm. It was probably the warmest it was going to get all day, and I was starting on the outside for turn one. Off the line it went well on whole; I was side by side with another car but they had a better exit out from turn 3 allowing them to power past before the next corner. Immediately as the second lap began there was a big crash heading into the hairpin, as two Prototype cars must have collided, and one had ended up in the wall bouncing them back across the track, throwing debris everywhere. The safety car was out.

  During the safety car period we used the advantage to pit and put a splash of fuel in. We jumped up into 4th position while everyone else came in to do the same. The 68 SpeedSource crew did another faultless stop. The race went green, but quickly there was further contact between Prototype cars at turn 2, with cars blocking the whole track the focus became avoiding contact with the debris. Some cars opted across the grass but I managed to stay on the tarmac, holding my position. Straight away there were two more safety cars for separate incidents, and it meant pretty much the whole of my stint behind the wheel had been behind the safety car. We were at the half way stage now and decided to pit to use the safety car as time for a driver change. I was in 3rd position as I handed the controls over to John Edwards.

  John took us back into the race, trying to hold our position. The Mazda 69 car managed to get past, but there was a huge gap to the cars behind – we were over three-quarters of a lap ahead due to the safety car – but it wasn’t that way for long as another safety car was needed. This time a Prototype had laid down oil all the way down the back straight.

  This was bad news. John was holding his ground as the race restarted, and we knew our car would be good towards the end, but suddenly the number 31 car made a dart for us and attempted to make an overtaking manoeuvre, but crashed straight into the back of us spinning us right around and left us facing the wrong direction. We couldn’t believe it. With only 15 minutes to go in this 2-hour race, our chances now looked battered. John managed to continue on with just minor body work damage, and we just hoped for another safety car and time to pit, but that opportunity never came. We were down in 9th until number 31 served their drive-through penalty for the earlier contact, and we ended up finishing 8th.

  It was a disappointing result for us, but some good did come of the weekend. Mazda superbly secured the Manufacturers championship with only one race to go, so big congratulations to them and all the Mazda Teams for their efforts and hard work that have helped to secure the title.

  Our next and final race for this season is at Miller Motorpark in Salt Lake city. I’m feeling confident and looking forward to it – last year I was the pace setter and race winner there – so we should be in with a fighting chance of a good result.

• Watkins Glen 11th Aug 2010

  Watkins Glen drew a huge crowd this weekend as the NASCAR series combined with the Grand AM series for another great race event.

  My team mate, John Edwards, managed to take our #68 MazdaSpeed Motorsports Development Mazda RX-8 into 5th during qualification, and the start of our race went well.

  John quickly found himself in 4th, then 3rd, before winding up hot on the tail of the second place #57 car. Although he had the run into penultimate corner, there wasn’t enough time to pull off the overtake, however it wasn’t long before opportunity struck again, and as #57 moved over to the left and onto the racing line, he made contact with a Prototype car in the final corner, and this allowed John to overtake into turn one. Unfortunately for us, the officials ruled it as a contact advantage and we were penalised with a drive through, which dropped us back to 8th or 9th. From what I witnessed, I felt it was a little harsh, but the officials decision was final and we had to get on with our race.

  Just as we passed the 45 minute mark, John handed the car over to me. Our the pitstop was seriously quick, and with no faults or delays, I had a set of fresh tyres and immediately felt confident with our setup and race pace. It took a few laps to warm the tyres but I was able to hold position.

  Once the tyres had some heat in them, the car was on rails. I was chipping my way through the grid and gaining positions. Halfway through my stint I collected the fastest lap of the race, and as I started to catch up with the leaders, cars started pitting for fuel and tyres. I was now in the top three when the team radioed-in telling me to pit on my next lap when suddenly the safety car was deployed half way around the lap.

  It had happened again! The safety timing of the safety car had taken away our advantage and we had to change our race strategy. Half a lap ahead and I would have been able to pit before the safety car and consolidate my top three position, but unfortunately the events meant our only choice now was to come in the pits at after the safety car period, fuel for the end of the race and ultimately that meant we’d lose position. The net result was that we dropped back to near 10th place.

  With just 20 minutes to go, our prospects looked tough. On the restart after the safety car, there was a crash between two Prototype cars, which immediately caused another safety car, and frustrated our progress further as it ate the little time I had left for overtaking. The track was cleared up with 5 minutes to go and I was fighting battles left, right and centre for positions.

