A bizarre crash under caution ended the hopes for a few contenders roughly 40 minutes into the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
The race was under caution after Wayne Taylor Racing’s Louis Deletraz hit some signage that littered the track, which triggered a run of pit stops. Through that, driver changes also commenced as the #60 Acura ARX-06 for Meyer Shank Racing, the defending winner of the race, came down pit lane, with Tom Blomqvist, who qualified second, handing off to Colin Braun. A slow stop and a loss of valuable track position left the team deciding to return to pit lane to top off, along with other takers, such as Roman De Angelis in Aston Martin THOR Team’s #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie.
Upon being released out of the pits to rejoin the field, there was a traffic jam at the top of the esses just past Turn 4. Braun was able to slow up, with DragonSpeed’s #81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Henrik Hedman also slowing up and pulling off to the left. The abrupt halt, however, caught out De Angelis, who plowed into the back of Braun and collected Hedman in the process.
The contact left Hedman spun around and facing the opposite direction against the inside wall, while the machines of Braun and De Angelis ended up connected in the middle of the track surrounded by the littered debris.
“Yeah, I was just told to commence to pass around with GTs and LMP2s,” De Angelis said. “Followed Colin, who was also in the same strategy as me. Obviously, passing GT cars. He moved over, which I assumed was him letting me by. And then there was a pack of cars stopped there. So a bunch of people kind of had a similar reaction of not being able to really stop in time. I wish I could have not been in that situation or it could have resulted differently for all the guys, the Heart of Racing, obviously having a lot of work cut out for them now.
“Apologies to Colin and everyone else involved, but I don’t really know where I could have went. I didn’t see the cars there, didn’t see anyone stop there, and wasn’t aware of the situation. I was just told to commence a pass around and go by the GTs and LMP2s. It’s a shame for my teammates, for Ross (Gunn), for Tom (Gamble), and for Colin and everyone at Acura Meyer Shank Racing as well. Just really disappointed.”
Braun, who, like De Angelis, had only run 21 laps, shared his view of the situation, while also extending sorrow for De Angelis.
“Tough one,” Braun said. “We both came in for a splash of fuel since we were at the back anyway, had a bit of a challenging stop on the first one. So yeah, lost some track position, was in the back, came in to top off, went back out. Class split was going, so we were going pretty quick trying to catch back to the pack. Luckily, we had a really good spotter in Steve Welk, he told me cars are checking up at the top of the hill. So, I was slowing down, looking in the mirror, trying to make sure no one was going to run in the back of me. Got it as slow as I could go and then just got destroyed from the back, basically. I feel bad for Roman.
“Obviously, for him, I don’t think anyone told him what was happening. I think there was a GT ahead of him. I was checked up and good, and then he just destroyed me from the back, and that was that. Yeah, tough day. I feel bad for him. Obviously for these guys, a tough situation. I don’t think I’ve ever driven so little in a car; I got in under yellow, came in and did the splash and then that was that. Tough day for the Acura HRC guys, but we’ll take a look at it and see what we can do, but it was a pretty big hit.”
For his part, Hedman was emotionally heated over the contact, expressing his frustrations toward De Angelis and, more notably, the Aston Martin THOR Team.
“There was a couple of GT cars in front of me and were trying to catch the pack, and we come up on top of the esses, the whole GT field was standing still,” Hedman said. “So, the two cars in front of me nearly hit the cars in front (of them), went to the right and parked, I saw that and parked my car. Well, you’re standing still. And you’re just going to go again and a big bang.
“I talked to Colin, with the Acura, they have a spotter and that’s why they stopped; good for him. I talked to the Aston guy, too, and first they don’t have a spotter and I don’t understand, engineers can see there is a big pileup. He’s coming full blown speed. He hits the Acura from behind, so the Acura gets pushed into me. I am super sorry for Colina and Acura, of course, but super happy there was a car in between or I’d be in hospital right now.
“Three races now that we’ve been taken out.”
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