| Wright Motorsports Zoom Media Interview Transcript Patrick Long and Ryan Hardwick Moderator: We have Patrick Long and Ryan Hardwick, co-drivers of the number 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Pat and the team are currently leading the WeatherTech Championship GTD point standings. Ryan will be making his first start of the season next weekend at Mid-Ohio. He was injured in a crash during Michelin Pilot Challenge practice at Daytona in January. So excited to have Ryan back with us as well. Of course, Pat and Ryan finished second in the 2020 WeatherTech Championship GTD standings with a victory in the season-ending race, which was at Sebring last year. So guys, thanks so much for joining us. Pat, to start us off, just talk about the early lead in the championship standings, getting Ryan back, as I mentioned, and a home race for the Ohio-based Wright Motorsports team. Patrick Long: Yeah. It’s great to have the original band back together. Mid-Ohio is a homecoming for us. So, we tested one day and then Ryan had a second day last week and things went really well. Porsche always suits well to the technical twisty track at Mid-Ohio. It’s a game of track position and tight racing with multiple classes you guys have probably been talking about for most of the day. But it’s business as usual for us. And it’s a little different tire than the last time we ran here, if I’m not mistaken. But we, we unloaded well and just gonna get down to business, as I said. Moderator: Thanks Pat. Let’s pop Ryan up into the screen here and put him in the spotlight. Ryan, as Pat mentioned, you just you tested recently there at Mid-Ohio. Just talk about getting back in the car and how it how that felt and how much you’re looking forward to going racing again here after a little break. Ryan Hardwick: It was an unplanned break that’s for sure. But it felt really good to get back into the car. You know, it’s a tough injury, a head injury, I guess. I felt like I was ready to go for Sebring. I was really wanting to get back into the car at Sebring again. You know, you break your leg or your arm, or you have an injury like that, it’s really simple. You know when you’re physically healed or not. But with a head injury, man, it’s tough to pinpoint. And I’m very thankful. I had a really great group of neurologists here in Atlanta at the Shepherd Center that I worked with as soon as I got back home from Daytona after my injury. And they knew. They knew I wasn’t quite ready. I was going through a gauntlet of physical therapy, cognitive therapy work, vision therapy, reaction time stuff. About four days a week, I was there working with these guys and they knew I wasn’t where I needed to be. And hindsight 2020 looking back now I just finished my last round of tests and through their whole system just last week, right before I went to go get in the car at Mid-Ohio, and my scores on all these assessments last week compared to that week, leading up to Sebring are drastically different. I mean, I can look back and see now they were correct. Turns out these neurologists, know what they’re talking about. And I wasn’t the same guy that week before Sebring as what I am now. And so it felt good to finally get back into the car. And I was really proud of the test and the results that I obtained over a couple of days there. I took it slow at first, just kinda getting my feet underneath me, the first couple sessions out, took it easy. But by the end of the first day, I was within a few tenths of where was driving at Mid-Ohio last year. And then by the second day that I got to drive, man, I was really outperforming what I was doing there last year. I think everyone gets faster every year, right? Everyone gets a little faster and a little better, and I’m sure our competition will be better, but I personally felt good not only with the injury, but just being out of the car for so long. I mean, it’s since that practice session before Daytona that I’ve driven a racing car. I mean, even without the injury, it’s tough to drive at the level you have to drive at in this championship. To take three months off, that’s really challenging. So, for me to come back and even be on par with where I was at prior to the injury much less step past that, man, that felt really good. So, I know the competition is gonna be really tough, me stepping back into this after getting over it, but you know, heck everyone’s had a pretty long break here since Sebring. Mine’s just been a little bit longer, but I fully expect and look forward to being competitive jumping right in there trying to help my team stay in the mix of this championship all the way through the end of the season. Moderator: I’ll bring Pat back into the spotlight. Pat, can you talk a little bit about just the nuances of racing at Mid-Ohio? What’s important about that track and how you can, how, how you can be successful? Patrick Long: There’s two higher-speed corners that are pretty single line. If you’re not side by side entering the corner, it’s probably not going to happen for the overtaking car. That’s turns one and nine, if I’m not or 10, I guess. It’s not a big aerodynamics track. It’s more about mechanical grip. If you think about the Carousel and the Keyhole, very iconic corners that are pretty unique to Mid-Ohio. I’ve been going to Mid-Ohio since the mid-nineties and the track hasn’t changed much. Resurfacing, they’ve done a little bit of modification to the Keyhole and that was lower grip, but very consistent and smooth. So, I think it was a good job and it will probably rubber up and we’ll probably see some quick speeds. It’s tough to pass. He can get, it