Race Summary :

Sahlen's 6-Hours at the Glen

Tire Problems Hinder Promising 6-Hour Effort

Ian Baas joined regular Autometrics Motorsports drivers Cory Friedman and Mac McGehee in our Mac Papers/Mac Business Products/Team Janica Racing/EP Werks #14 Porsche GT3 Cup for the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen.  We won this race in 2005 with Cory, Leh Keen and Wolf Henzler at the controls, and we went into this weekend with a goal of finishing in the top five.

Practice time was very limited this weekend, and black flags only compounded the problem.  Trying to get the car and three drivers up to speed in these conditions was certainly a challenge, but the car was good right out of the trailer, and we were optimistic going into qualifying.

Ian did an excellent job qualifying the car.  His first flying lap was very quick and he bested that time by a tenth a few laps later.  Toward the end of the 15 minute session, he went for one last flyer, but traffic held up that lap.  We did not have the time or fuel to try for another.  Still, we were pleased with the qualifying time and position.  We narrowly missed the top-10, and less than 3 tenths separated us from the second fastest Porsche.  Porsches have struggled to keep the pace of the prep 2 tube-frame cars this season, and the Glen was no exception.  Only one Porsche put in a top-5 time, and only 3 found their way into the top-10.

The race started well.  We took advantage of an early caution to meet the 45-minute rule, and this left Baas running at the end of the top-10 for the opening 40 minutes.  At this point, lap times began to suffer and the driver reported the rear getting loose.  We made a stop under green expecting to see a rear tire going down, but what we saw proved to be worse.  The rear tires were blistering badly.  This is a problem that was alarmingly consistent with all Porsches during the race.

The green stop put us a lap down to the GT leader, but lap times improved.  The course was sunny and hot for over an hour when we had a very heavy but short-lived rain during a caution.  The track was dry by the time the green flag came back out, and that was all the rain we dealt with the entire weekend.  Ian’s stint lasted just under 2 hours when Mac got in the car.  Mac had a reasonably uneventful run that took us to the halfway point.

The start of Cory’s stint was very similar to the beginning of the race.  Lap times suffered and the rear got loose.  Right at the 4-hour mark we made a stop to change the blistered rear tires and add fuel.  Cory stayed in the car and finished much like he started with fast laps causing the tires to deteriorate.

With just under 50 minutes remaining, we put Ian back in the car to bring it home strong.  He was turning our fastest laps of the race until the final caution with a half-hour left on the clock.  Less than two laps after it went green, our left rear tire blew at the top of the esses causing moderate damage and ending our race with around 15 minutes to go.

The car, drivers and crew all performed great throughout the event, but it proved impossible to turn laps resembling competitive with the Mazdas and Pontiacs.  The harder we tried, the quicker the tires would fail.  Only one Porsche managed a strong finish in fifth, but even they were 2 laps down from the race winning Mazda.