LIVE | Race 1 | Watkins Glen 2022 | Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS

today

watkins

glen

n hosts round seven of the fan attack gt

world

challenge

america

season

powered

by aws as the championship picture begins to come into focus. capex racing looks to continue a streak of pro class wins that began at this venue a year ago with the number one entry of michaeli beretta and andrea calderelli, which will start from the pole today here in pro-am, four different teams have won

race

s this season and at least that many are still in the championship hunt as the season approaches the halfway mark. Hello everyone, welcome. to

watkins

glen

an iconic circuit in north

america

n racing it's a pleasure to have you with me on the trip my name is ryan marine calvin fish joining me amanda busick is on that grid that's full of fantastic gt3 machines calvin is about to be ready to going to one of the best places on the continent, yes, and it promises to be scorching in more ways than one, we have high ambient temperatures in the mid 90s this afternoon, which could influence how these

race

cars operate in the tire management.

It's going to be a big potential problem here today because it's a sub-zero high energy race track, there's so much grip here that they literally fly through some of these corners, so how do you set up the cars to deal with that over the course of a race? long 40? A 50 minute race with driver change and pit stop in the middle Brian is going to be really critical today, it's an amazing place and let's take a first hand look at Watkins Glen, the 11 turns and 3.37 miles with our track preview. I'm Michael, here's a Lapa Watkins night international track going down into turn one looking for the 200 board to brake rolling at high speed because there's a bend in the road here again on power in third gear now we're looking up The climb is Over 200 kilometers per hour here, going up the hill back to the left until we are completely blind, but our Acura NSX GT3 is at full speed, plenty of time to think about the turn here and how we are going to attack. it's going forward so the next corner is the bus stop and we're looking for the 300 board to brake, carry a lot of speed over these curbs, basically jumping them in the nsx back to the carousel immediately into the fourth gear corner, super fast at the light. the start going down the hill in turn six braking too late here try to prepare the car for the start again with power gaining grip going down the hill a lot of grip in the next turn going uphill in turn seven braking too late go down to second gear, turn the car around and hit the hill again, lots of hills and elevation changes here at Watkins tonight at international track, going into turn eight, really gut-wrenching after the 200 dash, just throw the car here and let it slide a un bit and turn the power back on at the exit, the next few corners, turn nine, going up over the crest train, get the car close but get a little free here and I have to catch the car a little bit and they run right into the wall below.

Turn ten into a super fast left corner, use all the way on the exit and now you come to the last corner here. Turn 11 down into third gear, fast entry and then back up to the wall at the exit and that's one turn at Watkins Glen International. race track great tour of this new york track with a new york native michael cooper with real time racing he shares that car with aaron vogel she will start here today unfortunately it hasn't been a great weekend so far for them and they got a little bit worse with a penalty after qualifying and they will start from 17th and last position, some other breaking news to report that it was supposed to be an 18 car grid, unfortunately, bad luck for the racing team from ian lacey, a problem with the fuel cell in his aston. martin and they have no spare and they told us they were forced to pull out of the weekend so we won't be able to see draw stavely or frank gannett here this weekend, that's a big shame because they've really been making some progress with that Aston Martin chassis and I really felt a lot of confidence going into this weekend and going back to the real time machine penalty which was for the incident where Michael Cooper had a vir when he lost the brakes and unfortunately madison snow was eliminated but they had to bring that penalty forward to the race and starting position here this weekend.

Let's talk to the third member of the broadcast team and a nice welcome to Amanda Busick. Good afternoon. Amanda apologizes for that apparent technical error. She'll figure it out and hopefully we'll hear from Amanda and it looked like Phillip Ellis was ready to join her. I think what he was talking about was the fact that this is the first time we've seen windward races in this championship since the first game of the season in Sonoma talks about a team that has been unlucky this season, the successes kept coming in multiple championships and that really affected their sro program, it really has, but I mean they have a remarkable resolve in that group and I talked to Bryce Ward recently he talked about a couple of misses that they had in terms of winning races and they just keep moving forward, They just focus forward and I love the attitude of that group.

I think I'll have another solid day here today. Well, the good. The news for them is that it has been a successful comeback so far. Russell Ward put in a great effort in qualifying. He will start on the outside of the front row for the windward races alongside this car. Michael Beretta with the overall pole in qualifying this morning for the first race, but his co-driver and current champion, Andrea Caldarelli, was not so lucky in the qualifying session for the second race. Tomorrow they will start ninth and the Capex team told Amanda today that we have been struggling with straight line speed in this car. specifically starting in vir and the worst part is they can't understand why yeah it really made them scratch their heads and they tried everything yesterday talked to Thomas Blaum the strata were there in capex and they said we just can't understand it. things are clear, but anyway Beretta puts the car on the ball because he will have his hands full, so they must have a perfect execution.

Track position is vital with these GT3 cars and putting that car up front in the cleanup here, can it hold up? They've been undefeated this year, but this may be their toughest test yet, they've been undefeated since the end of last season, starting here at Watkins Glen, if you exclude the Indianapolis 8 Hours, where they didn't race for points. North America, but if you just look at the last 10 90 minute races, the traditional race format of the last few years, yes, they have had a notable winning streak in that stretch, so yes, the car to watch, but maybe one that isn't figuratively shooting at all.

Cylinders, we don't think it's a problem with the engine, but not entirely with the rhythm. George Kurtz, we saw him appear in the image with the Mercedes Crown Strike a moment ago. It's been a good day for him. Two poles in the pair of different. fan championships gt

world

challenge

america

powered

by aws as well as gt america powered by aws has already won his race in zt america and is going to start this car in fourth overall position just behind these two mckayla vereta and russell ward who are in front The row on the grid for the first race of the weekend second row belongs to Stephen Agha, Connie, his co-driver, Laura Spinelli, qualified on pole by six tenths of a second for the second race tomorrow.

Stay tuned for the American Mercedes Racetronics, George Kurtz and another Mercedes AMG. GT3 will be next to it, then you'll return to row three, that's where you'll find a pair of pro class cars, Michael Dinan and Misha Goytberg from Turner Motorsport and Kpax Racing respectively form the third row of the grid. back to row four, chandler hopes for bimmerworld he will share that car with bmw legend bill auberlin and scott smithson he and brian settlers have been scratching their heads a bit this weekend but seemed to take a step forward in the standings they will start in the eighth row overall five sees onofrio triarcy in the lone and class entry here this weekend of course unfortunately they couldn't be here after that serious incident in vir in the last round of the championship and Ashton Harrison will start alongside in Edge racer Acura NSX GT3 Evo Jason Harward starts 11th.

He'll have Charlie Lucky next to him, that lucky car driven on the right driven by John Haywin, plus luck has been very fast this weekend, could be something to watch moving forward in this race . David Askew and Justin Weatherworld are in row number seven. only for dxdt racing and treyarch competitions respectively jeff burton and newcomer pj hyatt more on that story as we go we formed row eight and as mentioned erin vogel after the penalty followed by four races in real time, they will start at the back of the 17-car field. It's a confusing grid. You look at the race one order in the race two qualifying order and they look quite different, it has to be said, so today we should start preparing for a fun race.

I think we should. I think this car here. The car has enormous potential, I mean Laura Spinelli. Stephen Agha's teammate Connie took pole position here this morning among the spectacular lap pros, so the car has monster pace. I'm not sure Stephen fully executed. He feels a little bad this weekend with his qualifying. he runs he has strep throat he said i will be fine but in these heated conditions that is a concern but he would love to get ahead of the other mercedes on the front row starting with russell ward maybe put some pressure on to keep his car close . beretta i think that will be the key to success here this afternoon giving laura spinelli the opportunity to go after that number one lamborghini and we know when that happens laura spinelli andrea calderelli they come from a similar part of italy but there isn't much Love was lost between those two, so it should be a fascinating battle if it plays out that way, definitely, as the field starts to line up two by two for Spinelli and Agakani, the US Racetronics team, have been contenders in all races so far this season.

They have three podiums, that's the good news, but how many wins could they have if it weren't for a few little problems here or there? They have been monstrous in terms of speed and I know they are learning, I am sure they are frustrated by some of the little things that have happened during the race conditions, but today is a new day, maybe they can bring it home, here come on, 90 minutes, race distance, mandatory pit stop, right around the halfway point, within a prescribed 10 minute window. the pro-am cars to start the professionals will take over the second stint and that entire front row the dominant car in this championship mckayley barretta for the capex races that's that black lamborghini on the left side of the screen russell ward and the races of windward in their return to the series they start on the outside of the front row in the vp acceleration zone waiting for the green flag tom hansing the flag bearer waiting for that moment now we see the lamborghini step on the power the green flag is flying we are competing and it is us, the racing tronics, jumping into that second place again doing exactly what you said it would want to do, yes it did, there's a little concertina effect there with the kind of weight of the Beretta until the last moment to go almost silent while some of the drivers dinan had to take evasive action misha gokberg stuck his nose in the middle i'm sure the shoes will be watching that but watch out for dinner he's going to get a master tower towards the inside circuit running in third position in his first sector of the track. he's really good for the bmw m4 gt3 and he's putting those ponies to work turning the outside on the bmw so turner can hold on again no he can't sweep his dynan bow up to p2 wow we've seen it so many times by michael tyne and this year he has the confidence to overlay everything on the line, there is relatively cool pressure on where they should be, but he has monster opening laps this season, jumping to second place from fifth place. the grid, what a great start for the young American big underdog, there's Russell Ward, they will be frustrated without the windward racing machine.

He looks inside Agakani as they enter the toe of the boot. Big question mark over dining in. BMW seems like the single lap pace is fine, but tire wear, specifically at the front of the car, has been an issue for some of the BMW teams. Can you maintain that pace without wearing out the tires? And here's a problem: Jeff Burton is gone. around and appears to have high sides on top of those curbs. Wow, what a tough day for Jeff, he had aaccident here in qualifying coming out of the trunk this morning, right in that corner there in the background, that's turn nine.

