Fantastic weekend at Watkins Glen! Congrats to Dan on an amazing job! We finished Race 1 with a P5 and Race 2 with a P6.
| Race 1 | 5 |
| Race 2 | 6 |
We arrived at the race weekend without the prior testing that a lot of the other teams had, so we expected tough competition. We also had to shake the car down after it was rebuilt following the Miami crash. This set us back in Practice 1 because we had to cut short the session to focus on some issues with the car we had to address.
In Practice 2 we started making good gains and progress. We quickly swept through a few setup changes the team wanted to try. We felt pretty good considering we were P20 overall at the end of the session.
In Qualifications, we were able to achieve P9 and P8 starting positions for the races even with a little bit of traffic at the end of the session. Both races also ran great! In Race 1 we had an early issue with the setup we had planned for the race which hurt the handling a little, but Dan was able to get through some positions and ultimately capture a Top 5 finish! Race 2 was also a strong race for us. We lost some positions in the shuffle at the start in Turn 2, which was just unlucky, yet Dan was able to patiently pick off some positions and stay somewhat close to another fast driver for the rest of the race to finish the race with a P6 standing.
If you would like to see Dan in action, spend a few minutes and watch the YouTube videos of each race!
We are off to Road America July 28th-30th in conjunction with NASCAR!
Upcoming Race: Road America
- RACE 1: Friday, July 28 - 2:55 pm
- RACE 2: Saturday, July 29 - 12:15 pm
View Full Schedule Here
BJ
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Dan’s Commentary:
Fantastic weekend from a team performance viewpoint!
We arrived at the race weekend without the prior testing a lot of the other teams had so we expected tough competition. We also had to shake the car down after it was rebuilt following the Miami crash. This latter factor set us back in practice 1 as we had to cut short the session to focus on a vibration in the car. We also had to look at the alignment and brakes.
From Practice 2 we started making really good gains and progress. We quickly swept through a few setup changes the guys and I wanted to try. We were able to test lower rear wing, increase sway bar stiffness and find a really nice balance on older tyres (Good knowledge for the 40min races) and felt pretty good considering we were P20 overall at the end of the session. We had not tried new tyres yet like a lot of the others. This was the kind of progress during a race weekend every driver hopes for.
Qual was another good step forward and using 2 sets of new tyres I was able to improve the setup during the session and achieve P9 and P8 starting positions for the races even with a little bit of traffic at the end of the session. Both races ran great also. Race 1 we had an issue with what setup we were meant to run for the race which hurt the handling a little but I was able to get through some positions and ultimately finish 5th. Really happy with that as I think it was the best result we could get. And moving forward positions once again as the weekend progressed. Race 2 was also a strong race for me. Lost some positions in the shuffle at Turn 2 at the start which was just unlucky. yet I was able to patiently pick off some positions and stay somewhat close to another fast driver for the rest of the race.
Our speed was really not far away at Watkins Glen. I leave the weekend with some ideas for where I can find some of the last 02.-0.3s per lap and also expressed that to the team for them to focus also. These are the kinds of weekends you hope for as a driver especially with our somewhat limited program compared to others. Happy with that.
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Dan Clarke