Race Report: Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen
WATKINS GLEN, NY July 5, 2009 — Ryan Hunter-Reay
suffered his second first-lap shunt in the past three races
when he became the victim of a chain reaction crash in the
Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen at Watkins Glen
International road course.
Hunter-Reay started 16th in the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone
car and had dropped a spot when another competitor ran him
wide onto the curbing in turn one. Recovering nicely from
that potential disaster, he was heading through the Esses
when a chain reaction crash occurred ahead of him—possibly
caused by someone missing a shift.
“I’m not sure what happened,” Hunter-Reay said afterwards.
“Everybody just stopped ahead of me. We were all in
fifth/sixth gears up at the top of the hill and it was an
accordion effect. I was right under Matos’ gearbox getting
ready to pop on him but everybody just stopped ahead of us
and I just ran into him. We’re a victim of circumstances of
where we started. It’s unfortunate but this is just bad
luck. It’s nothing more than that.”
When asked about the misfortunate accidents that the No. 14
has suffered in the past two months, Hunter-Reay responded,
“It’s unreal the string of luck this team’s had--I just feel
so bad for the guys. Some racing seasons are like this for
some teams, it just happens. At Iowa, we were just a victim
of somebody losing the rear of the car and hitting us—it was
absolutely wrong place, wrong time. Here today, wrong place,
wrong time. What we need to do is go qualify better at
Toronto so we’re not starting back there with everybody
who’s taking big chances.”
After punting Matos into a spin, the 14 slid into the Armco
barrier which tore into the front wings and left front
suspension. The crew will spend the next couple days fixing
the car at The Glen before heading to Toronto on Wednesday
for next weekend’s race.
Justin Wilson gave team owner (and former driver) Dale Coyne
his first victory in Indy car racing in 25 years and 558
races. Coyne said simply, “It took too long.” But his
victory netted him congratulations from all of his
competitors in the paddock. Wilson, who won last year for
the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team at Detroit, was the last driver
to register a victory in a car not owned by either Roger
Penske or Chip Ganassi. However, those teams’ drivers - Ryan
Briscoe and Scott Dixon – were chasing Wilson to the
checkered flag. Rounding out the top five were Helio
Castroneves and Marco Andretti.
Vitor Meira made it to his first race since being injured at
Indy. Meira spent the weekend getting reacquainted with
friends and helping out the Foyt team by watching Hunter-Reay
and other competitors from various locations around the
track. He watched the all too brief race from the pit box.
He is planning to make the Aug 1 race at Kentucky the next
race he’ll attend.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will spend a couple days in New York City
before heading up to Toronto.
A.J. Foyt will be leaving Texas a day early to stop in at
Indianapolis for an ABC-TV interview with Tony Stewart at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The interview will be broadcast
during the Brickyard 400.
Ryan Hunter-Reay Qualifies 16th at The Glen
WATKINS GLEN, NY July 4, 2009—Ryan Hunter-Reay
qualified 16th in the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone at
Watkins Glen International today. He will line up alongside
Paul Tracy who is making his first start at the historic 3.4
–mile road course driving for KV Racing.
With the normally three-day event cut back to two days, the
ABC Supply team had 1.5 hours of practice before going out
for qualifications. Running 16th in the first session, the
team changed the car back to last year’s set-up for
qualifying as they figured it was a better direction to go
for the race. He picked up nearly 1.4 seconds so the team
feels they made the right decision even if the final result
(16th) was no different.
“It’s a disappointing day,” said Hunter-Reay after
qualifying. “We only had an hour or so of practice and we
came here with quite a few unknowns. Before qualifying, we
switched back to last year’s set-up and gearing which was
better, and we needed to start with that and tweak from
there. We desperately needed Friday’s practice but they’ve
cut the schedule to two days unfortunately. We’ll make some
changes this evening for the race and we’ll have the morning
warm-up to see how they work. The good thing about the Glen
is there are places to pass when you have the car to do it.”
