Experience Gained, But No Result at the Glen

WATKINS GLEN, NY - The legendary Watkins Glen Raceway was the site of moto journalist Rob Howden’s latest outing behind the wheel, running a brand new Evolution Formula First in the third round of the FormulaCar Magazine Formula First / Formula Vee Challenge Cup. Howden was offered the ride midway through the previous week when the car’s owner Greg Schings made the decision to remain home for the weekend, and the opportunity afforded Howden the chance to experience the famed Northeast racing circuit. A focused approach of learning the track through the two Saturday qualifying sessions saw Howden start tenth in the main before a broken throttle cable put him on the sidelines on lap six, ending the weekend in tenth.

The Watkins Glen event, run in conjunction with an SCCA Northeast Division Regional, was scheduled to be the debut for the FormulaCar Magazine FV project car, but a slight delay in the assembly of the car will push the initial on-track event to Road America in late August. This late invitation to drive the newly-completed Evolution was therefore a welcome call, as Howden was still planning to make the trek to Watkins Glen to cover the event for FormulaCar Magazine and eformulacarnews.com. All he needed to do was throw his racing gear in the van bound for New York State.

Saturday’s schedule offered a pair of on-track sessions, both of which were run in the pouring rain as the area was blanketed by heavy clouds. Learning a new track and a new car in the wet prompted Howden to take it rather easy during the opening practice/qualifying session, posting a time over 20 seconds off the fastest time of the run, set by a track regular. The session was used to feel out the car and to get a handle on the grip levels around the track, which features a great number of concrete patches in the corners. In the second qualifier, Rob turned up the wick by ten seconds while the remainder of the field backed down an average of five seconds. Feeling much more comfortable with the car and the track, Howden pushed quite a bit harder to secure the outside of the fifth row for the final, fourth in the Formula First class, as the category was being joined by the Formula 500 and Formula Vees in the eighth race group.

The Sunday event was run late in the day under sunny skies as many of the drivers were faced with turning their first dry laps around the 3.37 mile Grand Prix circuit in the main event. A spinning F500 in the first turn sent Howden off the racing surface onto the paved run-off area to avoid contact, but he capitalized on the mayhem of the incident and powered through to sixth when the expected yellow flag came out, followed closely by the safety car. After an extended caution period, Howden jumped into the lead group on the restart, sitting fourth after slipping past the final Formula Vee at the front, setting up for what he expected to be a long and exciting battle.

This would not occur, however, as a broken throttle cable put him on the sidelines just five laps into the contest, placing him tenth out of the 11 Formula First entries.

The next media trip for Rob will be the fourth round of the Stars of Karting Eastern Championship in Shawano, WI, on August 4-6 followed by the Canadian National Championships in Edmonton, AB a week later. The next date behind the wheel will be the debut of the project car at Road America in late August.