Sprint or Endurance? Koch is Good With Either at Road America
Photo: Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
Elkhart Lake’s Road America has played an important part throughout the racing career of driver Kenton Koch.
The 32-year-old California driver returns to “America’s National Park of Speed” for this weekend’s six-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Sports Car Endurance Grand Prix as the defending Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class winner, albeit for a race that’ll be twice as long as last year’s event.
“Yeah, it's going to be an interesting one, being a longer race,” said Koch. “And Road America has been a really, I guess, pivotal track in in my career. I’ve had some good races and some very fun races and fun memories being at this place and actually having raced Aaron Telitz like all the way back in 2011. Skip Barber was our first year racing in cars, so we kind of go back with each other there.
“Yeah, it's it's such a cool place. I honestly kind of wish they were going into the dark because I think another level of interesting things that might happen in the kink. But yeah, I think being here for six hours is going to be fun.”
Last year’s 2-hour, 40-minute sprint race at Road America was “hot blooded”, to put it mildly, with numerous long caution periods and penalties handed out for over-aggressive driving. Koch thinks this year’s six-hour race will play out a little differently than last year’s.
Photo: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“It's six hours, and you might think, "Oh, that's longer, and maybe people will be a little bit less aggressive, but honestly, six hours is still a sprint race in the grand scheme of things. Track position is still super important, and as far as last year goes, last year was obviously the kind of race that things turned as far as what IMSA's level of aggression, (what) they were willing to accept. They finally drew a line in the sand, and obviously they went pretty draconian with how they were policing things at the end of last year.
“Since then they've changed back a little bit, so now they're allowing that similar aggression, but with a little bit more control as far as what they're going to allow. So I think it's going to be a little different than the way it shaped up last year.
“The days of just straight tracking out on people are I think done because I don't think it's right to do, I don't think it's fair. But if you're the guy getting tracked out on every single time and and whatnot you can't be taken advantage of, but now the racing is going to be different and I think a lot better, and I'm all for it.”
Only doing the five Michelin Endurance Cup races this season, Koch will share the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO with co-drivers Onofrio Triarsi and Robert Megennis. Koch, who earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Cal State Fullerton in 2019, says the additional length of this year’s race at Road America will likely lead to strategy changes depending on the ebb and flow of the race.
“I would say in a six-hour format, things kind of shift from your standard two-hour, 40-minute (race), is just the fact that your strategy on long green flag runs can sometimes change. And you throw a yellow in there, some people take it, some people don't, and when you just lengthen the race, it kind of changes the strategy and how people execute the race.
“So you'll get to the end, and one guy that's been leading for four hours ends up at the tail end because he's just on a different cycle. That's kind of the thing that can shift as far as the mentality goes when, as a driver, you're in the car, you're not the one controlling strategy, right? You're just out there doing the best you can, whether it be fuel save or full attack or full push or whatever. It depends on where you're at in the stage of the race, right?
Photo: Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“If you're at the front, if you're at the back, it kind of it evolves as you're in the race. So for a six hour, yeah, things just are are gonna have a little bit more ebb and flow depending on what stage of the race you're in, just because it's a longer format.”
Given the choice of an endurance race, or a shorter sprint event, Koch leans towards to longer - but likes both.
“The six-hours is like a long sprint, whereas the 10-hour (Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) is like an actual endurance race,” Koch explained. “You get in and out of the car more than one time, which is the difference between a six-hour and a 10. Depending on most people's strategy, with three drivers, usually you just go one, two, and three throughout the deal there.
“For me, I like both. And as weird as it is, it's kind of nice. You get a flavor of everything throughout the year, which I think is really cool. What IMSA is doing now, where they're they're changing it up, we're not going to Indianapolis (for an endurance race) this year. We're going Road America, and they've added a fifth endurance race instead of doing your standard four enduros and then six sprints. Now, it's five and five, and I really like that being able to have a little bit more of an endurance championship - and it's nice to have both.”
Photo: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
Road America represents the first track that Koch will return to in the Triarsi Ferrari since joining the team ahead of last year’s race. Based on the team’s performance at the recent six-hour race at Watkins Glen International, Koch is looking for good things again this weekend.
“Yeah, I think with having been with now the team for a year, we've developed more of a relationship with them, and I think with the car, I think we've also finally found a good package at Watkins that was really nice. We tested before then and tried a bunch of different stuff, and so I think what with what we learned from Watkins should apply to Road America to some degree because the two tracks were relatively high grip in nature. Usually, what works at one track kind of works at the other. So we're kind of going to evolve a little bit what we had at Watkins and going to Road America with a slightly different package and hope that it works for there.
“But yeah, those guys are really good. They they've definitely got a lot of smart people on board, and the amount of times that we started the weekend with an absolutely terrible car and then ended with an amazing car, is amazing. So the development and you know mindset that they have with regards to making a car good it's one of the best, if not the best team that I've worked with, and I'm proud to be a part of it.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute.