Hi everybody! The 60th Anniversary Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is upon us. This is definitely one of my favorite events, but it's also a long and challenging one, and already has me down! I'm REALLY sick at the moment and have been exiled from the team to A) sleep it off and try to get better as quickly as possible, and B) to not get everyone else on the team sick! Fortunately I rented a motorhome to stay in for this event, but I didn't plan on spending this much time in it! So I'm writing to you from bed, coughing my brains out and trying to rest up!
We've done a bunch of testing recently with ESM Racing in preparation for the 2012 season and Sebring in particular, so we opted not to test on Monday here at Sebring, but hit track yesterday for the two one-hour sessions in the afternoon. For those of you that don't know, I was moved over to the 01 Ferrari for this race in an effort to put our best foot forward for a win here at Sebring, with an all-ESM driver lineup. We want to win this race badly and what better way to do it than with all of us 'pro's' in the same car together? However, I'm sad to leave Ed Brown behind as my teammate this weekend, but he's in great hands as we've brought in Jeff Segal and Anthony Lazzaro to drive with him. Still an extremely strong driver lineup!
Yesterday we had a gearbox oil leak in the 01 car that kept us from running the first session, and the 2nd session saw us bedding brakes for the week and for the race, so losing the first session meant we really didn't get to 'run' at all. I managed to get in the car with just a few minutes remaining in session 2, which got me one full-timed lap before the checkered flag. But at least I hopped in to see what the chaos on track was like - and it was NUTS! 60-something cars from 7 different classes - crazy!
Today we're not on track at all, which worked out perfectly for me as the sickness hit me hard last night after dinner and I've basically been bed-ridden all day, despite a few media obligations this morning.
Tomorrow the event really gets underway with two official practice sessions and night practice. Be sure to follow ALMS' live timing & scoring (click my link on the left) and visit their website for all the event information, and of course check back here often to read up on my Twitter feed and for my daily updates!
Here's to vitamin C and some sleep! Use hand sanitizer out there and cover your mouth when you sneeze & cough, kids! :)
Guy