Sheena Monk is one of several drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in their first season racing GT3 cars, in her case having moved from Michelin Pilot Challenge GS. But among those, she and veteran Katherine Legge are higher in the points, sitting just outside the top five overall as the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park weekend began. Teamed up in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, there have been a couple of top-five finishes, notably a fourth in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Marc Miller and Mario Farnbacher joined the party. But with some performances that Monk and Legge consider sub-par, they’re a bit surprised where they are in the standings.
“I think that we’ve had an up-and-down season so far,” said Legge (pictured at right, above, with Monk). “High point being probably Daytona and Watkins (Glen), low point being Sebring. I think we had a couple of bad races with Long Beach and Laguna, honestly, too. So the fact that we are sixth in points is incredible to me. I think we do salvage some finishes out of our bad fortune, for want of a better word. But I think the potential for us to be better is great.”
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Looking at the GTD rookies, Monk is at the top. Patrick Gallagher, teamed with Robby Foley, is two points ahead heading into CTMP, is also in his first full season of GTD, but has a fair amount of GT3 experience. And in the Trueman-Akin Award standings for the top Bronze driver in GTD, Monk is second behind Brendan Iribe. She is, however, quick to disavow full ownership of that position.
“There are a a lot of other factors at play,” she declares. “I drive with other people that … I say they play clean-up, but I have to give them the car in the first place. Unfortunately, at Laguna I didn’t do my job in that sense and we really had a chance. I guess I look at it like I’ve got a team of guys that have incredible pit stops. And we’ve been really solid on our driver changes; those things matter. So I can’t say, OK, yeah, I’ve been like the best of the newbies to show up.”
Monk says her qualifying could be better. “It’s something that I’m focusing on, because I feel that if I’m further up in the field from the qualifying, and the track position is better, I will be less likely to be around the incidents that happen early in the race,” she says while Legge nods in agreement. But she acknowledges that there are many things she’s still learning about driving a GT3 car, with all the aerodynamic grip the NSX adds over the GT4 cars she’s driven previously.
The first time she felt the compression in Turn 6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a revelation, Monk notes. That adds to the ever-growing knowledge base of what a GT3 car does differently than what she’s raced before. The accumulation of knowledge will certainly add to her pace, but there’s some mental components that will enable her to apply that knowledge, Legge says.
“I think Sheena’s tendency is to under-drive up to the (limit) rather than cross the line and bring it back, whereas a lot of newer drivers that that haven’t driven GT3 cars before have the confidence to go out there and go over the line and under the line and over the line — play with that line,” Legge explains. “We’ve been working a lot on how do we get her to go out and be up on the wheel, push straight away — even if you make mistakes, be confident, and comfortable being uncomfortable, and bringing it back to to where you want it to be. Because then you get there quicker rather than taking little bites out of it. She has the skill and the ability; it’s all mental.”
Monk acknowledges that she likes to build up in her time in the car, and with limited practice time on the weekends, that’s been holding her back. It’s also one of her issues with qualifying, where she has 15 minutes to get the job done. Asked to grade herself on her performance in the season so far, stuff like that has her being a pretty harsh self-judge.
“I’m not satisfied, frankly. But if if you’re here and if you’re not winning, I think everybody feels that way,” Monk says. “So I don’t know if that’s reflective of me specifically. I think everyone in here is so competitive that you have high expectations. You believe in yourself and you believe in the team that you’re with. So, that might seem negative, but I think it’s a healthy answer and a healthy response from somebody that’s competitive and just wants to win.
“But I’m also cognizant of the fact that that takes some time. So I don’t think, especially for how long I’ve been racing — I haven’t been in this for so long that by no means I expect to show up and win; I understand how wildly competitive this field is. I just think that for myself, maybe a little less incidents, maybe a smidge more pace and consistency. Maybe I’m being a little hard on myself. But I think with time we’ll be there.”