David Richert Racing Road Atlanta summary

Richert and Aerosmith in Atlanta

The final race of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup season took place this weekend at the massive Petit Le Mans race event at Road Atlanta. The weekend got off to a very hot and humid, but sunny, start. However race day was unable to avoid the trend in massive amounts of rain that the Atlanta region has been receiving over the last few weeks as a torrential downpour flooded the track just prior to the Jetta TDI Cup race on Saturday morning.

"I've raced in the rain before but these conditions were like nothing I have ever experienced" states Richert. "I was doing 200km/h down the back straight and absolutely could not see where the track was supposed to make a turn ahead. Through the mist I could barely see the taillights of the car in front of me so I simply followed the lights and hoped the drive ahead was turning at the right time."

Joining the professional drivers on track this weekend as a guest driver was Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford. Whitford is an avid amateur race car driver and has attended numerous driving schools over the years. Aerosmith is the best selling American hard rock band of all time but when asked how this experience ranked with others in his life, Whitford replied "This is definitely up there with the coolest things I've ever done".

After qualifying 15th, Richert was able to once again survive the conditions, bring his car home in one piece and finish the season in the points with a 15th place result.

-credit: drr