  I was side by side with another Mazda going into the bus stop but wasn’t able to pull off the move, which slowed my mid-corner speed down. Suddenly the #07 car gave me a bump from behind and it allowed him past. I eventually made my way into 7th by the time we reached the last lap. I had the run on #40 car going into NASCAR corner, pulled out to the inside and braked half a car length later, putting me into 6th – but his left front wheel clipped my right rear tyre going into the left hander and it bounced me up into the air and gave me a puncture. I was put into a spin. I completed a full 360 degrees on the run off tarmac, dropped it down a gear and aided the car around the last corner and over the finish line, luckily retaining our 6th position.

  I couldn’t believe our general poor luck this weekend. We had a strong car, team and super fast pit stops, but the appearances of the safety car destroyed our original strategy. But such is racing. Half a lap would have made a whole lot of difference.

  Even so, we can leave knowing it was a good race for our points tally, and it leaves us only 6 points behind the 4th team in the team rankings, and similarly, just 6 points behind 6th place in the drivers’ championship. It’s going to be tight with just two events to go, and I’m now focusing our next race which is in Canada, at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

• New Jersey Motorsports Park 21st Jul 2010

  Another successful event for the #68 MazdaSpeed Motorsport Development Mazda RX-8 and the team.

  Heading into this weekend’s race I was feeling quietly confident that the tight and twisty configuration was going to suit our Mazda RX-8’s cars over the other manufacturers.

  However, during testing things didn’t quite go as smoothly as planned. We stumbled into some minor problems during the second session, and it meant we missed the majority of the time available out on track, so it was lucky we had one final test scheduled on qualifying day.

  For the second time this year I wasn’t going to be in charge of qualifying; instead my co-driver John Edwards was. It felt quite unusual watching the cars go out and not needing to be in my race suit. The next 15 minutes passed quickly, and John secured 5th position for the 2hr 45 minute race on Sunday.

  The afternoon on raceday was hot, not far off 100F. We had opted for a double driver change strategy due to the heat. John started the race and handed the car over to me along with a good position – after the pit stop we were lying in 7th and the car felt really good. As other people were burning through their tyres, I was able to hold a consistent pace and started overtaking lapped cars and other cars in fights for position.

  Everything was going to plan until I came across the #07 Corvette. He had been defending his position for a few laps, and I was finally able to take advantage as one of the Prototype cars overtook both of us. I followed into turn one where we ran side by all the way to turn two, he had a slightly better exit from turn one, just inching forward as we went into turn two. I was still on the inside but before I had chance to react he had turned the corner and come straight into the side of me. This was really frustrating and I knew it might cause problems, so I got straight on the radio to my crew to let them know what had happened. Unfortunately a few laps later I had to serve a drive-through penalty which dropped me back to 8th. It was the last thing I wanted, but that’s how these things sometimes go.

  Once I was back on track all I could do was put my head down and push. I still needed to manage my tyre degradation but my pace was faster than the cars in front. By this time I had wrestled into 2nd position just as the safety car came out. Everyone else pitted but we chose to stay out on track, leaving me in the lead behind the safety car. This was great initially, but everyone else’s tyres were now fresh, and a few laps after the safety car pitted I started to lose positions. However, we decided to stick with our strategy.

  I pitted with 30 minutes to go and handed the car over to John Edwards with new tyres and extra fuel. The safety car came out yet again and this played perfectly into our hands, as the whole grid was now packed together. A few teams chose to pit and it moved us up into 5th. A quarter of an hour left to go and we had climbed as far as 2nd position and chasing for the lead.

  It was nail-bitingly close, and when the white flag came out for the last lap there was a single second between us. We were looking good, but as we moved onto the final corner of the lap, the #70 SpeedSource Mazda was held up and it gave us a run to the finish line. Unfortunately it still wasn’t quite enough to do it – we just missed out on the win by 0.17 hundreds of a second. It a truly great experience to be part of a photo-finish!

  Mazda once again have proven they have the car to beat, finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Even more personally satisfying was me and for the SpeedSource Mazda team, as we managed to fill the whole podium – 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

  With the next round at Watkins Glen in three weekend’s time, and with only 3 rounds remaining, things are looking positive after scoring the most points in the last five races – I’m currently 7th in Championship and closing down on 6th.

• At Daytona 6th Jul 2010

  This weekend I had the privilege of racing at the Historic Daytona international raceway, one of the world’s legendary race tracks, known as the “World Center of Racing”, and Venue for the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours; the first race held every year.

  My first testing lap was good fun even though it was extremely wet. I couldn’t believe how steep the banking was as I entered onto the track, all I remember was looking up the tarmac then into the sky. Once up to speed and set at 30 degrees on the slope of the oval, the cars tear down the 2.5 mile-long track at 170mph before braking into turn one onto the infield sector.

  It was raining, but there was a good chance of it drying out for qualifying at midday. This made it really hard to setup the car because we had no absolutely dry data to work from and all we could do was put on a set of slick tyres and work to our basic dry arrangement.

