Mike Guasch Taking Momentum to Sebring

Subtitle:Two-Time Sebring Winner Scored Biggest Victory of Career at Daytona

The 2011 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was the first ALMS appearance for Mike Guasch, who went on to win in the Prototype Challenge (PC) class.

Two years later, Guasch won again at Sebring, jump-starting his drive to the PC championship for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

Now, Guasch is looking to continue that two-year streak when he returns for the 63rd running of the classic on March 21. He’s carrying additional momentum, winning the PC class in dramatic fashion in the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 52 Cuttwood E-Liquid ORECA FLM09.

Can you continue your ‘odd-year’ success at Sebring?

“Believe me, I can’t wait to get back to Sebring. Our lineup’s going to be solid, we’re going into there with confidence. My biggest concern is that the balance of performance adjustment better separates the PC and GTLM classes so we can have our own races. I think we’re going to be very competitive.”

How big was winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona?

“No question, it was my biggest win of all time. Obviously, I won Sebring twice, but to me, this was the most important race of my career.”

After trailing by several laps throughout much of the Rolex 24, your team was within 50 seconds of the lead when CORE autosport suffered a mechanical problem with 20 minutes remaining. What were some of the problems, and how did your team get back on the lead lap?

“We got down due to a couple of mechanicals. We had an oil line come off, so we had to go behind the wall for six laps, and later lost power steering. Around the 10th hour, all of our mechanicals (problems) were done, so we had 14 hours to dig in and chip away. You can pick up laps occasionally with the wave-bys, but we just stayed out. CORE also had its own problems, too – a couple of cut tires. So everyone had mechanicals of some sort, and it evened out. We didn’t do anything magical on pace to catch up, it was more a matter of consistency – good, clean laps, and pound it out. It was a matter of true grit without making mistakes.”

How tough was driving without power steering?

“We lost power steering around the 10th hour. We lost pace sorting out the power steering. I was in the car for a good half hour while we were trying to decide if something was going to break, or was it just power steering failure. I would be going into NASCAR Turn 3, and it wouldn’t turn at 160 mph. You had to lift, because it just wouldn’t turn. And I couldn’t put too much input into it, because I was afraid I was going to snap a tie rod. Who knew what could happen, and would it put me into the wall? I had to back off for so long while we were determining if it was going to break, should I pit, or was it just lack of power steering. After I got through the infield a few times, cranking on the wheel, physically pushing it, and it didn’t snap, then we could get our pace back. Once we had confidence the car wasn’t going to break, we could dig in and manhandle it for 14 hours, grabbing laps back. One change was we couldn’t triple-stint, your hands and arms were giving out. We got a few of our laps back doing triple stints, but we couldn’t any longer. But doing doubles wasn’t horrible.”

What are your plans for the remainder of the season after running a very limited schedule last year?

“I’m going to do the full season this year. This is the first time I’ve been able to commit to the full season. I’ve got a fantastic sponsor with Cuttwood, which is going to go 100-percent, they’re going to activate at all of the races. I’m all in, I pushed in all the chips.”

How did you get together with Bobby Oergel and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports?

“I went from Star Mazda – won the championship in the 2009 Masters Class – and then in 2010 I thought I’d make the transition to GT, so I raced an Audi R8 in Europe for two years, and learned about endurance racing, co-drivers and strategy. I enjoyed that, and it fit my style better than sprint racing. But I also realized GT racing was not for me – the cars were too big and heavy and don’t handle nicely like an open-wheel car or prototype. I was an open-wheel guy, and I thought a PC car would suit me better and my desires in racing. I ran a couple of races for Genoa in an LMPC while I was still in Europe, and thought it was something I wanted to do. We won our first race – it was real nice to win Sebring! – I felt this was the class for me. Bobby (PR1 team owner Oergel) happens to a California guy and I’ve known of him for a long time. Since we’re on the same coast, we could test closer together and the tracks are close. It just made since for me to work for a local team.”