2) Was the race itself challenging in terms of traffic (46 cars started) and conditions?

SJ - It was interesting inasmuch as there were all of the GT3 cars but there were also the Scirocco R-Cup cars. Obviously those cars are way slower and let’s just say the drivers don’t have a lot of experience. I’ve never seen so many interpretations of a racing line in my entire career. You really had to be extremely cautious when you were out there. Eventually that’s what caught a lot of people out and decided the fate of the race. Most of the leading cars had contact at some point. It was a good race for us though and a great way for me to sharpen up before the next one at Petit Le Mans which I’m excited about.

3) It looks like you will have some great competition in LMP2 at Petit Le Mans (Saturday, October 1, Road Atlanta, live coverage on ESPN3.com) from both ALMS teams and the ILMC entrants from Europe. What’s your goal for the race?

SJ- Yes, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be racing with Zak [Brown] and Mark [Patterson] in the OAK-Pescarolo with the Judd engine. The goal for us is to try to win the P2 category. I think it’s definitely do-able if we stay out of trouble. Typically, Petit is full of action and it can be chaos out there. In these endurance races it’s whomever spends most of the time on the race track that ends up winning, so we’ll have to be very disciplined but still try to maintain speed.

4) Recently two of the LMP1 teams in the ALMS lobbied the series leadership to equalize the performance between the petrol and diesel-powered prototypes. Dyson Racing (Mazda Lola B09/86 Coupe) and Cytosport (Muscle Milk Aston Martin Lola Bo09/60 Coupe) reportedly did this ahead of the upcoming races, Petit Le Mans and Sebring, where Audi and Peugeot will race their diesel powered prototypes. The ACO stated that the diesel and petrol cars would be equalized in 2011 but as we know this has not happened. Dyson and Cytosport want performance restrictions on their cars lifted so that they might have the opportunity, small as their chances may be, to compete for an overall win against the factories. What are your thoughts on their request?

SJ - My view is slightly different. It’s alright for these guys to say that they want a level playing field but the rules are the rules. Even if they leveled the engine performance more than what it is now, all the other cars are effectively running around with cars that are five year old designs. If you compare the new Audi or Peugeot to the Lola coupe that a lot of these teams are running is a different world. The technology is so much more advanced on the factory cars, and of course so are the budgets they have at their disposal. It’s a bit like comparing HRT with McLaren or Ferrari in F1, they run under the same rules but the time difference is similar to the factory cars in LMP and the privateers.

Frankly, I think those guys would be better off running in P2. The teams are a combination of gentlemen and professionals. Leave it to the big boys to duke it out amongst themselves, which is exactly what they do anyway. Historically, you always have two and maybe three teams in any given period that are really fighting for the winds, the rest are the clowns that make up the show. The teams that work the hardest and have the most clever people then sometimes rise to the top, which is the case with Red Bull for example in F1.  If you dumb down the rules then what’s the point for the manufacturers to race? I talked to the Audi drivers at the beginning of the year, Tom Kristensen and a couple of the other guys. They were screaming bloody murder because their engines were dumbed-down so much from 2010. They told me that the cars have no power. They’re like driving a Formula 3 car they said.

So the ACO cut their performance to what they thought was a reasonable level. But the factories have the means to develop their cars continuously and at an almost unlimited pace. It’s the same thing in Formula One. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. They always find a way around whatever restrictions that the governing bodies come up with.

It doesn’t matter what you do to the rules when you have privateers buying cars that are already five years old in design with an older technology engine and they don’t continue to do any development. Even if the engine performance is exactly even on the first test days at Sebring by one month later you’ll have a 1.5 second gap already from the factory cars to the privateers. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. The bottom line is if they don’t want to have the disadvantage of racing against the manufacturers or the means to take the fight to them, then it’s maybe better to find another formula.

5) In that regard, you’ll be racing the United Autosports OAK Pesacarolo-Judd at Petit, facing competition from manufacturers yourself in the form of the Signatech Nissan and more significantly from Honda with the new HPD ARX-01G which Level 5 Motorsports will field. Both cars have factory support and are already very quick so in a way United Autosports is in the same position in LMP2 as Dyson and Cytosport are in LMP1. What can be done if teams like United Autosport are driven away from racing in the prototype categories and you are left with only a few (three at most) manufacturers for the WEC?

SJ - Well, that’s the nature of sports car racing. Unfortunately it’s always cyclical. In 2008 I think, we would have won Petit against the Audi diesels in the (Corsa Motorsports) Zytek (LMP1) had it not been for a tire blowout. I spanked those guys left, right and center. It just goes in cycles. At that point, the Zytek was developed. It was a good car. My problem with the argument that Dyson and Cytosport have is that, of course they’re spending money but they’re running old technology.

