Watkins Glen

The fact is the MINI is amazing in the rainI We saw the potential for rain in qualifying and we were obviously excited. Unfortunately we only had one set of fresh rain tires (not scrubs), which take a lap to break in. With our fifteen-minute qualifying format it really only allows for a few flying laps. After the second lap we were well inside the top Ten, but I knew my delta to pole was seconds not 10ths. With two laps to go I dove into turn one and I out braked myself, blowing the corner and therefore blowing the lap. I radioed into Mat Pombo, my co-driver, who let me know exactly how much time was left so I could

cross start/finish to get one more flying lap. I cooled my tires for that lap making sure that I could get the best run on the final lap, while still crossing start/final prior to the end of the session. Coming out of T1 I knew I had the potential of a good lap so I set out to get to the rain/grip threshold of each corner.

In hindsight there was another half a second in the lap, but it was enough for pole, just clipping my teammate James Vance. Obviously we were all ecstatic and felt it was a turning point. From that point on our Qualifying efforts have been much better.