Neither DragonSpeed nor driver Juan Pablo Montoya, partnering with Henrik Hedman in the No.81 ORECA LMP2 car for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, are alien to winning.
The team won LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward, Eric Lux and Devlin DeFrancesco. Juan Pablo Montoya is, well … Juan Pablo Montoya, IndyCar Champion, Indianapolis 500 Victory, Formula 1 winner, three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona Champion and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title list with Acura Team Penske in 2019. Together, DragonSpeed And the Colombian won LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year with Hedman and Ben Hanley.
Observed during that Le Mans experience was Montoya’s son, Sebastian. Now 16 year old Sebastian is the third driver in the DragonSpeed machine for the Mobile 1 Twelve Hour Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. The number 81 was after the top of the magazines for the duration, and often the name next to fastest lap was not JPM, but Sebastian.
“I think it’s amazing,” says the proud father. “Honestly, the opportunity that DragonSpeed and Henrik and everyone involved in the program gave us to share the car is an amazing opportunity. And I think it’s a lot of fun.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for him to experience a race like this, especially in a prototype like this is really cool. So we’re really happy to be here. Of course, if you’re here, it’s up to the business and but we’ve talked a lot about it. We’ve worked hard on it. And I think we’re in a very good place right now.
Sebastian tries to make a prototype between Formula One regional championships after getting through karts before moving on to Formula 4. He is about to start the European Championship next month. He grew up like his father and won almost everything, and now the opportunity to run with him is special.
“It’s pretty cool,” Sebastian says. “Especially since I always looked up to him. I was always around the tracks to help him do his damage. Basically, look at what he does, how he works, how the team works and understand what it takes to to win because he was always with a good, competitive team.
“So having the opportunity to finally be a part of it with such a special team – especially last year when they won Le Mans – it was a great experience to be there. Hopefully we can repeat the story here.
Despite his achievements in motorsport, Sebastian did not always see his father as a mentor, as many children do not. JPM admits that there was a phase where working with Sebastian was difficult, but eventually he got around.
“He knows a lot and is fast, so it helps a lot,” Sebastian explains. “It was very difficult at first to start the relationship because I did not see him as a coach or as a driver, I saw him as my father. Sometimes he would say things and then I would be angry and then there would be a whole fight then I noticed behind every message that he was sending me, there was something special … “
“You’re an idiot,” Juan Pablo interjects, laughing and eliciting a similar reaction from Sebastian.
“Yeah, right to the point,” Sebastian laughs before moving on. “Just understand every message he sends and the lesson behind it.”
Juan Pablo says that one of the things that makes it so is to leave the father-son relationship at home. “When we’re on the race track, I’m more of a coach than a dad and I tell him things the way they are. I do not say anything. It’s what it is, you have to do your job and that’s it.
Sebastian responds: “It’s right to the point and it’s good character building too. No one will love you in this world. You have to act, you have to be fast, so the harder he is on me, the easier it is for me with everyone else.
By now, Sebastian was fast. Traffic management will be a whole new experience for him in today’s race, for which Hedman qualified the car as second. But his father praises his maturity and commitment, and more and more he lets Sebastian figure things out for himself.
“The more we went to races, the more I tried to do his thing alone with engineers and stuff,” says JPM. “I’m usually more in the background when he needs something and when I see from the outside that they are missing something, I come in and go, hey, you miss the boat, whether it’s him or the car or whatever it is. I I think it works very well. “
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