Watkins Glen feature race video/weekend recap

Post links to your race videos here!
User avatar
Needs a Life!!!
Needs a Life!!!
Posts: 766
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:03 am

Chassis:
098
Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/denny.stripling
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:14 pm
Hey all,
Another great race, this time at Watkins Glen for the Sunday Majors feature. This class just never fails to disappoint. This one features a flag-to-flag battle between the super fast locals and the interloper (yours truly). Lee McNeish, Rob Reed, and myself had a great three car battle all the way to the checkered.

I have to thank SEI Motorsports and the awesome Vanacore family (Todd and Kim) for all the help and support. It was an epic weekend, and this race was the exact reason I made the trip. WGI is an amazing track, as promised, and I would love to make it back again some time. In a Gen2, in favorable conditions, there were SIX spots on the track where I surpassed 100 MPH. Off the top of my head, Road America *almost* has 4 and that's the closest I can think of. Sebring might come close...
I bet WGI an absolute hoot in a Gen3.

Quick recaps:
Test day was a blast. I got to run the track when it was wet and man that is a daunting place with so little runoff in places.

Qually went well, but not as well as I had hoped. I ran by myself (d'oh) and had a very quick time compared to my test day laps. I came in to see where I was on the grid and they said "6th" and my response was "!". So I went back out and was just about to draft with Bruce Meyers when they dropped the checkered, so I stayed in 6th.

Saturday after the start it took me about 2.5 laps to get up in to third but by that time Herb Sweeney IV and Rob Reed had about 2.5 seconds on me. I ran lap after lap, equal to or catching them slightly in the corners, and they would pull 3-4 tenths on me nose to tail on the long straight, so they just slowly legged it out. The 4-8 pack was a couple of seconds behind me but couldn't quite get up to me so I ran a lonely third. A solid finish for my first time on the track, but I still had no clue what I had compared to the lead duo.

On Sunday I vowed to try and get up to the leaders earlier in the race. That strategy was affected early on (aren't they all?) when Herb missed his upshift on the start. Bruce plowed into him and I had just enough space to miss the carnage, but I was still 5th going into T1. I drafted by Mark Vultaggio going into the chicane for third and quickly got up on Rob and Lee. We traded the lead several times, had a full course yellow, and ended up with a quality battle all the way to the end. It made for some great video. :)
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rO6Qj7 ... e=youtu.be

A special call out to Rob Reed and Lee McNeish who drove a great race. They were using some local track knowledge that I hadn't seen yet (if you look closely, you can see it in the video - a couple of tidbits I didn't process until I watched it afterwards actually) and they played very nicely with this out-of-towner, working with me and/or against me when it suited them best... just like I did. :)
Herb had a great run back through the pack to third, aided heavily by the late full course yellow, making the podium the same three drivers both days just with first and third swapped between he and I.
It was a great race at a great track. Thanks to everyone in the Finger Lakes Region for the hospitality and a special call out to John Walsh for helping out with some post-race logistics after I had headed back to Dallas. Beer is on me at Daytona, John!

RacerX
____________
Bay 12, please.

Needs a Life!!!
Needs a Life!!!
Posts: 211
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:32 pm
PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:05 pm
Fantastic race, thanks for posting.

Return to Video Links

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests


cron