{"id":6921,"date":"2024-04-10T15:16:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6921"},"modified":"2024-04-10T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:16:36","slug":"solid-toyota-gr-cup-debut-for-pt-autosports-drury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/10\/solid-toyota-gr-cup-debut-for-pt-autosports-drury\/","title":{"rendered":"Solid Toyota GR Cup debut for PT Autosport\u2019s Drury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport banner, the inaugural Aspiring Driver Shootout winner takes his first steps toward a professional racing career<\/em><\/p>\n

SONOMA, Calif. (10 April 2024) \u2013 Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport driver Henry Drury claimed a solid Toyota GR Cup debut last weekend at Sonoma Raceway, scoring top 15 finishes in the pair of races with solid passes and race craft skills.<\/p>\n

With weather and surface issues resulting from Sonoma\u2019s recent re-pave eliminating the planned test day, Drury, a 24-year-old English born, Tampa, Fla. resident, had to get his No. 88 Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport Toyota GR86 Cup Car up to speed quickly. But at the end of the weekend, he was happy with the progress he made in his first Toyota GR Cup weekend.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u201cIt was an intense weekend to say the least!\u201d said Drury. \u201cWith the schedule being so condensed we had a lot to learn in an incredibly small window, and we definitely suffered from the lack of practice and experience compared to others. I\u2019d obviously rather have been further up the field, but I\u2019m proud of the battles we had and the progress we made out of such a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

SRO series testing on Wednesday revealed issues with Sonoma\u2019s recent repave, prompting organizers to cancel Thursday testing as they repaved parts of turns 8 and 11. Work continued Friday, with the GR Cup\u2019s first practice backed up to 6:15 p.m. \u2013 but Drury put his head and his right foot down, with only 30 minutes to work on setup and get to a qualifying pace. Improving his times with every lap, he set the 11th quickest time \u2013 a solid initial performance under difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n

Difficult track conditions again greeted the field for qualifying Saturday morning, as Drury headed out on a damp, cold and slick racetrack. Fighting traffic \u2013 and a competitor\u2019s sketchy move on his flyer lap \u2013 Drury settled for P21 for the afternoon\u2019s race one.<\/p>\n

But Drury wouldn\u2019t stay there for long, on the move at the drop of the green flag, making smart, calculated passes through the opening corners to take 15th before a lap two yellow slowed the field. The green flew again on lap 5 and Drury recommenced his press forward, quickly taking 13th. But the battle continued between five cars fighting for position, and Drury found himself shuffled back to 16th midway through the race. But Drury was not going to relent, as he made a switchback move on the inside of turn 7a to take 15th and held the position to the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an absolutely epic race,\u201d said Drury. \u201cSo intense compared to what I\u2019ve done before, I never had a moment to breathe. I learned a ton and had some awesome battles, spending the second half of the race under constant pressure. More rubbing and bumping than I\u2019ve ever experienced as well!\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting 17th in race two, Drury was determined to retake as many positions as possible, making smart moves and taking P13 mid-race \u2013 until he was hit from behind and sent off track. Returning to the race near the back of the pack, he fought back through traffic to take P14 at the checkered flag \u2013 which became P12 after post-race penalties.<\/p>\n

Though frustrated that he hadn\u2019t finished higher, Drury was pleased with his debut weekend, despite all the obstacles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have asked for a crazier induction to my first pro race weekend, \u201csaid Drury. \u201cWe started off on a really positive note in our practice session, considering that it\u2019s a completely new track to me, but I struggled with confidence and the car in qualifying. We had some awesome battles and I\u2019m proud of where we ended up, but setup struggles and a few mistakes dropped us back further than our pace deserved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been blown away by the work ethic and attention to detail of the Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport team and I\u2019m learning faster than ever,\u201d Drury continued. \u201cI\u2019m really happy with how I held my own in the pack and proved that I have what it takes to be here in this series, but we still have a way to go and a lot to learn to catch up to the experience level of some of the drivers here. I\u2019m incredibly grateful for the opportunity PT Autosport has trusted me with to represent them here in GR Cup and the patience they\u2019ve shown as I learn and build experience. It\u2019s hard to be happy with P15 and P12, but when I step back and think about this being my fifth race weekend ever, I can be proud of my performance and the amount of learning I crammed into such a short weekend. We\u2019ve given ourselves a solid foundation to build on, and I\u2019ll leave no stone unturned in between now and Sebring in pursuit of that top 10 finish. I\u2019m already counting the days!\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport will be the doubleheader at Sebring International Raceway, May 3 to 5. The pair of 45-minute races will be broadcast live at www.grcup.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the Precision Racing LA w\/ PT Autosport banner, the inaugural Aspiring Driver Shootout winner takes his first steps toward a professional racing career SONOMA, Calif. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-feature","category-pt-autosport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6923,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6921\/revisions\/6923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}