can get done into the Keyhole. It can get done down the back straightaway, but certainly track position is key with all the aerodynamics of modern racing. It’s tough to follow for too many laps. Last year we ran, I think, third to the Mercedes at the end of the race. And we had a car over a long run that was quicker, but just not enough to get by and without contact. And we were definitely racing for a championship. So I think we’ve grown a lot since then as a team and learned more about this race car. As Ryan said, he did a heck of a job coming back after being out of the car for a few months. And his fitness showed that he does his homework during the week and was ready to go and did some long runs and some qualifying mock-ups. And you know, the game has changed. Both of us have to qualify now the pro doing it for points and the pro-am doing it for the starting position. So, that’s going to be a big emphasis for us, but it’s not a lot of time on the track. I looked at the schedule and you essentially unload late in the day on Friday, one session, very early on Saturday and right into qualifying. So, I have to be prepared and there won’t be a lot of tuning. It’s really just kind of a final warmup mindset before you jump into the race. Question: With you having missed the first two races, is your focus really shifted to the Sprint Cup and trying to get that championship? What’s going through your mind in terms of that? Ryan Hardwick: No, not really. Our focus is on the overall championship. We’re obviously leading it, you know, right now. And you know, we finished strongly last year and so my personal focus is the overall championship and trying to help and do my part for this team and for Patrick to win the overall championship. The Sprint championship, I think, it’s a nice deal. Obviously, it’s garnered a few extra entries into the series. I don’t know. I mean, right now I think when time looks back on the Sprint champion, I don’t know how truly important it is. I mean, I’m sure it’d be nice. You’re talking to somebody who’s never won it. So, I’m sure it’d be nice, but our focus is the overall championship from the season. I gotta do my part and Patrick and Jan Heylen and Trent Hindman, gosh, I can’t thank him enough for stepping in and filling my role. He did a much better job, probably, than I could have done. And now it’s my job to help these guys continue and help our team continue to finish the season one step ahead of where we did last year. Question: So you’ll be in the car for the rest of the year, including the enduros then, right? The Watkins Glen? Ryan Hardwick: That’s the plan. Question: I’m interested in just your mindset as drivers, the difference between endurance racing and a sprint race like we’re going to have next weekend. I know that preparation changes between an endurance race and a sprint race, but what about once you are actually in the car? What do you think about? What changes with your focus? Is there a difference to speak of? Ryan Hardwick:Patrick obviously has a lot more experience than I do, but what I’ve seen these last two-and-a-half, three seasons that I’ve been at this level is, Jeez, these dang races, every stint that I’m in the car, the endurance race, you have to attack as hard as you do the sprint race. I mean, my gosh, it’s a 12 or 24 hour spirit race, it seems like, out there. So yeah, I don’t see much of a difference. Man, I’m happy to be at 10 tenths all the time. Patrick may have a little more insight obviously, with all his experience. But for me, man, I have to push as hard as I can, even at, you know, hour six into a 24-hour race. You gotta push it as well. Patrick Long: Yeah, from my standpoint it just depends on the length of the race. If you’re in hour three at Sebring and stuck behind a competitor that’s either on the lead lap or not on the lead lap, you don’t have to force the issue. The pack behind might be catching you or the pack in front, if there is one, might be pulling away, but you can pretty much bet there’s going to be a handful of yellow flags and safety cars before the end of the race, which is going to bunch things up. So it takes a little bit of that emphasis of just forcing the issue back. But as Ryan said, we’re still pushing the car just as hard. It’s just the race craft and traffic management that you have a little bit, a little bit reservation and more in reserve. But I will say that some drivers don’t apply themselves like that. It really is just how we’re approaching the race and what I’ve kind of learned from my own mistakes. There’s certainly some drivers that are forcing the issue even outside of their own class. As soon as the green flag drops, they go into turn one like it’s the last five minutes of the race. But yeah, you get into a sprint race, like Mid-Ohio, every single lap could have a factor in the end of the race. It’s short enough that, you know, there might not be any safety car periods. And that first lap for Ryan is one second that he might be giving up when I get in the car toward the end of the race. So certainly for the shorter races, it’s all attack all the time. Question: I’ll start with Pat since I guess he was the last one in the spotlight. Pat, Ryan touched on it a little bit, but can you talk about just how you guys with Trent jumping in there at the last minute, just how well you got you and Jan and Trent were able to perform these two races to really keep, keep the ball rolling and keep the championship going? Patrick Long: Yeah, it was a tremendous emotional rollercoaster. At first it was just our concern for Ryan’s wellbeing. And then the next question was, are we