Race Report: Watkins Glen Six Hours
Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Brumos Racing found the season’s second and final endurance race of the season both challenging and rewarding, ending the six hour race with mixed results. After a promising start, our #58 car fell victim to mechanical issues late in the race, ultimately taking the checkered flag in 15th place and finishing out of the top ten the first time this season. Our #59 car brought home their best result since Daytona’s Rolex 24 podium after finishing in 6th place.

Darren Law qualified #58 in 11th and started the race, running as high as second in his stint before experiencing a loss of speed in the straightaways. As the car pitted for assessment and repair, David Donohue took over, briefly leading the race at one point. Late race contact between Donohue and the #99 Gainsco car took us out of contention as our car had to be towed back to the garage for repairs.

Donohue explained, “It was a shame what happened.  Darren had clutch slippage problems and then we had a transmission issue where the shifter couldn’t engage. We were able to fix that and get back out, but then I came up on the #99 car and thought Alex (Gurney) was letting me through. Between that and the transmission problems, we got together. He ended up in the gravel trap and I ended up spun out on track. That was all our transmission had left, I couldn’t go any more.  Unfortunately, the #99 got damaged very badly when they tried to pull him out of the gravel and that ended their day.  I hated that it happened to the Gainsco guys and to the Brumos guys. Our crew went right to work and got me back out there. We were able to finish the race, but it certainly wasn’t the result we had hoped.”

Our #59 car’s strong performance earned the ‘Improve Your Position’ award, also allowing J.C. France to reclaim top spot in the Trueman Sportsman Award standings. France qualified and started for our #59 car, moving it up from its 17th starting position early on before handing it off to Joao Barbosa. France then returned for a second stint, a strategy that paid off as the added laps provided him extra Trueman points. A full course caution brought the car in for a driver change as Hurley Haywood returned to action, taking the #59 around the course where he saw his first career win forty years earlier. Haywood kept the car on pace before handing it off to Barbosa for the finish.

Barbosa was encouraged by his car’s improvement, saying, “It was finally a good race for the #59 car, we had bit of a slow start for the weekend, but we finished really strong. The car, in the race, ran the best that it had the whole weekend.  I lost a lot of time in all the traffic which caused me to lose contact with the leaders. There were very few yellows toward the end, which didn’t allow an opportunity for me to close the gap. Had things worked out differently, we had a car that would have easily placed in the top five.”

The weekend’s results did close the gap in the standings between our two cars, as #58 is now in 5th place, followed closely by #59 in 7th.  The team stayed at the track for an additional day of testing to work on improving our cars in preparation for a return to the Glen in August. As Brumos drivers Darren Law and Joao Barbosa traveled to France compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Terry Borcheller and Buddy Rice stayed on with David Donohue to assist with testing. Brumos will be back in action on June 20th for Mid-Ohio’s EMCO Gears Classic.

Posted on 06/09 at 05:51 PM