I was excited to be back with the Forbush Performance team in their LMP3 Ligier this past weekend. This time around, it was for the Historic Sportscar Racing Classic 6 Hours event at Watkins Glen. It’s been fun to see the merge with IMSA and HSR this year, especially since HSR events are now included as a precursor to IMSA weekends.
In addition to the Classic 6 Hours, HSR has also adopted the Prototype Challenge, which was a series dedicated to LMP3 cars in IMSA for many years before the cars were phased out. Now, they and other prototypes have a home to race in with HSR. It adds a new opportunity to race these cars, and it offers a tremendous amount of track time on an HSR weekend.
Our week started off with great weather. In fact, the entire weekend, we were lucky with dry, cool conditions despite the threat of wet weather in the forecast.
During testing on the first day, we really focused on getting the car dialed in since we hadn’t set it up for Watkins Glen previously. Fine-tuning the setup with a prototype such as this makes all the difference. By the end of the test day, we were headed in the right direction and gaining with every session. We were excited about the weekend ahead and expected good results.
Ready to go racing!
After qualifying was said and done for both the Prototype Challenge and the Classic 6 Hours, we found ourselves inside the top five for the 1.5-hour Prototype Challenge enduro, which Matt Forbush and I would co-drive in. And for the six-hour race, we landed on the pole.
There was quite a turnout for Prototype Challenge, with many recent IMSA DPi prototypes along with other LPM2 and LMP3 cars. This provided not just a lot of fun for drivers and fans alike, but it also offered great competition.
During the Prototype Challenge enduro, Matt had a great opening stint going before a punctured tire required us to pit early. The Forbush Performance team did a solid job taking care of that quickly, so we lost minimal time and could continue pushing for the best results.
When I jumped in for the final hour, I had my work cut out for me, but it was a lot of fun getting to work through the field. An untimely full-course yellow with 20 minutes remaining caught us out as we were trying to make up time, and we had to settle for finishing third. Despite the challenges, it was still a lot of fun to celebrate a podium result with Matt, especially since his family was on hand to celebrate, too.
The format for the Classic 6 Hours was an interesting one, where the race was comprised of individual races spanning a six-hour period, with a collective elapsed time calculated after each individual race. This is more feasible for a vintage car, since it allows the team to maintain it throughout the six-hour duration.
With prototypes and GT cars alike in the race, it truly felt and looked like an IMSA race of recent years. That has really changed the paradigm of “historic” racing in that it puts more modern pro-level cars in a club racing environment.
Having the support of Racing to End Alzheimers is truly a worthy cause to go racing, raising funding and awareness.
As the Classic 6 Hours of The Glen unfolded, we managed to pull a lead in the opening stage. Once again, in the second hour, an untimely yellow caught us outside the pit sequence, and we lost valuable track position. Over the course of the next several hours, we were able to regain those positions, and we were excited to come away with the class win and fourth overall behind a trio of DPi entries.
Looking back at the week, it was a tremendous amount of fun. Not only did we get great results, but we’re also so proud of the effort everyone put in, from dialing in the car without prior testing at Watkins Glen to seeing Matt achieve some really impressive lap times as he continues to gain comfort in this new racing endeavor of his. It also added to my fond memories of racing prototypes at Watkins Glen, especially when we came away with so much success!