Watkins Glen

And I thought the BOP in Detroit was bad…They may as well have not even run this race and just handed the win to Whelen and saved everyone a bunch of time and crashes and FCY’s. I was so disillusioned with the whole series at this point I didn’t even care anymore. Kévin wasn’t going to be allowed to win, whether by the team or by the series. But going to races isn’t just about watching cars on track, so I was able to make the most of it. It was also apparently “bring your parents to the race” weekend, since I brought my dad and Kévin brought his mum.

Kévin also brought me a tiny helmet. During Le Mans Spark was selling 1:5 models of Kévin’s helmet for his LMP2 outing with TDS, and I posted a story asking if someone could buy one for me and I would pay them to have it shipped to me. What I did not expect was for Kévin to offer to bring me one. And what I expected even less was for him to actually remember. Sorry I doubted you Kévin.

Having my dad with me for the whole race weekend was cool, he had already been to a bit of Daytona, and to Long Beach, but those are both so different from a “normal” IMSA endurance round. I think he liked seeing how easy it was to interact with drivers and I know he liked meeting Earl Bamber, who is his favorite driver. I, obviously, really enjoy bringing IMSA to the people, so bringing the people to IMSA is the next natural step. And maybe this means we can stop spending so much on F1 every year and go to multiple IMSA races instead.

TDS was also at this race, and since it was the first race since Kévin raced for them it was my first time to be able to go and show support. (Yes, if your team hires Kévin for a race, I will immediately become a massive supporter.) My dad also wanted to meet Tobi Lutke because he learned that Tobi got his start selling snowboards online, and my dad is a snowboarder. I ended up walking away from Watkins with a team shirt, team hat, a gear from the car, and the tiny helmet. I was very much a TDS fan.

For Watkins the car ran its standard livery, and I did my nails with white and red checkered flags and white tips with a red border. This was also my last race before I got my headlights tattoo.

Because the Spa 24 hours was the same weekend as Watkins, some of Porsche’s drivers were unavailable. This led Manthey to tap in Michael Christensen for the Grello which meant I could get all my Pink Pig stuff signed. Michael was a legend and helped me get the lollipop man from the 2018 pink pig mini fig set to sign it as well. All 3 drivers was cool enough, but all 3 drivers plus the lollipop man was extra cool.

Podium # 6 for Cadillac. No Podium for PPM.

Road America

They said going into this race that they knew the championship was no longer a real hope, so they were going to be willing to take more risks going for a win. They did, or well Kévin did, and it didn’t work out too well. Letting Aitken through for P2 would have probably been the smart move. Secure the podium, get the points, and move on. But that fight to the bitter end for every position, 100 or nothing attitude is why I like Kévin as a driver. And if he had just conceded a place, I would have been confused. Happy with a P3, but confused why he didn’t fight for P2.

I was sad about the DNF, upset about the probation, but when it comes down to it, I know my driver,I know how on the limit he is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The throwback liveries at this race were incredible and it is sad they couldn’t have delivered better results. I did my nails in the navy, yellow, and red, with chrome tips to match the car. It was between these and Sebring for best match of the year. Between Watkins and Road America I got Car 6’s pink headlights tattooed on my wrist to commemorate the win at COTA last year, so I was kind of upset that they ran blue headlights to match the livery at Road America. I wanted my tattoo to meet the real thing.

Road America race weekends always open with a welcome party in downtown Elkhart Lake at Siebkens Resort. One of the things this party includes is “celebrity bartenders” which are drivers from the series racing that weekend. I tried to make the most of this, getting drinks for charity from drivers, and even having a drink with a few of them. When people ask me my opinion of Felipe Nasr, I now have an easy answer: cool guy to have a beer with.

I originally planned to camp at the track, but ended up getting a hotel room because torrential rain was predicted, and rain it did. The rain didn’t stop me from being at the track or asking my question to drivers though. Since Wisconsin is so well known for cheese, I asked drivers their favorite cheese. It’s one I knew wasn’t as original as others but I thought the answers would be good.The funniest part of the whole thing was Julien Andlauer pulling out his phone to explain comte cheese when I hadn’t heard of it.

Kévin had an amazing throwback helmet to go with the car and before the race, he not only let me hold it and took a picture of me, but also took a picture with me holding it.

BOP for this race actually seemed more fair than most of the previous rounds. Cadillac still had an advantage, but it wasn’t as bad as before. The advantage was pretty clear when they still got 2 cars on the podium even after the 31 had a DNF. But it sort of felt like every car was in the fight for the podium positions and that’s not something that could be said of every race.

I usually don’t love going over to watch the end of the race from the podium, but the podium at Road America has a big screen on it, so I went. And we all know what happened with 8 minutes to go. Kévin got defensive, he and Aitken crashed, and well, I left the podium to go wait for the wreckage to come back and to hopefully tell Kévin I’d see him in Indy. It really is important to me to be there no matter the result.

Because as much as I wanted to be there to celebrate wins, the wins didn’t seem like they were ever coming, so I had to be there for the losses too. By this point it really was just a season of loss after loss.

Podium #7 for Cadillac. No Podium for PPM.

This is part 4 of a 5 part weekly series documenting my journey to every IMSA GTP round in 2026.