Racer - September 2015 MAZDA

INSIGHT: STRATEGY ON THE FLY
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stray from a detailed 12- or 24-hour script.

“If we’re going to Long Beach and its
two hours of all-out racing, our approach
will be completely different than if we’re
going to the genuine endurance races at
Daytona or Sebring,” says O’Gara. “I think
it’s become pretty common for people to
back-time a long race and work backwards
from that final hour. If you have a shorter
race, you know you’re doing very few stops
– very few of everything, really – and you
don’t have much time to react if something
goes wrong. You’ll definitely consider rolling
So what if something goes wrong at a
Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 12 Hours of
Sebring, or the 10-hour Petit Le Mans?

“From the strategy perspective, you just hope it happens sooner rather than later,” Riley says with a laugh. “If you blow a tire or break something, you want it to happen early so you can split from the leaders and use the hours and the yellows to get your laps back. If things are going fine, there’s no way you’re gambling on strategy unless it’s near the end. If you can go for broke and maybe win the thing, you’ll consider it. Doing nothing and finishing fourth isn’t

MIKE O’GARA
“I love the strategy part of
my job, but there are days
when I wish someone else
was on the hook...”

and we end up seventh, that’s not giving
up much, in my book. I’d rather try to win
than settle for fourth.”
Strategists are rarely mentioned unless
they make a howling mistake or an
inspired race-winning call. For O’Gara,
that all comes with the territory.

“I love the strategy part of my job, but there are days when I wish someone else was on the hook…” he chuckles. “I recently got it wrong at Mosport – called us in to pit just as the pits closed. We were penalized, it was my fault, and our chances were gone. I actually called Chip the Monday after the race and apologized for a bad call that was too risky. I wanted to do something to get us the win, and it backfired.

“And then there are times it all comes together. I remember at Sebring in 2014, it was late in the race, pitch black, and for whatever reason, our driver Marino Franchitti had the best night vision of anyone I’ve ever known. I grabbed him, we stuck him in, and the kid delivered. It was like he had X-ray vision – drove away from everybody. That is probably one of my proudest moments as a strategy caller, but this isn’t for the faint of heart. If you don’t like pressure and don’t enjoy

Having more than one bullet in your gun is never a bad thing. Ganassi’s No. 01

Prototype (ABOVE) traded the 2015 Rolex 24 lead until suffering clutch problems with just a couple of hours remaining. But the 02 car was still there to take the victory.