Watkins Glen, a track that I love to drive, was not kind to many of my fellow Koni Challenge competitiors. Our race was plagued with caution after caution and it seemed that everyone got even more aggressive and desperate on each restart. I knew that we had the car and the strategy to finish at the front, so my job was easy... stay out of trouble! Easier said than done, as many of the other drivers found out.
Luckily we were able to avoid all of the incidents unscathed, although I had a very close call when the #90 Automatic Racing BMW (the car I drove last year) made heavy contact with the #77 Porsche 997 that was stalled at the top of the esses. I watched as the left rear wheel and hub of the #90 car launched high into the air, and then promptly stood on the brake pedal to avoid the spinning BMW and the raining debris. Unfortunatley, the full course yellow came out at the same instant that this crash took place, as the #77 was stalled in a very bad spot. Had they thrown the yellow a few seconds earlier, the BMW might have slowed enough to avoid the contact, but luckily nobody was hurt, and no other cars were involved. Unluckily for me, six cars went blowing past me, at full speed through the incident with the caution already out. After pleading my case over the radio to my team, Grand Am decided to give me back two of the six positions.
I was able to make up most of the lost positions, and by the time we decided to pit, I was in 3rd place. We were the first car to leave pit lane, with enough fuel to make it to the end of the race... assuming it stayed green. Our sister car, the #38 had pitted at the 35 minute mark, and was leading the race at this point. The team knew that if it stayed green, the #83 would likely take the lead, as most of the front runners would need to pit for fuel... but they also knew that if the race continued to be delayed by cautions, they would have to gamble and go for the win with the #38. As luck would have it, the caustions kept coming and coming. With only a few minutes to go, the final caution came out and we were sure that the #38 could make it to the finish. In a 3 lap shootout, David Murry held off Bill Auberlen for the win, while Craig Stanton, in our #83 car was only able to manage a 13th place finish.
Originally scheduled to be a 2.5 hour race that would cover nearly 250 miles, Saturday’s race was plagued with caution periods, shortening the race distance by almost 80 miles. Many competitors running alternate race strategies never got an opportunity to mount their charge to the front and the #83 PerformanceDrink /Weeden Consultants Porsche 997 of Jon Miller and Craig Stanton was one of these cars. Executing a single stop strategy, the #83 Porsche was in a position to capitalize. Unfortunately their opportunity never came and the two would have to settle for a 13th place finishing position. The finish is not indicative by any means of the car’s potential, as Jon Miller drove up to 3rd place before handing the car over to Craig Stanton. When action resumes at Barber Motorsports Park for the Porsche 250 in two weeks, you can bet that Jon Miller and Craig Stanton will be ready to deliver for Porsche yet again.
Round 5 of the 2008 Koni Challenge Series is scheduled for Porsche’s home track at Barber Motorsports Park. The race will be preceded by a qualifying session at 4:40pm on Friday July 18th with a 250 mile event that will start on Saturday July 19th at 2:15pm. Live timing and scoring information will be available at http://www.grand-am.com/livetiming.
