The Ultimate Coaching & Test Day with 2010 Indy 500 Rookie of The Year,
Simona de Silvestro

I simply can not tell you all how amazing it was to spend 4 days with the 2010 Indy 500 Rookie of The Year. This would be the cap of the most amazing and successful year in racing I have ever had! The amazing racer is none other than the most successful woman in professional open wheel racing, and last year’s championship contender in the Atlantic Pro Series. She won 1 race on 2008, 4 races in 2009. She also took 4 pole positions last year. Oh, and the car she drove to all this success is the car I drove this year. This would be none other than the simply amazing Simona de Silvestro, aka the “Swiss Miss.”

To say she is talented would simply be an understatement. Simona has unbelievable talent, a tremendous work ethic, is darn near fearless, and is actually a really great person as well. With her career on a major up swing after her first year as an Indy Car driver, Simona was willing to come out from Indianapolis Indiana, where she lives during her racing season, to California to coach, teach, and share her mindset as to how she drives race cars at over 220 mph.

On Tuesday we both drove over 250 miles on 6 different track configurations, none of which she had driven before. Simona broke the track records on ALL the configurations she drove! On Thursday I drove again with Simona working strictly as a driver coach. She just kept pushing me harder and harder. If you will work hard, she will make you go much quicker.

Now before we get too far here, I will NEVER drive as quick as Simona. She started racing when she was 6 years old and has a ton of God given talent. I started racing when I was, well, a heck of a lot older, and sometimes I wonder if I have any talent to race a car like this. The goal was simply to understand how to drive this car at a very high level, and if I could cut the gap of the difference of our lap times in half that would be a success, and make me virtually unbeatable in the series I race in.

So now we have the data from all our sessions. We also did several lead follow sessions to learn and be critiqued on the exact precise quick line around the tracks various configurations. Simona had me driving faster, more aggressively, and braking later and harder than ever before, which also resulted in a few spin outs. Simona said this was to be expected if you are pushing harder then ever before. I received some very high compliments from her and on several occasions I was able to match her performance on different parts of the track, but not all the parts, every lap. That is really hard to do, and that’s why she gets paid serious money to drive at the highest level of professional racing. But again, I just have to tell you that she is just a great person, and just plain a joy to hang out with. Make no mistake, she is a young lady, and a delight to work with, but when she puts on her gloves and helmet, look out, she is all business, and will kick your butt in a hurry.

To those of you who follow racing, you know how fortunate and blessed I am that this could even happen. This just does not happen every day. But it did for me, and I am so grateful. Now I just have to put these lessons to work, and see if we can build on this year’s success. My “team mate” will be watching my results and I don’t want to disappoint her, I got my butt kicked enough this week. So once again a big thanks to Simona and to Shane Seneviratne and the whole US Racetronics crew, with another big thanks to Mike and Jonathan for their excellent car preparation.

Next on our calendar, besides all the great things happening in A C N is to pick up a little hardware at the awards banquet for winning our championship. Thanks for reading this, and I look foreword to seeing you all very soon, in person, or on our Videophones!!!!
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