Grand-Am Preview: Watkins Glen

The Grand-Am series is back after a little break and its time for one of their biggest races of the season the six hours of Watkins Glen. For over forty years the circuit in Watkins Glen has featured a classic endurance that has pitted man and machine against the clock. This weekend after a two week break for the GT cars and almost a month off for the Daytona Prototypes, the cars of the Grand-Am series have returned for battle.

The last time we saw the Daytona Prototypes was back in May at Laguna Seca and it was the little team that could in SAMAX Motorsports with drivers Ryan Dalziel and Henri Zogab that took victory in the Daytona Prototype class. The last two races in the GT class at Laguna Seca and Lime Rock have been won the Banner Racing Ponitacs with drivers Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins behind the wheel, extending Pontiacs winning streak in the GT class to 5, which is a great difference to last season when the Pontiacs only had one win coming into the six hour race in a season that was dominated by Porsche and Mazda. Now Porsche comes into the Watkins Glen race without a victory since last August at Montreal.

Dry streaks have been apparent throughout the Daytona Prototypes also as teams like Bob Stallings and Suntrust Racing have yet to find victory in this Grand-Am season. Suntrust has had especially lots of bad luck throughout the year including crashes and even a fire that destroyed their hauler en route back to the shops after the race in Laguna Seca. The season though has been dominated so far Chip Ganassi Racing who has three wins and the points lead with drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.

The race will be one to look forward to as we will see if either struggling teams will get back on track or we’ll see the same teams before dominate once again.