LISTEN: 'It's been a hard but amazing year' – Seb Priaulx
Seb Priaulx has learned a lot from his busy and ‘character-building’ year of racing in North America.
The Guernsey motorsport star was on track for a class podium at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, a 10-hour race on the Road Atlanta circuit, but contact in the closing stages pushed him off track and left him settling for eighth.
Such misfortune has left him unable to secure a major result this season in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, where he has been representing AO Racing.
But he told the Guernsey Press Sport Podcast how he has grown stronger from it.
‘I’ve learned a lot as a professional driver, leading the car this year, leading the car set-up, telling the team what to do and that’s my first year properly doing this,’ he said.
Listen to the full interview with Seb on this week's Guernsey Press Sport Podcast
‘It’s been mentally hard, but it’s been an amazing year of a lot of travelling – always on the plane – but there’s been some amazing racetracks I’ve driven on.’
He described California’s Long Beach street circuit as ‘picture perfect’ and his highlight of the season.
It has been a long season, starting with Daytona in January, and Priaulx has been the only ever-present in the AO Racing team. The USA’s PJ Hyett and Gunnar Jeannette have been his main racing allies.
‘This year has been a lot of work, but we haven’t had the results, but they will come,’ he added.
‘And it hasn’t been all on us. It’s just been how it is with BOP, with balance of performance, in racing.
‘There’s so many different manufacturers and we’ve been on the back foot since Daytona, but it’s been great.’
At the same time he feels he has raised his profile, not least due to the popularity of the two eye-catching, dinosaurian Porsches he has driven, named Rexy and Roxy.
‘We’re definitely building up. Hot Wheels are doing a model of our car and that’s pretty big. The amount of people I’ve seen like on TikTok and everything, on Instagram, people love this car.
‘It has helped the profile and it’s just good America is so big and you already get so many people coming to the tracks and they just love dinosaurs. They love my car.’
Priaulx has not revealed exactly what shape his racing will take in 2024, but he is hopeful of a few podiums or even wins.