Now you have a quick loop here. I'm not sure it was uh rg bhaji in terms of running side by side with someone, maybe he turned around but still he's not facing the right direction. Oh frustrating day for Jeff and that incident when we completed the course in yellow meant they have to use their gt america chassis in both gt america and

fanatec

gt world challenge america powered by aws that's not an ideal set of circumstances good news is that there didn't appear to be any significant contact with the barrier based on the shot of the car at least, hopefully, it's something I can mount it and rejoin without losing much more than a track position, tell you who could be licking his skills right now, that's good news, Burton is going again, michael dinan, as good as he is. is starting and restarting this is falling right into your lap, I'm with you and we're talking about that uh capex number one lamborghini that has some straight line speed concerns, well the BMW doesn't seem to have that and it's going to blow up the big one draft, if you get a nice clean run you can take a look inside during the first quarter, but again think ahead here, just focus on moving through the esses and maybe do what you did as a cut move and hit what he did in argha khan, could be on the cards, how many times did we see it?

Do it last year. I'll be getting the old m6 chassis but it looks like a lot of that carries over to this new m4 and it was exactly what we expected from Michael. He is not afraid to attack even when the tires are warm. The tire pressure may not be exactly ideal. No, he just has that personality. He's got that kind of rustiness that he's willing to risk. He doesn't feel intimidated. He recognizes that he is driving around other drivers. Sometimes we have much more. experience than him and maybe a little more racing ability, but that doesn't matter, if he has an advantage, he will try to use it and gain that track position.

Dinan and his co-driver Robbie Foley had their best weekend of the season with a pair of second places in the professional class that was in vir just over a month ago the BMW team here with biverworld chandler hull who runs first in that class sixth In the general standings Ashton Harrison has risen three places and is now running third. The big loser in the The initial start seems to be George Kurtz, who was the pole winner in that class. He started fourth overall. He now returns eighth overall and dropped to third place in Pro-am. A couple of Mercedes we talked about, Russell Ward, who were starting in the race. front row they have relegated him to fourth place here at the beginning and the same for our button and expulsion as you alluded to george kurtz who was coming off a victory just an hour ago and uh of champagne refocused here and uh try to get back in Because of his rhythm, you know who have potential for a pro-am victory.

The main championship leaders coming off Vir's victory are very accelerated and it seems that way it is certain that George is at the top of his game. and he's going to be a busy guy running around here this weekend getting on a plane bound for Belgium for the 24 hours of total power generation. There's a lot of track time before you even get to the race in that event, but he loves it, he loves it. his motorsport and that event in particular, he has done it several times and we heard from him today in qualifying and he is really looking forward to coming back, yes we are very angry there this year, it is really a monster event just to show the gt3 cars on the Global Scale, uh, 65 cars, I think it's this year's entry and we have nine of our drivers competing here today, who will go alongside George Kurtz, you have Andrea Caldwell, Jordan Pepper, Michael Diamond, Foley, Ellis , Ward, Spinelli, Barretta and Samantha Altaway will also be there, who is normally great with us, but not this particular weekend.

There is a large presence of our championship, waiting to see how everyone does. A couple of teams, as well as k-packs and racing heart, have a gt3 entry there. running well in the gt5 competition here this weekend, but the heart of the racing team led by ian james will be there with some of these drivers exactly for k-packs, not the first time for them they have been there before, uh , thomas guam has been When Apex was affiliated with Bentley in fifth, they brought it to call strategy on one of their 2019 factory cars. I remember seeing it there, so yeah, it's huge and it's all part of this growing family global sro with fans of the GT World Challenge series. four different continents, so the Asian championship they ran last weekend in suzuka, the new Japan cup started as a championship within a championship there and they are in Fuji this weekend, all scoring points for the same championship of manufacturers.

The same can be said of the Australian. championship which is now under the leadership of sro, of course, gt world challenge europe of the sprint endurance cups and what we are doing here in the United States, then you have some associated championships like the british gt, which will compete this weekend in eng, so many gt3 races, eh, so many. sro involvement of course on that and the big news for the fan at home you can find it all on gt world so thanks for joining us look at michael dinan he's behind the wheel ready to go he's just waiting for that one to arrive Lamborghini. speed up and try to go with him he's playing the game now he goes and dinan goes with a little sway there as the tires are still getting up to temperature and beretta knows he could be vulnerable look how defensive he gets in the race to down to take out the sweep of a dinan to the outside back now we're going to take out that run across the back of the s, that big wide approach may have moved back too far and give Beretta potentially enough room but now he's picking up the draft , this could be the perfect time, look at that big BMW M4 looming right behind the Lamborghini.

Can you time this race? Can Michael Dinan Vault Turner get to the point? For now, Beretta has the answers and will stand firm. barrette, hopefully it was Harrison making an aggressive move looking into the hole that is for the pro-am leader, yeah he drops the wheels there, I think on the approach to the inner loop they managed to keep everyone together which could having been one of those greats. kind of speeds that reached around 165 miles per hour chandler hall was able to cover that he still leads that's the white and blue bmw right in front of ashton harrison's red acura she and mario farmbacher have been so good this season not very good qualifying effort today for any of the races, but running very hard right now in second place, chasing the little BMW tick there to scream when he gets to turn seven, he gets a little wide, he has to get defensive in the race towards the race.

Breaking through the heel, he managed to make the move, yes he did it and now George Kurtz spells blood in the water, he wants to go with Chandler Hall, how about Charlie Lucky, looking spicy? He's trying to make a move on Kurtz, yeah, big consequences here as everything. In a way, Ashton is very brave on the brakes, but that was actually set up by Chandler, he just went a little loose when reducing the power coming out of turn seven, his car seems to be a little tricky, he has a problem in the line. At the end of the car, look, the Taylor got up, but Venus is hurting the downforce and is fighting with that car right now.

George Kurtz is now in the hole in the fight for second place in Pro-am. An injured BMW first fell victim to Harrison's Acura. Now for Kurtz's Mercedes, it looks like he had a good run in turn one and this BMW should be fast on this section of the track, but this car is taking that damage, and Berg is off the pace big time, that It's not great news. for his teammate Jordan Pepper, of course, he has a slashed tire, he seems to be rocking a little bit. He is moving forward in the straight. Now his team did some tests here and came away a little worried about tire wear.

They made some changes to adapt. so and they felt everything was fine, I'm not sure if this was tire related or not, but there were dramas at the beginning of this race. I'm sure BMW tested this new m4 with that configuration as far as hero goes, but he's sticking with it, but I think. he is really hurting his effective downforce around the rear wing, yes that has cost him another place. Charlie Lucky has now made it through at Chandler Hall, just looking at his hands, he seems pretty busy in the cockpit back up front, Beretta leads, dinner in second, it's agaquani and pavilion third and fourth let's hear from the pit lane and amanda well, In addition to the battles that are happening on the track, the other thing that the drivers are going to fight with here this weekend is the heat.

I'm waiting with phillip ellis who has pedia light on hold before they stop by today is the first time we've seen them since sonoma they're back here in action and sro they said something brilliant about this song offline what is it What do you love about Rockets Glenn? I think it's the best. Part of it is that it's so soft that it's probably the softest that you guys have in the United States, so it's a great track to run on, they don't have much of a tie deck, uh, which is a seesaw, uh, during the high tide, like the tracks they generally have exciting.

It also competes, but at least here you don't have to take care of the tire so much, you can push it quite hard and, yes, it's a lot of fun. I know you've been with me during this interview. Any initial thoughts on this race so far? I think we haven't had the best start so far, so it will be difficult to get back to the front, but qualifying went pretty well, starting p2, now the race today, third tomorrow, so I think we have a good pace on long runs and, yes, it will be difficult to overtake others of course, as it always is, but we should have a good car while we were out, going to the safety car for the second time, we think. it's because of the sick car alicia goickberg but we're waiting for confirmation on that but uh safety car for the second time in just 12 minutes yeah that's just going to change the complexion of this race let's look ahead you can see bye going very slowly through the Uh, and you're really threading the needle there, so it's hard to get out of the way and it's a pretty scary time for drivers coming here, like the car is moving a lot, so I thought there was a possible problem with the tires. but I don't see anything low in any of the corners of the car.

Now the capex team will get to work and if it is something that can be fixed, they will do it. That's disappointing for this lineup of Goickberg and Pepper, maybe just a step away. behind the sister car, yeah, they don't go to the tires, they go straight to the engine bay, maybe something on the right bank of the engine, a little disappointing, I mean, Jordan Pepper was faster than his teammate Calderelli in qualifying for tomorrow's race, I certainly thought. They had a chance here this weekend that won't be affected by their performance here today because you have separate qualifying sessions for each race.

It's not your fastest lab like we have in some of the other classes here this weekend. The teams don't see anything. Plug in the laptops if you can figure it out from the Lamborghini engineers who are there on site. I think we have a replay that might tell us a little more. Oh wow, yeah, it's not supposed to look like that. It looks great, yeah, well. Understand me, but. it's not what they expected the capex guys have the laptop plugged in looks like we're about to end the chat i think it's heading towards pit lane with that body damage on the back of that car yes it actually is Diving towards the middle, here's another chance for Michael Dinan to do what he does best on the restart, this time he's left with Linus Stern with the capex car on board here with Hole heading towards pit lane, but Dinan, I'm sure I'm looking to align that. keep going, beretta, yeah, and that's really going to be key in how to time that run through the esses.

There we see the body problem with the trunk lid essentially out of position, but for the bread, or I think he actually timed the run up the hill and maybe lifted it a little bit to disallow the run. He doesn't do it this time, but he has that look in the inside lane behind him. Ashton Harrison looks for a way by Russell Ward there for the 4th position that was for the 4th position overall, but no. for class position, harrison is the leader in pro-am, now kurt's second luck is third on board, come on, this is stephen connie, running behind dyna, taking a look inside through these turns , the massive grip just did a wonderful job now side by side. russell ward to the outside this is in turn seven the tip of the trunk gives him a little room to run the mercedes goes sideside by side for p3 a young American couple who are earning some respect in the world of sports car racing go behind the wheel Wheel through the boot at Watkins Glen no quarter given no hindquarters between these two yes, Keith will be the boundaries of the track, Russell Ward was able to make that move, he should be on the inside, that's the position he's taking, did he run outside the boundary? turn one turn eight turn ten the corners they're watching here this weekend philadelphus will love it that means a little less work for him when he starts his stint he said it won't be easy moving forward, but russell ward was able to make up at least one of the places he lost at the start, yes, determined, bounce here for Russell Ward, I'm sure he's a little frustrated with that initial start and wants to try to correct that and keep this car in the mix.

