Saturday at Watkins Glen for the Tudor United Sportscar Championship race weekend was ushered in under cloudy skies and a consistent drizzle. Gusty winds arrived during the morning as everyone kept an eye on radar pictures showing heavier rain advancing from the west.
A one hour practice session in the wet challenged drivers as they navigated the surface changes between asphalt and concrete. Teams prioritized seat time for their amateur and less experienced drivers. In some cases, drivers have rain experience, but little experience with a particular car or this particular track.
The rain had a material impact on lap times and shuffled the order quite a bit. Oswaldo Negri again topped the time sheets with a 1:58.585 which was about 20 seconds slower than his fastest and overall fastest time in dry Friday practice. Negri has owned the top spot on the time sheets in all three practice sessions. Co-driver John Pew also got seat time with the #60 Shank car completing more laps than most other cars. Christian Fittipaldi in the #5 Corvette DP was a few tenths behind with Joey Hand in the #01 Ganassi Ford half a second further back.
In a tantalizing prospect for the race, the pair of Porsche GTLM cars not only topped the time sheets in class but were fourth and sixth overall. Patrick Pilet set a fast time of 1.59.677 which was a second clear of Earl Bamber in the sister car. The pace was impressive and reflected about a 15 second difference from the fastest GTLM time set on Friday practice in dry conditions.
The sentiments expressed earlier in the weekend from Porsche that wet running would be advantageous were well founded. The #25 BMW in the hands of Bill Auberlen and the #3 Corvette with Antonio Garcia were close by as well.
The tire differences between the classes likely account for the leap forward for the GTLM class in the rain. The control Continentals of the Prototype class are a different specification than the sophisticated Michelin rain rubber on the top GTLM cars.
Conor Daly continues to impress, setting the fastest PC time in the #38 Performance Tech car – again, about 20 seconds slower than his fastest dry time in practice. In a very tight class, a half second gap to Bruno Junquiera in the #11 RSR Racing car made the time stand out.
GTD saw Marc Goossens take the #93 Viper ahead of the #007 Aston Martin from Racers Group in the hands of Kuno Wittmer. Wittmer is showing impressive and consistent speed this weekend and should be interesting to follow during the race. Goossens and the Viper team certainly won’t mind some rain during the race.
Incidents during the practice session included the #52 PR1 and the #97 Turner BWM car with off-course excursions. While all cars set times, the Mazda prototype only logged three laps – intentionally. Mazda opted to get each of its drivers a sighting lap in the wet and confirm systems, but didn’t want to take too much risk prior to the race given that they’re running only one car this weekend. They intended to run both gas and diesel engine entries here but were disappointed that they weren’t able to make it happen. After Watkins Glen, the team is off to Mosport for testing in search of their optimal powerplant solution.
All of which set the stage for qualifying – except that the forecasted heavy rain arrived and IMSA chose to scrub qualifying. The earlier Continental Sportscar Challenge cars was red flagged mid-stream and ended up only restarting to finish under yellow which was an omen.
Those familiar with the IMSA rulebook will know that Section 40.2.5 of the Series Supplemental Regulations provides for the starting grid to be set in such circumstances by gridding each class together based on the driver in each car with the highest current points. The classes will start in order of P, PC, GTLM and GTD.
That protocol puts the #5 Action Express car of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi at the front of the grid with the #90 Richard Westbook and Michael Valiante prototype alongside. The #31 Action Express, #10 Taylor, #01 Ganassi and the #60 Shank cars fill out the top six for the unofficial grid in what must be a disappointment for Michael Shank given his car’s speed in practice. It also must be a disappointment for several GTLM teams who hoped to use their superior rain tires to climb amongst the prototypes in the starting order.
After qualifying was cancelled, Negri credited the continued development of the car and continued improvement of his co-driver John Pew. “We’ve been working very hard to get the most out of the car. I can only imagine going back to Daytona with the car we have now. Every race we’re stronger and stronger and every race we’re making progress. Same with John. He’s been driving quicker and quicker.”
Negri also confirmed that the team had been experimenting with wet set-ups during practice. “Tomorrow will be a lot of educated guesses. In the second session yesterday, we used a very compromised setup towards the wet in the dry [session]. We learned a few things.”
Commenting on the decision to scrub qualifying, Christian Fittipaldi said “I can’t complain, but at the same time everyone took the right decision. With the amount of rain we had this afternoon, it would be risky to run and lose some cars. It is easy for me to say that since we’re going to start first, but even if I was starting fifth or sixth I’d be OK with it. Tomorrow will be a long day in the office.”
In Prototype Challenge, Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue will lead the field in their #54 CORE autosport entry due to Braun’s point tally to date. The #52 PR1 entry of Mike Gausch, Tom Kimber-Smith, and Andrew Palmer will start alongside which is a turn from their troubles in practice earlier. The #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports car will round out the top three in the class with Mikhail Goikhberg, Rusty Mitchell and Chris Miller on the strength of Goikhberg’s points.
GTLM will see Corvette lead the field in the hands of #3 Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen with the pair of BMWs completing the top three. Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner in the #25 BMW will lead the #24 BMW of John Edwards and Lucas Luhr. The Porsche team will be disappointed given their form in the wet morning practice but they are worth watching over the course of the 6 hour race.
Dion von Moltke, Bryce Miller and Christopher Haase will lead GTD in the #48 Paul Miller Audi in front of the #007 Racer’s Group Aston Martin on the strength of Christina Nielsen’s points as she will co-drive with substitute Kuno Wittmer. The #22 Alex Job Racing Porsche is next in the hands of Leh Keen, Cooper MacNeil and Andrew Davis. Davis won the Continental Sportscar Challenge support race and those that recall seeing the epic “Rain Dance” video of Keen driving in the rain at night in the 2013 Nurburgring 24 hours will know that this car will be one to watch in a wet race.
Sunday will see a 20 minute warm-up in the morning before the green flag drop at 10:10am for the Six Hours of the Glen. The current betting is for a race involving moisture but not of the torrential variety.
Kevin Ehrlich