  Qualifying started and it was first out of the pit lane. Taking it easy initially, I allowed two cars past just so I could get an idea of breaking points on the cars ahead. I left myself quite a gap before I started pushing. I was in 5th position which I was fairy happy about, and after two more clear laps I improved my time to 1:51.326, averaging a speed of 115.12 mph. It gave me 3rd position in qualifying. The team had done a great job and the baseline set up of the car felt really good. Getting a P3 for the race after just 6 laps on a track you’ve never raced is a great feeling.

  Unfortunately the start of the race didn’t go as smoothly as planned. I went for a move into 2nd place but didn’t quite get the overtake. Before I knew it I found myself defending my position and slipped back to 5th as the other cars slipstreamed past me. I went for 4th position but things didn’t quite work out again – the 07 Corvette made contact with me – resulting in him spinning out in turn 3. Two laps later I was called in for a drive-through penalty, and this was made even more frustrating as I had managed to recapture 3rd place. I made my way flat out back onto the oval, but the pit speed limit of 45mph had dropped me down to last.

  After many hard battles, I had made my way back up to near the front of the field. We had made a pit stop during a safety car period, put on new tyres, and fuelled up. The safety car packed the grid tightly allowing me to gain a few more positions, and at lap 30 there was another safety car by which time I was in 5th.

  It was time to hand over to John. Our driver change pit stop put us in 8th, and John made good progress making his way back up to 5th. He was hunting down 4th place until 5 minutes before the end of the race when he made the move and ran side by side for over half the lap but couldn’t quite make it stick. He continued to push hard but the chequered flag came down and sealed our 5th place finish.

  Daytona was an extremely tough race, but really enjoyable with the repeated challenges for position. With only a third of the championship remaining, we have now climbed up the tables from 8th to 7th.

  The next race is at New Jersey on July 16th – 18th for Round 9.

• Mid-Ohio Race Weekend 29th Jun 2010

  The Mid-Ohio Race course has unique characteristics. With one long straight; plenty of elevations; tight, twisty and flowing combined corners; it’s tricky for the drivers, the cars, and overtaking, but the flip-side is that guarantees action-packed races.

  The start of the Mid Ohio race weekend didn’t go as planned, I had been to the track the previous week in an Indy Lights car, which went very well, but in a Mazda RX-8 GT car it was a different experience. The braking points were a lot earlier, the gears were different and the cornering speeds were lower. It was going to take some getting used to.

  During testing I felt we were off the pace. We were around 8th fastest, but I really had to drive the car hard to get the times. I was also extremely busy behind the wheel which was unusual. We kept on making setup changes but nothing we did seemed to make much difference, and I didn’t have much confidence in the car. In the two practice sessions before qualifying on the Friday, we were still struggling. After pouring over the data and setup sheets we eventually decided to change a few final things before going into qualifying.

  The fifteen minute qualifying period started at 5pm, and we waited in the pits to ensure I had clear track, which would help to get the best out the car. Those last minute changes had worked and it felt like a different vehicle; the whole car felt hooked up, I was braking so deep into the corners, yet able to stop it, turn and get out of the corner with no problems. Each lap I went faster and faster, and I was able to get into 5th place. Eventually I produced a lap of 1:24:35 seconds, securing 3rd and I then consolidated that with another lap one thousand of a second quicker. I was now within two-tenths of pole position, which meant we were the closest we had been to the right pace all weekend. Both my own and the team’s confidence was lifted and we felt good for the race on Saturday evening.

  On race day there was a threat of rain in the afternoon, due to start just as the race was scheduled to begin. During the morning session we tried a few more things, but with testing at 8.40am and the race at 5pm the day was very long. Luckily we had a busy driver meet and autograph session with the fans coming in for the Mid-Ohio race which broke up our day.

  By the time the race started there wasn’t much sign of the predicted rain and instead it remained very hot. The start of the race was scruffy. The first corner was always going to be tight, and I was hoping to get down the inside of the 94 BMW, but I couldn’t quite pull it off here. He was battling for the lead and seemed unstoppable – the amount of torque he was producing was huge, and it meant there was no way of keeping up with him in a straight line. The BMW wasn’t necessarily the fastest car around the corners, but once it was pointing in a straight line it was shifting pretty fast, and I wasn’t exactly hanging around on the straight either, reaching around 160+ mph.

  Twenty minutes into the race there was a crash at turn one. Two of my competitors had made contact and one of them ended up in the wall, luckily walking away unhurt. During the safety car period we planned to pit to top up with fuel, change tyres and rejoin the race in good time, but things didn’t quite work out that way.