So you either dumb the whole formula down and stop all technology like IndyCar is at the moment, or you allow a more open formula. I think that’s what is appealing for most people about sports car racing. It’s really about the only form of racing where you have a relatively open book still. You can’t go into F1 with a diesel engine for example. There are so many things you can do with Le Mans-style racing. You need creative people but I think you need manufacturers as well. The dynamic now is shifting back towards manufacturers and as long as you have two factories competing they are always going to have a big advantage. If there’s only one manufacturer, like when Audi was on their own, the advantage is not so great because they don’t put in as much effort because they don’t have to. As soon as Peugeot came into the game, everybody had to step up their effort.

It’s a tricky balance. I’ve been a team owner and I know what it’s like (Stefan fielded teams in Indy Lights, ALMS , his team won the European LMS series in an Audi R8  and CART with his American Spirit Team Johansson) but racing is not for the faint of heart. It never was and it never should be. It’s the ultimate in competition and it’s directly related to the amount of effort you put into it.

6) What are your thoughts on the last two F1 races at Spa and Monza? It looked as if the crowd at Monza really made an impression on Sebastian Vettel. He can lock up the championship at Singapore. Do you think he will?

SJ - Yeah, it’s always impressive at Monza. It’s a great atmosphere. I think Vettel can definitely do it. Red Bull has seemed to be able to maintain their advantage all year. It’s easier said than done beating an Adrian Newey-designed car. The others are all talking the big talk with the media. I saw that Ferarri made some announcement that they’re putting together an unbeatable technical team or whatever the phrase was that they used.

That’s what everybody’s trying to do of course and that’s why Red Bull hired Adrian Newey in the first place. You only need to look at history to see how many world championship-winning cars he’s designed. I don’t think there’s ever been a designer in F1 more successful than he is. I would rather hire him than hire the best driver any day.

7) What are your feelings on the controversy surrounding Michael Schumacher and his alleged blocking of Lewis Hamilton at Monza?

SJ - I think it was great in way seeing Schumacher be back to his usual form, pushing the rules right to the limit. At the end of the day, I think it was just that, right to the limit. I think you could say he did block Hamilton but he didn’t get penalized. That’s why they have ex-Grand Prix drivers in race control – to make that judgment. Whether Derek [Daly] had the will to do it or not is a different story. He didn’t get the penalty so he got away with it. That’s how Schumacher won seven championships.

You don’t necessarily win that much by being a nice guy all the time. That’s the nature of the beast I’m afraid. Blocking in F1 is all dependent on what the rule says or more importantly, the way it gets interpreted. I personally think he did go over the limit but it was allowed. In IndyCar it’s very strict, the rule clearly states you can only move once then you must stay on that line until the next corner, you can’t move back again. In F1 it seems they prefer to rely on the individual stewards to make the judgment.

Had I been Lewis, and I’m sure he had his reasons for racing Michael the way he did, I might have hung back a little bit for a lap or two. Sometimes that actually pays off. If you drop back about a second or two you can regain your momentum and get back up to your own speed and rhythm rather than running at the pace of the slower car in front of you. Obviously, Lewis was much quicker than Michael. Had he been able to pass him he would have pulled away.

8) You’ve driven many high downforce cars in F1 and other series. What’s it like to gain on a competitor, reach them and then stall out and have difficulty making a pass? It must be frustrating.

SJ - That’s one of the problems with modern racing cars. That’s part of what F1 has been trying to overcome with the DRS (Drag Reduction System) this year. But I couldn’t understand why Lewis wasn’t able to pass Michael with the DRS on the straights at Monza. My guess is he might have been on the rev limiter and that’s what stopped him blowing past as you would normally expect.

It is frustrating when you catch another guy and you lose downforce but that’s the way it has been for a long time. That’s part of modern racing. In the old days when the cars were less sophisticated than they are now, your best chance to pass was often when the guy in front of you eventually missed a gear.

When the cars used to have cross-gate gearboxes you always had to try hassle the guy in front and make him nervous. When you noticed him looking in his mirrors a lot you knew you were getting inside his head. You would do everything you could to unsettle him  and eventually he would miss a gear and that would be your moment to pass.

9) Do you have any thoughts on restoring a bit of that action to F1? How would you approach it?

SJ - What I would like to see is tires that could be used for an entire race distance without pitting. They would have enough performance to be fast but hard enough so that you could do the whole race with them if that’s the option you chose. And maybe there could be a second slightly softer compound option that would have higher performance but require a stop for a new set because they wouldn’t last the whole race. If you chose the first option you’d have to set the car up in a way to get good lap times out of it but still manage tire wear well. I think that would be an interesting challenge for the drivers and engineers.

I think if they also limited the operation of the DRS to say, 10 or 15 pushes per race - like the push-to-pass button in Indy cars – that would bring in some strategy and tactics, and make it more interesting for the spectators and the commentators. They would be able to know on the TV how many pushes Hamilton had left for example if he was trying to pass someone else.

