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00:00What's good everybody, Dylan Spaulding here at HSR Daytona, it's the Classic 24, it's
00:05race day at the Classic 24, we're joined with driver for DiBenedetto Racing, himself if
00:11you will, Justin DiBenedetto, Justin, thanks so much for taking the time to talk, and welcome,
00:16excited to see you here at Daytona.
00:17Yeah, no, no, thank you, I'm really, really excited to finally be racing at Daytona, it's
00:21been a track I've been wanting to do for a very, very long time, and the HSR weekend
00:24we thought was the perfect venue for it, so really excited for the weekend here.
00:28So far, what has been kind of your first impressions of the track, racing here, what
00:31has maybe been the trickiest part of the circuit, I know the launch of Cain could be a fun part
00:36of the track, so what have you kind of been able to take away early on here at the Speedway?
00:40Track, to put it in nutshell, is very, very fast, that was the first thing, obviously
00:45getting used to also the, you're changing, like your visual horizon, up the banking was
00:50also another one, so, you've got to look ahead, trickiest have been turn one, because you're
00:57going downhill, braking, turning, and you're coming in at a ridiculous amount of speed,
01:03I think we're at a good spot there, but also now we're trying to figure out the Le Mans
01:07chicane of course, really, really, really, really fast in, and you've got to go fast
01:12in and fast out there, so, because half the lap is just all in the banking, so, you've
01:18got to get a good exit out of six, you've got to get a good exit out of the chicane,
01:22and yeah, those have been the trickiest spots.
01:24And you've got quite a field too as well around you in Group B, you've got Patrick
01:28Lindsey in that field, there's a couple other drivers who have some notable experience within
01:32IMSA and other series, so, just talk about how competitive it's been on track, at least
01:36early on, I know you guys will be racing officially today, but you guys have had the chance to
01:40kind of practice and get ready for it, so overall, what's been the competition like
01:43so far?
01:44Yeah, no, it's been good, we've been, I'm glad to say we're at the sharper end of our
01:48field with the Caymans, and there are a lot of Cayman GT4s out there, I'd probably say
01:54most of them are unrestricted, we are restricted because we're testing for IMSA at the Rohwer,
02:01so we're just trying to get a setup and everything ready to go for then, but no, no, the competition's
02:07great, I mean, you've got guys in Caymans, you've got guys in Porsche Cup cars, like,
02:12it's a whole variety, and everyone's very, very respectful, which is very, very nice,
02:17but yeah, no, no, no, guys are, even though it's kind of, maybe not a hardcore IMSA event,
02:23let's say, guys are still fighting tooth and nail out on track, so it's great to see that
02:27also.
02:28Talk about getting ready for the Rohwer, expand a little bit on that one, what do you guys
02:30have planned, I know you probably don't want to unveil too much, but obviously, that seems
02:35pretty exciting, you have some IMSA experience as well, so talk about that a little bit.
02:39Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I did my, I did a Michelin Pilot Challenge race at CTMP, I mean, we'll
02:45call it Molesport for sake of heritage of the track, we did that in July with Tooth
02:52Autosport, we've known them for years, and that was kind of my first, you know, stepping
02:56into the deep end with, obviously, GT4 and the GS class in IMSA, which is ultra-competitive,
03:02great learning experience there, race didn't go to plan, but I took it as a learning experience
03:06for the weekend, and for the last couple months, we've been working towards getting to IMSA
03:13full-time, we've been eyeing up the VP Sports Car Challenge for a while now, and I think
03:20we're pretty, pretty close there to doing that for next year, still learning out some
03:26details, but that's where we're going, and that's why we said let's go to HSR, a lot
03:32of track time at Daytona, never been here in person, so yeah, this is all testing for
03:39next season.
03:40The VP Sports Car Challenge, it's going to be an exciting year for that series, I mean,
03:44adding the GT3 cars, it's going to really, truly be a really good secondary series for
03:50IMSA, I mean, just talk about how excited are you to potentially be going full-time
03:54next season for that, I mean, that's going to be a series that a lot of people are going
03:57to be watching now, with three classes in total, it's really going to get people ready
04:00for the type of traffic you can expect at IMSA Racing.
