{"id":285856,"date":"2025-11-16T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/285856\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:56:11","slug":"its-cool-to-get-to-drive-something-so-unique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/285856\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s Cool To Get To Drive Something So Unique\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday morning, Connor Zilisch got back in a race car for the first time since the crushing defeat he suffered in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series (as it\u2019s now known) finale at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

The car he drove today is not unlike the one he would have driven at Bahrain International Raceway a week ago, if he\u2019d won the championship race in Phoenix. But instead, his first laps in a Cadillac V-Series.R had to come a week later, at the Daytona road course, for the November IMSA Sanctioned Test.<\/p>\n

Aboard the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R run by Action Express Racing, Zilisch completed 33 laps, mostly on used sets of Michelin tyres, during the three-and-a-half hour morning session on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Zilisch said before going back out for the afternoon session. He described the V8\/hybrid-powered V-Series.R as \u201cvery different, but at the same time, very similar to things I\u2019ve driven in the past; it\u2019s kind of a mixture between the (LM)P2 car and the GT3 that I drove this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cA little heavier than the P2, more power. But really cool. A lot of new controls and things that I have to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun getting to feel it out and just run a lot of laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

When speaking with the assorted media members from the worlds of NASCAR and IMSA, one could see that the smile on Zilisch\u2019s face that had been wiped away in the moments after the checkered flag came down at Phoenix had come back. <\/p>\n

Because not only had Zilisch lost the championship after the most statistically dominant season in the history of NASCAR\u2019s second-level national touring series, all due to the controversial winner-take-all format of the NASCAR playoff finale \u2013 he also lost a chance to participate in the FIA World Endurance Championship Rookie Test in Bahrain. <\/p>\n

By missing out on the championship, he missed out on the required points needed to attain the FIA A License that he needed to run last week. Never mind that drivers with fewer credentials had been able to not only test, but race in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the same Hypercar class. <\/p>\n

And when it comes to credentials in endurance racing, Zilisch has two big ones on his resume already: His 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona and Twelve Hours of Sebring LMP2 class wins, as a 17-year-old rookie coming straight out of Mazda MX-5 Cup and late model stock cars.<\/p>\n

When the revelation of Zilisch\u2019s testing opportunity that never was<\/a> came to light, he was awestruck by the support he received from fans and other drivers. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me feel a little bit better about what happened in Phoenix. And obviously it didn\u2019t go the way we wanted it to, and I didn\u2019t win the championship, which ended up not giving me enough FIA license points to go do the test in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was nice to see a bunch of people backing me up, and giving me some motivation. So yeah, it\u2019ll all work out. And although it was a little upsetting that I didn\u2019t get to go over there and drive with JOTA, it\u2019s all part of it,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is still a perfect place to get my first laps in the car. Daytona is a relatively simple track when it comes to all the tracks that there are in the world. This one\u2019s one of the easier ones, so, a pretty chill first session.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the youngest-ever class winners of the Rolex 24, Zilisch knows the Daytona road course well \u2013 today he\u2019s been focused on understanding the unique challenges of his Cadillac V-Series.R, particularly the braking and steering. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely heavier steering than a NASCAR; I felt it for about five or six laps, and then I kind of got used to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GTP cars have a lot of controls that you have to know. It\u2019s a hefty, hefty machine to control and understand. But the team\u2019s helped me get up to speed well, the laps in the simulator helped a lot. It\u2019s been all learning today and figuring things out, but certainly, it\u2019s cool to get to drive something so unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zilisch\u2019s third Daytona 24 Hours start isn\u2019t a foregone conclusion. He\u2019ll know by 9:00 PM and the end of the final session of the night if he\u2019s done enough to guarantee a seat in the #31 Cadillac Whelen machine alongside Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti.<\/p>\n

But certainly, he\u2019ll do everything he can to get back on the Rolex 24 grid with a chance to fight for the outright victory in January, with the entire worldwide sports car racing supporters\u2019 collective watching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I came to Daytona racing on this weekend was in MX-5 Cup in 2022, I think. And I\u2019ve loved it ever since, and just being able to race in the 24 Hours is something that I dreamed of as a kid, and that\u2019s why I always come back and keep doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my third time doing it in my third different car that I\u2019ve done it in. Actually, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m doing it\u2026but if I do get to end up doing it, if I do well enough today, then that would be cool!\u201d said Zilisch.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m just excited for the opportunity to be here today and get this chance to test the car. It\u2019s been such a dream of mine to get to drive in the highest class of IMSA, and doing that today has been really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Images \u00a9 Cadillac<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday morning, Connor Zilisch got back in a race car for the first time since the crushing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,129696,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-285856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-rj-oconnell","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}