Catching up With Duncan

Our set-up

After missing the first race at Tremblant because I was in another country, I decided to conduct an interview with Duncan after our second race, The Grand Prix, to discuss what has been going and what is to come! 

 Duncan: Our podium at Tremblant was very satisfying because we worked very hard at refining all the small little things we knew were wrong with the car. We also found a few other little things to improve. So our performance was a combination of attention to detail, and all the work we did over the wintertime, optimizing everything to the greatest extent. We also did a couple of test days before the beginning of the season. It didn't appear that anyone else was there. We did our homework and things worked out very well. It shows that the hard work pays off with good results. I felt that over the past two seasons, we could do very well but it took longer than I expected. 

 Me: What is your technique or routine when you prepare the engine and the car during the summer. Where do you do it, how and how much time do you devote to it? 

 Duncan: Generally, for the engine, I rebuilt it during the winter, mostly by myself but with a little help from friends that are in the crew. The engine is in my best friend's garage and when I need a hand, the helping hand is always there. I mostly like to concentrate on it by myself and pay a lot of attention to detail. The chassis I keep at home. Other crew members come over a couple of times a week and we basically take everything apart, clean it, put it back together and make sure the alignment is close to perfect as possible. We did an upgrade last year but the setup was not to the level of perfection that we would have liked. This winter, we concentrated on the things that we had done wrong. We hadn't paid enough attention to detail and we corrected that. The result was the podium performance at Tremblant.

 Me: How did you feel about going to Tremblant with these new upgrades? Were you excited or afraid it might not work out or be disappointed? How did that affect your weekend?

Duncan: I was pretty confident the car was the best it could be and from the moment I got in the car at our test days it seemed very good. When you are on the track by yourself testing you don't have any basis of comparison, so you don't really know for sure, but I was confident we would do well. 

Me: How did it feel qualifying second? 

 Duncan: It was great. 

 Me: How did it feel coming in third? Did you know you were in third or were you focused on finishing the race and the car? Were you excited to know that you would be on the podium? 

 Duncan: Well, yes I did know I was in third. We had lost touch, I was fighting with another racer at the time and I had spun. I knew I had dropped a bit from the leaders and I knew I wouldn't be able to catch them, but Nathan spun off. I knew another racer was ahead of me. I wasn't able to challenge for second at that point because there was too much of a gap, so third was it. 

 Me: When you were on the podium, did you get sprayed with champagne? What is your podium etiquette regarding champagne? 

 Duncan: Well, by that point it was a Sunday podium ceremony and I was in my street clothes, so I was conservative in the spraying of the champagne. Showers were not available and we had the long ride home. There was a truce between the three of us to spray into the air and then we shared the champagne from the cup with our pit crews.

 Me: You just did the Grand Prix and it was a very exciting time, especially with the fire. Can you tell us a little bit about how you felt when you came into the pits? Did you think you had a penalty? 

 Duncan: I had thought, because I had hit a racer lightly from the back with the nose of the car, which didn't affect anyone in the race. I thought the signal that I had a mechanical failure was due to damage to the front nose, which you can't see when you are sitting in the car. I was surprised to find out that it was the result of a fire. I was very happy with what we had done in the race so far. I'm happier with the Saturday performance because we were so competitive. It's very promising going into Tremblant which is a track that I feel is more suited to my style of driving. We'll see what happens!