| Sunday, January 30, 2022 Gar Robinson, Michael Cooper, Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo Q. Back to back Rolex 24 twins. How does that feel, Gar Robinson? GAR ROBINSON: Pretty special. Growing up as a kid, this was always the race for me that I wanted to win since I started coming here back in the ’90s. Everyone always says they met me as a kid. Okay, nice to see you again. No, it’s always been — I’m very good friends with the Andrettis, the Unsers. Indianapolis is a very special race for them. The Rolex 24 at Daytona is a very special race for myself and my family. The ability to win the first one was very special. It took generations of Robinsons racing to win the first one. I mean, winning two, especially in a row, back to back, is something I never thought would have been something that was even in the cards for us. Even Bill said he’s never won two back to backs. Being able to do that for him was very, very special. Q. How did you pull it off? What did you do right for 24 hours? GAR ROBINSON: So this is really weird. I just turned 27. I’m getting to that late 20s now. I’m not necessarily as young as I used to be (smiling). No, I’m still very strong and whatever. It was weird because it was the first — so before this year, before today, I always kind of felt like the new kid, the younger kid that had to learn from teammates, co-drivers. I’ve always had coaches and stuff like that that helped me. We still do help each other throughout the weekend, stuff like that. But it was the first time that I kind of felt that — this was the first time I had more Rolex 24 starts than the rest of my crew members. I’m the second oldest person on the team. So that was very strange for me. It was also nice to be able to — I kind of found myself going from someone needing instruction to someone giving instruction. So for me that was really fun. I really did enjoy that. This 24 Hours, when I started this race, it was the most ready I’d ever been for the Rolex 24. It was the first time I’ve come back in the same car that I started in last year and finished in last year, or the same type of car, different chassis, but same kind of car. It’s the first time that we’ve had consistency, which is very nice for me. I’ve had a lot of time last year to grow in these cars, figure out how downforce and all that stuff works, be able to trust the car, learn a lot from Felipe and Scott Andrews, everyone else who has helped me, put up with me, all that. No, it was the first time I’ve ever really kind of started giving advice about how to deal with traffic and what to expect during the race. There’s always these little weird things that happen in this race. I mean, it takes pace, but you also have to be very smart running this. That was one of the things that I argued with John Donovan about, John Donovan and Bill Riley, when we were drivers. There’s drivers that will set the world on fire pace-wise, but they don’t race well. Me coming from Trans-Am I have heavy-duty, side-by-side racing experience. I think I know how to spot a good racer when I see one. Who to look for and who not to look for. I think we definitely, definitely hit the nail on the head finding Kay and Michael Cooper. I think they were very good additions to this team. But it was cool to be able to make those decisions with the team, kind of help them all get used to this race. I know both Kay and Michael haven’t started this race before, so it was fun for me to be able to explain what goes on, what happens, what to look out for, what to go through. I mean, it’s everything from don’t make mistakes to make sure to ask somebody to clean your windshield, pull a tearoff when you need it. When the sun starts coming down, there’s oil all over the windshield. You can’t see. Like you can’t see coming out of turn six. You can’t see where your pit box is. Coming out of the front straight, they always check up right there. You always need to be very focused with that. There’s just stuff that I now anticipate that I can tell them to anticipate. It was a very fun role. I look forward to more of ’em. Q. Michael Cooper, how does it feel to be a Rolex 24 champion? MICHAEL COOPER: I think it will feel pretty good when I lay my head on a pillow tonight. I don’t know that it’s really sunk in yet. With only an hour of sleep yesterday at 7:00 in the morning, everything is kind of fuzzy (smiling). But it’s pretty cool. That’s a good reminder right there (showing the Rolex). Q. How did you do it? You seemed to be pretty consistent throughout all 24 hours. MICHAEL COOPER: Stay out of trouble, be consistent, get Gar done and up front early. Felipe and Kay and Gar gave it our all. We were fortunate. We had a couple close calls there, but persevered through. The whole Riley Motorsports team, it’s awesome. Q. Felipe, you unfortunately had to miss this race last year? FELIPE FRAGA: Yes. Q. How does it feel to come back and be on the top step of the Rolex 24? FELIPE FRAGA: It’s very nice. Last year was really hard, really tough for me to be watching it from home. I was supposed to be in the car. But I really trust that things happen for a reason. So we will never know what reason was that one. But it was hard, I can tell you. But I’m so happy that we made it in 2022, now. Happy for Gar, for Riley, because Bill really believed in my work in ’19 already when I was racing with Ben. And he kept me on the team. We raced Le Mans, and we came to Daytona together. And I’m so glad to do this win together with Bill and Gar and the whole crew. Like, they were amazing. No mistakes from the team, any pit stops, anything. It was a perfect race. And I was like almost dying the last five laps. I was so tense. I was not tired. I could drive more. But my neck was like I couldn’t turn because there was so much emotion. It was, like, in the sky. I’m really happy that it happened to our team, and finally we made it. I’m here in the U.S. It worked. We won the race, and let’s go for the rest of the championship now. Q. Kay van Berlo, your first time and you win the Rolex 24. How does that feel? KAY van BERLO: Incredible. It’s hard to describe it in words. Making my debut in Daytona, coming away with a win is something I dreamed about. When I grew up as a young kid, you dream about competing in these big endurance races, Le Mans, Daytona, Nurburgring. Doing this already at the age of 20, 21, coming away with a win, is just incredible.Q. Talk about the effort it took for you. Battles with the 54 and 36. You outlasted them all. KAY van BERLO: The way it works in IMSA is with the full-course caution, anyone can catch up again. Even though we had a small gap in the beginning, we had a small gap in the middle of the race, as long as the checkered flag is not there, they can catch up easily. As we all know, it’s endurance racing. It’s a long race. Even though we had some tough competition, we really focused on our own strategy, our own race, especially staying out of trouble. The first six or eight hours was pretty difficult. There was a lot going on. We had small contact. Once we settled after eight hours, everyone seems to have found their rhythm. We were pretty clean from that point onwards. As I said already, even though we pulled a gap at some point, we lost it already after a full course caution. Yeah, it was difficult but worked out well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
