John Edwards says that he was not expecting to take a podium in the GTLM class at last Sunday's IMSA Monterey Grand Prix.
Edwards and team-mate Jesse Krohn finished second at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, after starting on pole in the #24 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE. The duo lead the opening laps of the race, before dropping to second after being passed by the #66 Ford GT of Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand. Edwards then held off the two chasing Corvettes, finishing ahead of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette.
The podium finish is light and day compared to BMW's previous outing at Virginia International Raceway, where the M8 GTE struggled on pace. Edwards, who brought the car across the line, was surprised at the way the race unfolded in hindsight.
"If you asked me at the beginning of the year which tracks would suit us and which wouldn't, I would say Laguna would maybe be our second-worse after Lime Rock and on the flipside, VIR, I thought, would be one of our best," Edwards said. "Meanwhile, we had no pace at VIR in reality and we had pace here, so it's a little unexpected, I would say."
Last year, Laguna Seca also proved a hospitable venue for the German marque, with the #25, then in the hands of Connor de Phillippi and Alexander Sims, taking victory in class. This was despite a lack of pace, which Edwards says the team worked to prevent for Sunday's round.
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"We made a lot of changes from last year when we struggled for pace, although we were running up front and the sister car won last year, it was a fuel-save race, so that's why it got everything mixed up. But here today, we really, truly had pace.
Obviously, not enough for the Ford, but compared to the rest, we were much better than VIR and it feels good. Some good momentum to take to Atlanta where we had a podium last year."
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