In VR7UAL Pole Qualifying, Jordan Erickson put the No. 19 Dallara on pole, beating Fischer Motorsport’s Travis Linscome-Hatfield by 0.115 seconds to claim the top spot on the starting grid for the fourth time this season.
Starting off the race, Erickson was able to control the race and maintain the lead. The race was interrupted by four full-course cautions, but that didn’t stop Erickson and team-mate Selena Ward, to accumulate the most laps in the lead (154) in the race once again, as they continue to dominate the season in LMP2 class so far.
“It’s a really great result for the whole Trading Paints team. Obviously, I’m heartbroken for the 119 guys. I think we had a really good chance to get a double-podium, but some overzealous prototypes took a good day away from the Lamborghini team.”, said Erickson.
Recollecting his own team’s race, Erickson added: “Our race didn’t start off too smooth. Actually, we had to make a last minute game plan change to have me qualify and start. I was honestly a bit surprised to be on pole; I hadn’t done many qualifying runs in practice. Selena got in the car shortly before the first caution and we got back on strategy for the rest of the race.”
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| Contact between the No. 511 Dallara LMP2 of Twisty Bits Racing and the No. 29 Porsche GT of Firestorm Motorsport triggered the biggest crash of the race in the esses, shortly before the halfway mark, to bring out the second caution period of the race - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
“I honestly think the race for us was won in the preparation we did in our practices. We realized early on that with the track temperatures projected to be 45* C and higher; that running much higher downforce settings than our competitors was going to be extremely beneficial. We gave up a lot of early stint single-lap speed and top-end speed to be really good in the 2nd half of our fuel stints. It really paid off.”
“Selena’s last two stints in the car were as flawless as you could have asked for. Both Vision 1 cars really made us earn the lead back on that final restart. They always put up a hard but fair battle; always fun racing with those guys.”, Erickson finished his victory lane interview.
Making some headlines by leading the second-most laps in the race (13) was the No. 13 Dallara of Vision 1 Motorsports. But in the end the team with drivers Jeremy Carter and Kyle Allen faltered and finished P9, four laps down.
Taking second place for the third time this season, Travis Linscome-Hatfield, Thomas Martin and Rico Kollmeier led five laps to equalize their best finish of the season at Daytona and Laguna Seca.
It was the third time this season that the top two in the LMP2 championship finished one-two in the race.
DS Racing eSports and their No. 155 Dallara took third place in the 6 Hours of the Glen to celebrate their best result since they finished third in the 24 Hours of Daytona back in January. The team failed to score championship points at Sebring, but seen an upward trend, earning back-to-back top-ten finishes at Laguna Seca and now Watkins Glen.
Will Coffey and Aubrey Cundall in the No. 15 Vision 1 Motorsports machine led five laps and took P4. For Aubrey, it was only the second career start in the VSCA SportsCar Championship, but he 48-year old racing veteran earned praise from competitors when through a quick witty response, he helped resolved a wave-by error made by race control during one of the full-course yellows.
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| On account of a fifth-place finish, VRG Sport and the No. 66 Dallara LMP2 team celebrated their second top-five of the 2023 VSCA SportsCar Championship season - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
“An erroneous wave-by was handed out to the No. 15 car during the third full-course yellow and consequently it was necessary to get the cars back in the correct pacing line order. We want to thank the Vision 1 Motorsports team and especially Aubrey Cundall for helping resolve that situation quickly in this situation.”, said a statement from race control after the race.
Rounding out the top-five at the checkered flag was the No. 66 VRG Sport Dallara P217. Andy Banfield and Jeff Yeager had big smiles on their faces, as they left Watkins Glen with their best team result since Daytona.
Leading six laps, it was a day that Olympus eSports and drivers Stian Solberg and Luis Araya flashed their potential, but ultimately the Norwegian drivers duo were probably hoping for an even better result than sixth place.
The team is still waiting for its first top-five result in its inaugural VSCA SportsCar Championship season, but after earning three top-tens in five starts, it has to be considered only a matter of time before the No. 121 Dallara will crack the top dime.
Surviving a scary moment on one of the restarts in the race, when the No. 86 GSE Racing eSports Dallara made contact with a GTD class car, the German team with drivers Thomas Beuchel, Patrick Baerthel and Dennis Denicio finished the six-hour race in P7, two laps down.
With an impressive 50% top-five rate (three top-fives in six starts) the team based in Kempen, Germany counts as one of the quicker ones in the series, but has lost a lot of ground in the championship on account of scoring no championship points at Daytona in January.
Vision 1 Motorsports’ flagship entry, the No. 11 Dallara P217 finished P8, likewise two laps down and on top of a somewhat frustrating race, received a 25-second post-race penalty from race control for an incident with the No. 511 car of Twisty Bits Racing in the final moments of the race.
For Twisty Bits Racing, the race came down to a P10 finish in the end, five laps down. For the team out of Atlanta, who entered the series at Sebring in March of this year, it was by far the worst result of the season so far, as Steven McLendon and Shady Ahmad - who made his first career VSCA start - were unable to convert a competitive pace into a good result.
A promising race turned bleak in a hurry for Agee Motorsports and the No. 17 car with drivers Jeroen Hannink and Pier Armando Vender. Upon taking the lead following the second full-course yellow of the race, Hannink lost control in turn one and suffered damage to his LMP2 machine that required repairs.
Watching their race fall apart, the team was helpless but went on to show grit and finished the race five laps down in P11, marking the final LMP2 class car to score championship points in this race.
Can anyone stop Trading Paints in the championship?
By way of scoring yet another victory - their fourth in just six championship rounds so far - everybody is of course wondering: Can anyone stop Trading Paints in the LMP2 championship?
So far, the answer clearly seems to be no. The team out of Allentown, Pennsylvania backed by their prominent primary sponsor, appears destined to run away with its first championship, unless the competition can catch up.
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| On the restart following the second full-course yellow of the race, the No. 54 MoneyHouse Racing BMW M4 GT3 found himself in a Vision 1 sandwich, book-ended by the No. 13 and No. 15 Dallara LMP2 as the three cars made contact - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
“We’re going to have some driver changes due to some scheduling conflicts for a few upcoming events, so being able to open that points gap as we come to the second half of the season was really important.”, Jordan Erickson said after the race.
At a 227-point deficit, the No. 14 Fischer Motorsport car sits second in the championship, but looks at a glaring 0-4 disadvantage in the win column and had two races this season, where it failed to finish in the top ten.
Albrecht Motorsports led the championship table after Long Beach, but has since fallen behind by 265 points finishing fourth, fourth and twelfth in the last three races. Especially Watkins Glen has hurt the team out of Frankfurt, Germany and they will hope for a misstep of the competition, to profit from.
Flying under the radar a little bit and running a somewhat quiet season - as is their style - VRG Sport aren’t much further behind in P4, running a 309-point gap to the leaders. But after switching from GTD class to LMP2 class over the offseason, the 2023 season so far has to be considered a success for the team.
Looking at Twisty Bits Racing, the team has one fewer race starts on record, compared to the rest of the grid in LMP2, but impresses by holding P5 in the championship regardless.
Detroit Belle Isle up next, could shake things up
The series enters the summer stretch and will see only one race in the next nine weeks - the Detroit Sports Car Classic at the Street Course of Belle Isle.
The return to street course racing will make for a change of pace, especially so for the LMP2 Prototype class and also the much shorter distance (1 hour 40 minutes) will allow for a much smaller margin for error by teams.
The event will take place on July 15th and count as Round 7 of 11 in the 2023 VSCA SportsCar Championship.
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