Ryan Briscoe won the pole position; his teammate Helio
Castroneves will start ahead of Hunter-Reay in 14th. Justin
Wilson won the outside pole. The rest of the Firestone Fast
Six were Scott Dixon, Mario Moraes Graham Rahal and Dario
Franchitti.
Vitor Meira was in attendance for his first race back since
Indy. During the practice session he watched and timed the
cars at the Bus Stop. He watched qualifying from the pitbox.
“It’s really hard to watch, because I feel so good,” said
Meira. “Watching here is better than watching from my couch
but I’m working to get ready for the best seat in the house
which is the race car. It’s good to be back to see all my
friends in the League and to hang out with A.J., Larry and
Ryan and all the guys on the ABC Supply team.”
The team will have a 30-minute warm-up in the morning to
evaluate the changes made to the car for the race. The
Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen will be televised live
by ABC-TV tomorrow starting at 1:00 pm ETD.
Notes & Quotes: Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen
• Ryan Hunter-Reay on pressure of being the defending
winner: “I think there’s just as much pressure as when I
showed up last year just because I put more pressure on
myself than anybody else does on me. We’re still in the
early days of the partnership between myself and ABC Supply
Racing and I think that gives us a little bit of wiggle
room. But I’m the winner from the race last year and I’m
driving the car that only finished a couple seconds behind
me in second place so the numbers are adding up to a
potentially successful weekend. We’re going to do everything
we can to maximize the full potential of the team.”
• Hunter-Reay on why he likes racing at The Glen:
“It’s the heart of America, it happens on the Fourth of July
weekend at a track that has lots of history with both
IndyCar and Formula 1 racing. Indy cars racing on that track
is a great match; they’re made for each other. It’s a very
high speed track with technical sections in it, lots of
ascents and descents. That track is meant for top-level open
wheel racing and that’s what we’re doing. Watkins Glen has
everything I look for in a race track.”
• RHR on the key to the car’s set-up: “I think it’s
just getting the car to really work through the high speed,
falling corners, and at the same time, you have to get down
the straights very fast in order to pass in the race.
There’s a combination of carrying a lot of downforce and
drag to make the car go fast through the corners and
carrying little downforce and drag to get the car down the
straight fast so finding the right balance of downforce is
key to setting up the car.”
• A year ago, Phillips-Van Heusen announced its entry
into motorsports at Watkins Glen by making its IZOD
brand the official apparel of the Indy Racing League, the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a personal sponsor of Ryan
Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay was featured on a 60’ x 80’
billboard last summer in New York City’s Times Square.
During the season, IndyCar drivers make appearances at
Macy’s (and Bon Ton) stores in race markets, including
Macy’s Carousel Center in Syracuse, N.Y. July 2nd.
• In the past three years at The Glen, Foyt’s ABC
Supply Racing team has finished in the top-five twice (5th
with Felipe Giaffone - 2006; 2nd with Darren Manning - 2008)
and top-10 once (9th with Manning - 2007).
• Lew Parks, of Glen Aubrey, NY, has worked with the
Foyt team since 1997. He began his racing career in 1960 in
stock cars in and around the northeast. He began working
with the Indy cars in 1970. In 1980, he was awarded the
Gilmore/Foyt Rookie Crew Chief of the Year trophy when he
worked with the late Jerry Karl who nearly finished second
to Tom Sneva in Phoenix but a blown engine sidelined him
before he could reach the checkered. Lew is nicknamed “Abe
Lincoln” due to his resemblance to America’s 16th President.
He is married to Joan and the couple has three children:
Jeff, Carla and Chad.
• The Vinyl King of Manopac, N.Y. is this weekend’s
winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here Promotion for its
customers. The company name will be put on the top of the
sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Joe Scalera,
Sr. and his guest will receive selected merchandise, race
tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and
Greet with A.J. Foyt and Ryan Hunter-Reay. The “Your Name
Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a
pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this
year.
• The Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen will be
broadcast live at 1:00 p.m. eastern time Sunday afternoon,
July 5 on ABC-TV.
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