Jack Aitken Instagram – As we roll into 2024 I’ll refrain from the cookie-cutter “Happy Xmas/NY” post, and thought I could drop a few untold stories from the last year:
Coming in 1st (ba dum dum tss) was a trophy mishap following our victory in the Sebring 12 Hours. As you can see, the trophies are of the lovely plate variety, a nice change from cups but still troublesome for the journey home. Not wanting to scratch up my first IMSA winners trophy I put it into the backseat pocket in my rental car for safekeeping, and realised about halfway to my gate at Orlando Airport that it was still very safe in that pocket. Cue a frantic run back through security and the parking lot… The car had already gone to the wash bays but I got lucky. 🤦🏻♂️
Number 2 was more wholesome. David, a past teacher of mine with a love for cars and people, has been coming to races to watch me for a while now. At Nürburgring we had a Ferrari 296 to take some lucky guests and mechanics for laps, and while I enjoyed every one, I most enjoyed surprising David with one of these spots and delivering on a long-held promise to scare the living daylights out of him on a proper track, in a proper car. He was silent throughout, and stock still, until we got back to pitlane and he said some thankful words, with a few rude words in there for effect.
Finally, I’m cheating as this was in my broadcast channel, but it’s good fun… At sign-on for Le Mans this year I noticed they had a bunch of spare stickers, including logos denoting car class. GTE, LMP2, Hybrid, Pro-Am… etc. I collected a few, knowing they could be handy. Who wouldn’t want a Hypercar class sticker on their rental car? Better yet, I had an “AM” (as in amateur) sticker. At the final DTM round in Hockenheim, I blessed @v__thierry’s car with it, hiding it on the passenger side of the dashboard. I was reeeally hoping he wouldn’t notice until after his onboard camera was broadcast to thousands of fans, but alas, he has good eyes. It did make him laugh rather than punch me, because he’s a good lad 😅
Here’s to a safe and fast 2024. | Posted on 31/Dec/2023 14:15:55
