As a driver, it’s impossible to go into a race weekend without envisioning everything going smoothly. 

As you pack your driving suit and helmet, you review the schedule in your head and think about how you are going to tackle each session . . . whether it be to sort out the chassis of the car, or up your personal game by practicing pit stops and driver changes.  And maybe because, as a driver, you crave being behind the wheel so much that you just don’t want to imagine not being on track for every available moment. 

But, as we all know, when external forces intervene, there are times when those best laid plans just have to be crumpled into a ball and lobbed into the trash.

That was pretty much the case for my co-driver Trevor Hopwood, and me  this weekend for the second round of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

Sequestered between the outskirts of Miami and Everglades National Park, the palm tree lined Homestead-Miami Speedway is familiar to many, not only for it’s striking turquoise retaining walls, but also as the venue for the final round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. 

Although most will catch the stock cars or Indy Cars tearing around the one and a half mile oval, much like Daytona, Homestead also houses a 2.23 mile road course . . . which, surprisingly for south Florida, even contains a modicum of elevation change! This Grand Prix of Miami weekend was a bounty for sportscar racing fans as, in addition to Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the packed schedule included great races from the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, Ford Racing Mustang Challenge and the Skip Barber National Championship.

Fresh off of a productive test between our last round at Daytona, Trevor and I arrived that the track early, anxious to get behind the wheel of the #12 Kia Forte Koup to see how the new developments would work at Homestead. 

Although the Kinetic crew had done a fantastic job of going through the cars with a fine-toothed comb, our car chief, Lee Web, noted a “soft” brake pedal before we even turned a wheel on track.  A review of the entire braking system uncovered a misaligned fitting that was the source of our problems. Unfortunately, the required repair meant that we would even step into our racing boots, much less behind the wheel, for the first on-track session. Not a huge concern though, as we had plenty of track time left in the weekend. And, as any driver will tell you, brakes are kind of important.

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