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Watkins Glen

Rolex

20/04/2001

Watkins Glen Six Hours

Preview

© Janos Wimpffen

The Grand-Am circus makes its first appearance at a proper road course, with the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The famed upstate New York circuit has featured a major sports car endurance race through most of its 45-year existence. What sets it apart in 2001 is the mid-May scheduling. The event has more commonly been held during the latter half of the summer. Spring can be glorious, or it can be notorious. The Grand-Am runners are already used to surprises, with rain in the desert and through most of the Daytona 24. It also launches a very busy period on the Grand-Am diary, with a double race event at Lime Rock and then on to Mid-Ohio, all before the Le Mans break.

The entry is at a solid 41 cars, representing some stability, but also some of the petrification for which the series has become known. The most interesting change at the top level is the re-appearance of the Doran “Fudd,” the Judd powered Ferrari 333SP, which had proven so successful during the latter part of 2000. It is very much shades of 2000, with the team abandoning a new chassis (then Reynard, now Crawford) in favor of a known quantity. One shouldn’t expect the car to be slow even if it has been sitting in the garage for nine months. Mauro Baldi is back in the driving mix, which should help.

The Field team has every intention of following up on their brilliant Phoenix win. Oliver Gavin will again be aboard, having been persuaded not to run with the Saleen at Jarama. Of course, the chief competition will come from the neo-Bentley boys of Weaver / Leitzinger in the no. 16 Riley & Scott. The Robinson Ranch R & S-Judd has thus far had a none too successful year and are aching to break their duck. An unknown in the class is the older R & S-Ford of Miracle Motorsports. They benefit from having the experienced Canadian, Ross Bentley, but the team had a dismal first outing at Phoenix. Quietly, but steadily improving, is the Norma. However, the long grind here will greatly challenge it. Filling out Sports Racing are the second cars from Dyson and Intersport, as well as the Chevy powered Riley & Scott of Tom Volk. Look for old familiar, the prime Dyson entry, first to the checkered flag.

SRII has featured a two-team battle at previous rounds between the similar Lolas of Archangel versus Porsche Haus (Nissan-powered despite the name). Providing that no. 21 doesn’t suffer the gearbox woes it did at Phoenix, the very quick Andy Lally should battle well for class honors. Andre Gaudet (Porsche Haus) has heretofore elected to only run one of his two cars, preferring to keep a “For Sale” sign on the other. With no takers thus far, he is expected to at last run two in the race proper. A fifth Lola is in the class, last having been seen at Daytona, and despite protestations about the rules situation, Dennis Spencer is bringing his Kudzu.

GTS is largely a non-entity with only three entries. Assuming they can change wheels, the Greg Fordahl run Saleen should win handily. The Schumacher 911 GT1 is pretty to watch, but antique in its strides. The G & W turbo Porsche rounds out the class with the surprising Phoenix winner, the ex-Oreca / Chamberlain Viper, absent.

GT will provide by far the best racing with six cars realistically in the hunt; Phoenix winner Hiskey, the two cars of G & W (last year’s champions), Seikel Motorsports (very quick all year), and two Orbit entries. All are GT3Rs. The big V-8 powered BMW M3 is here in the hands of Toney Jennings / Terry Borcheller. If it holds together, it will be hard to beat. The Mosler will also be quick, but it has never lasted. Five other Porsches and two BMWs are also present, with several having a good shot at a podium finish. Adding further marque variety is a Mazda and the stock Corvette from Joe Aquilante, which ran very respectably at Phoenix.

The AGT entry shows an interesting evolution in this forlorn class. Granted that they’re all really tubeframe funny cars, but in the past most carried Camaro bodies. Now all but the Bupp / Leavy entry use the sleeker Corvette configuration. This comes thanks to the tubeframed version of the car being moved from GT to AGT for this season. Dick Greer has entered the newest of the Corvettes, but it will be difficult to defeat the very well-prepared Conway / Goad car.

Watkins Glen represents the beginning of an important period in Grand-Am’s development. The entry has largely stabilized. While growth, and especially diversity, would be very welcome, the up side has been some very good racing at the last sprint event. This quality has to transfer over to the road courses for there to be any sense of growth, and any sense of this being other than a mere club series.