Now it's a little open there again, a big deep lunge towards the finish. One should have been really working on his breaking point there this weekend trying to figure out where the limit and extreme is here in another competition that didn't give you as much. flexibility up and about the kirby said i had to adjust my break point went too far, but learning isn't going to go Los Angeles, California, burst onto the scene when a very young man drove a GT3 car in his early years. Teenagers race a lot in Europe, mainly single-make Lamborghini racing, but he has entered GT3 racing with the Mercedes brand.

He has been very strong in his full-season debut of the Fanatic GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, currently sitting in fourth place in the pro class. florida racers pro-am team leader borders what powerhouse motorsports have become in recent years yeah its really cool to see john meraki take that relatively small team and do big things in gt3 competition . Success over the years, a couple of championships and a great year with Dane Cameron also didn't secure the drivers' title because they had two different co-drivers that year, which left him as a professional out of the potential to win the championship, but he had mas has won more than anyone else and, so far this year, it has been a great year.

He won a couple of runner-up finishes that didn't have the best dir races. They were involved in that incident in the first corner that cost them dearly in points, but they recovered very well here. Ashley had a great start in this race, we saw the problems that happened to Misha Goickberg and the Capex racing team. Amanda has more on that story. Well, as you can see here, they are working on this car, there is no decision on whether she will come back out. or not, I spoke to Thomas Blom about what the problem could be. He said the car was misfiring on several cylinders.

He simply lost power on a couple of cylinders. They're turning the car on and off right now. The computer is connected. Looking at the data, I saw Jordan Pepper talk to him a little bit. You know, it's understandable that he's bummed, but that's the update from the three of us that we discovered in qualifying that the number one lambeau, the black lambo, has actually been struggling with top speed as well. If some of the laps seem off pace here today, they've been chasing this problem since vir, actually maybe that's the case, but so far it's been a good start here for michaeli beretta who not only has the lead but the crowd sets the fastest lap of the race for At this point, a lead of 46-5 and 1.2 seconds over Dinan and Dinan is now beginning to fall into the clutches of Russell Ward and that windward Mercedes running just behind the BMW Turner.

Yeah, the BMW teams here this weekend just said they just don't seem to have the pace, we're not sure what it is, the balance of the car isn't ideal, they're struggling with a bit of understeer, which they've improved. gradually, but not to the point where they really have the acuity. on the pace of some of the faster cars certainly, look at what Laura Spinelli did in qualifying this morning, she said we can't even get close to that so it's all about damage limitation. I had a couple of second places in the last one. championship round, so I'm trying to keep researching.

Robbie Foley didn't do the best job he could, but Michael Dynan overtook him, taking the car to second position and here's the other one on the bounce back to the pits. lane they didn't do that job they put the tape there which wasn't enough it came off immediately it didn't go down much but I'm afraid it's about to do it I think he'll have to go back to the pits to make sure the repair holds this time it's really a annoying because Chandler Hall did what he had to do in qualifying and at the beginning of the race we talked about it too.

A previous Bill Auberlin said, frankly, that this might not last all weekend. I'll do what I can to keep us in the mix, but it'll be up to Chandler to make a difference against the other ams in the pro-am lineups and he was doing that when, frankly, something very strange happened with that rear cover, yes, there is In the first race, Chandler qualifies, where they have the best chance because you have track position, then Billy's boys have a defender tomorrow, he has to attack. He didn't qualify very well for his race tomorrow, so it will be more difficult.

The order for him has begun the fight for the lead in pro-am with Ashton Harrison retaining that place. George Kurtz, right behind the class babysitter, is already a winner today on Jeet See America powered by AWS. George has already had a good workout today, just two. gt america run 40 minute qualifying sessions and now on the first one here today, but the busy time is up, as you mentioned before, Ryan to do that race there 24 hours and then immediately return to race in Nashville, the month of Busy summer when we talk about What a workout it is, it's 93 degrees Fahrenheit here in upstate New York, it's very hot, there's not a ton of humidity, just 34, but it's still going to be a workout in one of these GT3 cars, now many of them have client careers on their minds. some pretty robust air conditioning systems that you can choose to use, but that has a performance disadvantage because the cabin temperature actually increases there 120 130 is not uncommon, so we use the air conditioning or some cool suits, but usually you are adding a cooler which is weight for the race car so I was surprised I mean yesterday it was in the mid 90's here but it didn't seem that hard to me compared to what we've been facing this summer Ryan so believe.

That will certainly be a benefit to drivers even though we are in the 90s in terms of ambient temperatures. How about for Ashton Harrison what a season this has been for his 12 Hours of Sebring alongside Wayne Taylor Racing, as well as this one? Racers Edge Team and proving that her victory in the North American portion of the Indianapolis 8 Hour last year was no fluke, she has backed that up in no small measure with the races she and Mario Farmbacker have put together, we've said it many times. already this year she is the real deal, I mean, she is super strong in terms of performance, she is very detail-oriented, she is a true professional, she works hard because she is dedicated to this sport, she is rooted in the wayne taylor racing organization through his affiliation with his family business and being one of the partners on Team Wayne.

She raced in the 12 Hours of Sebring at the professional level. She was running lap times within a second of some of the top pros, so she really has all the tools, all the ingredients, but most. Most importantly, she has the necessary focus and dedication. She graduated from the HPD GT3 academy, which in many ways is the brainchild of John Meraki, the team owner at Racer's Edge. The opportunity to have a lot of seat time in a GT3 car with excellent training from Honda affiliated drivers did that last year and that has served him well. She got into this car with the pace since she debuted last season, back in front, but her lead has increased, but it only seems slightly 1.5 seconds.

They've settled into a rhythm and Russell Ward seemed to be harassing Diana a few laps from the end and maybe that's not the case anymore, yes absolutely, Michael looked a little wide there during the quarter, one got up a little on the pavement. bit through where that uh and here we see a big battle look at this this is aaron vogel taking on david crooked towards the brake zone for the inner loop former teammates here going side to side through the inner loop ascu doesn't go to give that Easily spot Smith is there too so Vogel meets up at the dxdt racing sandwich right now and again that's his old team that he left to join in real time along with Michael Cooper this year yeah way with Aaron from Rochester.

The other night on the way to our hotels and I had a good chat with her, it hasn't been the easiest season for them with the change of equipment and with this precision setup, the car just doesn't give me the feel at the front. It has a lot of power assistance with the Acura chassis. She said I don't get immediate feedback, but they did a test after their big vir record, which Michael Cooper did. She was in the process of communicating from her home in California listening to them. I really feel that they found something with this chassis: you can't get the absolute lap pace, but in race conditions they feel that they are much more competitive and she is showing that today here she achieved the first victory of a female driver in this championship with a I won last year in the first round at Vir and he's had some good runs since then, a couple of podiums and a second place in the second race at Sebring last year, but this year, to your point, just on the field, the best result was fifth and then a few times. this season she's running fifth in her class right now, but actually now it looks like it's from attack to defense because, ask who's been able to step away a little bit, that's brought Smithson into the picture, he said despite from the frustration of not having the rhythm.

We were hoping she would say I'm really enjoying the real time team, great group of guys, real racing. She likes the fact that they have all the focus on a single car operation, unlike when they surrounded the big LGBT team and multiple cars. Last year, her focus was sometimes divided, but there we see Nathan Bonneau, the team manager, alongside her co-driver, Michael Cooper. I'll tell you where that Acura that was emerging during the 20th century looked strong. She was there in Ascu in the Inner Loop just wasn't close enough to make a move. She bulged a little and that led Smithson to the rear wing of her, but now she's starting to move forward and run.

Ask the driver who owns that dxdt racing team 14 minutes away. Since the opening of the pit window, the minimum stopping time today is 71 seconds, from entry to exit, including the mandatory driver change and four tire changes, a little refueling and a few refills. Sometimes, there shouldn't be any problem unless you have one. little trinket and suddenly panic sets in and you can't afford to give anything away in terms of having gone too far past that minimum time. Oh, that's Jeff Burton. I thought I heard something in the background a few moments ago that it's another heavy front. -Final impact for Jeff today, he crashed in qualifying for this race.

This is the secondary car and looks decidedly second hand. Look, Jeffy could be another yellow flag. I think you're right and that will be erased when it grows to a two second lead. for beretta, look at all the fluid coming out of that car, also steam coming out of the car, steam probably coming out of jeff burton's ears too, this has been a rough day, yeah there's a lot of debris there so we should get lost braking . the contact with the interior there, whether he's trying to make a move or the car just turned towards him, I hope they can get out and stop that fluid that's heading towards the racing surface right now, it's in the area of runoff, was about to say that he had recovered well from his spin, moved up a couple of places overtaking pj hyatt in the previous slap.

This is great news for everyone except Andrea Calderelli and this is the corner, you can see the tire right there. markings that take you right to that area yeah it's good to see the safety team talking to Jeff if he dropped the left side wheel on the approach so this is interesting this is Chandler Hull coming back to the pits so I hadn't even done it for a second. stopping this yellow might give the bimmer world team a chance to fix that back damage without losing the lap, i'll fix it, that's one method, yeah, it's cutting the gordian knot right there and sometimes it surprises you, it just indicates where. the airflow goes up the roof and down that weird trunk lid that honestly influences the aerodynamic parts by taping it, says no that's not going to work but it's a big job just keeping thehead in the game waiting for a chance to let it all come back to them and now a chance maybe to try to get something back that is a look at jeff burton is a motorsport on the loose the team have also had a tough weekend some mechanical sprites in the jason harward car At least one of them, not sure if it was the auto gt america or the auto

fanatec

gt, but in any case they have been working hard on that one, the accident and qualifying this morning and now this is not what they needed.

It's a hard working group, a relatively young team for our paddock, but with a lot of potential, I'm really starting to find some performance with those Lamborghinis, so you'll be disappointed and disappointed for Jeff because he's been in the wars a bit here. today, so wait. and see if that chassis is repairable to see more action here this weekend in both gt america and tech gt for tomorrow's races, unfortunately it means we won't see his co-driver corey lewis today, hopefully again they can get that car or at least the other one of the two qualifiers for tomorrow's races stephen agha connie runs in fourth place amanda what are you hearing about stephen right before that porsche?

He was right behind Russell Ward trying to get him but I was talking to his father. Cal about him, you mentioned that Stephen had strep throat. In fact, it was so bad that temperatures were over a hundred degrees before he was taken to urgent care. In the last three days he lost 11 pounds. The team said they were pumped and filled with fluids with electrolytes. before the stent, so as we get closer and closer to this driver change, you have to imagine the exhaustion of Steven being able to finish another quick update. Just saw that K Packs Green Lambo is back on the track.

