"From the grid iron days as a wide receiver at Northern Arizona to the Board Rooms of Corporate America, Chris McMurry has been an example of hard work and success time and time again. Entering his 6th season in the American Le Mans Series, success continues to build for Chris and the 2006 season looks as promising as ever. After the recent successful test session preparing for the upcoming Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, I was able to catch up with Chris to ask a few questions....No doubt, Chris is eager to get the season underway and with a 'new' car, don't be surprised to see him regularly on the podium throughout 2006"

KM: Chris...2006 brings a lot of new and exciting challenges for you, but before we chat about this season, lets rewind and talk about 2005. Lots of peaks and a few valleys for you as a driver and your team...

CM: Peaks and valleys is a great description. The Sebring win was a great way to start off the season, and was a moment I'll never forget. The other wins, Lime Rock and Road America, were nice, too. But Sebring was well deserved. We ran hard and clean for 12 hours, and that's what it is about.

The other peak was driving the Courage C65. It was a very predictable and reliable car, and the AER provided silky smooth power. All in all, a true pleasure to drive. The C65, in true modern racer style, invited me to go faster, since it worked better at higher speeds. This was a new sensation to me, as the other cars I've driven, the Pilbeam MP84/91 and a Star Mazda, were just the opposite: the faster you went the wilder it got.

On the valley side, we gave away the championship and many victories. I don't want to get into the reasons for some of it, but those close to the goings-on understand we should have walked away with the top prize. That's not to take anything away from Clint Field; he had a breakout season, and really made no mistakes all year. Had both Miracle and Intersport run every lap of every race, Intersport would have prevailed; the Lola was a generation newer than the Courage and it showed. But since the Lola had its share of new-car challenges, the door was left wide open for us.

KM: As you mentioned, the Miracle Motorsports Courage of 2005 was a wonderful piece of machinery, and most of us will never be able to experience anything close to being behind the wheel of the rocket..can you elaborate more on the C65?

CM: The biggest difference was that the faster you went in the Pilbeam, and less so in the Star Mazda, the more you felt your life was in jeopardy. The Courage, on the other hand, wanted more and made you more comfortable the faster you went. I'll never forget this realization during the winter test at Sebring. I'd go through turn one a little faster each lap, and say to myself, "Huh, it feels better the faster you go. Cool!"

I did find the Courage more challenging than the other cars in terms of finding set up changes that would solve handling issues. The other cars were much more sensitive to change, and literally any characteristic could be dialed in or out. With the Courage, however, we made big changes and small changes, and other than too little wing impacting oversteer, the handling never did change much. In fact, we fought significant understeer all season, and we got devoured in slow and medium speed turns. I think tires were a factor, and it showed most at Laguna where BK's Courage, which was notably under-powered, was turning comparable lap times because they were clearly getting through the many medium and slow speed corners better.

KM: 2005 continued your partnership with your good friend Jeff Bucknum and jumping now to 2006, sees that partnership ending....feelings on that?

CM: Oh, I wouldn't say it's ending. Jeff and I are best of friends, our families hang out together, we own some real estate together, and we're constantly in contact discussing the long-term future. I'd say there is a 100% chance you will see us drive together again at some point in the future. And, don't be surprised if our kids do as well; we've talked about starting a karting team that stars the next generation of Bucknum's and McMurry's. In fact, just this afternoon my eight-year-old son Matt bested his fastest lap time at a local circuit, and Jeff's six-year-old son Spencer is following in daddy's fast footsteps, too.

That said, I'm very happy to be reunited with my good friend Bryan Willman for 2006, and new friend Michael Lewis ...

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