Waktins Glen , July 22

Round six of the MARRS Championship series continued the up and down roller coaster season for the Flatoutracing/Team Hankook Tires team. Beautiful weather on Friday was followed by torrential rain most of Saturday switching back to sun and scorching heat for Sunday’s races.

Flatoutracing/Team Hankook Tires’ Jon Kofod showed early promise during Friday’s practice sessions when he continually set lap times in the sub 2:20’s throughout most of the day on practice tires. With this being a joint MARRS/NESCCA race the field of ITA, ITB, and ITC cars would be joined by SSC, SSB, and IT7 cars to round out a field of more than 75 cars registered for the races.

Saturday’s forecast of slightly cloudy went by the wayside as constant rain hit the Glen for most of Saturday. Kofod qualified second in ITA in the morning session, which was held during a torrential downpour. Many racers elected to sit out the session figuring the afternoon session would have much improved conditions. Teammate Zimmermann qualified sixth for the session in ITA.

Things looked more promising for afternoon qualifying when the rain subsided briefly during lunchtime. Most of the fastest ITA racers chose to go out on slicks, including Kofod and morning pole sitter Rick Benazic (91 Integra LS). Others chose a mix of rain tires and intermediate rain tires, as the track had not fully dried out yet. As the five minute whistle blew the eerie return of drizzling raindrops started. By the one minute whistle the rain intensified to a steady rain.

As the cars pulled out of the pits it was clear to all the racers who were on slicks, that the wrong decision had been made. By the third or fourth corner the downpour had returned. Kofod struggled for grip on the usually solid Hankook Ventus Z214’s and soon came into the pits. A lap later the fastest ITA cars of Benazic, Greg Amy (Nissan 200SX) and Mark Carpenter (91 Integra LS) also came into to the pits. Meanwhile those on rains or intermediates set faster lap times than those in the morning session.

Zimmermann, meanwhile, was improving upon his morning qualifying time, having chosen the correct tire set up (intermediates) when disaster struck at turn seven with a few laps remaining in the session. Zimmermann missed his braking point and slid wide of turn seven ending his ride with a hard impact into the tire wall.

In the pits the team assessed the damage and found a steering problem. The team worked in a torrential downpour to find the problem, which turned out to be a broken steering rack. Game over for one of the two Flatoutracing/Team Hankook Tires cars.

A mixed up grid greeted Sunday’s race with many of the front running ITA cars in unfamiliar positions. Kofod qualified 14th. Benazic qualified ahead of Kofod in 6th with a host of generally slower ITB BMW’s and Volvos between them. Carpenter and Amy having skipped Saturday’s morning session and going out on slicks for Saturday’s afternoon session found themselves in 27th and 30th respectively. The green flag dropped and 60+ cars made their way for Watkins Glen’s turn 1 and the famous uphill esses.

All was going well as Kofod had moved up five or six positions going into the bus stop on the back straight. Then it all went wrong in turn 7, the same one which claimed Zimmermann the day before. Kofod checked up when two ITB VW’s slammed on their brakes. Kofod’s car got loose and started to spin eventually ending up in the tire wall. Once the field of 60+ cars got by Kofod drove to a nearby corner station to have a flagger assess the damage. Once done Kofod got back on track but by this time the field was at least a minute ahead. Kofod did manage to catch many of the back markers and still finish 4th among the MARRS ITA runners but most of the ITA front-runners were long gone.

Greg Amy came home first, smashing the ITA lap record along the way. Mark Carpenter finished second. “After reviewing our in car, we aren’t complete sure if I was tapped in the rear of not. I saw the two ITB cars check up and didn’t have much room nor much grip on cold tires” noted Kofod.

The weekend took it’s toll on both Kofod and Zimmermann’s cars but Zimmermann will have his car repaired in time for next week’s crucial Honda Challenge race with Zimmermann currently leading the title chase. Kofod has a few weeks before returning to his home of Summit Point for the MARRS Labor Day Double.

The team wished to thank Hankook Tires, Guident Technologies and Curry’s Auto Service.