TPM's First Endurance Racing Team WIN!

December 27-28th 2024.

This past weekend was a swirl of emotions, wrapping up a peaky 2024 race season. I did 8 races in the Champcar Endurance Series and dipped my feet in the American Endurance Racing series for a single race. Coming off a slew of lows in my last couple races, I threw in the towel for the rest of the year as I was out of drive and motivation to compete.

Out of the blue, Todd Lamb from Atlanta Speedwerks gave me a call and I agreed to drive with them. However due to unforeseen circumstances, it didn’t pan out. Despite this, Todd went above and beyond to set me up with Justin from Average Joe’s Racing. They were a completely new team for me, so I didn’t know what to expect. Right off the bat, I could tell everything was done to maximize efficiency and keep only the bare necessities. The machine is lightweight in all aspects, from the doors, to the roof, to the windows. Even practice was limited to only 6 laps to feel the car and understand the control panels.

When Saturday rolled around, I ended up catching a cold and feeling weak for the 8-hour race ahead. On top of that, the sunny weather that was forecasted ended up being completely rainy. We didn’t have rain tires, but still gave it our all, fighting a slippery snake of a car the entire time. Two spins and a short circuited windshield wiper kept us from staying at the front, but we did the best we could. We battled our way up to 4th, but ended the day in 9th overall.

Sunday was a bright and shiny new day, but the cold had gotten the best of me to where I only got a few hours of sleep. I messaged the team at 4am and told them I was going to be late. Luckily the extra couple hours I slept made a huge difference for recovery and that allowed me to drive at a decent level. I got there just in the nick of time as Clinton handed me the car in a good position. I fought through my stint and definitely regretted not wearing my Chillout shirt with the sunny weather in the high 70’s. I thought the car was overheating so I pitted for the team to check and they pulled off some tape from the grill. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and ripped the car into 2nd gear, which got us a penalty as I sped in pit lane. I was furious at myself after that and decided to just shut up and pump out laps. Luckily it worked and that landed us in 3rd when I handed the car to Jim during a perfectly timed stop under caution. Jim blasted off a flawless stint and clawed us up to 2nd place. With about an hour and 40 minutes to go, we got a red flag from a car that caught fire. The first place car pitted for their final fuel stop and then again for a black flag penalty. Our team decided to stay out to get back on the lead lap. This worked out for us as we put Justin in for the final stint to chase down the leader. Justin was taking out around 7 seconds a lap to the leader and we expected a fierce battle to the end. Within the last hour, we looked at pit entrance and the leaders came back with heavy front end damage on the right side and they were bleeding coolant everywhere. It’s never what you want to see, but a couple of minutes later we took the lead. However, with 2nd place chasing us, we were forced to maintain the pace all the way to the end. As the minutes counted down, I ran into Todd and Atlanta Speedwerks and they congratulated me as we saw the clock tick to 4pm. This was my first endurance win and it was so momentous for me and my teammates on the Average Joe’s Racing Team.

Thanks to my loving wife Laurie for supporting, recording, and joining me this weekend and thank you to all of our supporters following along!