I spoke to the team they replaced. full throttle body on that car and hoping that rectifies the problems in that Lambo Golickberg behind the wheel now nine laps off the race lead, but looking to at least save some points with only five cars in the pro class, as long as What he does is that at 70 percent of the distance the race leader can at least score points for fifth place and that is much better than no points and the other thing is that this becomes a great training session. try trying to figure out what is wrong with that car for tomorrow's race yes that is very true and less than an hour to go we are approaching the pit window this looks like it could be a relatively long clean up let's get back to the agakani story Calvin, have you ever had to run when you weren't really feeling yourself?

Your best effort and it's amazing once you're in the heat of battle the adrenaline kicks in and it kind of wears off so I was expecting him to really struggle here this weekend but he's probably going to struggle more now that he's relaxed in the car. caution than when I was running at full speed, but you probably won't have to run much more with the green flag, so even if you don't feel 100 percent, you have the car in good position on the track, this restart, this yellow will stay . It's very tight here if they can execute a good clean Spinelli stop.

He certainly has the pace here that will potentially carry him to victory later this afternoon, adrenaline is strong medicine that's for sure and it's working for Stephen Agha Connie who has been on the pace, in fact, he has the fastest lap of the race right now at a 46-254, which is a couple of tens ahead of everyone else in the field as we look at our speed-driven race view general AWS maxims I mentioned, I thought the Acro Acura looked strong at the end of the s and is headed to the inner circuit. and look at that ashton harrison matching the bmw that's a section of the track that bmw has been strong on over the years with a lot of different types of cars so it says a lot about how strong in a straight line it is today, um, but I still think the Mercedes is potentially the car to beat here this weekend, so it's not always just about immediate speed, like lap time, but we're developing speed in the track and again we keep jumping on it, but Spinelli's turn is here.

The morning caught everyone's attention, six tenths ahead of Jordan Pepper, he was the second fastest in that session. It's a monstrous gap, so he's anxious. I know he's frustrated that the team couldn't get him home and get the car to victory lane. Could this be the day for the US racetronics team, now we'll find out in just under 57 minutes that the qualifying effort you mentioned from Spinelli for the second race tomorrow will be six tenths ahead, that's huge but We must keep in mind that Pepper had a good turn and caught him. some traffic that was on a cool down lap or maybe a warm up lap, in any case, was not moving at full speed and that could have cost Pepper a shot to at least get close, if not to claim the pole, So I'm not sure there's that big of a gap between the final pace of that American Mercedes Racetronix and everyone else, but it's still a very powerful lap that Laura Spinelli did this morning in qualifying.

It's just funny when you look at the co. -pilots jumping aboard calderali robbie foley philip ellis laura spinelli mario farnbacher colin brown and halen and company i mean top pilots brian sellers dirk miller will jump aboard the dxdt machines ryan diell has been flying this weekend in the ferrari triathlete competition too and that's a team that has a bit of a tailwind at the moment the m class car is more or less doing its thing here this weekend with a of course and not in attendance, but justin Weatherill and Ryan Dial picked up a vir class win in the first race there, that was very important for them and for that couple who had been working together as a coach and student in the past, but now as co-drivers for the first time this season and Justin coming Ferrari Challenge is taking a big step towards GT3 racing.

Yes, it was a nice chat with him yesterday. He is a very nice guy and a family man. He

live

s in Orlando as does Ryan, so he's a very close-knit community among that racing group there, but he loves his kids. They're here for the first time and they saw him racing in Ferrari Challenge, but they saw him racing in sro competition for the first time this weekend, so he was excited about that, but he said we're really starting to find ourselves. I know I'm starting to make legit passes against the competition now. He said I'm really going through a learning curve in terms of racing spec cars before spec championships where everyone is using identical cars and now racing against different brands and where they have advantages. the ins and outs on the track, so I'm really enjoying the process.

He is a big Ferrari fan, he loves his Ferrari both on and off the track and it is exciting to see him enjoying it so much and this team has a breath of fresh air. In our paddock, at the same time, those differences between the cars, they were all balanced through bop, so the final pace is about the same across all brands, but how they achieve that speed can vary and adds a Extra level of complexity for drivers to weigh up their opposition's strengths and weaknesses that aren't seen much in a single series, particularly if you're trying to make passes like you said before.

He was just trying to stay calm without making the vital mistakes now. Gaining the confidence to work your way around the field and identify where you can have an advantage with the Ferrari over, say, a BMW or a Lamborghini or whoever else you're up against is really a game of chess, now, for sure, speeds corner at the bus stop or the inner loop as they call it here at Watkins Glen and Russell Ward, our AWS powered fishing race has the advantage there, so depending on your point of view, the Mercedes might be the one. strongest package in all aspects, they were not at the top. from the list in top speed, but they were close within a mile per hour and having that kind of force through the internal loop and we've seen it, we may not have the data right now, but we've seen it visually where they can be strong in several different corners, the Mercedes package seems quite adequate, it's one of those cars, I mean they seem to be strong wherever we go, so it's a complete package, it may not be the best in any sector, but it's good over bumps, it's good in the corners, we don't have a lot of bumps, good in the braking zone, it's got a lot of downforce on that car, it's good for high speed sweepers and the power is decent.

Plus, it has good torque coming out of corners, so it works and I think it's the car that has a big sweet spot. I don't think it's that sensitive to settings, so I think that's why they are consistently one of the fastest. cars talking about Tree rc and Justin Weatherill's exclusive competition team earlier, let's hear more about that car and the team with Amanda. Well, Ryan, the guys were talking about you at the booth while you were getting ready to start your shift. I know you are busy. preparing for this, but when you look at the success the team has had lately, what do you really point to between you and justin that is allowing this to happen?

I mean, it starts with a great team and a package and I was excited when I joined Triarcy and had the opportunity to, you know, build something new and I think eventually things started to work out for us. It's been a good weekend so far, but unfortunately in the GT America race before, Justin was eliminated and that's our main car, so we didn't suffer any damage in this race, but we're going to get through this race, make sure we everything feels good and then attack tomorrow from the pole, any routine for you before the race while you prepare the routines, no, me.

I've been doing this long enough No superstitions No routines Just a couple deep breaths Glass of water Let's have some fun Oh, we're having fun right now Michael Dinan ran towards McKayley Beretta They ran into each other and that opened the door for windward and russell ward have got to the point wow what a series of corners right there total commitment from michael dinan went to the inside had the line forced into the grass didn't give up side by side driving on the beretta circuit used it they went up a bit as they went through the corner , they kept their power through the grass and kept it on the road, but meanwhile Russell Ward whistled and took the lead for the windward race, let's think about this stint ahead.

Ward started second and moved back to fourth. now he has worked his way into the leadership that he has had in the wars and now he himself is at the front. Dinan, that was costly, going off course or at least deviating to avoid contact. He has lost several places and, in fact, now finds himself in the middle. the battle for the lead in pro-am I love the commitment although I didn't come out, but I will tell you what it is that tells the entire field what kind of commitment Michael Diamond has, yes, he is a promising star and that is for sure so is stephen aguicani, his hands are full but he keeps the pedal down coming out of turn 11, stephen again trying to race in the capex racing lamborghini, yes, and beretta is vulnerable at the moment, he had track position , he lost it here and uh, he also has a lot of threat behind the other Mercedes, so this is where Calderelli will have a lot of work ahead of him.

It all depends on the pit stop, if everyone makes the same pit stops. Calderelli might see that windshield. is in danger at least here this afternoon it seems so but there is still a long way to go 50 minutes on the clock approaching the opening of the pit window it is now and we will see who blinks first again and continues to put pressure on mckayley beretta, Lamborghini-affiliated driver Agakhani. under the weather, but I didn't drive like that today, just immense and I think they might want to bring that 0-6 machine with the Spinelli pace that you don't want to waste and put him behind the wheel.

Steven has done an excellent job here to start not feeling 100 but don't wait too long don't let the water maybe stretch if it stays out don't let beretta stay out there a lot of play right now making the right decision also in the change reset for fourth place in pro- I am racing in real time to another place. Aaron Vogel passed David Askew so she is now 9th overall and 4th in the Pro Am class. Great race by Aaron here, very proud of her from the back of the grid with that penalty they had to take.

He has had a spirited race here as he has moved up eight places overall from his starting position of 17th following the penalty after the qualifying pit window opened. This is the first time I ask, let's see who chooses to come. Russell Ward continues to lead. It was a small race why. they're on turn 10. here we go k-packs come in us racetronix come in this is not unusual because with the rulesthe lower grade driver has to do the qualifying tasks and start the race in which he wants his pro to maximize his speed potential Sometimes there is not much to choose between the co-drivers, but here we see the train of cars that he is going to achieve the pit stop when you get so close.

Just a few tents can make a big difference in terms of your position on the track when you exit pit lane michael cooper is ready full service stop 71 seconds the minimum pit lane delta that's from pit in to pit out that was strange that was strange stop and wait a minute carl didn't last a minute no, he didn't sell out for a minute? No way, now there is one thing, let's look at class 50, it could have been tight, it could have been tight, it is one of the first to enter, but it seemed shy, I just felt that I don't have the stomach, but I don't believe it anyway , we'll have to check it out.

Maybe K-packs figured it out anyway. Member of the world making the change chamber hole. What an interesting period Bill Auberlin had signing up. For that car running without the rear deck cover, it's an interesting look and we'll have to wait and see how everyone handles this pit stop in the meantime and Dinan was left out and this is a crucial stretch so they can only give fast laps. uh, in the pit lane for 30 seconds, yeah, he didn't last a minute, it was a drive-through what he did and that wasn't the penalty. Here we go, Russell Ward, now he'll pit from the lead.

He will have dinner in the pits from the second. triarcy stays outside in the am class car, no he goes into pit lane so almost everyone has come for service here already early in this window, yeah how will the overcut work? The overcuts when you stay out, use the heart tires to Maximum effect of the drivers on pace versus the drivers who are now on their out lap and how they compare. I have a feeling that Wynwood if he executes this pit stop he might have the track position and Phillip Ellis will try to hold on here.

