Driver's Note: Watkins Glen 2022

July 22-24, 2022 | Watkins Glen International | SRO America TCX

Watkins Glen is one of my two favorite tracks on the calendar, behind Road America. I was excited to be coming back to upstate New York once again this year. Along with that, it’s only an hour or so from where I was going to college in Rochester, NY, which allowed my friends to come and experience a race as well. My family and I had also auctioned off a trip to the race to benefit my high school back in Wisconsin. I knew it was going to be a very full weekend for everyone on top of the racing.

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Friday

Practice went off without a hitch on Friday. We had to make a few setup changes to respond to the different tire compound, but overall I was happy with the pace of the car going into Saturday’s qualifying. We were also told by the series to be aware of tire degradation specifically at this racetrack, so we made what we thought were preventative changes to try and manage the tires.

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Saturday

Saturday morning, I was able to qualify on the top step. I felt really comfortable with the car and was looking forward to the upcoming race that afternoon. Come race time, we were battling up front until a cut-down tire caused me to make an unscheduled pitstop. Fortunately, a full course yellow was brought out at the same time for another car having a tire failure, so when the race went back to green, I was still on the lead lap at the back of the TCX field. With 15 minutes to go, I went from 10th place in class all the way up to 2nd. This was a race that definitely could have been much worse and the team did a great job getting me back out on the track to salvage as many points as we could. I also completed the fastest lap of the race, meaning I would be starting from the front again on Sunday.

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Sunday

Sunday's race was much more tame than Saturday’s, despite giving up the lead early. I was able to make a 3-wide pass into turn 1 and grab the lead back. After that move, I held onto the lead for the rest of the race. My competitors behind me were driving excellently and it was great to watch the replay back and see the racing that it produced. I left the weekend feeling really fortunate to be part of this series and able to participate in such competitive racing.

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