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WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA

January 31, 2016

Daytona Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We are going to go ahead and start with our post‑race press conference here for the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona, and it's our pleasure right now to be joined by the winners of the Prototype Challenge class. We have Kenton Koch, Misha Goikhberg, Chris Miller, and Stephen Simpson. Kenton, can you start us off and tell us about that final stint and bringing it home across the start‑finish line and bringing home the Rolex 24?
KENTON KOCH: Well, I'll tell you what, I've never driven so slow in my life to make it to the finish line. It was just trying to make it to the end. There was one of the other Prototype Challenge guys, I just didn't want to get in a snafu. We were pretty far ahead. I didn't really want to take any risks. There was no point in fighting for that. So played it safe and we made it to the end, and super happy.
THE MODERATOR: Misha, can you tell us what this is like to bring home the title?
MISHA GOIKHBERG: It obviously feels amazing. We were fourth here last year, so we missed it, and watching other people celebrate didn't sit well with us, so we were very happy to be in the winner's circle this year. But most importantly, I think for us this is a foundation for the bid for the championship in 2016 in this category.
THE MODERATOR: Chris, can you describe what it was like for you to see?
CHRIS MILLER: Yeah, I mean, for us getting our first win as a team here, we're still relatively new, but kind of all the pieces came together, and even before the weekend I felt like everybody thought we had a really good chance, but nothing can prepare you for actually feeling what it's like to manage to do it and pull it off. It's just such a difficult race having been here last year and seeing what it takes to win. We came back this year and we were determined, but still, you've got to have things go your way, and it's an incredible feeling that'll sink in probably when we get a couple more hours of sleep.
THE MODERATOR: Stephen, do you have plans for that bottle of Tequila Patrón that you have up there on stage?
STEPHEN SIMPSON: I'm trying to gather my thoughts right now. Firstly, I'm just so happy to be part of JDC Miller Motorsport there. They're just such a fantastic team, and as Chris said, the team are fairly new in sports car racing, but they've been around a long time. For the team to get their first win in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship is something that we've all been working at for a long time now, and I'm just so proud and happy to be a part of this team and this win.

Q. Kenton, around 5:40 this morning you had an incident exiting the infield. Since it was 5:40 in the morning there were no replays or anything like that. All we know is your car ended up with the front end all messed up. Talk about what happened there.
KENTON KOCH: Well, I hit the wall, and that's not what the plan was. You know, it was a mistake on my end. We went out on cold sticker tires, and these tires take a little bit to get up to temperature when it's so cold outside, so hard. But I'm not making any excuses. I was also a little tired, and it was just a dumb mistake on my part, and I felt terrible about it. But the team did an awesome job of getting the car back together, and obviously we were able to capitalize on it and pull out the win.

Q. I think two years ago you were running in the Lights category in the IMSA Championship.
MISHA GOIKHBERG: Correct.

Q. How is the transfer to the PC cars? How do you adapt to these open‑cockpit sports cars?
MISHA GOIKHBERG: Well, I think the Prototype Lights Championship is a great foundation for the PC. In some ways they're very similar. In some others they're very different. The biggest challenge I think for me was getting used to the lack of steering feedback because of the power steering. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a heavier car with more downforce and much more horsepower. It's a lot of fun, but I think that as a training ground, the way Prototype Lights prepares you is unlike anything else, and I would recommend to all young drivers to go through with that program and that championship so one day they can drive a car in the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.
Kenton actually won the Lights Championship a year after me in 2015, so it's good to see the two of us on this team have came from the IMSA Lights background.

Q. Kenton, you and your family had a particular anniversary this event. Can you maybe share what adding a win on top of that for your mom means, and does she get your watch?
KENTON KOCH: Oh, man, now you make me feel bad for saying, no, I don't give her my watch. No. The thing is it did feel very special to put a win on top of this one‑year anniversary. For those of you who didn't know, my mom was recently a recipient of a heart transplant a little over a year ago, and last year's Rolex there was a bunch of support out there that wanted to show their love and their support because it's a pretty big procedure, and now she's here and she's actually out walking our dog, whereas before she was struggling a little bit.
Everything is going good now. It's really awesome to have her here and be a part of this win with this amazing team.

Q. Kenton, you've had a pretty interesting ride to get here. Talk about how that worked out for you. How did you get where you are?
KENTON KOCH: Well, the Mazda Road to the 24 is probably the best stepping‑stone for young drivers that might not have a lot of money trying to get to the pinnacle of motorsport. Mazda has made this ladder system all the way from starting out from karts all the way up the ladders through the Global Mazda MX‑5 Cup and then on to Prototype Lights or the Mazda Prototype Lights or the Continental Tire Challenge. So you pick your way off the stepping‑stone, and I've been lucky enough to win consecutively to use that scholarship money to then get to here. It's pretty unbelievable that I've been able to now come here with this amazing team and awesome support to be able to pull this win off, so it's pretty cool.

Q. As far as we know, wins are always important, you never forget those. Compare that if you would to momentum which you're taking a win in and now you're taking momentum in. Talk about the difference and what it means to you.
STEPHEN SIMPSON: You know, it's a good question because momentum is something we want to build, and what a better way to start our year than this. But honestly, we feel like we've been building momentum even at the start of last year. We've been improving as a team and learning along the way, as well, and when we were here in November for a two‑day test, I said to John, our team owner, I said, I'm ready for the race to start tomorrow. It seemed like it's taken from that test in the middle of November to now, seems like that's been a long time.
But I really feel that we as a team were prepared for this race, and as Mikhail said earlier, we don't want to‑‑ when you feel too prepared, you kind of wonder what you're missing. To get this result in the last 24 hours is fantastic, and getting back to your question, I think momentum was building last year, and we look forward to continuing this momentum.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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