going to scramble and try to find a car here? We don’t just pull a second car out of the truck as much as I’d like to say it’s that easy. And then it was, we need to find a driver and you know, we had a shortlist, but Ryan made it be known that he really thought a lot of Trent’s capability and personality from their previous racing together. I’ve also worked with Trent in the Porsche Young Driver Academy, and we’ve had him come through and been able to kind of see how he works in and out of the car for a few intense days. And then the final key, kind of trying on the ruby slipper was we all use the same seat insert and I’m not a tall guy by any stretch. So we were worried if Trent might’ve been hitting the juice a little too hard between the weeks and on the bench press. And so we had to have him come over and jump in the car and he’s smart enough and mature enough to look at me and say, ‘Yeah, it fits,’ even if it was maybe going to give him a hotspot on his shoulder or something. But he was seamless. He’s in a point in his career where he’s still fast and every single lap, he has something to prove, but he has enough maturity and experience and confidence that when John Wright says, ‘We are not looking for the fastest driver, we are looking for a driver that is reliable and can get up to speed quickly and can play right into this team spirit with a click of a switch.’ And of course he needed some support from his main client this year. Alan Brynjolfsson and Alan stepped up and said, ‘We want the best for Trent and the best for this team.’ And he became an embedded part of the team. Him and his wife were there all the way through the race. So it was a kind of a fairytale ending. And then to have him come back and not only back up what he did at Daytona at Sebring, but he even excelled more with his pace. And we ran him a little longer and in some more key stints. So yeah, it was great to band together as a team and do what we had to do with the cards that we were dealt and look forward to kind of going back to business as usual this next weekend. Question: For Ryan, what was the most difficult part of you during the recovery process physically, mentally? I mean, even just to get back or what was the toughest for you? Ryan Hardwick: That’s a great question. The toughest for me, I guess, was I wasn’t aware how affected I was from the injury. After all, I learned a lot about it through the process. So that was frustrating for me. Outside of maybe a week past Daytona, you know, I didn’t have headaches anymore. I wasn’t feeling off for myself. I mean, I felt pretty good. But then you go in and do these reaction times or memory tests and having to recall things. And I just, it started to creep in and I’m like, ‘Man, I’m a little, I’m a little off.’ Like, I feel I should be a little better than this and this place, the Shepherd Center, where I go. They work with a lot of professional athletes and work with some professional drivers, some from IndyCar, but a lot of top football, baseball players and things. And so they had a lot of, a lot of statistics of what professional athletes should be able to do, these types of tasks, and man, I was off there for a while. And now I’m looking back seeing how far I’ve come and where I’m at, and performing at a really, really high level. It is reassuring now, but man, it was frustrating early. You know, I just, I wanted to be in the car, you know, I’m an athlete myself. I’ve had joint or bone issues, broken bones or torn ACL’s and things. And those are real simple, right? You can feel it. You know when you’re hurt and when you’re better. And so that was the most frustrating part, you know, just getting through that. It wasn’t frustrating at the race actually. I enjoyed my time at Sebring, I was a little upset when I first arrived there. Like, ‘Man, I’m here, I’m here and I can’t help my team. I can be in the car.’ But it really was a joy watching how well both Patrick and Jan worked with Trent and how Trent fit right into our team. And with all our engineers and mechanics that we use, it was beautiful to just kind of have a step back and see it from a perspective not going on in my brain. Thinking about all the things you have to think about as a driver, as you’re preparing to get into the car. It was nice to just, I guess, watch as a spectator almost. And I really gained a lot of appreciation for how well our team works. I mean, I know everyone, probably every team thinks their team works together. I’ve now been on a couple of you know, teams here in the GTD paddock and several, you know, in the, in the single-make series, and this particular group and organization that John Wright put together, I mean, man, these guys do not miss a beat. And then when they really do good, it’s kind of when the going gets tough. When there is a mistake or there’s an issue, whether it be with the car or the track or the position, man, they they don’t miss a beat. And I think the results that this team’s had is a real testament to all of the people involved, especially with kind of a relatively new driver like myself. The team really, really, really does an outstanding job. It was interesting hearing Trent’s remarks. You know, he’s worked with a lot of teams, a lot of great teams and his remarks after working with us is he definitely sees why there’s been so much success, he’s not looking forward to competing against this team anytime soon, I’ll tell you that. And so yeah, that was, I guess, kind of the only bright spot of being out of the car was being able to see how well everybody works there at Sebring. And now I’m excited to be back a part of it a