Published: Aug. 11, 2015
AUTO RACING
Richfield’s Bilicki takes 20th in pro debut
20-year-old leads 8 laps
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Driving close to 100 mph, Richfield’s Josh Bilicki took a
glimpse at a large television screen just outside of Turn 1 at Road America in
Elkhart Lake.
He saw something he liked: his race car, leading at Road
America.
“It was surreal,” said the 20year-old sports car racer, who
made his professional road-racing debut Saturday in the Continental Tire
Road-Race Showcase. “I didn’t believe at first.”
He led eight of 56 laps of race in the ST class. And had it
not been for bad timing, Bilicki’s day might’ve turned out better than the
20thplace finish he wound up with.
Teaming up with Anthony Lazzaro, the duo came from last
place on the starting grid and worked through the field. Lazzaro competed in
the first portion of the race, up until the first caution at lap 14. They
started last because qualifying was rained out and the grid was set up based on
points. Since neither driver had any points in the series this season, they
started last (28th).
But by the first caution, Lazzaro had worked into the top
20.
During that caution, Bilicki took over as the driver and
stayed in the car for the remainder of the 2-hour and 30-minute race.
“It was a great experience,” Bilicki said.
Bilicki, who’s been racing sports cars for five years now,
hoped for a strong showing and to bring the car home in one piece. He and
Lazzaro accomplished that, and, for Bilicki, he got a little bit more out of
it.
They drove a BMW 128i for Burton Racing.
“I’m very pleased,” Bilicki said. “We led eight laps and got
a lot of television time. The whole goal was to prove myself and bring the car
home safe. We had no issues all weekend. I was consistent and that was the goal
of the weekend.”
When on the track, things went well. Getting on the track
was a struggle at times.
On Thursday, Bilicki got about 10 laps of practice in.
On Friday, there were two practice sessions stopped by two
red flags because of crashes. Then qualifying was wiped out because of weather.
On that day, Bilicki said he got four laps of practice in.
However, he tested earlier in the week and was on a track he
knew quite well, so he wasn’t worried about his lack of seat time going into
race day.
“There was enough for me to get the feel for the car,”
Bilicki said.
“I was pretty confident, mainly because it was my home track,”
he added. “A lot of the drivers in the series are new and upcoming drivers like
myself, but I had an advantage on them because I knew the track.”
In addition, some changes had to be made with the team’s
driver lineup.
Bilicki was initially supposed to team with Terry
Borcheller, a five-time 24 Hours of Daytona champion. Instead, Bilicki was
teamed with Lazzaro.
Lazzaro, a 51-year-old native of Acworth, Georgia, has an
extensive racing resume. He’s made 14 starts in NASCAR — two with Sprint Cup, 11
with XFINITY and one with Camping World Truck. He’s also made one ARCA start,
six IndyCar starts and 83 sports car starts. Lazzaro arrived at Road America
coming off an appearance at the 24 Hours of Spa race in Belgium. He was
supposed to be a coach for the weekend at Road America.
Instead, he raced.
And despite his lengthy resume, he’d never raced at Road
America.
“He got one lap in the rain, but it was on slicks,” Bilicki
said.
After Bilicki took over, he got comfortable and surged to
the front.
Every once in a while, he was notified of his place on the
track. And when he got the word he was P1, he couldn’t believe it. At one
point, he led by more than 30 seconds. A lap in these kinds of sports car at
Road America are more than two minutes.
Late in the race, strategy started to unfold.
With about 30 minutes to go, the light for low fuel came on
in Bilicki’s car. Just as he was about to make the turn off of Turn 14 and into
the pits, the yellow came out, closing pit lane.
Pitting while pit lane is closed is a penalty.
Thankfully, he had enough fuel to get around the track, but
he was allotted just five seconds in the pit box because it was an emergency
stop.
Bilicki hustled around the track to catch back up to the
field. When he finally did, while still needing fuel, the race went back to
green and he had to pit. When he left pit road, he was well behind the field.
“It was terrible timing,” Bilicki said. “That’s just
endurance racing.”
He and the team hoped for another caution. It never came.
“We had a top-10, maybe top-5 car, which would’ve been
good,” Bilicki said. “It was just bad timing.”
Outside of that, Bilicki had a positive weekend, especially
working with Borcheller and Lazzaro.
“It was fantastic,” Bilicki said. “I learned more working
with those guys than I did in my whole life. Just to be around those guys, it
was definitely a blessing.”
Up next for Bilicki is a race in his normal Spec Miata at
Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, outside of Detroit, with
the SCCA Majors Tour. From there, he hopes to race in the same car in the World
Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Then
he’s off to Daytona to compete in the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.
He also hopes to run with the Continental Tire Series full
time next season.
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