04:03Yeah, no, no, for sure, I think when the VP Sports Car Challenge came out, a lot of people
04:07just looked at it, and they go, it's just LMP3s and GT4s, and you've got to look at
04:10the whole ladder system that IMSA's built, this is your stepping stone into this environment,
04:15you can't jump the Michelin Pilot Challenge, because it is the absolute deep end of those
04:20cars, so this is a nice stepping stone, it also works with scheduling and work and all
04:26that, so it's a really, really nice calendar, the spacing of it's perfect, but yeah, the
04:32fact that we have so many cars now, especially with the introduction of the GT3s, it really,
04:39really, really does provide a good multi-class experience in a 40, 45 minute format, so yeah,
04:46no, it'll be exciting, a lot more looking in the mirror and making sure, okay, we're
04:50clear on P3s, and now we're going to be clear on the GT3s as well, so yeah, we're really
04:56looking forward to that challenge there.
04:57What was the biggest learning challenge for you when you were racing your debut race this
05:01season in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, what was the biggest thing you had to pick up in
05:05terms of that series, obviously you're going against TCR cars, you're going up against
05:08other GS cars, so just talk a little bit about what you had to go through in terms of just
05:12getting yourself prepared for that race.
05:14Yeah, no, actually, funny enough, we actually raced in a series, the FPL Sports Car Championship
05:20Canada, and it's similar format to Michelin Pilot, so it was TC and GT4, and then they
05:27introduced TCA this season, or last season, so I've been used to driving with those multiple
05:34cars on track, and obviously slower speeds, and navigate the traffic, so jumping in, I
05:38thought it was going to be a little bit more intense, the TCR, the fast TCR drivers are
05:44just as quick as some of the GT4s, so they're really, really, really on you, if you're like,
05:50I got cold tires, but yeah, navigating it was very similar to what I've been doing for
05:55the last two, three seasons, yeah.
05:58Yeah, talk about the FPL Canadian Series, not many people know about that series, especially
06:04here in the States, obviously, because it is a Canadian-based series, so talk a little
06:08bit about that, what the competition's like, it seems like it's a very high level of competition.
06:12Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I'd probably say the really peak for there would be the TCR class,
06:17I think last season we peaked at about 12, 13 cars for TCR, GT4 obviously a little bit
06:24smaller due to the running cost of it, but we got our feet wet there, and learned the
06:28car a bit more, series is designed as a stepping stone, provide Canadians a foundation to go
06:35drive these cars in Canada, go see how you are there, try it out, and then that kind
06:40of gives you the impetus to go and race in IMSA, and there have been a few teams that
06:44have done it, Baker Racing's done it, LP Montour's gone out and done it in Michelin
06:51Pilot Challenge, I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other names that have jumped up there
06:54as well, the Tooth also, what I went with them, that as well, so that's what we've been
07:00kind of doing, and gave us basically a proving ground to see where we are, and do we work
07:07well with the team, are we happy with the car set up, and can we progress beyond Canada,
07:12so.
07:13What is it like to see the growth of racing within Canada, obviously FAB Motorsport, people
07:17know who they are given the plaid livery and how popular they've been, but there really
07:22is a contingency of teams, drivers, it's continually expanding, you obviously have the race up
07:28at Canadian Tire or GoSport obviously, so it's really exciting to see where Canadian
07:33racing is in terms of sports car racing.
07:36Yeah, I mean, I think it's something that's, it's often struggled for a while, and when
07:44this series came in, it was a great foundation, because now, we've gotten to cars, looking
07:50for what we want to go to, TCR potentially a target where we want to go to, jump into
07:56that with FEL, but sports car racing is growing in Canada, although Canada is much more smaller
08:03than the US market, so for what we have it's great, and if we can keep building on that
08:08and get more people involved in it, I think it's fantastic.