Edgar Carney for spinelli that's a great start there a tenth below the minimum they have the wild card to play with a one second wild card available for the teams oh problems on the left front here on the windward car that can't accommodate it now it's finally on but That cost them some time, I mean they've lost a couple of big race wins here recently with little things, how will this play out? You can see the US Racetronics car dropping to the front on the straight that should be Spinelli, easily passing to take control. race leader, i think i saw the number one of the k-packs in the pits and stationary this time, which is beretta for the second time and up to the lead, we racetronix and laura spinelli will take it home 73.9, so they lost three seconds.

It would have been tight, it would have been tight with all six cars if they had gotten out on time and not had that slight delay, they probably would have just had it with the ward overcut sitting out, this was an absolute game changer for this team. I've talked about his pit stops not being the smoothest. I had some problems with changing wheels earlier this year. They absolutely nailed it. It would be quite a statement for this team. The Turner Boys were quite quick in their stop, 71.9 seconds in the switch from Dinan to Foley. It's not ideal, that leaves at least nine tenths on the table plus the wild card.

Well, for now, in fact, it is the new championship team that is leading the race. The de facto leader is Laura Spinelli and we are Racetronics because the Hardpoint Car team needs it. to get in, but how about pj hyatt, his series debut, his laps leading, that's great, making his hardpoint debut and the car didn't even run yesterday in practice sessions. First track time was this morning in gt america qualifying and they have done a wonderful job great to see this team in this championship great see the backstory pj high and gunner jeannette pj hi is a porsche enthusiast there is a collection of cars that gunners father operates for him he

live

s in chicago just like gunner has been training him the gunner has And now they are dipping their tour in the water.

With the possibility of working full time here next year, they are waiting to see How's this weekend going, but it's a great day. Pj from the Chicago area also spent some time in Northern California's Silicon Valley, where he had some success founding or collaborating companies. He founded the software development hosting platform GitHub, but he's an avid racer with radical Cup experience who moved up to GT3 at this level for the first time and saw the track for the first time in qualifying today. He ran the gt america race so that definitely helps. but good work by pj hyatt who has aspirations to be around a lot more in the future, just a lot of work, just getting the car here, they only collaborated about 12 days ago, now i guess it was a phone call where gunner jeannette I was talking to Rob Fariel from Hardpoint looking for a spare parts package.

They had a conversation and Rob said who is driving the car. He said well, we haven't made that decision yet. He said we have an operation ready to put everything together. We delivered the the car to the team shop uh hardpoint racing bought it here everything seemed fine and then they sold it when they tried to run the car in the garage area yeah it didn't run properly you thought it was a problem with the fuel pump it happened because everything changed. Finally, they skipped both practice sessions. They put in a new engine with a new wiring harness last night and that seemed to fix it, so it's been a lot of work to get it to us.

At this point, Philadelphia runs second to windward trying to chase him. loris spinelli but we should give an update on this car this is the third time they have been in the pit lane they had the box to try to apply the penalty it was just a ride instead of stopping and holding like it should be on the next lap . They finally stopped and held on, now they can finally serve and that winning streak dating back to this court a year ago seems to be over, given the mistakes you're not used to seeing from these k-pacs. team, let's hear more from Amanda I was going to add very quickly to that that they actually put spare tires from qualifying on that k packs number one lambeau, I was actually worried about Andrea Colarelli who mentioned that the team wanted to save the good tires for tomorrow and the acceptance that they might not get that win right, that makes sense to compromise and they are behind for today here, the winning streak has probably ended well, so let's not use our good things, let's save them for tomorrow and we can give them more effect, but he has a lot of work to do from 9th on the grid tomorrow if we go back to 2020.

K-pac spent the year racing gt world challenge europe, barring, I think, one or two appearances with a pro. I'm a car with a Bentley in America, although their main focus was on Europe since they returned, this has been the dominant team in the championship, but Calvin is fourth and fifth in its class at the moment and more than that, it is in 14th and 16th. Overall, it's not something we've seen in a long time from K-PAC. Now it's an unusual circumstance, obviously, the technical problem with the number three green machine and then the penalties here for Beretta with the RGB that it had with Michael Dine there during the Still, on the internal circuit, there have been weekends where They haven't had the fastest car, they've been vulnerable, but in some ways I think we've particularly surpassed Kaylee Barretta's potential and pace as a morning driver, silver in the pro. lineups now that have to be set in stone, that really made a big difference, they've been able to take advantage of that and get the wins, pj hyatt has given up the lead just before the end of the pit window for the team's tough points and that. has officially moved spinelli now into the race lead he holds that spot over philadelphia by 2.1 seconds mario farmbacher in racer's edge motorsports leading pro-am car runs third so it's completely up to turner motorsport and then this car john halen driving the right motorsports team and right behind the car sitting on the pole in pro-am colin brown now driving the crowd strike mercedes for riley's motorsports operation yeah there will be some tasty little battles here stuff really cool, no doubt, as you turn the tables here a bit.

What we anticipate here this afternoon, but we anticipate that six cars are off the pace and maybe get their first win if they can execute it, they've done everything perfectly so far here today, very angry, right on the money in terms of the target time. In the minimum time you spent in the lane, you have two very fast Mercedes in front being chased by an Acura. This group, all running laps almost identical to each other, but then you close in on the leaders and the filabellas, last time you sent the fastest crowdstrike lap. the race and was three tenths faster than the leader, let's see what this lap looks like.

It was 45-4 for Spinelli and 45-1 for Ellis. That's another three tenths for the windward car. Well, they've executed it, but maybe there's something to it. a team that has a little bit faster car for them today here in Philadelphia, when we talked to him yesterday, he was very optimistic, he was very happy and positive, but he said we are struggling a little bit this weekend, honestly, but already you know with these teams. the track change the tires a little bit more, the track will come to you and they can also modify these cars and just change the title a little bit.

It certainly seemed like yesterday with McCartney having the fastest time, not Laura Spinelli, who required real potential. but certainly this winter team is digging deep trying to get their first big win of the year. Warnings issued from race control for track limits for John Halen and Colin Brown second and third in pro-am, who in turn were eight, pushing the limit as they chased. one behind them, bill auberlin made a pass on the last lap around dirk mohler to get the bimmerworld team back into the top five after all the problems they have had in this race, which is a story of perseverance, absolutely , they helped them a little. obviously with the yellows, but still having that bodywork issue with Chandler Hollows in a very good track position initially and then struggling with that had to affect his downforce a little bit to get that car back into the top five. in his class position, it's great, this is what it's all about.

It will be a three car battle for position Foley Halen and Brown Foley, not a class position for the two cars behind him but he is a little off the pace relative to England and Brown at least and last time he is a board now with Bill Auberlin liked that last lap, so the gap remains pretty constant at the front. That message reached Laura Spinelli that Ellis was coming because he just turned the fastest lap of the race with his car and that is four hundredths away from the fastest lap of the race. and you're right, they were seven thousand apart last time, but the edge once again a little to fill their stomachs.

I'm curious what this bodywork, uh, what part that's now missing instead of being in the wrong position, is doing for Auburn's balance on the race car, I mean, aerodynamics is so essential on a racetrack. high speed like this, who knows, maybe it's helping to make things better, I can never tell, any time you see in the car that everything is pointing in the wrong direction, go a little faster than you were going. before the engineers don't like to hear that, even though all their computer simulations say this is the way and the driver says, well, you won't believe it, but there it is again fourth, fifth and sixth overall, all together, Halen is slightly faster than the two cars he's running in the middle right now and mario farmbacher just continues to do his thing at the front of the pro-am field and third overall what a great performance from super mario yeah he just gets behind the wheel , I mean, it is. a monster behind the wheel of one of these acura nsx hp and i absolutely love him, i totally believe in him and if you are a customer team and you get hpd support and they give you mario you know you have an absolute stud behind the wheel but it's funny that the two cars that follow each other got those track limit violations or warnings in terms of uh halen and brown i'm sure brown said well he's doing it in front of me and haylen said he's doing it behind my. farmer flirting with it essentially, the rule is that part of a tire must touch the painted sidewalk, so you can go up and pass because some part must touch, if you completely finish, you're going to start. to get one, ultimately, they said at the drivers meeting, we'll guide you through the repeat offender, we'll make that call in qualifying as a coup, the lab was immediately in the race, take us offour lap time means nothing to you, it's about If you have to suffer a ride, let's hear from the Capex racing team or at least about them with Amanda McKayla.

Our first opportunity to talk to you about the path between you and Michael Dinan from your perspective, how do you analyze it? Honestly, I have to check it out on TV because from my point of view it didn't seem like a bad move, unfortunately we got a penalty so I want to investigate, but that's a pretty fast corner, in fourth gear, it's usually difficult diving in. , but I have to push back and then, I think side by side, I probably left a little bit of space, but honestly, I don't know, the Mercedes overtook me, so maybe the penalty was too hard, but we have like me.

I said I want to look into it later on TV with the video, can you tell us about the penalty you took in pit lane? He stopped, got out again, there was a miscommunication on the radio, they called me to ask for the box and they changed the driver, but then this happened. The penalty came and then there was a bit of a mess in the radio communication and that's why we ended up going to a drive-through, so it was a very difficult situation. There we saw the replay of what we assumed led to the penalty and it was certainly tight between Dinan and Beretta, what did you make of that?

I have a feeling they could make the call on the immediate move instead of going around the corner through the bus stop, I mean, Michael had a move, Mckayley went that direction and kind of squeezed. him off the grass and when you're going 160 miles an hour, that's pretty spicy, so I don't think about the bus stop, I mean two cars going side by side, they had a little touch, Michael kept running down the grass, I had the feeling that maybe it was the movement, a reactive movement on the straight, the party began to develop. Certainly questions we will ask when this race is over and will be a topic of conversation tomorrow.

I have no doubts for the second of two races here. weekend that is scheduled for tomorrow at one in the afternoon here in Watkins, Gwen talks about these leaders although they exchange body blows like a pair of heavyweight fighters and that is exactly what Spinelli and Ellis have been doing in sense figuratively just trading that fastest crowdstrike lap back and forth between them last time it was for spinelli by about a tenth of a second and we'll see what happens on this lap if philip ellis can get it back yeah i know it's the fastest lap of the race so their commercial coups go very very fast as the fuel load is burning these privatizers still give these drivers the performance they are looking for on that lap just a carp slower for Spinelli Ellis Billy, 200 slower than his previous best, we gained about a tenth of a second there. that lap for them to be so close, it's going to be a question of whether Spinelli hits traffic, whether one car suffers a little more time degradation than the other and how to handle it, so when you're pushing that hard, how much can you handle the tires? ?

