IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: SAHLEN'S SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN

June 23, 2024

Ross Gunn

Alex Riberas

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll bring up our GTD Pro winners. C'mon up, guys. Now we have our winners in the GTD Pro class in the No. 23 harder racing team, Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn.

Alex, why don't you start us off. Just take us through. I imagine it's never a bad thing to win at Watkins Glen.

ALEX RIBERAS: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this race never fails to deliver a good show. This edition was not going to be an exception.

We saw from the beginning that it was going to be a chaotic race where surviving was going to be probably the most fundamental ingredient in the race, especially through the mid-part where there were so many opportunities for things to go wrong.

Today I would say, without a doubt, it's one of my proudest wins because it was such a big team effort. We were down for a bit. We did some mistakes. I would say that really is a test for the team.

I would say it's never the first mistake that is the costly one, it's always the second and the third mistake. Today we didn't let the first mistake dictate our faith for the rest of the race. We stayed together. We didn't point fingers or panic. We stayed focused on controlling what we could control and making the most out of it.

Ultimately that ended up leading to making a decision that had a big impact in the outcome of the race. With luck on our side, we ended up in Victory Lane, which is really amazing. Especially for Ross, being in the championship hunt, today was I would say instrumental for the rest of the season.

THE MODERATOR: Ross, the championship, as he mentioned. You're fairly close still, but still a long way to go. Tell us about that. Also, the run to the checkered flag there with the 4 car, you know what their situation was, and talk about that.

ROSS GUNN: Yeah, so first of all, just incredibly happy about what happened today. I think, as Alex said, we were down but never out. I think that's the key to these races. You always have to be giving it everything and never giving up, even with a couple of mistakes.

As far as the championship is concerned, of course it's nice to be close, but we're really taking it race by race, one step at a time. I think that's the key.

As today proved, there's so many things that happen in IMSA races, you can be high at one moment and low in a very split second.

Yeah, of course, the end was very exciting. We were fortunate that we were in a position to fight for the lead. I was aware that the Corvette was really, really tight on fuel. I just had to push Milner as hard as I could and not allow him to save any fuel. Yeah, that worked out pretty well.

Coming onto the home straight, with him peeling off on the last lap, yeah, was definitely something I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.

An amazing team effort from everybody. Alex, again, like in Detroit, had a very tough stint in terms of the conditions that were thrown at him. Yeah, I was on the slicks when it was raining. That was incredibly scary, to say the least.

Yeah, we survived the race. Really looking forward to getting out.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Ross, were you close on fuel at all or was that not a concern at all?

ROSS GUNN: No, it was never a concern at all. We pitted probably 10 laps before the red. Obviously the length of it and also the yellow after the red, it helped us a bit. It was never a concern at all.

Q. Would you say the pivotal key to the race was staying out on slicks during the downpour, not being able to pit?

ROSS GUNN: Yeah, that helped massively. Also we were in a position where we could kind of take a risk. I mean, I think we were P9 before the red flag. We didn't really have a lot to lose. We pitted much earlier than we were anticipating, a couple of laps before the heavens opened.

Yeah, in the end it worked out beautifully for us.

Q. Ross, you had to use some patience there while you were pursuing. You were both aggressive and patient at the same time. Is that the way you approached it?

ROSS GUNN: Yeah, so I don't really know Tommy that well, but he's clearly had an incredible career. You usually do that by being a really clean racer. I knew I was going to be close to him. I also knew that our championship rivals were further back. It was really important not to take any unnecessary risks. For me it was always a case of if there was a chance, of course take it.

I could see whenever he had a tiny gap, he was lifting, coasting a lot into turn eight and turn one. I just made sure I pressed him as hard as I could. In the end, it wasn't enough for him.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you.