PIR / JULY 20, 2026
THE RACE IS
NEVER OVER
—
Two laps down before the race had really begun.
BY J. LEWIS
—
Four days after the Rose Cup, we were back at Portland International Raceway.
Same track. Different car.
Fifteen hours of endurance racing ahead of us in the BMW. Ross. Reno. Me.
Saturday morning, Reno put the car on pole.
And then, on the way to the starting grid, the clutch pedal snapped.
Just like that.
Months of preparation. A car on pole. Seven hours of racing ahead of us.
And we couldn't even make it to the grid.
The race was
happening
without us.
—
STARTED POLE
REJOINED - 2 LAPS
“
Your brain is telling you the car cannot possibly make the corner at that speed.
That the braking point is too deep.
That the rear is moving around too much.
That you should lift.
And then somehow—the car sticks.
Not comfortably. Not cleanly.
Right at the edge.
—
There were corners where every instinct I had told me to back out of it.
High-speed sections where the car felt impossibly loaded.
Braking zones where my body was screaming that I'd gone too deep.
But little by little, lap after lap, I stayed with it.
Not reckless.
Not desperate.
Just more committed.
And I think that's what confidence actually is.
Confidence is built through repetition at the edge of discomfort.
You go there once.
Then again.
Then again.
Eventually your mind stops treating the experience like danger and starts treating it like capability.
—
The fast drivers trust the grip.
They trust the car.
And they trust themselves enough to stay committed while everything around them feels violent and uncertain.
I'm starting to understand that now.
More importantly, I'm starting to feel it.
—
Vision.
Patience.
Braking.
Car placement.
Composure.
Racecraft.
Trust.
Not mastered. Just improving.
—
The results were good.
Sixth in both Porsche Sprint Challenge North America races. Third and first in Sprint Challenge West.
But that's not what I'll remember about Texas.
I'll remember staying in the throttle when my brain told me not to.
Braking a few feet deeper.
Feeling the car move underneath me and realizing that movement didn't mean I'd lost it.
Trusting it. Trusting myself.
I'm still far from where I want to be.
But for the first time, I can feel what fast actually feels like.
And now I want more of it.
