Robb Holland will soon be the first American driver in the British Touring Car Championship in 37 years. This is a huge challenge and his first race is this weekend at Snetterton. As prep for his race he's answering your questions, live, right here.
You may know Robb from his many great contributions to this site, including the awesome Project Grocery Getter. What you may not know is how damn challenging racing in Europe is.
A story. Robb and I were both at the Nürburgring and I did not plan a hotel room for a night. Robb nicely let me crash with him and, to thank him, I decided to take him to dinner. After getting rejected at the first place we ended up at a little place that didn't give us a menu but told us that we'd be eating steak or nothing.
The steak was fantastic. The green beans wrapped in pork were even better. But Robb is a large black guy in a tiny German town in the middle of nowhere speaking English. We were noticed and a German couple did the very German thing of sitting right down at our table and taking to us, uninvited.
When we explained that Robb was a race car driver this woman said, I swear:
"An American racing driver? You must not be very good."
That's the challenge. Robb, I think, is up for it though. Here's his history:
Robb started his pro career with an impressive rookie season driving for 3R Racing, in a Factory Dodge SRT-4. In the first year of the program, Holland scored three top-ten finishes and a podium. Despite posting the highest finish and qualifying position of any SPEED TC rookie in 2006, Holland fell just short of the Piloti Rookie of the Year award by 13 points.
Robb's ability to assist in developing a race car has not gone unnoticed as he has been asked to work with several manufacturers, in the development of their cars.
That led him to be signed by the K-PAX Racing run, factory Volvo program where he spent long hours testing with engineers from the factory in Sweden to help get the C30 touring cars up to speed. That effort was hugely successful with 5 poles and 6 wins for the car in the second half of it's maiden season in 2012.Previously: Holland's racing career began with cycling. He competed on the University of Colorado cycling team, helping them capture two National Championships before competing professionally for 6 years on the top international level against stars like Lance Armstrong.
Go ahead, ask him anything.
Robb has to get some sleep so he's ready to go American all over their asses this weekend. Best of luck Robb and thanks for coming out to answer our questions.