  The car was lifted up on the air jacks, but the front right wheel didn’t go on fully. The SpeedSource crew ended up having to jump back over the wall to tighten it up, and to me it seemed like a lifetime waiting in the car. It was the 1st mistake the team had made in any pitstop all year.

  The wheel was secured and I made my way to the end of the pit lane, but I had to wait for the safety car to come by again before I was released back onto the track. This also seemed to take forever. Despite it not being the quickest of stops, I think I was now roughly in 8th position. All I knew was I now had to pass as many cars as quickly aspossible. I found my way in 5th position before we had another safety car, but this time unfortunately it was for a crash between a car that had spun out in front of my SpeedSource teammates’ number 70 car, and the water and oil leaks the crash caused meant they had to retire them from the race.

  The safety car altered things again, and the other teams changed their strategies. I was in 5th place battling my way forwards with two other Mazda RX-8s. It proved to be extremely tough overtake, and I made a contact trying to leverage my way into 3rd position.

  The Mazdas proved to be the hardest to get past, as they share the same strengths and weaknesses of my own car. I attempted to overtake whilst defending against the 94 BMW – there was a bit of contact from behind as well as from the side, rubbing fenders with the other Mazda. It was a hard and fair fought battle, and while no one did anything unexpected or out of control, it provided me with one of the most exciting battles for position that I have ever been involved in.

  Yet again there was another safety car. The two cars in front chose to pit but I carried on, now in the lead and behind the safety car. Just as the safety car was ready to come in a had quite a heavy hit from behind. The 94 BMW was pressuring me. I held my ground and kept the lead for a number of laps, and although he was able to get alongside me on the straights, I positioned myself in the right places, managing to keep the lead by out braking and defending for the lead. This was another amazingly hard-fought battle, and something I never really encountered while racing single seaters which tend to hold your position more.

  The BMW eventually got by me on the straight, and now I found myself trying to keep up with his first place car while defending off the 3rd place contender. The power of the other manufacturers was tough for us to compete with; but we made up for that with the better cornering speeds. Yet again there was more contact, the rear of my car was taking quite a bit battering, but the race raged on. I eventually earned myself a bit of a gap, just enough to catch my breath, and by this time roughly 1 hour 15 had past. Still in second, it was looking good, before the safety car made its way out again due to another car getting stranded in the gravel.

  While the safety crew cleaned the track, I made my way into the pits to hand the car over to John Edwards, my co-driver. We had a fast stop. We only lost a few positions, but there was still plenty of time until the end of the race. John made good progress and we were still in the top five.

  Whilst John powered on, I was taken to the medical centre. The extreme high temperature inside the car had dehydrated me, despite having a two 2 litre drinks bottle with me. I was fine when I stepped out of the car and whilst my adrenalin was still pumping, it was only shortly after I started to not feel well.

  Luckily I didn’t miss too much of the race. With an hour to go, and the safety car was out again, and John pitted for an extremely short stop. It put us in a position to just finish the race, and this strategy worked perfectly, as we were now in 3rd place. We knew the drivers in front were not going to make it on fuel, so with half a hour to go we were back in the lead.

  The pressure was now on the 94 BMW who was in second place and slowly inching up. John drove amazingly well, and it was only until when of the prototype cars made a slow overtaking move on him that it allowed the 94 BMW to get up on the inside of Keyhole corner, nudging John and putting him off-position, giving the BMW the lead.

  There were now just 15 minutes to go and the big question was would the BMWs fuel last. The last lap came; we were still in 2nd position, and that is where we finished.

  For me the experience was a race to remember. The amount of action was fantastic. It was only afterwards that we discovered the BMW had to go onto reserve fuel for the final lap, meaning if there had been one more circuit to complete, we may well have won.

  Either way, I was over the moon, and so was the SpeedSource Mazda crew. They had done a stunning job once again, and we were the top finishing Mazda, demonstrating once more that we have the speed, and pace to win more races and make it onto the podium.

  I can’t wait for another action filled race like Mid-Ohio, but I’m looking to take one more step on the podium next time. The next race is on July 3rd at Daytona, Florida.

• Star Mazda Champion Tests Andersen Racing Indy Lights Car 17th Jun 2010

  PALMETTO, Fla., June 16 — Adam Christodoulou received one of the perks he earned for winning the driver title in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear when he tested one of Andersen Racing’s Firestone Indy Lights cars at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio last Thursday.

  Christodoulou’s test was the result of a collaborative effort between Mazda, Performance Friction, the Star Mazda series and the Palmetto, Fla.-based team, which was the series’ top team in 2008, finished second in 2009 and is currently leading the 2010 team point standings. Andersen Racing will make its 75th consecutive Star Mazda start this Saturday at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, where it hopes its four Star Mazda drivers (Mikael Grenier, Anders Krohn, Tristan Vautier and Nick Andries) will add a 17th pole position and an 18th race victory to the stats it has already accumulated in the series. It is the only team still actively participating in the series since the debut of the current generation of Star Mazda race car in 2004.

