Late Opportunity Led to Career Highlight for Gue

Without a ride at the beginning of the year, James Gue finished the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season with a Prototype Challenge (PC) class driver championship in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

Given the opportunity to test with CORE autosport at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 in early January, Gue landed a place in the lineup of the No. 54 Flex-Box ORECA FLM09. After opening the year with a victory, Gue was invited back to share in triumphs in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, and ended the year with a second-place finish at Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda that clinched the team’s fourth consecutive team championship (following a streak of three titles in the America Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón), in addition to the Patrón Endurance Cup driver and team titles).“This is right at the very, very top of my career highlights,” said the 32-year-old resident of Alpharetta, Georgia. After running karts for a decade, Gue made his debut in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge in 2001. He won three races in that series and was a two-time runner-up in the Grand Sport Championship. After running selected races in the GRAND-AM Rolex Series and ALMS from 2002-2010, he ran a full year in GT for Dempsey Racing in 2011, giving the team its first victory at Watkins Glen International, co-driving with Leh Keen to fifth in the championship with four podium finishes. The following year, he returned to Dempsey Racing and joined Dane Cameron in finishing fourth in the championship with three podium finishes.What are your thoughts winning the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup?“This year has been absolutely a dream season for me. To put those three wins on the resume, along with a really strong second-place run at Road Atlanta, and to top it off with the championship, is pretty incredible. To do it with CORE – a really good group of guys, with Jon, Colin and Mark (Wilkins) at Daytona. I’m really blown away about how the whole year’s gone.”CORE autosport has won four straight PC championships. What attributes have you seen that makes the team so successful?(Team manager) Morgan Brady is steering the ship. He’s a very good manager, and he’s got a very good eye for detail. He really puts together a good program. He expects a lot out of his employees and drivers, but obviously treats everyone very well with a high level of professionalism. They leave no stone unturned, and are definitely one of the best-prepared teams I’ve ever driven for. As an example of their preparation, at night practice (Thursday) we tried three different spare noses; we switched the dash out; we tried three spare steering wheels; we ran through all the spares. They’re always prepared for any eventuality. When they get into trouble, there’s no sort of panic, they know how to deal with it. They’ve got a good group of guys, and they all understand their positions and get on with the job.”What were your personal expectations entering the current season?“Honestly, the three-day test (Roar Before the Rolex 24 on Jan. 3-5) was the first time I’d even had an idea there was a remote possibility. I’d been in contact with the guys for over a year, trying to get an ‘in’ there, trying to find some opportunity or means to get into the car, and it had always been ‘no, not right now.’ I had absolutely nothing signed up for this year. Then on the Saturday of that three-day test at the beginning of the year I happened to bump into Colin. He said, ‘What are you doing? Who are you driving for?’ When I said, I’m not, he said, ‘What do you mean you’re not driving? We need another driver for Daytona, let’s try to get you in the car and see if you can make a good enough impression that they’ll have you come over.’“Basically, I impressed them enough that they gave me a shot at Daytona. Obviously, things went well so they asked me back for Sebring, and then for Watkins Glen. So I was able to establish myself there and build that relationship and their trust.”Any plans for next year?“I don’t have any plans at this point. The only racing I did this year were the four (Patrón Endurance Cup) races with CORE. I don’t know what their definitive plans are yet, but they’ve expressed interest in having me return again – and obviously I would jump at that opportunity. My ideal season would be to run the four Patrón Endurance Cup races with CORE again and get an opportunity to get back into the Continental Tire Challenge full-time again.”