08:11Do you see IMSA maybe ever expanding to another Canadian market, maybe Montreal, obviously
08:16they do the Porsche Carrera Cup there, so they do have a little bit of an IMSA presence,
08:19but do you see them maybe ever expanding to another track, maybe having two Canadian tracks
08:24on the series?
08:26I would absolutely love that, I think probably challenges are just some of the tracks out
08:31there, and maybe some of the politics involved with some of the tracks make it a bit difficult,
08:37but if we could get another round there, I think that'd be fantastic, I know IMSA ran
08:41at the Toronto Indy with the Carrera Cup a few years back, so even that's a great event
08:46also, so if we can do that, but yeah, the more the merrier.
08:50Talk about running for your own team, what are the benefits of being able to have your
08:53own team, being able to get the data you want, what are some of the benefits of having your
08:59own team and running it under your name?
09:03I think the biggest thing is you have everything under control, all the assets, the process,
09:10the procedure, everything, you craft it to how you'd like it, it's not kind of a cookie
09:16cutter of I'm going to go pay to another big team, go run there, and it's their way or
09:22the highway.
09:23Obviously running your own program with your own team is a lot more challenging, you've
09:29got to figure out the logistics of it, you've got to figure out your travel, me and my dad
09:33drove down with the trailer here on last Sunday is when we left, we got down on Tuesday, so
09:40you control it, which I think is very, very important, and I think race programs can kind
09:44of get away when you lose control, but obviously there's challenges with running your own program
09:50and just the amount of work, effort, and everything, it's not a get up and go load the trailer
09:54and you're gone, this is like a, this starts about a month before the race, and I would
10:00even say partially even before that.
10:02Alright, I'm going to close out with this, and then I've got some rapid fire questions,
10:05kind of some fun get to know you questions, so overall, how excited are you, obviously
10:11for this weekend, and obviously what's to come in 2025, it seems like you guys got a
10:14lot of exciting stuff planned with potential IMSA aspirations going into next season, so
10:19just talk about kind of how you want to end off 2024 and what you're looking forward to
10:24here in 2025.
10:25Yeah, no, I think 2024 was definitely a learning year with the GT4, a completely different
10:31beast as I've been driving front wheel drive cars for way too long, so to get behind the
10:37wheel of a proper GT4 sports car was great, and obviously we've had some success this
10:42year, a little bit of some challenges at times, but I mean if we can go out and enjoy ourselves,
10:50which we are this weekend, and take it and kind of end off 2024 on a high note, let's
10:54be happy with where the car is, where the data is, where my driving is, which I think
10:57is the most important thing, and everyone's happy, that'd be a perfect sign off as we
11:02kind of look forward beyond 2024.
11:05Alright, so some fun rapid fire questions, favorite music, like what are you playing
11:10right before you get into the car, like what music are you listening to?
11:14Kind of a mix of, you know, I got some rock, I got some French House, yeah, just a real
11:19mix, I got a playlist actually called Race Tracks, which is a very awful pun and everyone
11:25looks at me like, what are you doing?
11:26You might have to get me hooked onto that.
11:28Yeah, I might have to share the Spotify playlist.
11:32For sure, pre-race meal, what are you going with usually?
11:36Obviously nothing too heavy, you know, have some chicken, get some protein, obviously
11:43electrolytes are the biggest thing, hydration, stay cool, especially if it's hot here in
11:47Daytona.
11:48Yeah, nothing too crazy, a little light salad, and then if I'm hungry after then I'll just
11:53finish it, but yeah.
11:54And then to close out, if there was one track that you would want to race on, which one
11:58would it be?
11:59If you haven't raced on it, maybe you have, what track would you like to race on?
12:03Road America.
12:04Ooh, okay, I like that.
12:05So if IMSA is hearing this, please add that to the VP schedule at some point, I would
12:12absolutely love to go race Road America.
12:13El Carmen, it's one of my favorites, it's one of the best, so awesome, Justin, thanks
12:17so much man, appreciate the time, and good luck this weekend.