Getting Back On The Horse

The adage is to get right back on the horse after you fall off. Well, we are more than anxious to get on the horse and ride it to the front, writes Paul Gentilozzi, principal partner and lead driver with JaguarRSR.

This Saturday, we'll be competing our JaguarRSR XKR GT2 in Round Two of the 2010 American Le Mans Series that's part of this year's Grand Prix of Long Beach in California.

As most of you are aware, the 2010 Sebring 12‑hour season opener last month was a race we would like to forget at JaguarRSR.

We left for Florida with high hopes. Early test days gave us improvements in both handling and straight line speed. Not the level of performance we expect for the Jaguar XKR, but a place to measure progress for our winter work.

We chose to take new Chassis #2 to Sebring as our recent modifications allowed us to get to the minimum weight of 1245kgs. We really need to make every minimum for competition; the teams we are fighting have had years to maximize their margins and performance window.

From the very beginning of the Sebring event, we realized we had a fast race car in three sections of the track, performance that was proven by the timing sections provided by the ALMS Technical group. In two of those sections, we were in the top three in speed, in others not so lucky. In the end, our qualifying effort left us just 2.8% behind the fastest of the fast, a number that seems small until we look at the mountain we needed to climb to reduce the margin.

The race was not 12 hours long for us, but barely 12 laps.

We developed a water leak from casting porosity in a cylinder head that took us out of the race; a pin hole that allowed the engine's water content to leak out and raise the engine temperature to intolerable levels.

This was a new engine with two hours of dyno run‑in and 30 minutes in qualifying without failure. They say "that's racing". I would like to punch "they" in the nose sometimes.

From the Tuesday after Sebring, we've worked successive 60‑hour weeks making improvements and gains. I know we are going to achieve our goal and reduce the performance margin. In addition, we know we made positive changes in our engine performance and reliability. We have given all of our castings a thorough test for pressure and added an insurance modification by coating the water passages with a leak‑preventative solution.

Our new team manager, Mike Sales, has had the team humming with mods to reduce heat and assure reliability. Our chassis consultant, Riley Technologies has had enough analysis time to recommend some suspension geometry changes that will help braking and late corner turn‑in. All the things that will reduce lap times.

Long Beach is like going home for me. It was in 1988 that I achieved my first professional victory driving the Budweiser Oldsmobile to beat Scott Pruett and Hurley Haywood. I have done 14 Long Beach events with five victories, eight front row starts and the most laps led of any Trans Am competitor in those years.

For me, I can't wait to get back on the horse. It's all ready to gallop.

Round Two of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, kicks off at 4.40pm PT this Saturday. The race will be televised on SPEED TV starting at 8.00pm ET.