Clubsport Race 4 – Watkins Glen – GTC6

We were very excited for the PCA Watkins Glen race the middle of June this year (yes, I have fallen behind on giving an update on my racing).
It is always a great time. Not just because of the great track or because many of the customers we support come to the track and it is a good time to see everyone, but at this track we have a good friend who owns a house there just to stay at for the racing weekends. So, we end up going early and hanging out with them.
We do the winery thing, but the highlights are

Going to Oak Hill Bulk Foods on the first day to stock the house with amazing foods at great prices.
Heading to Miles Winery. If you have never been, or even if you have, they store a secret. You can buy a bottle of wine (or 6) and take it down to a dock that they have on the water. They sometimes even have a bartender down on the dock. It is never full in the week and a great time in warmer weather. The wine is great and reasonably priced.
Carry out from Jerlando’s. Great pizza and lots of fun taking it back to the house.

Well, on with the racing. In spite of the weather being great leading up to the weekend, Friday practice and qualifying was wet. Not great for guys that did not bring rain tires with them. We sat and hoped that qualifying would be dry, but contact in the wet around lunch time shut the track down for the rest of the day while they repaired a wall.
So, on to Saturday. PCA made the warmup session Saturday our qualifying session. The track was still damp and green. But that did not stop someone from going off on the outlap and the first lap. This turned into us having 3 hot laps for the session. We were able to place 5th out of 10, which we did not think was too bad considering it was our first session on the track since we did not come for the practice days.

On to the races. The first race, we had a great start and we were able to quickly move up to 3rd place behind Jeff Smith and TJ Larson. Though the race we were able to chase down TJ and move past him and into 2nd. All was great until one of the competitors in a white cup came up on us fast. Our spotter told me not to worry about him because he had been in and out of the pits, so he was down a lap. As soon as he went by, he went wide in turn one and we did not see him come out.
Two laps later and getting the white flag, I see a white car coming again. First fighting with TJ and then heading my way. I was unconcerned assuming that it was the same white car that was down a lap and had gone off in turn one a few laps earlier. When the car approached, I was taking it easy not looking to be too racy since at this point it was easier to lose the race than to hold off a car that, I thought, was not for position.
It turned out that this white car that I let by coming out of the boot was for position and was David Ducote. If only I had known. It would have been a much more interesting last few turns of the race.
In the end, I came in 3rd out of 10. Still it was a great race for the first real session of the weekend and the first time at Watkins in a year.
Now, time to gear up and try again for the second race. The second race was pretty straight forward with no major issues. Every lap was under 2 minutes, so we did not have any full course yellows. I really tried to hunt down David Ducote, but I was not successful. I ended up coming in 4th. Jeff Smith was second and David was third, which if I had just a bit better of a setup I could have at least been in the mix with them. As it was, I was about one second off their pace In first place was Anthony Llopiz who had gotten into the 1:54’s and finished 3 seconds ahead of Jeff.
Great fun for the weekend. It would have been more fun if the weather had held off or if I had come for the practice days so I was more ‘one with the track’
The work did pay off for the Clubsport Series. The combined points for the two races turned into a really nice third place trophy.
Next up is Road America at the end of August. Yes, I have already signed up for the practice day. Especially since this is the fist time we have been to Road America since, well, I can not remember. I think maybe it was 2019 with IGT.