  That kind of commitment and those achievements coupled with the team’s extensive driver development program that includes karting programs, a Firestone Indy Lights team and a Star Mazda team made Andersen Racing the perfect group to conduct the test for Mazda, the series and Performance Friction. The team has also been tabbed to conduct a similar test for the 2010 Star Mazda champion.

  Performance Friction stepped up to sponsor the test because it is also devoted to supporting rising open-wheel talent. The company is the exclusive brake pad and disc supplier for the first two levels of the Indy Racing League’s Road to Indy program: the USF2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires and powered by Mazda, and the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. Its products are also used by nearly all the teams in Firestone Indy Lights, which is the final step on the official Road to Indy ladder prior to the IZOD IndyCar Series.
  Christodoulou, who turned 21 the day after the test, completed 89 laps on Mid-Ohio’s 2.258-mile road course in Andersen Racing’s No. 4 Firestone Indy Lights car, which is normally driven by Carmen Jorda. It was a return to his open-wheel roots, as he also won the 2008 British Formula Renault Championship in addition to the 2009 Star Mazda title. The native of Litchfield, Staffordshire, England has been driving a Mazda RX-8 in the GT division of the Grand-Am Rolex Series this year with the 2008 Star Mazda champion, John Edwards, as Mazda continues its role as the car manufacturer most committed to supporting North America’s open-wheel development series. Both the USF2000 National Championship and Star Mazda are part of the MAZDASPEED driver development program in addition to the Indy Racing League’s Road to Indy program.

  “I was very pleased with Adam’s test,” said Andersen Racing co-owner John Andersen. “He showed that with a little bit of seat time he was able to run with the best Firestone Indy Lights drivers.

  “This was not Adam’s first test of a Firestone Indy Lights car, as he tested with Bryan Herta’s team last September,” Andersen added.

  “We were the first team in North America to test Adam in a Star Mazda car back in early 2009, and we knew then what a talent he is,” added his brother and team co-owner, Dan Andersen. “It was a real delight to be able to provide our Firestone Indy Lights team and race car and see him perform so well once again. We would welcome an opportunity to have him on our Firestone Indy Lights team sometime in the future.”

  “The test at Mid-Ohio in the Firestone Indy Lights car definitely put a huge smile on my face,” said Christodoulou. “This test was possible thanks to Performance Friction brakes, Mazda and Andersen Racing, and it was a pleasure to be back in a single-seater.

  “At first it was quite strange getting back into a single-seater car, as I hadn’t been in one for at least eight months, and I had only been in a Firestone Indy Lights car once last year.

  “The first thing I noticed was how quiet it seemed compared to the scream of the three-rotor Mazda RX-8 I have been racing all season,” he added. “I was also braking far too early for all the corners. The brakes felt unbelievably good, and I was over-slowing the car and wasn’t getting the best out the brakes until my second or third run. Then I was carrying a lot more speed and was a lot more efficient on the brakes.

  “I got on really well with all the Andersen crew,” he continued. “It’s the first time I got to meet all the guys from the Firestone Indy Lights side of the team, and they did a great job with the car. Everything ran smoothly and we didn’t run into any problems.

  “I had plenty of time in the car even though we were restricted on miles,” he said. “I completed roughly 80 laps, with my third-from-last lap being my quickest all day, even with worn tires. We made some very minor changes but I think the biggest time difference was just me adjusting to the car. I felt that each time I got in the car I picked up fractions of a second here and there.

  “It would have been nice to have put on a new set of tires at the end of the day just to see how I compared to the other seasoned Firestone Indy Lights drivers, but overall it was a fun day and it was nice to be able to test against the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights drivers,” he concluded. “I have to say a big ‘Thank you!’ to all the people who put this deal together for me, especially Performance Friction brakes, MAZDASPEED Development and Andersen Racing. I look forward to hopping into a Firestone Indy Lights car again if the opportunity arises.”

• Six Hours of Watkins Glen 8th Jun 2010

  It was a short turn around for the SpeedSource crew this week. After a dream start to the week at Lime Rock on Monday – we took the win – it was soon time for our next challenge, the 6 hours of Watkins Glen. This was going to be the longest endurance race I had ever participated in.

  It was the first time I had driven the 3.4 mile track. Last year there had been an opportunity, but only to help another driver with some coaching, and I only managed to cycle around it on a bike. But at speed it is very different, especially through the uphill esses onto the straight. It’s a lot narrower and tighter, and by the end of the straight you can reach speeds of up to 160mph. The narrow track layout reminded me of a street course, but even so, it remains a very fast circuit.

