Conor Daly’s Persistence Pays Off In The Paddock

Conor Daly navigates the hairpin turn during qualifications for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. [Photo by: Richard Dowd]

When opportunity knocks….

Conor Daly has always had some big shoes to fill. His dad Derek raced cars for seventeen years, including five in Formula 1. Today Derek is a motorsports-casting staple and motivational speaker in Indianapolis.

A career in professional driving and racing could happen eventually, too, for Conor if he just hung in there, was in the right place, at the right time.

Daly the younger paid his dues properly. Growing up in Noblesville, IN the 23 year old was a sensation as a youngster on the go-kart training grounds that feed today’s professional racing series.

He won the Indy Lights series race at Long Beach in 2011, raced abroad in GP2 and GP3, and returned home to Indiana to take a seat in the Indianapolis 500 in 2013. In his maiden voyage at Indy he started 31st and finished 23rd—not at all a bad showing for a first-year man at the Speedway.

For Daly, though, no opportunities were in the offing when he flew west to Long Beach earlier this week; none, that is, other than the duties as chauffeur in the Indy Car Experience two-seater hauling celebrities and fans around the street course.

When Dale Coyne Racing announced that Rocky Moran, son of Indy 500 habitual Roberto Moran, would take the seat in the team’s car for this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix it was for the 35 year-old a “dream come true.”

“I can’t tell you how excited I am about finally being able to drive an Indy car,” Moran said.

In the second IndyCar Series practice session on Friday two drivers made contact. They were Carlos Munoz and Rocky Moran, who collided in turn one.

Munoz got a run on Moran down the long front straight of the Long Beach circuit and their cars were side by side, though Moran was a little ahead. As they got to the turn, Munoz braked deeper and clearly he thought that Moran, running on his first day in an IndyCar would yield the corner. But, Moran stuck to his line and came down to the apex pinching the committed Munoz against the inside. Munoz realized a little too late that he was coming and tried to get on the curbing and over the cones, but the two cars hit and Moran spun to the outside wall, making hard contact with the rear on a concrete barrier.

Moran broke his left thumb. He couldn’t drive any more.

And just like that, Conor Daly was in the race.

“It’s a shame to see Rocky break his (thumb) like he did,” said Daly after he was appointed to take Moran’s place, “but this is why I bring my stuff to the track every week and this is why I’m here and ready.”

“At least I’ve been on the track this weekend,” joked Daly in reference to his tandem trips around the course with celebs in tow. “I should be ready to go and I’m excited for it. I’ve always wanted to race (an Indy car) on a road course, and especially here at Long Beach.”

Daly’s only prior experience in the current IndyCar chassis was during pre-season testing at Sebring, FL where he worked out for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. It was prior to the release of the IndyCar aero kits though, in the unmodified Dallara DW 12 of last year.

Daly and team put a seat borrowed from Marco Andretti into the cockpit to accommodate his diminutive stature.

It didn’t take long to see favorable results: within 12 laps Daly was circulating faster than his new teammate Francesco Dracone, a driver who already has two 2015 IndyCar series starts under his belt.

Daly made 21 laps of the course during his only on-track practice session. He finished 1.8 seconds back of the session’s fastest time.

“It was great to get at least one session in this morning and get a feel for it,” he said. “I have never driven on the red Firestone tires before and they were nice.”

At 2 PM Daly commenced his qualifying session as part of the first group of racers to take to the track. The weather was perfect with an ambient temp of 68 degrees Fahrenheit and winds from the south at 3 mph.

Predictably Daly didn’t fare as well as he wished, coming in last among the twelve cars of his grouping.

“I was starting to figure out the red (softer tires) but it is of course not where we want to be yet,” he said. “I could have gone about a half second faster, and it would have been my best lap of the day, but got slowed up by Graham Rahal in the hairpin.”

During the 10-minute qualifying session both Daly and Rahal were penalized for going too fast under a local yellow flag on the circuit.

“That last lap I was half a second or four tenths up on my previous best which would have been nice,”said Daly.

Back in the garages he was philosophical about his first day in IndyCar on a street course.

“I am getting the feel of the car every lap,” said Daly afterwards. “For sure it is a steep learning curve.”

“I just have to keep moving forward and do my best tomorrow.”

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