{"id":184516,"date":"2012-06-11T09:47:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T08:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/opinion\/justin-wilsons-first-oval-win\/"},"modified":"2020-11-24T10:18:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T10:18:46","slug":"justin-wilson-s-first-oval-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/us-scene\/indycar\/justin-wilson-s-first-oval-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Wilson\u2019s first oval win"},"content":{"rendered":"
Any regular reader knows I\u2019m a big Justin Wilson fan. Justin is an excellent driver \u2013 fast, clean, consistent and extremely adept technically. He\u2019s also an absolute gentleman and after scoring an outstanding 11th<\/sup> hour win in last Saturday night\u2019s Texas Motor Speedway IndyCar race he is the UK\u2019s most successful driver so far this year.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Justin won January\u2019s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, co-driving for Mike Shank\u2019s team, and his victory in Texas means he\u2019s scored two major wins in 2012, more than Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, Jenson Button or Dario Franchitti. And of course, Justin\u2019s Texas win came with Dale Coyne\u2019s famous \u2018little guy\u2019 team, which conspicuously lacks the sponsorship and resources of major operations like Team McLaren or Chip Ganassi Racing.<\/p>\n Two years ago Justin scored another superb IndyCar win at Watkins Glen driving one of Coyne\u2019s cars. On that occasion he truly drove the wheels off his car, using every inch and more of the kerbing as he made the rest of the field look like amateurs. It\u2019s one thing to do that on a road course but quite another to do it on a high-speed oval like Texas where the right set-up is essential.<\/p>\n A key to Wilson\u2019s success with Coyne\u2019s little team is engineer Bill Pappas who has worked for a number of top teams in IndyCar and NASCAR. Pappas is like Wilson in that he\u2018s a cool character, a man of few words who knows how to get the job done.<\/p>\n