Crown
Royal 250 at Watkins Glen
September
24, 2005
As the 2005 Championship comes to a
close, teams are less focused on overall finishing position than their
position relative to other championship competitors. At this
point, the #80 Synergy Porsche and #65 TRG GTO.R are distancing
themselves from the field for the title, but the race for third is still
tight. Currently in 3rd is the #16 BMW followed by the #73 Tafel
car, then our #14 Porsche. Concurrent with moving up to third,
Cory Friedman and Leh Keen would likely move into the top 5 in driver's
points.
Round twelve is the third trip to Watkins
Glen this season. The first was the 6-hour where we stood at the
top of the podium. The next race at the Glen was the short
course. This event was back on the full circuit, and we were
hoping to be among the top Porsche teams.
In
the first Practice, we rounded out the top ten right in the middle of
the strong GT3s. The second practice was essentially cancelled due
to poor weather, especially fog. The last practice before
qualifying was damp, but our car was good and we were at the top of the
GT charts and in prime position for Leh to put in a good qualifying run.
Keen
had an impressive qualifying run, starting 9th. We were the third
fastest Porsche, only 5-hundredths of a second behind the #73 car.
Last
race at Phoenix ran entirely under a green flag. With the DPs
running with us, the lack of run-off and perpetual guardrails, we did
not expect this race to play out the same. The race started with
lovely weather, but the carnage began immediately. On the first
lap, the #65 GTO got its nose chopped by a BMW causing the Pontiac to
contact a tire wall. This dropped them back a few positions
initially, but the car very quickly returned to race pace with no
apparent loss in performance. On the second lap, two of PTG's cars
bumped and the #16 car ended up hard in the tire wall outside the last
turn. The race was very much going our way in the first half-hour,
as Keen had passed three of the four cars leading us in the Team
Championship, most notably, the #16 car was behind the wall after
substantial damage. We were running 7th when a yellow came out,
but it was too early for us to stop based on our pit strategy. We
were counting on the race going to distance before hitting the time
limit, and we hadn't made much ground at this point in the race.
The track went back green with Leh running in 6th. At 0:45, we
were only 11 seconds behind the class leader, and our pace was as fast
as any Porsche.
Just before the
clocked turned over 1 hour, the throttle cable popped loose from the
pedal, and we were only getting about 3/4 throttle. Luckily, a
yellow came out within a lap, and we made our first scheduled stop and
fixed the throttle. Many teams were apparently adopting the same
pit strategy as we did, as 5 of the front-running cars stopped during
this caution as well. Back to racing, we were 6th in class, behind
three M3s and both GTO.Rs. Over the next few laps, there was a
tight battle between Leh, the #36 Porsche and the #22 BMW. When
the dust settled, we were still in 6th, but the 36 and 22 cars had
swapped positions. At 1:15 the #73 Tafel entry made its second
long stop, so our Championship hopes were looking very good.
Half-way
through the time-limit, two BMWs had to make unscheduled stops, and we
inherited 4th place in the process. A yellow shortly thereafter
was an ideal opportunity to make our final stop and get Cory in the
car. Friedman hadn't completed a full lap under a green flag when
a horrendous crash up the esses, brought out the fifth full-course
yellow. Many cars were collected in the melee, including the #80
Porsche. Cory was right behind the worst of the damage and
narrowly slipped through, but ran over some composite debris in the
process. This yellow burned 40 minutes on the clock, and left less
than 30 minutes to go. Concerned that a tire was damaged
over the broken carbon, Cory did his best to feel for problems at the
reduced pace, and Gordon, our Crew Chief, watched from pit wall to
visually inspect the tires. We avoided making a stop because Cory
sat 5th in class, just 2 cars behind the #22 BMW, which we outpaced
earlier. The #17 BMW was at the back of the field in 6th.
Staying out put us in prime position to move up to 4th, where stopping
would have relegated us to fighting in 6th.
Cory
turned his first lap at full speed and then disaster struck. In
the middle of turn-two, Cory heard a loud pop and the car snapped around
and into the guardrail. As it turned out, the wheel studs on the
left rear failed and the wheel literally fell off the car. As
quick as that, an almost certain 4th place and excellent positioning
going into the last 2 races turned very disappointing as we watched car
after car take our position. The attrition early in the race was
still working in our favor, as we completed enough laps to stay in
11th. The cars we were most concerned with are 73 and 16, who
finished in 9th and 13th, respectively.
Our
championship hope is still alive, but not nearly as bright as it looked
going into the second hour of the race. We're now 15 points out of
third and 4 out of 4th with 2 races to go. The next race is at VIR
with along with a PCA sprint and enduro. The 14 car will be back,
and the 94 car will also be returning to competition, with a new paint
scheme and perhaps a new number.
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