Most of you have probably noticed by now that we have a professional racing driver amongst our Family Riders.
His name is Daniel Roos, and those of you with an interest in car racing better keep your eyes on him, cause he is going all in at this. Since the car section of #PIMPSTARLIFE is my responsibility, I convinced the M.F.CEO. that we needed to go. It worked. We went to Mantorp Park this weekend to make sure Daniel kept his edge.
We arrived on Saturday morning, just in time to hear the Audi R8 LMS from Alfab Racing and the other GT cars roar off the grid. This was an epic weekend. Daniel is, it seems, the first Swede ever to do TRIPLE classes. He raced Swedish Touring Car Championships, V8 Thundercars and Swedish GT. Daniel had done the qualifying in both V8 Thundercars and Swedish GT during friday. I asked him about the Audi R8 LMS GT3 part of the weekend:
-We didn’t even do the test on friday morning due to electrical problems. We solved it with only 3,5 minutes to go. So I went out, did one lap, and got pole position.
But… wait, this without any testing?
– Yes. I don’t know. I didn’t have time to think. I was busy getting the pole position, and I did. Yet that lap was slower than my fastest race laps.
So, the race then. You started from first?
-I managed to start with spinning wheels even though it’s a rolling start. It is, after all, 600hp in that thing. (Car weighs 12-1300kg)
So I came out second after the other R8 LMS. Braked past him in the 4:th or 5:th corner. Safety car came out shortly after that, which tightens the field, but then I managed to increase the gap again to about 10 seconds. Handed the car over to Erik through a great pit stop, and then Erik could comfortably take the car to a safe win, having increased the gap to second by yet another 8 seconds making us win by about 18 seconds. (1 lap is roughly 80 seconds).
Thundercars then? What about quali?
-Not to much to say. I came in fourth. I didn’t have new tires since you’re only allowed to use 14 per season, and we’d used twelve. So I was fourth fastest. All the others had four new tires on, so… not much to say. That’s racing.
In race One I didn’t even make it to start because one of the drive shafts caved. So we took the car in to the pit and tried to fix it hoping to get a fast lap in for a good starting position in the second race. We didn’t manage to fix it though, so in the second race I started last. 25:th. Did my best start this season. Came out 16:th after first corner. Then I simply whipped the living daylight out of the poor car. Finished 5:th having passed 19 cars out of 25 during a 14 lap race. I’m quite happy with that performance.
Then you had your first go at a car in the Swedish Touring Car Championships.
You had a seat in the Picko Troberg Racing – team, right?
-Yes, that’s correct. I’ve never raced in Swedish Touring Car Championships before, so this was a big day in many ways. Quali was 9am saturday morning. I wasn’t happy with the car. I hadn’t even been close to the car before, so there was not much time for me to give it a proper setup. I always give a 100% and did so in the STCC as well, but it’s really hard to deliver in a car you’ve not managed to set up properly, and even harder in a car that wasn’t right from the beginning. It was however a great experience, and I believe I’ve proven exactly how fast I am.
A win in Swedish GT in the Audi R8 LMS and passing 19 cars in 14 laps in V8 Thundercars should make everyone aware of the speed I carry. I am looking forward to the 2014 season. But for now: Bring on silly season!
