I want to start out with a note about last night. I was having dinner at an Italian restaurant near my home and a little boy came up to me and asked me for my autograph. I was amazed that he knew who I was and it was a very special moment for me.
This morning started out a bit crazy. I woke up with really good energy and was ready to go but, as always, my dad and my brother, who are always late for everything, were right on schedule – as in late. I needed to be at the track at 10:30 a.m. and we were supposed to leave at 10. I was ready by 9:45 and they were just waking up. I had to wait 30 minutes for them to be ready and I couldn't let them even eat breakfast because we would have been really late.
To make it even worse, I was driving and decided to go a different way to see if I could go around the traffic and make up some time. Unfortunately, I got lost. We had to stop at a fuel station to ask for directions. Here I am driving an Indy car and I have to stop and ask directions to the racetrack!
There was a great ambiance around the team today. Everyone was very positive. Yesterday we tested everything we needed to test parts-wise and on our list. Today we were going to search for speed and we did. Our best lap was a 223mph. It was good to see that progression and something that I felt very happy about.
The day wasn't without some drama for me. I had a very scary moment in the last hour of practice. I went out on tires that had two runs on them and we made a change to the front wing. The car just snapped on me in Turn 2. That was the closest that I have been to crashing and probably the scariest moment of my life in anything that I have ever done. I came into the pit box and told the guys that I needed a diaper change. They all laughed, but I wasn't ready to laugh that much. We decided to call it a day to be safe.
In all, I am learning a lot and want to continue the good progress we are making. I hope we can continue to find more and more speed each day.
Sebastian