10) You’ve begun to delve into the world of race track design recently. What are do you think of many of the circuits that have been designed over the last 20 years?

SJ - It’s always a balance I know but the majority of the new race tracks today are not very good in most cases. Back in the day, part of the arsenal of a great racing driver was bravery. I think it’s such an essential part of the whole mystique of racing. Unfortunately today the way the cars perform and the way the tracks are in particular, there aren’t many places where you can display your bravery. There’s no question that most of the drivers today are brave but there’s not much opportunity to really show it. There is nothing better than to look at a flat throttle trace in the

When I went to the grand prix at Abu Dhabi a couple years ago for example, within three laps every single driver was on the limit of what their car was capable of doing. By that time everybody had been off the track in almost every corner. You brake a little later than what you can in the corners and drift out into the blue asphalt there in the runoff areas and then rejoin. It’s to easy to find the limit of both the car and the track. There’s not even a sand-trap.

In other words, I think there ought to be more of a penalty for making a mistake or going over the limit than what there is currently. It’s almost like driving a video game now and ultimately I believe that means more drivers with relatively little experience are capable of getting right on the pace which also shows when the top teams are testing the young drivers, very often they are within less than half a second behind the regular driver who in some cases are world champions, that does not make sense to me..

I’m not saying you want to make circuits dangerous but I think there are ways you could bring back elements that would allow the drivers to display more skill. That’s why all the drivers relish corners like Eau Rouge (the famous downhill corner at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium). But the problem is, even Eau Rouge is flat now. It’s not really a challenge anymore. Cars are too good, they have too much grip. Even in a prototype you’re flat through Eau Rouge after four or five laps.

I think better circuit design would add an element to the whole racing equation.

11) What would it take in terms of circuit design to restore the elements you’re talking about?

SJ - It depends on each track’s location because it depends on the nature of the terrain they’re part of. All the really great race tracks around the world pretty much follow the natural terrain. All of the terrible tracks are done with a ruler. They’re trying too hard to “design” the track. The really cool tracks are laid out following the topography of the ground where they were built.

I think every track should have a balls-out high speed corner that can be flat only when you get it absolutely perfect. But then you also have to consider that nowadays most tracks are built to be multi-purpose circuits not just for grand prix racing. A grand prix car is obviously a lot easier flat in many corners than a touring car. Then at some tracks they also design for motorcycles. It’s a tricky balance.

The reason I’ve been putting more thought into this is because I’ve been starting to work on a couple different track designs with people.

12) Scott Dixon won for the second time this year at Motegi, Japan on September 18th. Were you able to follow the race?

SJ - I was only able to follow it through my Blackberry, flying back from Malaysia. That was nerve wracking to say the least. He did a great job.

13) With Will Power’s second-place finish and Dario Franchitti’s eighth-place finish, Power now leads the championship by 11 points with two races remaining, both on ovals. Dixon is 59 points behind. Does Scott have any chance of winning the championship or improving his points standing?

SJ - It’s definitely going to be interesting between Will and Dario. From Scott’s perspective it’s going to be very, very tough but nothing’s impossible. All the bad luck he had in the beginning of the year is starting to level out now but he’ll need more than just doing a good job himself to be able to finish at the top of the championship.

14) Apparently Dan Wheldon will be eligible for the $5 million bonus at the final race in Las Vegas. IndyCar was unable to attract any non-IndyCar drivers to participate as originally planned for various reasons. Wheldon will be eligible based on the fact that he is not a regular series participant this year. But Wheldon has been an active IndyCar driver for years and did win the Indy 500 this year so he’s hardly an outsider. Does this sound slightly odd to you?

SJ - I think it’s almost an insult to the rest of the competitors, especially on a track like Vegas where you can start last and be leading after five laps. Everybody is flat out and just towing the cars behind them. I don’t really know what they have in mind with that.

15) Apparently NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pilot Colin Braun is another of the active racing drivers wearing an SJ Watch. It’s another great example of how well and how widely your timepieces have penetrated the ranks of active pros.

SJ - Yes Colin’s father got him one of my watches. His dad is a well known race engineer. It’s great to see how the people in racing know about my watches and I guess word gets around .

16) Having a cadre of famous drivers not only owning and wearing SJ watches but testing them while racing must be satisfying as well.

SJ - Scott Dixon actually wore one when he won at Motegi, the new carbon-fiber cased Mark VIIIC. So now we’ve got a race win amongst the test watches which is very cool. Mark Blundell wore one at Mid Ohio (the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Emco Gears Classic, Sept. 17th). The watches are getting out there and going racing and proving themselves under those harsh conditions.

Let’s face it, most racing drivers, including myself, are a pain in the neck, they are picky, they have big egos, very demanding and rarely rest until they get the best out of their equipment, so who better to test my products than my friends and colleagues!