While this might have been round two for everyone else, for Prestanda NOMAD this was round one of the 2022 IVRA Endurance series. A mishap on race day last time out meant that our driver lineup was ineligible and all we could do was watch as the season got off to a start at Road America.
This time out, for the 1000 Miles of COTA, we were able to field a lineup in the form of Ryan Hamilton and a new recruit: Sapphire-rated driver Berke Köse. In the GT3 class, Sapphire drivers have to run at least 40% of the race, as well as qualify and start.
In practice sessions leading up to the race, it was clear that we were struggling a bit more for pace and consistency than the others around us, so the briefing before the race focussed on getting through the race with minimal mishaps and seeing where we ended up.
Berke put the car in P11 on his first qualifying outing with the team and turned his focus to the race. The early laps were full of drama and, from near the back of the 3-class field, Berke did a great job to keep the car clean and move forwards a few positions. Other than a spin from a tap from then #13 LMP2 driver, and more than our planned number of track limit issues, these were great first stints from our newest driver. Those stints included the first, and what turned out to be the only, safety car period of the race. We stuck to a previously decided strategy and stayed out, doing the opposite to most cars in class and putting us on an offset strategy for the rest of the race.
As Ryan began his double stint, this offset strategy meant that we could spend portions of the race fighting at the front of our class – even managing to take the lead momentarily early on in a great fight with the reigning champions in the #201 Archer Brothers car.
From there, though the focus turned to maximise our realistic finishing position. What we needed was a late safety car during a part of our stints where we were in our higher positions to get us back onto the same strategy as the majority, but it never came. In the end, the car came home in a very solid 8th position. As a team, the most important thing we want to achieve in every event is to execute our race as well as we can, with as few issues of our fault as possible. Other than a 25-second track limits issue, which was a problem for around half our class, we can be happy with doing that this weekend.
The focus for the team on the endurance side now looks towards Daytona in mid-December, and we hope for another good result.