We're practically asking for every ounce of grip in every corner to achieve the lap times that you're seeing two teams that have had super frustration this year with this group, certainly in our Wynwood championship and other championships here in North America they took a victory by a driving time for clarity at this particular race track for six hours here last month and then I had a fuel pump issue last week when I was about to see the checkered flag with two turns left to go that both teams deserve a victory, but they don't give it to you.

You have to close the deal. Both teams also seem to be emerging and moving up the Mercedes hierarchy and you look at what Windwork has become in a short period of time and the acquisition of http certainly helped accelerate that a couple of years ago, but the programs they are running all over the world and in multiple championships are really remarkable for us. Racetronics, maybe a little newer, but certainly, and they have shown that they are among the best in this championship since the beginning of the season in Sonoma if it were not only for these small mistakes and this has been that nice and calm day that they have Been waiting now trying to take advantage of it with only 30 minutes left, good if they do it. achieving it will be sweet because it will not be easy.

Alice will keep the pressure on them, but this is a very energetic battle here, not because of class position, but certainly Halen will keep the pressure on because she does support. colin brown is going to be with him for the p2 position in pro-am so paulie's p3 and pro halem p2 and pro am and brown p3 in pro am right now how do you handle this situation if you are robbie foley? I don't fight these guys for position, but you know, if I can stay ahead and there's a yellow, now I'm stuck with the guys in my class again, we know how strong the BMW is on the restart, you don't want to interfere with a out of class, I think it's not a problem, I think he's just letting them go, maybe making that decision, I guess it's Brown as a real prominence, really, aside, now Phil's back up to speed, so I think that that was the decision.Listen, we have a solid podium run, let's not fight with these guys, you know, Jen Halen can get feisty sometimes and that's J.O on the radio and Robbie Foley giving his advice and maybe coordinating or collaboration, I should say with Michael Dinan.

Also, the only thing that surprises me is that, again, if there had been another full yellow circuit, you have now gotten out of the class traffic that separates you from the rest of your class, but if they say, realistically, this is not Our day is the third. what we are going to be able to achieve, don't take any more risks, so that is the safest decision, that is for sure, and if they can secure that third place, it would be a third consecutive podium for Dinan and Foley in this class after none in the first four races, yeah, they had a tough Nola, Spinelli and Foley, they hung out there, took a little bit of abuse and ultimately recovered really well from that weekend, so they're still learning the roads with this new car. every weekend they go out, they learn more and more, obviously they race another championship as well, which increases their learning progress, but certainly the car demands a little bit of a different setup on this Pirelli tire, everyone around the world is still learning this.

It made its competitive debut late last year elsewhere except in North America, at the 24 Hours of Daytona and then here at this championship in Sonoma, but BMW's new offering, a machine with a twin-turbo straight-six engine, generates around 590 horsepower depending on performance balance any weekend, a really nice looking race car and one of the cool things about it, look at the steering wheel on the left side of this shot, this is the one driven by Bill Auberlin , but it's the same here too. BMW made a partnership deal. With fanatec, great partner of sro racing, manufacturers of high quality simulation racing equipment and the steering wheel that you see on this car, if you have the right wheelbase of the fans attack, you can connect that steering wheel to your wheelbase and drive it on your computer and vice versa, there is one that you can buy from fanatec and you can connect it to a bmw m4 gt3 if you have one and you feel like the bmw has been more expensive, but maybe that's cool, it's cool to see that crossover growing between the world of esports and sports in the queue of michael cooper, as you can see, run laptops considerably faster, so it should only be a matter of time, you know michael is going to go in depth here looking at the performance of the two, uh, bmws four, which are now third in pro.

I'm six on the road, his fastest lap is only a few hundred faster than Billy Overland, so he managed to match her very evenly in qualifying, knowing that the most impressive thing is that he is doing this with the injured car. I'll be very curious to know what. Bill has to say about this experience and in regards to his previous point, what, if anything, did he abandon the car's operation without its normal body function due to damage or just some type of malfunction? We're not really sure what caused the bodywork to work. appears again in the first shot of this race with Chandler maintaining the drive, yeah I'm curious, you'd think the air would fall on the greenhouse effect of the race car problems for the other zelus lamborghini we're showing in the timing and the punctuation. madison snow in the pits since the car that jason harwood started, it's a shame that they have already lost a few laps to the leader, but this battle is good bill auberlin approaching a multi-champion in sro competition michael cooper has won at the gt3 gt4 levels and touring cars when it comes to championships, but he has his hands full with the bmw master, yes, bill is really working it.

I'm going to chat with andrew davis yesterday about the great racing he's been involved in. this year and he said, uh, bill aublum, how few battles I've had this year and he keeps it clean, he really does, he doesn't give you an inch, but he won't take you out, so it's very difficult to drive there and he. He finally gets that position to stick with Michael Cooper. cooper is still looking for an opportunity if they can regain that spot he will but now it looks like auberlin should be able to take advantage now that he is free cooper drops in real time to fifth place which he would match. their best result of the season and I would say there are different types of fifth places, if you go back to the weekend they had in Vir, where our fifth place felt like a victory and I'm not sure this one is at that level, but it's not very far given the fact. who had to start from the back of this field to advance as far as aaron vogel did, now michael cooper tries to keep pace for the last 24 minutes in front, laura spinelli continues to lead the gap now with 1.45, so His latest lap is only half a tenth faster than Philip Ellis's, but shortly before Philip Ellis set a new fastest race lap, so he's the fastest car in this race here today and he's not going away, he's going to be very critical.

Who has time management in the last 15 minutes of this race? Does one of these cars start to slip a little in terms of performance and tire balance and ultimately lap time? Oh, trouble here for Farnboker. Oh no, that's the leader in pro- Yeah, that's kind of heartbreaking, they really had control of the pro-am class, but they left behind the edge of the racer, acura nsx gt3 evo, oh, that's going to create tight spaces there, ya that Overland traps him in a strange place just a little. It was a bit of an awkward interaction between the two, a long way to limp home the wrong way, probably another mile to go, so it's really painful for a team that is having a great day of battle for the lead, warming up Phillip Ellis's fastest lap, exactly a forty-one. four seven eight seven won two tenths of a second that time by uh laura spinelli and now there's only 1.2 seconds between the two of them doesn't seem like much, but I think it's the biggest margin we've seen all day between these two drivers, spinelli, they'll know you'll see it on your rearview camera. the team will give you the spaces you don't want us to have philip ellis closer if you run into traffic here, fill the bellis was born to a british mother and a german father, i think that's what we learned yesterday, but we grew up racing in switzerland with the swiss flag and one of the rising stars within the mercedes program chasing another rising star and laura spinelli, what a great duel we have. in our hands here for the last 21 minutes is responding, I mean the last sector there, it was a thousand different, a thousandth of a second to sector two.

I see a little twitch from Ellis as he tries to put the power down and close that gap. Leader Spinelli's car is still very strong, which we talked about earlier in the show, in this style of racing, different cars with different advantages, but this is basically a one-make race that takes place at the front of the field between the two Mercedes you should know. their respective strengths and weaknesses very, very good, how do you find it? How do you exploit something like that when you have the exact same equipment as the guy in front of you?

Well, again, I'm just thinking as the fuel burns and the car gets a little lighter, how do you respond to that? It continues to get faster and faster as the tie degradation factor starts to go in the other direction while maintaining balance. How hard do you drive this car? Keeping these lap times as precise as they are, but not overusing the tires here will be the key, I think, to the win, Ellis with that crown set the fastest lap two laps ago, now it's so close at a second, but This is when dirty air starts to become a factor as you approachso much. cars depend a lot on aerodynamics this is not the gt race of 20 years ago there is a gap of 1.13 seconds between the professional leaders there is a gap of 1.12 seconds between the pro-am leaders of halen and brown colin brown ends from setting his fastest lap of the race to close that gap with jan halen mario farmbacker coming and going on a new left rear tire, but that was costly due to the pro-am lead, he dropped to 13th and ninth in class, absolutely heartbreaking for the runner's advantage team's cross clock.

He's going to have the lead here in about 20 minutes, so tight between these two drivers that Alice just turned purple in sector two, faster, sector two, and right now she's slowly closing in on this leader, every time. closer, but they are inches. We're talking about a couple of hundredths of a second to have that advantage over Spinelli because that lap was a 45-0 and Spinelli was actually a little faster a 44-9; It was a hundredth of a second between the two last time. Yes, Spinelli responded there in sector three to separate him a little bit by a couple of tenths, so those are the margins, we are talking about two drivers totally at the top of their game, two teams that have executed perfectly here today and two Mercedes chassis.

Ultimately we are very well adapted to this vision of track racing powered by aws, how about this curve accelerate on the carousel and is the ferrari the only Ferrari participant this weekend is only rc competition and is the car of the class am the one who shares that statistic there with mckayley? beretta at 1 11.2 miles per hour this is how in the mail how are these two this is the maximum looking for perfection here today to win this race overall chasing brian sellers and dirk muller of the dxdt racing team that dial drove last year and then here's charlie scardina who took over Foreign Tree RC in the Tree RC team's AM class entry, just a great team, the first to appear on the scene last year at Sebring, showed pace right away when we come back at the front, the gap is now less than a second for The first time here today with these two current drivers behind the wheel, now the battle is heating up and as it does, let's listen in from the windward camp with Amanda Well Russell as you watch along with Laura Smidelli and Phillip Ellis, uh, one and two, what can you? tell us about the tires, you had a sin, is there any concern for you guys, you don't know, no, no, personally, for me, I mean, we had a really good long run pace during practice, so I think which is actually what it is. our strength, we always try to prepare the car for that because I prefer to have a fast race car at the end than a fast race car at the beginning, so I see that Philip is doing the best he can and he is chasing it. but I think overtaking is going to be difficult, I mean, Spinelli is no slouch, so you know, but we'll see what he has going for him, it's Mercedes versus Mercedes, the guys were talking about the differences that can exist when you have two.

