Watkins "The Fun One" Glen
Saturday:
Saturday started with a qualifying session in the morning. The perfect weather, allowed for peak horse
power and fast lap times.
Halfway through the session Brent Gernert sat third as he was struggling with fuel pump issues with his
new engine, Rob Sherwood sitting P2 overall with 5 tenths to the provisional pole sitter John Thompson.
On lap 6 Sherwood jump to the front of the pack with a 1:57.1 while John Thompson was sill sitting on
his previous best lap time of the session. Just before the Checkered flew, Thompson set one last flyer,
coming across the line at a 1:56.9, which was believed to be the outright Sports 2000 lap record at the
time. The grid for the first race of the weekend was set, with John Thompson starting on pole, Rob
Sherwood P2, Brent Gernert P3, Simon Green P4, Jim Hallman P5, Joe Moran P6, Bryan Gernert P7, and
Tom LaCosta P8.
The first race of the weekend some very fast lap times. John Thompson reset his lap record on lap 9 of
the race, shaving 3 hundredths of his record before Brent Gernert took the lap record on lap 10 with a
1:56.753. Thompson would go on to take the checkered flag in first place, setting a personal best
1:56.799 on his last lap.
Brent Gernert would finish just 6 tenths back in P2 and Rob Sherwood would round out the podium in
third. Simon Green took the VS2 win coming in 4th overall while Tom LaCosta would bring home the HS2
win.
Sunday:
Sunday saw our drivers running the short course
The qualifying sessions saw John Thompson setting an outright Sports 2000 lap record with a 1:16.773.
Rob Sherwood qualified P2 0.672 seconds off of the pole time but just 0.073 seconds faster than Brent
Gernert in P3. The rest of the grid was filled out as follows: Joe Moran, Jim Hallman, Bryan Gernert,
Simon Green, and Tom LaCosta.
The last race of the season took the green flag with John Thompson in first place, Rob Sherwood in
second, and Brent Gernert in third.
Lap 6 saw Brent Gernert take the lap record off of John Thompson by only 0.001 seconds with a
1:16.772. The next lap Thompson would recapture his lap record with a 1:16.688 which would remain as
the fastest of the race. Lap 8 saw Thompson diving into the pits due to an overheating issue, that was
later believed to be a malfunction of the sending unit. Thompson was sent back out in P3. Due to this,
Sherwood took the lead before relinquishing it to Gernert just two laps later. This is how the race would
ultimately finish, Gernert in P1, Sherwood 5.6 seconds back in P2, and Thompson 28.7 seconds back in
P3. Jim Hallman won the VS2 class with Tom LaCosta sweeping the weekend in HS2.