NASRS Season 14 Race 6 (Watkins Glen)

Last night was the last race (#6) of the NASRS season 14. It was at Watkins Glen and was deemed the season’s “hot” race with air temps at 49 degrees Celsius, which is crazy-hot. Consequently tire wear and driving style (aka how to nurse your tires) was critical. I had never done a race in such hot conditions so it was kind of fun to try different techniques and car setups to see if I could keep the tire temps and wear down. I had done a lot of practice and testing in the week before the race, but wasn’t really able to find a great solution to the tire problem. I just resigned myself to the fact that the last five or so laps of each stint were gonna be brutal and I needed to do whatever I could to not burn up my tires early on. Which is easier said than done when you’re racing against really fast folks.

Anyway, the Aston had some pace at Watkins Glen, which was a nice surprise. I got lucky and qualified in P3 behind 2 Porsches. I had a clean race start and was able to stay in contact with the two lead cars. P2 spun out at some point before the pit stop so I moved up to P2. I was under some pressure from the car behind the entire first stint, but it wasn’t really affecting my race. I pitted a minute or so after the halfway point and made a huge mistake by over-shooting my pit box, which probably cost me 4 seconds. I ended up losing two places and left the pits in P4.

The race leader spun out in the chicane a couple laps later and I was in P3 behind the two cars that jumped me during the pit stop. So, yeah, I was a bit bummed about that – I should have been in the lead, but shrugged it off and did my best to stay in contact and try to set myself up for something at the end of the race. The top two cars were 1.5 - 2.0 seconds ahead of me for the most the stint, but with about five laps left P2 caught P1 and they started battling, which slowed them down enough for me to catch them. P2 made a mistake and I was able to make a pass and with 2 laps left was right on P1’s tail.

The last lap of the race was one of the best I’ve done. I got a bit desperate in the second half of the lap so it wasn’t like I had driven the best lap ever, just that I was really battling hard for a win and had made some pretty decent moves in the first part of the lap. I really wanted my first win and was giving it everything, but, alas, I didn’t have enough to make the pass and get the win. P3 and P4 also had an epic battle right behind us so the last lap proved to be really exciting. Overall I’m really happy with how I drove and with the race results. It was a super-intense, but really fun race.

I’m planning on summarizing a few things from the season in a separate post so look for that in a day or two.

Week 6 final results (Watkins Glen)

• Qualifying: P3/32
• Race: P2/32

Here are a few highlights from the race

Here’s a video of the last lap battles