Road racing

Caddell - Ford interview 2009-07-01

This Week in Ford Racing: Last year's Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Champion Andrew Caddell is once again in an all too familiar place, leading in series standings. Caddell has three wins and five podium finishes this season. Heading into the ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:43 PM

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This Week in Ford Racing:

Last year's Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Champion Andrew Caddell is once again in an all too familiar place, leading in series standings. Caddell has three wins and five podium finishes this season. Heading into the last few events of the season, Caddell is looking at a repeat run for the Championship.

Andrew Caddell - No. 1 Raybestos/Hoek'd Up Performance Mustang

YOU ARE CURRENTLY THE POINTS LEADER IN THE FORD RACING MUSTANG CHALLENGE. CAN YOU GIVE AN OVERVIEW ON HOW THE SEASON HAS GONE SO FAR? "The season started off really well. We won the first race and led every lap in the race. It was a good first race, but we've just been up and down since then. We haven't had the Mustang handling well up until probably New Jersey, which was the fifth race of the year, so we finally got the car handling good there, but before we were struggling. Ted Anthony has stepped up his game over at TC Motorsports and they've been giving us a run for our money this year. We've got a pretty good points lead on him. We've been working on the car all year and finally got it handling right. We probably should have won at Laguna Seca but I messed up during qualifying and I had to drive from the back of the pack. We probably could have won at Miller Motorsports Park too, but we got in a little accident during the first lap so we had to come from the back there. Finally, we broke through in Mid-Ohio and won our last race. It's been a tougher year. Last year everything seemed to come easy, and this year seems to be a little more difficult all year, which makes it even better to be leading the Championship."

HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO YOUR NEXT RACE AT AUTOBAHN? "A couple of months ago, I would have said not too good, but I feel much more comfortable right now with how the Mustang is handling and how we did at the last race. We know we've got the car there, now it's just up to me to just learn the track because we only have two 30-minute test practices. It's just going to be up to me to get out there and figure out the track and see how I can qualify. Then we've got to get out there and run a consistent race and see how everything shakes out. We're really points racing now. We have a race lead in the points so I much rather take a second place in a race then lead, spin out, finish last and lose points. All we're worried about now is that Championship win, that's what everyone is going for."

AS THE END OF THE SEASON APPROACHES, WHAT ARE THE KEYS IN KEEPING THE POINTS LEAD? "I got a great crew, they make sure the car is running great. The one thing we don't want to have is a DNF. If we have a DNF then, that's going to be our downfall. We just need to stay consistent and get as many points as we can and if we have a bad race we need to minimize the damage and stay out there in front and hopefully we'll win the Championship again this year."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS FOR NEXT YEAR? "We don't have anything going on right now, hopefully we can work something out for next year. We would love to go up and do the KONI Challenge and race the Mustangs up there, but we're looking at whatever comes to us right now. I just want to continue racing and get some more seat time because even thought I've been racing for eleven years, I'm still learning every time I'm on the track and at every race I go to. So hopefully we'll find something for next year and be able to do a full race schedule, we'll see how it goes."

NOW YOU RACED IN THE GRAND-AM KONI EARLIER THIS YEAR. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS ON RACING IN THE SERIES AGAIN? "We ran the KONI in Daytona, which was a lot of fun. Jim Click asked me to race in Laguna Seca and we ended up finishing fourth. We're talking with a couple of people on the possibly of racing in KONI at Miller Motorsports Park and maybe get out in the six hour at VIR, but it's all up in the air right now. We're just talking to a couple of different Mustang teams to see if they need another guy for their team for those races. We're working on finding some things out and hopefully something will come together, and we'll be able to race at one of those tracks."

-credit: ford racing

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