Rand Racing record pole @Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen International
qualifying, June 22, 2002

 


record pole

Rand Racing qualified first and second in the SRPII class for Sunday's Rolex 
Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International.  Terry Borcheller drove 
the No. 8 Nissan Lola to the class pole position in one minute 45.328 
seconds, more than three seconds faster than the previous class record on the 
3.4-mile New York road course.  Niclas Jönsson qualified second in class in 
the No. 7 Lola (1:46.762).  Borcheller will drive with Anthony Lazzaro and 
Ralf Kelleners on Sunday; Jönsson's co-drivers are Marino Franchitti and Bill 
Rand.

Borcheller credited the Risi Competizione crew, which prepares the cars for 
Rand Racing, and his co-drivers.  "I haven't ever experienced anything like 
what we've got in this group of people.  Hats off to the guys!" he said.  
"Anthony and Ralf and I have different driving styles - Ralf's a little more 
aggressive into the corners, I'm a little more aggressive out and Anthony's 
the epitome of smooth.  But once we discern the differences, we're able to 
continually get the car to progress."

Jönsson is a rookie at Watkins Glen, so he was happy to qualify so close to 
Borcheller, especially with "two big mistakes" in his fast lap.  "It feels 
good, the first time I qualified the car for the Rand/Risi team," he said.  
"I've never been to The Glen before and we just had two hours of practice 
among three drivers, so we haven't had a lot of time to get familiar with the 
track.  But I'm  happy we qualified second behind our teammates.  They have a 
lot of experience here and they've been very helpful to us with our car 
setup."


set to race

Watkins Glen is a unique track that challenges both drivers and crews.  Rand 
Racing's chief engineer, Jeff Braun, says shock absorbers are the key to car 
setup.

"It's a good combination - it's bumpy, it's high-speed, there are slow 
corners, there are some long straightaways, so it's a lot of fun," he said.  
"The bumps are at the exit of the corners where you're trying to get the 
power down.  We've seen some cases in the data where the rear wheels are 
coming off the ground and we're ending up with lots of wheel spin from the 
bumps.  You have to have a good stiff car to be real stable but that hurts 
you in the bumps, so it's a hard combination to get the car nice and smooth 
in the bumps but not so rolly in the corners.  Tire pressures help a bit, but 
it's mostly shocks."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
403 287 3945
spur07@cs.com