Watkins Glen – June 12th-14th, 2009


There comes a moment in motor racing, once you realize that you’ve made a mistake, when you have to make a decision where to go to have the accident. Such a moment happened last Saturday morning at Watkins Glen.

Watkins Glen is one of my favorite circuits and George Tuma, Jim Pace and I were there to drive George’s Jagermeister RSR clone in the HSR race weekend; I was down to drive the two sprint races, one on Saturday, one on Sunday, whilst Jim and George were to do the two-hour enduros.

Su and I arrived on Thursday afternoon, signed in and I found myself too late to take part in Thursday’s test day, so took practice next day plus a five lap “hardship session”. Probably the most interesting part of Friday was the driver’s briefing where Ken Fingler, HSR’s chief track marshal (and a very good one too, creep, creep!), introduced us to the new HSR Porsche Cayman series, via a new “race” Cayman S, painted in red with white stripes.

The idea is that some thirty of these cars will be sold at $65,000.00 each, your choice of paint scheme but old 1970’s IMSA and FIA GT paint schemes such as: “Rothmans”, “Toblerone” and “Shell” will be favored, and then they will race in a series like the “Carrera Cup” series. Engines and gearboxes will be sealed to prevent “improvements”. To my mind, this is a very good way of not only selling Porsche Caymans in a difficult time, it’s a helluva bargain! Why would you now spend $60k on a replica 1970s RSR when you can race a brand new, state-of-the-art 6-speed, mid-engined racecar? Larry Ligas drove the “demonstrator” on Saturday morning and came back to tell us that it was just: “Amazing; the brakes, man, the brakes!” One driver who races regularly with HSR went out in our practice session and posted a 2:07, which would have put him third on the grid in Group 5! My only query is how much repair bills may be but only time will tell us that.

When qualifying came around, George took out the Jagermeister RSR and posted a 2:08 to put us fifth on the grid. Trouble was, I was going to drive in the race but couldn’t approach his time in practice after just one session and, sure enough, when the pace car switched off it’s lights and pulled into pit lane, although I had a good start, I was swiftly passed by several of the cars that had started after me and was holding on to ninth place with less than two laps to go when I arrived at turn four, the exit of the chicane, too fast!

Many years ago, Nick Faure, a very fast and experienced club racer from England, gave me two good pieces of advice: “When the car gets really out of shape and you’re going to spin, let go of the wheel. The car will sort itself out much faster than you can. The only thing is, you don’t want it facing the pit wall when you put your hands back on the wheel!” and; “When you realize that you’re not going to make a corner, if possible, go straight on.” It was this piece of advice (thanks, Nick!) that I now took as, in a flash, I realized that even if I did make turn four, I would probably spin on the exit and collect the barriers backwards, which I definitely did not want to do!

I went straight across the grass on the inside and there was a fair old “bang” as I did so. Driving around the next bend, I looked anxiously at the oil temperature gauge and kept an eye on it but it didn’t rise and I realized with relief that I hadn’t punctured the oil cooler. Last time around through the esses, the car felt very “squirrelly” and the Mustang that had been following me now got by but we made it to the checker in tenth place and second in class. Somewhat embarrassed by my “off”, I drove back to our garage.

“Where’s the spoiler?” asked David Hinton before I could get out to inspect the damage. “On the inside of turn five” I told him. “I saw it there in pieces on the last lap.” David promptly drove off in his truck and returned with all the broken fiberglass pieces and, with two hours to go before Jim and George went out for their enduro race, Scotty went to work with fiberglass cloth and resin on the spoiler, which Mike and Matt had rapidly detached from the car.

Amazingly, “the lads” got everything back together, including Scotty re-setting the toe of the steering (which I had also knocked askew) and the car, with Jim Pace taking the first stint, was ready to go. Unfortunately, five minutes before the start of the race, the heavens opened and drenching rain fell, which only let up toward the end of the race. Poor Jim and George had a pretty miserable time and, on the last lap, George spun in turn five and the front spoiler was once again badly damaged, amazingly still without bursting the oil cooler! Again “the lads” performed a sterling job and nailed it all back together again in time for my next race at twelve the next day, Sunday.

Somewhat chastened after the events of the previous day, I took my place at twelfth on the grid and off we went on the pace lap. Again, I got a good start as, somehow, everyone in front either went to the inside or the outside of the track and I was able to sail straight down the middle. I made several places right there but over the next couple of laps, I couldn’t hold off a red Corvette roadster, nor a very determinedly driven Jaguar E roadster. Damn, but those cars are so much faster down the straights!

On about the fifth lap, someone went off and double yellows and the white flag (“slow moving vehicle on track”) came out and the safety car gathered us all up. When the pace car pulled off again, I was very aware of another red Corvette roadster right on my tail and, as I rounded the last turn onto the front straight, I knew that he could probably overpower me there and moved into the middle of the track to make him go around me. Luckily, this time I managed to stay in front until turn one and the esses, where I put some distance between us and caught up to the XKE and the other red Corvette that had passed me earlier on.

The driver of the XKE was very intent on passing the Corvette and the Corvette driver was equally intent on staying in front. So much so that I had two opportunities to outbrake the pair of them in one go but did not take them, as I was very aware that George and Jim had another enduro to run that afternoon and I wasn’t intent on incurring more damage!

We ran out ninth and won our class, and I was happy at that. The lads and lasses from Predator gave Su a cake as it was her birthday and then we left for the airport. George told me afterwards that he and Jim had a very enjoyable race, Jim getting down to a 2:03 whilst the best I’d managed was a 2:12. Ah well, he is a Professional; I comfort myself with that thought.

So a lovely weekend finished with the Jagermeister RSR definitely needing a new front spoiler and some fiberglass around the corners but we have that in hand.

A big thank you to George, Jim, David and Larry, Big Mike, Matt and Scotty. Danny, how’d you get on in the enduro?

Road America next, possibly in a T70 in July. We shall see!