It turns out this Saturday at Watkins Glen was centered around the Grand Am – Cup series. The day was overcast and damp, the morning showers were slow to move out. Jacob and I first went up to the ‘Chicane’ at the end of the back straight, to quickly run into Obin & Jess. The BMW Club racing was underway, it’s always fun to watch the locals guys race. Allie Ash of FoW was also there in the corner for a while, fortunately Jacob & I had on our Maserati jackets at the time! With the end of the race and the rain starting again, we headed up towards the garage and got a phone call from JJ O’Malley. He had invited Jacob to a tour of the media center and race control at WGI. We were joined by Rich Hall and his family. (Rich – your family and friends are a great group of people, it was a pleasure to meet a fan who just loves racing).

The people at the race control and media were very friendly to us. They took time to discuss all they do. During the visit, I took a little time to stay outside on the roof while the others went into a race control room. I was able to take a few photos looking straight down onto the track right at the start/finish line. I really hope these pictures come out, especially the #33 Maserati as it was coming down pit road during a yellow flag during the practice.

I went up to the stands at the end of pit road. That location from the top corner seat is the best place to watch the races. When I stand on the seat at that top corner, I can see the cars come around the last corner, accelerate down the front straight, try to go three wide into the right hand “90”, then accelerate again up to turn two then start into the esses. That is a long time to be able to see a racecar on a road course. I’m not sure what happened to the qualifying results, it sure appeared the #11 and #44 cars, along with others, had fast times, yet for the race that afternoon they started at the back of the GS group. Although, we did see those cars go back through tech inspection later in the day, so we had to assume they must have failed inspection in some way. A small disadvantage about being at the races in person is that sometimes you miss out on the current events.

The autograph session was really cool, it was held inside the garage because of the weather. Most of the drivers were there. Jacob and I had a WGI checkered flag I picked up at the Pyramid, and we had all the drivers there sign it. Then I also had some select photos for autographs, most of those will go in picture frames for the office.

Jacob had changed into his Maserati of Washington driver’s suit, the one they got for him at Daytona. The weather had cleared and the temperatures dropped, so it was perfect weather for the suit! We ran into “Razor” up in the stands in turn 1 also. We had me, Jake, Richmini & family, Razor, and Obin & Jess all together for a while.

The Rolex series teams had now had four practice sessions in four different types of weather. Several teams continued to struggle with setups. The qualifying was pretty much as expected, with the #10 SunTrust car setting the pace in what was obviously a very fast lap. From the general response of the crowd I was around, the idea of displacing the CGR teams from the pole was a welcome change. Then the #01 pulled up lame just past start-finish and directly past pit road where the team’s pits were located. We don’t know what happened to the car, but the #01 never showed up on the scoreboard. The #22 almost beat out the #21, but those two BMW’s will have a fight on their hand this weekend from many cars, the #30 Ferrari and #66 Racer’s Group Porsche of course. But several teams including the #33 Maserati feel the six hour race length will give them a chance because so much more than speed will be a factor.

But by far our highlight of the day was the Grand-Am cup race. I watched the first few laps from the turn one stands with Rich & friends. Who says cars can’t go through turn one three wide! Those guys sure tried. One of the Mazda RX8’s was spun coming out of the turn, but it was back in the pack so no others were directly involved. I then left for the chicane entrance, where Obin & Jess had gone with Jacob. There is a great spot for photos there as cars enter the chicane. While it’s not uncommon for cars to get two wheels in the air, even more happens there. The poor #51 red Acura NSX was broadsided by such an airborne vehicle, only to wind up in the gravel pit after a spectacular spin in traffic. During a caution I have like heck to wave at Craig Stanton as he went by. He was able to respond with a wave, even during the caution period! Later after the race Craig said he saw us standing there waving at him!

We then moved over to the boot where we spent the rest of the race. I think Obin was trying to set a record for number of digital photos taken in three hours! There are several great spots in the ‘boot’ to watch the races. We settled at the first downhill turn, and immediately saw one of the BMW Mini – Coopers, the Nuzzo car, get pushed into the tires coming down the hill. Poor Mini! I don’t think the car will ever see a race track again. During all the cautions (these guys sure don’t play well together sometimes), time was winding down and there was about 40 minutes of racing left. I felt sure that with all those caution flags this was going to go to the three hour time limit. I counted the GS cars running behind the pace car, to count the #44 David Murry / Craig Stanton car in 7th place. At the next caution several laps later he was 5th. Then after the green flag falls, he comes around in fourth, behind the #91 Porsche and two of the Nissan 350Z’s. When the green flag falls the front runners fall behind the Porsche of David Murry and theracesite.com! One of these cautions is caused by a tremendous engine failure on the Lexus IS300 Sportcross. The smoke filled the valley. How other cars made it past without wrecking was a testament to good driving skills. Then an Acura RSX-S lost an engine coming down the hill. There was a husband / wife team there photographing as well, and we met them later in Victory Lane. They are friends of David Murry, so it was great to have others with us routing for the same car.

As the race ended, we headed over to victory lane. Jacob went in to see JJ O’Malley there, and when I figured it was okay, I joined them. After the trophy presentations, I was able to get some pictures of Jacob with Craig and David. The photography couple from ‘the boot’ was there also. I hope I can get some of their pictures somehow; I have no idea who they were. Then, in a special moment, Craig Stanton awarded the SUNOCO checkered flag to Jacob! Now Jake really has a special one of kind memento – the winning checkered flag! The flag is really cool, but I think we could have done without the sweaty Hoosier Tires neck band! Craig has been very special to Jacob these last few months and especially today.

Walking back towards the garage, the #44 and the #35 cars were at the gas pumps during final inspection. We found it humorous that the Grand-Am official was standing in front of the gas pump so no one could see the number of gallons being pumped! Way cool to watch. And the poor teenage boy who was part of the volunteer group brought in to clean up the trash this evening who just happened to walk through the fueling area. He just could not understand why the Grand-Am official was grilling him as to why he was in the area. The poor kid was looking for the group of kids he was supposed to join and just got lost! He’d probably never heard of a Grand Am Cup car let alone ever seen one before, now here was explaining to a Grand-Am official all he wanted was to pick up some trash!

At the end of the day we hung around the Crawford team area for a while. They were putting some last minute touches on the cars. If this was a sprint race I think they would be even more concerned than they are. It does not sound like they have a good feel on the setups, and the weather hasn’t helped them any. But they have two sets of quality drivers in the CITGO and BOSS Snowplow cars, so they are expecting their durability to make a difference before the day is over. Another point is the very high number of caution flags. The comment was that this will help prevent cars from falling a lap down early. There are several Daytona Prototype teams capable of winning, and it has become very hard to route for any one team. I have to go with either the #2 or #4 cars for the obvious reasons (Thanks Jan!), but winning efforts by the #81, #09 & #39, and the #58 (gorgeous car), or the friendliest drivers of the #54 all would make me pleased. But in the end, the Crawford family that has adopted Jacob gets my vote. As I mentioned to Milka as we headed out fore the day; “Gently into turn one tomorrow morning, good luck!” Her smile is contagiously beautiful. What a great way to finish a day at Watkins Glen.

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