U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International – September 5th through 9th Race Report

The STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an amazing weekend at the SVRA U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International.  We ran in Group 9 – Monoposto Wings and Slicks.  The weather was perfect for the entire race weekend, with a mix of both sunny & cloudy cool days, ranging from the 10's to the mid-20’s Celsius. Over the course of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 9 times; 4 on track practices during the split Wednesday/Thursday test day, followed by one practice, two qualifying sessions, Race 1, and Race 2.  During both qualifying sessions, our race group was combined with Group 5a and Group 7 – there were a total of 29 race cars on the track fighting for a good qualifying time – it was very hectic!!  There was a large speed differential within the qualifying group!!  We definitely had our work cut out for us, as most everyone in our group had much more horsepower than we did. As an example, here is a list of the cars in our second qualifying session:

In the first qualifying session, we qualified 16th of 29 race cars, 1st in our 9F2 class. In the second qualification session, we qualified 18th of 29 race cars, 3rd in our class. For Race 1, our race Group 9 included 16 amazing high powered open wheel race cars, including 4 Lolas, 2 Ralts, 2 Swifts and more – the competition was stiff for the diminutive Formula Mazda.  We finished in 14th position, 3rd in class with a career best lap time of 1:57.289; we were faster than the 2nd place race car by 64 hundredths of a second, but we were unable to unable to make up the distance as our race was shortened to 6 laps. In Race 2, we started in 12th and managed to finish in 8th position, once again 3rd in class. We set our fastest lap time of the weekend, a 1:56.859!! Our race group featured some unbelievable vintage formula cars - it was a pleasure to be on track with them.  Our car performed flawlessly during the entire event - a very big thank you to our sponsors; STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions , to Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their excellent track side support.

Click here for more photos from this race weekend.  A very big thank you to the SVRA for hosting such a great event!!  And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank our long suffering and tormented family which follows us from race track to race track allows us to continue to do the racing thing……….