Yahoo Autos The Best Way to Celebrate a Race Win Is a Full Drifting Lap
Ford's Billy Johnson says it's because he's half Japanese. I say it's because he's 100 percent bad ass.
Given the choice of options to celebrate an awesome Continental Tire Series win on Saturday at Road America, Johnson could have tooled his Shelby GT350R-C Mustang down to Turn 5 and done like so many others: Popped it into first gear, dropped the clutch, and cranked out a bunch of tasty donuts in front of an adoring crowd.
Thankfully, our man Billy went in a more inspired direction by kicking his pony car down a few gears and commencing the mother of all celebratory drift laps. And we aren't talking about one or two token corners just for fun; Johnson tortured his Contis without mercy throughout the 4.0-mile victory tour. He even executed a near-perfect drift through the never-ending, off-camber Carousel, which earned a well-deserved round of applause.
"I've been drifting my street cars since I got my first license in the early 2000s; and on sand rails out in the desert before that," Johnson told RoadandTrack.com. "I'm half Japanese, so it's in my blood. . . Donuts are OK. . . Burnouts are OK. . . But I have a fantastic car that does fantastic drifts, so why not? As long as the series doesn't stop me, I'll keep doing it when we win."
A veteran of NASCAR, Grand-Am, and a first-timer at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June with the winning Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team, the 29-year-old is a lot more than a Hoonified road racer. One would expect a driver like Johnson to treat his Multimatic-built Mustang with kid gloves and burp out bland quotes after scoring a quality win for the Blue Oval, but thankfully, Billy's bosses recognize the power of unpredictable fun.
And based on the vivid reaction from those who came out for IMSA's Continental Tire Road Race Showcase weekend, it's clearly a tradition that needs to continue.
"That's part of it," he added. "The fan interaction is so great. Drifting is something different in the sports car world. What I thought was really cool was Jon Fogarty, in his last Atlantic championship, drifted all the way around Turn 2 at Laguna Seca in an open-wheel car, so I have to give him a shoutout as a badass back in the day who showed everyone how it's done. And hey, I have a great tool to do it, and enjoy doing it."
Johnson did give in to one time-honored convention by parking his Mustang and working the brake and throttle NHRA-style to envelop the V8-powered machine in a cloud of burning rubber. We'll attribute part that to his American half.
WHERE GOES THE SWISS MISS
It's time to add another chapter to the odd career of former IndyCar driver Simona de Silvestro. The native of Switzerland-affectionately known as the 'Swiss Miss' by her fans-ranked among the most popular open-wheel driver in America during her tenure in IndyCar.
The 27-year-old's attacking style and irrepressible spirit made her an instant favorite, and with her career on the rise at the end of 2013, it wasn't a surprise to see Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone come calling.
After laying four years of groundwork in IndyCar, de Silvestro's management team took Bernie's interest to heart and shifted her career to Europe where a link with the Sauber F1 team and its engine supplier Ferrari appeared to be a perfect match. A testing and development plan was hatched for de Silvestro in 2014 with an eye towards earning a super license and landing on the F1 grid.
F1 wanted to disrupt its all-male driver ranks, de Silvestro was the best female open-wheeler on the planet, and by all accounts, it should have led to big things. But in the power hungry and cash-starved world of grand prix racing, those plans went up in flames as the Sauber team sought to wrest de Silvestro from her managers and bilk as much money as possible from the experiment.
Forget her supreme skill and popularity; de Silvestro was reduced to a gimmick-or at least that was the intent-before she bailed on F1. With that door shut and her former IndyCar team shuttered, de Silvestro was out of options until the Andretti Autosport team called and offered a part-time IndyCar gig in 2015.
She earned a strong fourth and two poor finishes of 18th or worse from three outings, and with the late Justin Wilson dropped into her car to complete the season, de Silvestro was out of another ride.
Andretti came calling again-this time for its FIA Formula E program-where she partnered with Holland's Robin Frijns. Andretti's team had a less than stellar year in the all-electric racing series, and it was certainly complicated by having a pair of rookies behind the wheel. Making matters worse for de Silvestro, who was far more experienced than Frijns, the Dutchman placed 12th in the final standings and captured the team's only podium of the 2016 season.
For de Silvestro, whose best result was a pair of ninths, finishing 18th in the championship and last among the full-time FE drivers was a damning statement.
With this morning's news that Andretti signed Portugal's Antonio Felix da Costa to partner with Frijns next season, de Silvestro appears to be on yet another hunt to find a home in motor racing.
The talent is there, and she's a wonderful mix of guts and personality, but without the hard results to show since leaving IndyCar at the end of 2013, it's hard to say if or where she'll end up.