  We had two morning sessions before qualifying and then an evening session on Friday. One of the other changes for this weekend was the addition of an extra driver, Tom Long, who would be around to help with the extended distance.

  I qualified the car on the Friday afternoon, completing the twelve-cornered-track in 1:50.917 seconds, averaging 110.35mph, and that got us a qualifying place of 5th. I also was lined up to be first team driver for the race.

  On the grid, I discovered that I had been moved up into 4th position. One of my competitors had crashed during warm-up and was starting last. The nature of the Watkins Glen track means there isn’t such a thing as a small crash, and with all the high speed corners, if you do run off, it means damage. There were already a handful of cars retired from incidents incurred during testing.

  My start wasn’t the best, I was stuck on the outside for the first corner which allowed one or two cars to slip past, and then another overtook on the main straight. Even though I was a little annoyed with myself for not keeping my position, I knew a six hour race wasn’t going to be won on the first lap. During this first stint, some of the cars in front were pushing hard to overtake and there was a lot of small-contact. The race was going to be a survival game, and things became interesting when it started raining on parts of the track. I ran wide at turn one, but made it back to the track without loosing position or much too much time. It was unbelievably greasy. I was on a set of slick tyres like everyone else, and they didn’t like the wet one bit. By the end of my stint we were in fifth position, and I handed the car over to my co-driver, John Edwards.

  John’s stint was marked with rain as well. It was a tricky situation because we could have made a pitstop and changed to wet tyres. This would have made us been quicker in the slippy conditions, would have risked having to pit again once the track started to dry out. We opted to stay out on track, as did everyone else.

  It all went smoothly after the rain subsided, and we were in a strong position. John handed the car over to Tom Long, and we were about 2 hours in now. 4 hours to go.

  Tom’s stint encountered a safety car, and some cars pitted. Tom led the race for a few laps, but a handful of drivers squeezed past. With the limited amount of time Tom had in the car, he had tough stint, but he drove well and kept the car in one piece. Going into the corner at the end of the straight, two cars immediately in front of him crashed, and Tom narrowly avoided them as they blocked the track.

  John got back in to drive the fourth stint, and were were at the halfway point of the race. The track remained dry and the weather didn’t change during this period. We were getting close to making a pit stop when suddenly the safety car reappeared, posing a problem for us as we were extremely low on fuel. Had come in during the safety car we would have had to have taken a drive through penalty, so we were forced to try and make another lap, running the risk of stopping dead. The car started to stutter as the engine neared empty, so it was a great relief when John appeared at the end of the pitlane.

  It was now my final stint in the car. I had just exited the pits as the safety car indicated it was coming in. I went flat out to try and catch up the other cars, and just as I came around the last corner the safety car pulled in. Perfect timing, I caught up just as everyone went into the first corner, and while managing to overtake a few lapped cars, ended up in 4th position.

  For the whole of this leg I was hunting down the 3rd place 70 Mazda RX-8, trying to get close enough to make a pass. Our cars were evenly matched and it was tough to make the move. Again the safety car came out with 10 minutes to go until the next driver change, and everyone came into the pits with an hour to go. We had another perfect pitstop from the SpeedSource crew, and changed driver, tyres while adding enough fuel to get us to the end of the race.

  John was in the car for the last hour. We had such a good pitstop we had jumped from 4th to 3rd position, with a 9 second gap to 4th place. Everything was looking good. It was 7pm and the sun going down. The track had cooled down and all the cars had their headlights on. Not much changed for 30 minutes until one of the prototype cars encountered a problem in the engine bay and went up in flames. Luckily it was only three corners from the end of the lap, and managed to make it to the entrance of the pitlane, where the driver stopped the car and escaped from the drivers seat whilst the fire crew took care of the situation.

  This brought out the safety car once more, bunching up all the cars. We lost our nine second advantage. John battled hard to defend his position, but after a few laps the 4th place car made a move into the bus stop corner which nudged John off-line and allowed another car to squeeze past too. It knocked us down to 5th place. John now found himself on the end of another nudge from behind, and that moved us down to 6th place. With just a few minutes to spare, one of the cars in front suffered a puncture, and we moved back into fifth place; the position which we held until the chequered flag.

  It was a tough race. We were quick, but struggled as the track cooled down towards the end of the day. I need to say well done to all the crew. Our pitstops, refueling, driver changes and tyre changes were faultless; they even managed to make some setup changes during the race without loosing any time. We came away with a 5th place finish from 19 cars in our class, and had completed our first 6 hour event.

  The next race is in two weeks time, June 19th at Mid Ohio Raceway.

