The setting was Sebring, Florida. The timing was this past Friday and Saturday. The event was the Panoz GT series. The drivers converged on this small town in Florida from Puerto Rico, Australia, Quebec, Wyoming, Wisconsin and more. Most of them if not all were able to take advantage of the 2 extra lapping days on Wednesday and Thursday. I did not have the luxury of these lapping days due to work and budget constraints.

The lapping days gave the other drivers quite an advantage. This was evident from the Friday AM practice times. It also made it very clear that I had my work cut out for me as I was the 7th fastest out of 25 plus drivers. The second session was about the same as was the 3rd 20-minute practice session. However, during the last practice session things began to look a bit brighter as I posted the 3rd fastest time. The question now was were the other drivers slowing down to conserve their cars?

It was announced at the driver's meeting the next morning that there would only be 1 qualifying session. So, this was a one-time chance to place myself on the grid in a good starting position. It was also announced that because of the large amount of drivers that showed up, we would be broken up into 3 groups.

The qualifying session ended up with the biggest surprise for everyone including me. I had won the pole position! When this was made official the conversation along pit row made it obvious that many of these drivers had come in to race against and with me. Overheard were statements similar to, "she is every bit as fast as they said she was" and "she must have been sandbagging yesterday."

The race started with the #2 qualifier and I going at it from the green flag. I had the lead going into turn 7. However, the second place driver had a great run off of 5 which sets up the speed to go into turn 7. He and I went into the 45-degree turn side by side and under full power. We came out screaming toward turn 8 with the second place driver having gotten his car in front of me. We battled through the next turns up until turn 17. It was at this point that I was "bumped" from the rear and had to concentrate on not losing the control of my car. This allowed the first place driver to pull away. I was able to control my car and begin to put some distance between myself and the third place driver during the following laps. However, the first place driver was through turn #1 when I was at the start/finish line. I had my work cut out for me.

It was during the 8th lap that I began pulling away from the 3rd place driver and slowly closing the distance on the first place driver. This continued on until the last lap. At the checkered flag I had gotten within 20 car lengths of the first place driver. After the race, the first place driver came to me and congratulated me on a "clean" race and said that just when he thought he had gotten away "there was Audrey back in his mirror". I echoed his comments and thanked him also for racing clean. The 3rd place driver said later that he broke off the pace because he said, "that if he kept up at that pace he would have killed himself". Well, we certainly don't want that.

I wore my Visteon drivers' suit proudly to the podium for the picture taking and celebration afterward. Many drivers came over to me afterward and said that it was a pleasure racing with me this past weekend, wished me well, and said "that I was every bit as good as they had heard". I appreciated their comments very much.

As an aside, on the flight to Sebring, there was an employee from Roush Racing that recognised me and asked me for an autographed Visteon hero card. This resulted in a mini autograph session that made the plane trip very short. Even more interesting is this event. Because of the late hour that I was arriving in Florida I stopped at a Burger King along the way. As I was leaving, the manager waved me down and said that one of his employee's had several pictures of me at home and would like a "signed something from her favourite driver". I obliged with a Visteon hero card. After an experience like this I have to say that I was "absolutely humbled by this event." The manager also asked for a signed Visteon hero card for his Burger King.

I stayed at Inn on the Lakes. I had breakfast each morning at the hotel. On the day that I was leaving, a waitress came to the table and shyly asked if I was the woman race driver that she heard was staying there. I said that I was a race driver and that I was staying there. This resulted in a small list that she pulled out from her pocket from all of the hotel employees for autographs. I happily obliged. Thank God for the Visteon hero cards!