Brumos Racing always enjoys returning to one of their long-time favorite tracks, historic Watkins Glen. This year, the team had even more reason to look forward to the GRAND-AM Rolex Series’ 2ndGlen visit of the season, with the memory of their first GT win there still fresh in everyone’s mind. Unfortunately, this time the Glen race did not yield the same results for the Brumos #59 Porsche 911 GT3.
The numbers compiled by Brumos during the two hour race were quite impressive. Andrew Davis qualified the #59 in P2, going on to lead the race in his opening stint for 13 laps. His co-driver, Leh Keen, also took his turn at the front, leading for 10 laps. Keen was in the lead as the clock ticked down, and appeared to be on his way to the 3rd Brumos win of the season when it became apparent that the car could not make it to the end without a splash of fuel. The final stop in the closing laps dropped the #59 back to end the day with a 7thplace finish.
From Andrew Davis’ perspective, the team’s accomplishments helped to offset the disappointing result. “Obviously, we hoped for a better outcome,” he said. “We didn’t have the fastest car on the track, but I feel that Brumos has the best team out there. We were able to start and run in 2ndplace, and then, as pit stops circulated we were able to take the lead. I felt that if the strategy played out in our favor we would be in good shape, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to stretch the fuel quite as far as we had hoped. The Brumos team should still be really proud. Everyone worked very hard, the car was much better from the roll off the trailer, and we had a really strong qualifying effort. Brumos is still very much in the fight and now we just have to take the same effort to our last two races. We now have less than a week to get back out there, so our focus is on the future and we are looking forward to taking the fight to Montreal.”
Leh Keen, in his role as closing driver this season, is well aware of how fuel strategy can impact the final race result. “We’ve had several races this year where things have gone our way. This time that wasn’t the case – it was just really a tough race. Everything was definitely looking up for us and we were in the lead, but when the predicted yellows didn’t materialize, I had to try to save fuel. We were going to keep going for the win, but it just didn’t work out this time. The whole Brumos team was really strong – all the guys did a great job with the car and with giving us good stops, and Andrew drove an extended opening stint and kept the car up front. While we didn’t get the result we hoped for this time, it just makes us more determined to do better in the next race. Our guys are already hard at work getting ready for the next round, and Andrew and I will also do our best to get Brumos back on top at Montreal.”
The 7thplace finish puts Brumos in 2ndplace in GT Team Points Standings as they make preparations for the upcoming race at Montreal, which will be held on Saturday, August 20that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Source: Brumos Racing
Photo: Brumos Racing / Grand-Am Racing