• Adam Christodoulou and John Edwards score top honours at Lime Rock 1st Jun 2010

  In only their fourth race, SpeedSource’s Adam Christodoulou and John Edwards scored top honours in the Rolex GT Seris at Lime Rock. The Mazda development driver graduates led a 1-2-3-4 finish for the RX-8s in another convincing performance for the Japanese brand.

  A strategic pit call put the No. 07 Corvette in the early lead, but Christodoulou took over the point on lap 39. From that point on, Christodoulou and Edwards were unstoppable. While the No. 30 Mazda also briefly led thanks to quick pit work by his Racers Edge crew, the No. 68 SpeedSource machine was the car to beat all race.

  “I think the last ten minutes were probably the longest ten minutes of my life!” Edwards said. “They were certainly the longest since my last race last year that I had to go through the same thing with pressure from behind and trying to stay ahead and not make any mistakes.”

  The pair of open-wheel turned sports car drivers shined thanks in part to their brand-new SpeedSource-built Mazda. Only finishing building the car days before heading to Lime Rock, the new RX-8, which replaced the older-spec machine borrowed from Jack Smith owner of Yellow Dragon Racing, completed its first laps on track this morning, just hours before taking it to victory.

  “I’m just thrilled, the heat today was unbelievable. but apart from that, it’s been an awsome day, the car handled beautifully, It didn’t have any faults to it. The SpeedSource team put it together in the last month, and the first test we had was this morning. First, second and third today for Mazda on the podium – you can’t beat that,” smiled Adam Christodoulou.

  While Edwards and Christodoulou didn’t have the seat time nor car developments of their teammates in the opening three races, it all came together today.

  “Every time we hop in the car, I know we learn something,” Christodoulou said. “Just from the experience of those three races in the older spec car its helped hugely, without the other car, we would have been on the side watching the start of the GRAND-AM series. I know the race experience and the development of the car have brought it all together.”

  Edwards added: “There’s no one change they made to the new car. There’s an endless list of very small changes that have made a difference to the car. That’s just part of development and part of Mazda learning of what works with the car and what works with the tires. Every time SpeedSource makes a new car, it’s the best car they built because they learn as they go. That showed here today with the very first day of the car and we came in P1.”
  It marked the fourth victory in five races for SpeedSource entries, which has placed all three of its cars at the top of the podium this season.

  “Every one of the SpeedSource cars has won a race this year, and that speeds volumes for the effort we put in at the shop,” said team owner Tremblay. “The No. 68 was a brand-new car – today was the first time it’s been on the track – and it’s a credit to the Mazda ladder program to give us two young drivers with this kind of talent.”

  There’s no rest for Rolex Series competitors, as the Six Hours of The Glen is up next on June 5.

• Christodoulou Returns To Virginia International Raceway 28th Apr 2010

  It’s been a busy week, and following a huge struggle with planes to America, I finally managed to reach the Virginia International Raceway in time for the race. It took a total of 36 hours to get to my destination; and required six trains, from Lichfield to London, then Brussels, then Amsterdam followed by two flights to Minneapolis and onto Raleigh/Durham to reach the track. It was set to be a 2 hour 45 minute race at Virginia International Raceway, not too far from New York.

  After all the successes we have had in the Mazda RX8 this year, we had been given a weight ballast to be added the cars this week; an extra 70lb. I had already been to the track during the season last year, but a major difference now is that many of the corners had been made a lot harder. Virginia is extremely quick, with a lot of high speed flowing turns. From the tuned aerodynamics of last year, to a higher concentration on power and speed (but therefore less grip) this year, it proved to be tricky. There were parts of the track that I had never had to think about before, and now I was fighting with the steering to keep it going in the right direction.

  Qualifying was tough. I scooped 6th on my second lap but then had a huge wheel lock-up and flat-spotted my front tyres. I couldn’t complete any more laps. Luckily my time was good enough to stay in 6th, but I was annoyed with myself as I knew I could have been quick enough to break into the top five.

  I started the race. I was fighting for 5th the majority of the time, but even after I eventually made my way past the guy in front I had to take a pitstop for more fuel.

  I was back in 6th, then dropped to 7th. It was getting close to the two hour mark, and my engineer was on the radio to me telling me to keep on pushing.

  There were only a few minutes before our last pitstop, and suddenly the safety car was out. This changed a lot of things, but not in our favour. Everyone was bunched up; all the cars pitted for the final time and we made a driver change (I passed the car onto John Edwards). We made a tyre change and refuelled, but our pit stop wasn’t the quickest andwe lost a few more places. By this time we were now in 10th position.

  During the last hour there were another three safety cars, and this didn’t help as it was using up our time to take those positions back. Five laps from the end we realised we couldn’t gain any more places, and then on the last corner on the last lap, John became snared up behind a slightly slower car, allowing the 11th place car to power past just before the finish line.

