Round 10 of the Rolex Grand Am series had the teams and drivers traveling abroad to the infamous Circuit Gilles Villenueve in Montreal, Canada. More importantly, Jeff Westphal was given the green light from sponsors to attend the event and give the GT class drivers another capable car to contend with. It was the first time racing in a foreign land for Westphal, and he took to it like a fish in water.
“Practice was relatively busy, we were in the pit lane from 10 am until around 8 pm, trying to get up to speed on the great circuit. This place is notorious for overheating brakes, and we were having exactly that issue, which needless to say didn’t help en stow confidence while trying to learn the place. It’s very narrow, much more narrow than TV lends itself to be” said the Californian. After struggling with the brake cooling issue, the PR1 Motorsports BMW M6 was behind the curve on honing in the set up for Saturday’s race, and qualified well considering the circumstances. With Max Hyatt at the helm for qualifying and the 1st stint of the race, the M6 started on the inside of the top 10 and made use of a pre race trip down pit lane to outfit wet tires for the forecasted and increasing rain at the pre race ceremonies. ”We made the call to go to wets and start from pit lane which ultimately became unnecessary as Grand Am let everyone come down the lane to get wets if they needed. However, lots of cars opted to stay on dry’s in hopes of the rain lightening up.” elaborated Jeff. After the first lap, the PR1 entry was in 4th position, and chipping away at the 3rd place Porsche.
With roughly 1 hour to go, the PR1 M6 needed Max to drive for roughly 5 more minutes to allow the car to enter the fuel window (being able to make it to the end without the need for more) on a full tank with Westphal in the car while others would need to stop again. However, the #32 car was involved in some contact, and was deemed too damaged to continue, leaving Westphal suited and prepared on the sideline. ”Of course i was disappointed, i worked so hard to get everything in place financially, but that’s racing. This sort of stuff happens, so you have to roll with the punches!” exclaimed Jeff
Unfortunately Jeff was unable to compete in the race as the car was damaged, but he was able to put together another race to make up for the lost time in the spotlight. Jeff will be contesting the race at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah on September 19th. Coverage will be on speed channel, Saturday the 19th @ 2:30pm pst.
