A Weekend “to Remember?” at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen is one of the great American circuits, fast, technical, and completely new to me. Add two 7-hour races and a forecast that only ever said “rain,” and it was always going to be a weekend we'd remember. Just maybe not for all the right reasons.

The rain came and it stayed. We were running on dry tires, and in those conditions the car simply didn't have anywhere to put the water. It hydroplaned down the straights and kept doing it through the corners, the kind of driving where you're not really steering so much as negotiating. Every lap was about keeping it on the island, learning a new track by feel while the grip changed from one corner to the next.

Saturday threw everything at us. First, a puncture in the Carousel. Getting a car on a flat tire back to the pits on a wet track is its own kind of test, but we made it, the crew turned it around, and we went back out to keep fighting. We weren't done yet.

Then, during a Code 60, the full-course slow zone, when everyone is supposed to be running at a controlled speed, we got rear-ended. The damage was too much to carry on, and the car was retired. After recovering from the puncture, it was a hard way to end the day, and there was nothing we could have done about it.

Sunday was a reset. Same rain, same track, but a clean run and a team that refused to let Saturday define the weekend. We kept it out of trouble, stayed on it for seven hours, and brought the car home P3. After the day before, that podium felt like a lot more than third place.

Thanks to the whole crew for getting the car back out after the puncture, for picking everything up after Saturday's retirement, and for coming back on Sunday like nothing had happened.

A weekend to remember, with a question mark. Next up: Road America with the McLaren and the RWE team.