little bit more for sure. Question: And along those lines, are you going to have to temper your excitement or your aggressiveness?, Are you going to be a little too eager when you first get in the car at Mid-Ohio next week? Ryan Hardwick: This has been one of my strengths as an athlete, I’m not new to the spotlight or the pressures and those things. I don’t really let that get to me. I have a pretty disciplined approach in the car. When I’m working and where I’ve grown as a driver is I feel like I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can perform at a really high level. Now it’s my figuring out the calmness of being able to sustain a pace, if you will. And honestly, that’s really kind of what got me in trouble in Daytona. I was just coming off of my first career pole you know, less than a few hours before my crash I’d outqualified everyone in the GTD field for the first time for the Rolex 24. And that was some of the best driving I’ve personally I’ve ever done in my life. And, you know, you start to gain what that feels like and where the edge is and living on that edge. And that’s where the experience of like a Patrick Long comes into play. Where I’m just now kind of inching up to that limit. And Patrick lives there, you know, he had guys like Jan and stuff, and I’m learning how to live there a little bit. And you know, I can do it, but that’s the biggest thing I’ve got to temper. I’ve proved that in that test this last week. I showed back up and boom, I was right there running times that, you know, would have been at the front of qualifying last year for the GTD field. And I, and I think I’m going to be able to be there, you know, again, when we come back next week, but I’ve got to be disciplined in my approaches as I approach the entire race and pace. You gotta learn how to live and on that straddle on that edge a little bit. Moderator: I wanted to pop Pat back up into the spotlight. Earlier this week, news broke — and as a longtime Porsche factory driver and certainly somebody who was part of the program previously when they, when they were together — the news this week that Penske and Porsche gonna are going to team up for an LMDh program beginning in 2023, both here in the WeatherTech Championship and as well as the WEC. Could you just give us some thoughts, some comments on having Penske back in the Porsche fold and what you expect that program to be? Patrick Long: It’s exciting for the partnership to continue on. I’ll give you a couple of quick stories. When I first walked into the Mooresville shop for a seat fitting at the end of 2005, you go into the race shop, which is on the other side of the NASCAR shop and there’s massive, like 40-foot murals on the wall, black and white photos of Roger Penske driving in a number six open top Porsche Spyder, a 550, I believe maybe a 718 as well. And you instantly understand the lineage and the heritage of the story of Roger and Porsche and sports car. And although Roger known for his IndyCar successes and his NASCAR successes, I think in his heart sports car racing and in a Porsche as himself pulling a car to a racetrack on an open trailer, if you read Mark Donohue’s book it’s a special place for him. And, and as a driver, he’s the type of guy you want to work for. There is nothing left on the table that you could say, I wish I had two balaclavas with my name and, you know, inscripted in them. He just is a detail oriented hands-on guy. Another story he won the Daytona 500, I think for the first time in around 2006. And we were setting up at Road Atlanta for a Monday morning test. And we watched as a team at Road Atlanta under the tent, we watched the finish of the race. Ryan Newman pushes across the line in a traditional restrictor plate race, wins the race. Roger’s there, got the jacket on pouring beer over each other. And we just all high five as a family and feel so proud that Roger finally got the 500. We walk across the track, have dinner, where they had it set up. We come back after a relaxed dinner and Roger standing in the pits at the sports car buildup. And he says like, ‘We need to do driver change practice.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s a test. You just won the Daytona 500. What are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘I’ve been thinking about the shoulder belts, the shoulder belts, you guys go right, shoulder belt, left shoulder belt when you’re plugging your driver in. You need to do both at the same time, ’cause there’s half a second to find in that driver change by doing both shoulder belts at the same time.’ So that’s the type of guy Roger is. When I run into him at an auto show, which is usually where I see him these days, he pulls me aside, 30 seconds says, ‘How are we doing? What’s new, everything good in your life? All right, keep it up, talk to you later.’ You know, and that’s some 15 years after the last race I’ve driven for him in the RS Spyder. So those are down in the weeds answers, but the story goes on. LMDh is an amazing formula for the future of overall sports car racing with cost effectiveness in mind and globalization. Obviously, you see that he’s going to be entering two cars on both sides of the pond. And I can’t wait to see this relationship re blossom and watch them get down to business. Moderator: I’m not seeing any additional questions from anybody, so we’ll go ahead and let you guys get back to your Friday afternoon. We appreciate everybody taking the time to join us. And we’ll see Ryan and Pat next week, along with everybody else at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Thanks again, everybody have a good weekend. |