Same cars on the track, what are the differences that you can find? Yes, it seems like they are set up quite differently. I mean, they have a decent amount of top speed, don't you know? We're right behind them and we're not faster on the straight, so they obviously have a bit more oomph, but that should mean we're better elsewhere. We'll see what he has, what we have for him, that's class winner Russell Ward a year ago at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He almost called it Phyllis. I think I'll do that sometime this year. I just know it's in my head now yeah phillip ellis phyllis and now you planted that in my head oh that was phyllis there going a little wide in the corners I wonder what race control thinks of that that's what they're looking at yeah , there will be a Warning, I haven't seen that 33 popup because I haven't received any so far for track limits, but you certainly know that the US Racetronix team will be on top for the fastest lap of the race for Spinelli at 44-6 resetting the Ellis bar just behind a 44-7, the difference between them was nine ninety-six thousandths of a second, but that leaves Spinelli with that gap a little bigger, as tight as the battle up front for the overall and professional winner it's very tight here at the best time also yen halen has been setting the fastest laps of his day but colin brown has been matching him very tight just eight tenths and you can see the gap on the track right now big battle here for the pro-am win everyone is pushing here in the last 15 minutes of this one the top six in the top seven got their personal best laps last time so everyone left everything on the track here at Watkins , Glen Spinelli leads Ellis overall and there is a problem for the windward car, this is Ellis. looks like a left front, oh wow this team runs this team, they just can't believe the disappointment they've endured here over the past few months, there's no doubt that Ellis was pushing that car for all he's worth and you imagine the front It's going to work.

I have to compensate a little bit being in traffic like that, maybe that puts a little more load on the tire, yeah well, like on the Lamborghini, they were worried about the rear tires, managing that for the front engined Mercedes, which it puts a little more load on it. go ahead and here we'll see how it develops here, probably when it comes into the two or the boot, yeah, let's go well. The timing of that was actually quite fortunate because it didn't happen in a braking zone, it didn't happen in a corner and that car, unless the tire breaks, should remain intact, but it will cost them any chance of winning here today after a brilliant start to the race.

Spinelli and everything falls apart with less than 14 minutes to go, we talked about managing the tire but still having that pace and you know, Philip Ellis was in full attack, the more we tried to run down Spinelli, so the worry now will be Spinelli, what I mean, the teams. run slightly different setups, a lot of it comes down to the full pressures and certainly the ply setup and ultimately the balance on the race car, which tire is being loaded the most on this track, so Spinelli up front He now has a useful 21-second lead over Yam Haylin but, more importantly, 27 seconds over the credit he drops, where the credit goes to this team. us racetronics throughout the season so far have found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and on a day when most of the competition has either met with misfortune or self-destructed in some way, they have been perfectly fine Clean to this point, they are still 12 minutes away and they are putting in that kind of performance they have been looking for all season and if they can hold on they will be richly rewarded with their first win of the year.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if Spinelli's pace doesn't drop by at least two seconds. one lap here you just have to manage things here at this point they will surely tell you Alice is out with tire problems just take her home she has a massive lead no need to threaten anything in terms of keeping the pace on this one moment, that's right, so his lead over the second place car overall is 20-odd seconds, that's John Haywood, right here, the Porsche in front of this shot. His advantage over the second-place car in his class is significantly greater even than that.

Now it's Robbie Foley who has stormed to take the lead. plus second in fourth overall professional place, I'm curious to know where Ellis came out of the pits with a relative display, it seems that he was placed between Foley and Auberlin, fifth overall, no he didn't, he also lost that place, so, wow, that's going to be costly for ellis who continues to plummet on the timing screens, this now becomes our best battle on the track and it's not just for the lead in pro-am but also for second place in the general the belgian yawn halen and the texan colin brown spinelli respond immediately with our suggestion. went from 44-6 to 46-9, so they'll just talk it out and manage the gap here, but for these two we have to keep pushing, they want that winning class, opening up another podium is also encouraged. for him and chandler hull is his potential fifth of the year certainly had a solid runner michael cooper now after the fourth and uh dirkmurler brian sellers two races in the top six for dxdt i think that would be the fifth podium for hull and auberlin and it would be it would be the second in a row if they managed to do it with this car, think about the beginning of the season, they came back to Sonoma killing the weekend there and we thought, oh wow, this new lineup, but it will be the same story, this is the championship team reigning pro-am and then the wheels fell off and nola, not a good weekend there they started to get things going again en vir and now it looks like this is the team we expected when the season started, yeah no, are they.

I really had to regroup, I mean, Charlie got into the war a little bit in the difficult conditions of the new Nola circuit and got caught up a little bit, but the father and son-in-law have certainly been very impressive this year, right? Motorsports does such a solid job with that Porsche, so much experience, it always comes off the truck, as we call it in terms of how the car presents itself on the track with great setups and is always a threat to the championship and to this car. , even if Colin is not able to do it. make the move this is a good day for them as far as points coming in and consistency has issues for Bill Auberlin as they were competing for the podium this car has gone through everything here today quickly to finish my point.

I was about to say that. hurts and brown, they have been very consistent throughout the season, only one finish worse than third all year and you must avoid misfortunes like this to win a title. they made the call to the premium and that's going to cost them, I guess what that did was put Aaron Vogel and Michael Coogle in last place since last started 17th today, now they're 5th overall and 3rd in pro-am. It's been that kind of topsy-turvy, unpredictable day. Frankly, the only constant has been this car and that's not something we've been able to say this year, yeah, and Spinelli is running a high 46, a low 47 or a low 46 compared to the mid 44s he and Ellis were running. exchanging fast laps there. in the middle of this race, so the total time management at this stage is to try to get home eight and a half minutes to go without any pressure from behind, but how do you manage this pressure of getting home knowing how close you are? is the team?

Come and know the anguish that they've been through and now you're not necessarily at the pace that you were before, you're not running the laps at that metronomic pace that you had when you were just pushing like you did naturally, that's where the mistake could arise, yeah , I doubt I'm talking about Spinelli's best talent, right, so the fact is that when you do it in a street circle, I think we always reflect on Renee and Cena did that and lost the victory in Monaco that year when he started to lose pace , he lost his rhythm and put him on the fence, but I think in a circle like this it just gives him big margins.

We just saw him drive on the frontstretch a few minutes ago with a huge gap to the fence, so he's not going to get close to those limits, so unless he's got all his brain fed here, he should be able to get home very well running two and three seconds off the lap lap times. Charlie Lucky and John Halen have a couple of wins this season but none since the first two races of the year at Sonoma and Charlie is with Amanda. I think he's getting a little more information from the team about him, but Charlie, we're talking about two wins to start the season.

You guys had a little change. In Virginia, how much does it cost to get back to that top step of the podium for this team? or 15 points out of the championship at the moment, so you know, the Mercedes team is really strong, their engines are stronger than ours, we are definitely weak in that sense, so we have to overcome a lot of effort and this. is what we need so far tired you have been leading the conversation on the topic on today's broadcast you said the Porsche seemed to be running well there were no real yawning comments about any problems during your period did you notice any loose ends or struggles with There's no grip, so you know when you have a long caution period like that, this track destroys the tyres, so there's all kinds of loose tire debris, so everyone's experiencing recovery, that's the biggest problem that we had and other people I was fighting with was the recovery three laps before. delete it all sorry anyway but um john may have the cover tired but he's not talking about that thanks charlie if this ending goes this way it was a 13 point deficit for Halen and lucky for the car that chases them.

Thedifference between first and second in points is seven, 25 to 18. So that deficit basically cuts in half if John Hayward can hold, but then swings the other way if Colin Brown can make the pass. Yes, there are two on the right. You take seven. away and you win seven so it's huge right now and you know colin brown will know who you are oh my god that was spinelli off the track they cut it tired that car looks like it's bouncing a lot now on the side left. I'd be worried, I mean, look at me when he got back on the road, there the car was jumping a little bit on the left front.

I agree, I don't think I'm pushing, yeah, the left front down for the overall leader, Laura Spinelli. The fight could be enough for Turner to reach the lead. Robbie Foley is 24 seconds ago. I don't see any way for this service to be done on time. I'll cost you that just by going down, yeah, oh my God, we Racetronics, what are you doing? I have to do to buy a break and in the meantime we could have an overall win in the auto pro-am. Charlie Lucky's teammate John Hayward to the overall lead. Brown, now second, up to third.

He leads professionally. Incredible, this day still delivers in terms of Crashes and surprises, oh I don't know who has had worse luck in windward or in us Racetronics this year. It's pretty even and the aftermath of the day looks like that too. I think the only break he had was having a little bit later in the laps we didn't waste as much time getting back to the pit lane, but it cost him a win and he will be absolutely devastated. I mean, you can see his Lord Spinelli face in recent rounds where they kept failing and being so close and him. he slowed down, he did everything he needed to do, but it's just that monstrous season that he and Ellis are putting together, where they're just getting every ounce of speed out of those Mercedes that's taken its toll and they've opened the door here.

For Michael Dinan and Robbie Foley to come in and make their way with Liquor Molly's entry for Turner Motorsports with just under four minutes left, let's hear from the dropout. Well, the applause could be heard when they discovered that the leader in the race, Laura Spinelli. She was pulling into pit lane to change that tire and you were looking closely at something, Will Turner, what is that? Yeah, so I'm watching the tire pressure on the left front because it seems like everyone is having some problems today and you. I know, with three minutes left, we've been on the other end of this too, so you can't count any chickens, but we'll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully we can bring it home.

Well, they've seen it. Auburn's other BMW comes into pit lane, so it's not just a Mercedes on the front left. We have certainly seen a BMW with it as well. I think Spinelli still came in second in the pro class, so if something goes wrong. I think Turner's team now continues to move down the order so we'll have to wait a second, he's still second in pro, yeah he's still second in pro so it's crazy, no joke, don't write your headline yet. sure john hayward leads colin brown half a second gap between porsche and mercedes these are the first two in pro-am and the first two overall colin is still digging he won't let him go here it just depends on if they get the target this time maybe they are not lapping in the 145 range and that will be close, we will have to keep an eye on the clock, if they are projected to complete another lap before time expires then the white flag would not come.

