Interview with Kenton Koch: Rolex Champ!

A Mazda Road to 24 star wins the Rolex 24 at Daytona in his first trip. Find out what he learned.

How does winning your first Rolex feel?

It's pretty unbelievable. To think that just three years ago I stopped in a Rolex store, gazed at the Rolex watch, tried it on and remember hoping that one day I would have the opportunity to win one someday. And now, the dream has come true; I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to win one and be wearing it right now. I plan on wearing it the rest of my life along with this smile on my face. I will never take this for granted.Congratulations again, Kenton, you have earned it. So what was the toughest part of the 24-hour event itself?The toughest part was not the racing itself, but calming myself down right after making my mistake on track - one that I don't want to re-live in my time of glee. But immediately following it, I worked to get my emotions in check as did my crew. My crew did a great job supporting me mentally and getting the car back on up to speed. Though I have been fortunate to have kept the car clean for the most part throughout my career, and pride myself on this, one has to stay grounded in all situations – good or bad.You need to stay mentally strong immediately after an incident so you don't compound the issues on track; that's the short term goal. If other people perceive you as mentally weak, that can have devastating impact on your career long-term. What can be just as demoralizing for everyone involved is if you make that same mistake again soon after. That's when you can experience both the short-term and long-term negative effects. So, you'd better keep your focus and learn from your mistake immediately.