New Lessons

Subtitle:Recent Graduate Catania Shifting Focus To Different Classroom At The Glen

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 25, 2015) – There are few things in the world that Lucas Catania likes more than putting on his helmet and firesuit and driving a race car.

But he’ll be the first to admit he was even more focused through the first five months of this year on another piece of headwear and clothing – a cap and gown.

Catania, from Cazenovia, New York, was balancing his rookie season as a driver with NGT Motorsport in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama with the final semester of his senior year as a biochemistry major at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.

But with his college diploma in hand after four years of intensive study, Catania is ready to let loose with full focus for the remaining 13 rounds of the 2015 season of the International Motor Sport Association (IMSA)-sanctioned Single-Make Series.

“Before I was trying to finish school strongly and not score bad marks because my grade-point average was in a very decent place, and I wanted to keep it that way,” Catania said. “Now that I’m done with school, not only did it lift a weight off my shoulders, but it allowed me to focus 110 percent on racing, which just this past month has been huge for me.

“I think it will really help for the rest of the year. I’ve really been able to up my fitness game a lot and work on some marketing things of mine and really focus on the upcoming events instead of having to juggle schoolwork and traveling and all that stuff. It allows me to be rested, hydrated and better prepared overall. I think graduating has really helped me with racing. I think we’re going to see that this next race.”

Rounds 4, 5 and 6 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama will take place Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27 at Watkins Glen International. The historic circuit in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York is Catania’s home track on the schedule, located just 85 miles from the quiet lakeside community of Cazenovia.

Catania, 21, climbed to the series this season with his father, Joe, as teammates with Florida-based NGT Motorsport. Lucas races in the Platinum Cup class, while Joe competes in the Gold Cup Masters class. Both raced last season in the Mazda MX-5 Cup championship.

Lucas Catania began to show improvement at the first two events of the season, in March at Sebring International Raceway and mid-April at NOLA Motorsports Park, while juggling telemetry data and biochemistry textbooks.

He finished eighth and fifth in Rounds 1 and 2 at Sebring, respectively, and then followed with a sixth-place result in Round 3 at NOLA. His combination of patience and aggression during the 45-minute races has paid dividends, but he admits he must find more speed in qualifying. He qualified eighth at Sebring and 12th at NOLA. But he was second quickest overall in practice at NOLA.

“I need to start more toward the front to stay with the guys up front,” Catania said. “I know I have the pace to be up there, and I think we saw it in practice at NOLA. It just takes focus and trying to find the guys I want to run with and stick with them. Even if I don’t get the qualifying I’m looking for, I’m trying to make a jump early on (in the race), not get complacent and just look toward the front and keep on pushing.”

That push toward the front comes with a new driving style for Catania. All of the cars in which he previously competed -- in Spec Miata and Porsche regional club racing and the Mazda MX-5 Cup – were lower-powered vehicles that required constant momentum. Squeezing the most speed from a 460-horsepower Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car requires a much more delicate tap dance between the gas and brake pedals, something Catania is learning quickly.

“The biggest thing is really driving technique with the trail braking with the car and brake input transitioning to throttle,” Catania said. “I’m used to a momentum car with front engine, and now I’m into more of a proper GT car with everything hanging over the rear axle. So the way you drive the car and the way you approach a corner and then exiting the corner has been a lot different.

“My biggest struggle so far has been getting used to the brake pedal. There’s no ABS in the car. The car can really take a ton of brake pressure initially, and then you have to really start bleeding off the pedal after that. I’ve been used to just mashing the pedal all the way and then hitting the gas. This is much more technique, and you really have to think about the input you’re giving the 911 so it can give you the right stuff back.”

Catania’s growth behind the wheel has been aided by a new entry into his racing life and by a constant for his entire life.

The new entry is NGT Motorsport, the team he joined this season with his father. He raves about the veteran team’s attention to detail and keen interest in his development as a sports car driver with an eye on a future professional drive in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship or in Porsche competition in Europe.

NGT is no stranger to victory in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA, winning a Gold Cup championship in 2010 and a Platinum Cup championship in 2011 with driver Henrique Cisneros.

“I’ve never had a team like NGT Motorsport support me,” Catania said. “Every single guy on that team is amazing, from the guy in charge of alignments to the guy who pulls the data. Every single person wants to see you succeed, and every single person really cares about your success on the track. They’re not just trying to do it and get a paycheck and go home.”

The constant is the presence of his father. Joe Catania exposed Lucas – a member of state championship hockey and lacrosse teams in high school -- to racing for the first time at age 16 through Skip Barber Driving School at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Lucas enjoyed it so much they decided to take the plunge together in track days and club racing.

They’ve stayed together as teammates for the last five seasons, honing their craft and seeing their father-son bond grow even tighter over a shared love of horsepower and speed. But Lucas admits this season has been the most special experience yet with his father, a non-operative spinal care doctor in the Syracuse area.

“It’s always great racing with my dad,” Catania said. “It’s never a bad moment. But this year it has been the most exhilarating, the most exciting year ever.

“My dad, he’s having a ball. When he’s having a ball, I’m having a ball. Just the two of us together, I get to travel the country with my dad and race some of the best race cars. We’re just having a blast racing these Porsches. It’s been a truly amazing situation, a truly remarkable experience with my dad.”

Watkins Glen Race Coverage

Live streaming: Both races at www.imsa.com

Live timing: All on-track sessions at scoring.imsa.com or on new IMSA mobile app for iOS, Android or Windows

Twitter: Live text commentary from all sessions at @IMSALive