I think he's going to come out. I think he's going to come out too. It's good news for Halen. Bad news for Colin. I will be full. Foley likes that news. Here we go, yes, this will be the last lap at Watkins Glen, race seven of the season. and it's been wild white flag waving for john hayward colin brown chasing him there's still only half a second between these two in the fight for the overall lead the key is nailing the first turn does a good job charlie it's like saying keep going let me focus here , is encouraging his son-in-law through so much experience, although he's been here so many times that he won't be discouraged by Brown's push behind North America to pursue an open-wheel dream, he came to Indycar and has found a home in sports car racing in later years george kurtz we saw him for a moment before he left he is colin brown's co-driver he is watching this one is in the hands of collins those two have been linked for so many years as co-drivers as a driver, coach and student and also as friends, it's a lot closer, look in, this is going to be a critical breaking zone in the next two corners, it's really the last chances on this track, the last lap at Watkins Glen and there's nothing. between these two is colin brown close enough to do a lunge on the heel of the boot, not this time john hayward avoids his attack for the moment haywin comes out of the boots brown trying to get that shot out of the corner and starts to get closer headlong into high-speed, high-commitment turn number 10. hayward in the porsche brown in the mercedes just one corner to go john halen to turn 11 brown is approaching it will be a drag race to the finish line to win at watkins glen and john halen does well motorsports victorious in the mega race from watkins glen that was really cool great battle there two teams digging deep and the return of motorsports water today robbie foley perseveres and turner motorsports gets their first win of the season in the sro america competition what was a tremendous day for them, when their competition failed, they got the job done, so Halen and Brown, by less than two tenths of a second, Cooper get the team's first podium of the year in real time and here's Charlie, the winner of the am class. scardina finishing the race for treyarchy competitionnii takes him home in 10th place overall, just ahead of bill auberlin, so let's see where spinelli came out 8th overall, but still gets points for 2nd place, not sure that It means a lot to them, but their rivals for the title, the 2k, have cars with major problems, finishing fourth and fifth respectively, one car of the three is well down the order due to a misfortune early in the race.

I think all three cars did enough laps to score points. It should be over 70 there, but, yes, what a crazy day, I tell you that what excites me is getting that podium for Ku in real time, but looking at his lap times he is only eight tenths off the best of the day and that its alot. closer than they've been in recent races, so it's a nice rebound for that group and they made some progress. The crowd gave the fastest lap of the race to Philip Ellis for the windward races. He gave everything to pursue Laura Spinelli and here are these two.

They know the duel they had until tire problems on both cars cost them the opportunity to win. Wow, we've talked about it many times today. Both groups have just taken heartbreaking blows in recent months and the successes keep coming, if they weren't unlucky they wouldn't have any luck, as the saying goes, that's true for windward racing in multiple championships, sadly this year certainly It's true for us racetronics here today. The good news, I guess, is that you can do it again tomorrow and, especially for us Racetronics, starting from overall pole, we know what kind of pace Spinelli has.

If you can do it in clear air, she creates a small gap and you might be able to make it. That is until the end, but in any case we know that these 90 minute races are a long road and they know how difficult it is after falling short once again. A good duel that those two had, John Halen and Colin Brown, two of the best, yes. that was a really good dice and a good job in january, they are holding on, it's a great rebound for that group, we said that the difficulties in nola were recovered very well in the last round of the championship in vir, the couple of solid races there ended second and fourth and uh back in victory lane oh wow, I think I saw great things on John Halen's lips, what a great drive he had to fend off Colin Brown's hard charge Colin ran him over in that period, but Jan It didn't collapse, it did.

They were evenly matched as the two Mercedes at the front in the professional class. Blow for blow they continued to trade faster laps, but eventually Anne Halen and Charlie Lucky finished with the best provisional results of the first race of the weekend here at Watkins Glen Pro. I'm one and two, I don't see that very often in this championship , Charlie Lucky and John Halen get the job done by less than two tenths of a second over George Kurtz and Colin Brown, Michael Dinan and Robbie Foley, third overall and a long-awaited victory. In the pro class here this season, Vogel and Cooper, from 17th on the grid, came home in fourth place.

What a day in real time. A huge day that will be a huge confidence boost for the whole group. I thought Aaron drove tremendously and Michael did. a first battle with oberlin kept him clean kept the tires under the race car and had some really strong laps at the end of the day further down the order another good result for dxdt racing with dirk muller and brian sellers bringing home the 63 and the 08 in fifth and sixth respectively and Ryan made another strong effort from Triarcy a little further down the order. I think Amanda is waiting for our overall race winners.

Well, January, I'm not sure your father-in-law Charlie was breathing. On that last lap, he was willing to get you to that checkered flag in the pit box, but when you came back into this race, tire problems abounded, so in the Porsche he knew you could take this to the checkered flag. . Well, I was listening to the engineer. Bobby, he was on the radio and I could hear, "You know from the spotter and Bobby that there were cars left and right with tire problems, so I definitely try to take that into account as much as I can with the column behind me, So it was just." a fun race, you know, fun, like it should be, you know, with a lot of pressure from behind and you know everyone did a good job.

Charlie had a very good first stint and feels good to be back on the top step of the podium. Well, Charlie. When you began this effort alongside John Halen this season, could you have envisioned an overall victory as part of that? Well, you know we are capable of this, yes, so we just need more of them. You know what I mean. I'm going to fight incredibly hard, congratulations guys, thank you very much, yes, wow, that's what it's all about, although special, again and again to share it between the father-in-law and the son-in-law of the family, very, very interesting things and not just to get the win, but the overall win is very special, it really is and you know you're going to have memories of these days for a long time for Charlie to be at this level after a championship season last year in GT America and now.

Moving up to this pro-am level is a big step, but we saw it last year in the summary performances. He didn't feel intimidated, he had great pace and with a team like the one they have behind him, anything is possible, as he said in many ways. an unlikely win in the pro class for Turner Motorsport, but Michael Dinan was the star of it from the start and Robbie Foley did the job late in the race. Amanda is with the Turner boys. Well, Robby, the boys just called him. Maybe it's an unlikely victory, but when you heard the news that Laura Spinelli had a problem, what was your reaction?

Right now you're just trying to be calm and you know, just do your job for the last two laps. We also had some vibrations in the car we are building. So I was a little worried because a couple of cars had some tire problems, so I backed off and tried to stay off the sidewalks and be smart and get it home. We didn't have the best pace today, but Michael did. It was a great job mixing things up at the beginning like he always does, which gave them a hard time and kept him behind for a while, so yeah, it was a great race.

It was great to get our first m4 win in this series, so we love it. Impressive, well Robbie said you had a great stent yourself, Michael, and it's your first time in the upper echelons since uh Road America in this series in the new car here in the series, why is it worth fighting for? these moments? Yeah, you know, it definitely wasn't. It was an easy day for us in my first opening stint. I thought we were going to fight for the victory. Things didn't go exactly the way we wanted, but luckily today we had some luck and we're on the top step, which is good to start with.

Win for me with the M4 and you know, I love the new BMW car and it's great to win here at Watkins Glen in my home state and on one of my favorite tracks. Can you tell us about the incident? Yes, you know. It was on the outside at the top of the s and there was a space inside. I moved to take that space and Beretta reactively closed the space. It was a pretty dangerous move on his part.We were going about 150 miles an hour, which forced me. on the grass I stayed there um you know it was my corner heading to the bus stop in my mind I had the outside in a previous restart I granted him however you know he didn't let me give me the space for the forced corner I was out we had contact , uh, you know, in my opinion, pretty unnecessary aggression and you know, dangerous driving, but it is what it is and I guess it all worked out for us in the end, so congratulations guys, it's interesting to hear the side of Michael's story and ultimately.

He identified the same thing as you, Calvin, who moved down the straight approaching the bus stop. That was perhaps what caught the attention of the commissioners. Yes I believe it. I mean, once they hit the curves, you know you're right next to each other. at those sorts of speeds anything can happen so there's a little touch there and Michael took a ride but I think when we try to get clarification tonight from the stewards on the driver I would think it was the initial move with the Beretta that forced him to step on the grass at high speed.

Well, they persevered. Dinan kept him pointed in the right direction. He more or less had an interesting trip through the grass, but he kept the car on the track beyond that and was able to avoid any damage. and they were there to take advantage, but how about some highlights from this race? Keep an eye on the BMW Turner because early on Michael Dinan was absolutely the star of the show. Yes, he really had a monster career over the years. some moves early and we've seen that many times this year cross akakani there and slide that BMW into second position early.

I did it, he jumped three places in the first four corners on the track, just remarkable stuff. Here's a scary Chandler-like moment. The hull approached the bishogberg sick car with capital expenditure some type of accelerator related problem. You can see that the car really struggled and ultimately cost them any chance of a good result. This was a great duel between Russell Ward and Stephen Agha Connie and lasted several corners. Yes, it's really nice. Seeing these two young American drivers trying hard, Chandler Hall had problems with the bodywork, they tried to tape it up and return to the pit lane.

This is a spirited battle here too in the end, yes, there was no doubt. about that were aaron vogel and david crooked at this stage former teammates from last season and this was the move that finally got the car capital expenditure penalty, which was compounded by the fact that they were supposed to It was a stop and wait. They did a drive-through instead they had to come back to take the penalty and then another pit stop to do the full service on that car and their streak of 10 consecutive 90 minute wins ended. This was a great moment at the end of the race. since laura spinelli had a problem with the tires at the end, but in the end he was fine. persevering motorsports john hanglin charlie luck won in pro-am and overall in race one of the weekend at watkins glen the podium celebrations are approaching so stay with us for that What a great race it was and simply remarkable how much could be included in a 90 minute window.

Yeah, I mean, this is a high-commitment racetrack. We are talking about the energy levels that are developed through the tires due to the great grip they have. we have here the constant radius curves, loaded and high speed, and here we see how the championship points are being distributed, yes, so andrea calderoni is alone at the top, despite today's disappointment with 162 points, jordan pepper couldn't really make any progress because they had their own mistakes beretta down in third spinelli and agakani were able to jump a little bit get a little closer to the guys who are chasing the capex drivers sit fourth goickberg fifth dinan and foley with the win they it gets them at least into that conversation for third place, looking towards the second half of the season now at this stage and then you look further down the order and you'll find the cars that haven't run a full season up to this point with philip ellis and russell ward for windward and giacomo altoy who started in the pro class moved to pro-am and actually wasn't here this weekend, so those are the points for the gt3 pro driver coming out of round seven of this championship of 13 races.

Please note that the eight hours in Indianapolis are full points that pay double. points-paying event and points will be paid over the full eight-hour distance later this year as we close out this season and with that close our coverage of round seven of the championship. I hope you enjoyed it and we'll come back. with us tomorrow for the second fanatech gt race tomorrow at one afternoon from here in watkins glen who are having a hard time hearing the broadcast listening to amanda and cal but I'm very loud so take it for what it's worth. it could just be her setup, my wife would tell her it's no surprise she drowns