  Had the safety car had been deployed 4 or 5 minutes after our pitstop it would have played beautifully in our favour, but that just wasn’t how this race was destined to play out. It was just a case of unfortunate timing.

  We’re now off to Lime Rock for testing in preparation for the next race on May 31st, in around a month’s time.

• Adam scores a strong result in Round 3 of the Grand AM Series 16th Apr 2010

  Going into this weekend’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, I knew it was going to be a steep learning curve.

  My driving partner John Edwards had only been here once before – and that was 6 years ago. The first test on Thursday proved to be a tough one. I was first in the car and we didn’t complete to many laps due to the limited amount of time we had to learn the track. The car was a little unbalanced, but we worked hard with the crew and through the weekend. After looking at data and working on setup changes, we had a 30 minute practice on Friday, and we could see we were making steps in the right direction.

  Going into my first qualifying of the season, things didn’t quite work out as we had planned. During the previous session, one of the Daytona prototype drivers had made heavy contact with a safety barrier, which set back our qualifying. All the GT class cars were waiting in the pit lane. Just as one minute warning sounded (before qualifying starts), my engineer radioed to me that the session had been cut down to just 5 minutes and we wouldn’t get the full 15 minute qualifying.

  The pressure was on. I knew where I needed to improve on the previous session, and I was confident we had made the right move with the setup changes. At an average of 1 min 30 sec per lap, it meant we wouldn’t get many laps done in the time. On my first circuit I worked on bringing the tyres up to temperature, my second I went for a flying lap, just to get a reasonable time, but I ended up held up by another car.

  I made sure I had a decent gap in front of me for my last lap, at this point I still hadn’t produced a respectable time for qualifying. I only had one final chance for a fast lap. The start of the lap felt good but could have been better as the tyres were still coming up to temperature but the end of the lap the car felt as if it was on rails. This is the best the car had felt all weekend, it seemed to be on the edge, but comfortable at the same time. I came across the finish line in 5th and all I had to do now was wait for the other cars to complete their final laps. Jonathan Bomarito, my team mate in the number 70 Mazda SpeedSource, came in on pole position, nudging me into 6th place overall.

  Saturday was race day, and the main event started at 12.30. It was becoming a hot day, and I was starting in the car because of my qualifying result.

  The start was awesome. A rolling start, we approached the start line, all the cars lined up two by two. I had been promoted back up to fifth as one of the cars ahead of me had been disqualified. My other team mate was alongside me for the start in the 69 Mazda SpeedSource car.

  Going into the first corner I held 5th, I went all the way round the outside of turn 2, 3, and 4 which gave me the opportunity for overtaking into turn 5 hairpin. The car next to me was squeezing me towards the corner but I kept my ground, then suddenly – bang! My car jumped in the air; we had made contact with our front wheels.

  We overshot the corner a little bit but not enough to lose position, and I had the line for the next few corners. I had made my way into 4th place. As the race settled down I kept position, but roughly 30 minutes into the race the safety car was called out when one of the Daytona prototypes had engine problems and went up in smoke.

  During the safety car a lot can happen. It’s normally a good time for pit stops, and my crew were on the radio to me, telling me to come in. We took the opportunity to make a stop, put tyres on the car and refuelled. It went well, but we lost a few positions during the time, but when we rejoined the procession, the safety car was still out.

  Later there was another safety car, and I was able to stay out on track for this one. The race continued and we remained in a good position. Roughly at the half way stage we pitted for a driver change, and I handed the car over to my racing partner John Edwards. We had a successful switch (we practice each day) and at this point we were running in 9th place.

  A few more cars came in for their pit stops and John started to make good progress on the track. We were now up and running in about 5th place, gaining on the cars ahead. With roughly one hour to go there was yet another safety car and some teams came in to pit, so we were actually leading the race for a short while. We needed to make one more pit stop towards the end for fuel, and rejoined in 6th position, but quickly caught up with the 5th place car and took the position. At the end of the race we were also chasing 4th place, but we ran out of time. Our 2 hours 45 minutes was up.

  It was a long and tough race, but the SpeedSource crew did a great job, especially John. We experienced no faults during the race or the pit stops bar a few minor scuffs on the car. We had been aiming for a top five finish, and were really pleased to manage to grab 5th in just our second race.

  Each time John and I practice in the car with the team, we learn something new, and all the time this helps us to consolidate our performance and improve ready for our next race. Virginia International Raceway is in two weekends time, and unlike Barber, we both know the track, and we’re really getting to grips with the car. As the team gels more and more, there is a definite feeling that we can now achieve our first podium.