 Eric Curran, Boris Said, and the Whelen Motorsports team returned to Homestead-Miami Speedway last weekend with the #31 Whelen Motorsports Corvette for the Grand Prix of Miami; the third round in the 2012 Grand-Am Road Racing Rolex Series.
Homestead-Miami Speedway is what is referred to as a roval track, meaning half road-course and half NASCAR oval. The week started out favorable for the #31 Whelen Corvette where the team experimented with different suspension setups to get the maximum potential from the car on the road course while also keeping it stable throughout the entire twenty degree banking of the speedway.
All of the practice and setup testing for many of the teams went out the window on Saturday, though. Eric Curran describes it as, "Rain like you have never seen it before at the Grand Prix of Miami! Six inches of standing water at some parts of the track and cars spinning off at every section."
With the unprecedented rain, qualifying was canceled on Saturday and the entire Rolex field was instead given the chance to participate in an optional practice session. With qualifying being rained out, the starting grid was then determined based on championship points, meaning the #31 Whelen Corvette would have to start towards the back of the field.
The biggest problem for many teams when the rain hit was with the windshield fogging up. Unfortunately, the #31 Whelen Corvette was also plagued by visibility issues beginning on Sunday morning when the defrost system for the windshield had to be replaced.
 At the drop of the green flag, "Boris did a great job of keeping the car on track with little to no visibility. Driving blind at 160 MPH in a torrential downpour is your worst nightmare", said Eric. Not only did Boris do a great job of keeping the Corvette on track, but he improved from P15 to P10 almost immediately, eventually bringing the car up to P6 before the first pit stop rotation.
"Boris and I switched around eighty minutes in. I attempted to do a few laps under yellow, but couldn't see anything through the windshield. The visibility was so bad that I missed the pit entrance. What a crazy race! I am glad it is over," exclaimed Eric.
"The Marsh Racing crew worked extremely hard this weekend to prepare our Whelen Corvette for the Grand Prix of Miami. The car was fast in practice and consistent over a long run. Unfortunately, the weather just did not cooperate and we had to park the car ninety minutes into the race due to the lack of visibility through the windshield."
Follow the Whelen Motorsports team on to New Jersey Motorsports Park on May 13th for the next round of the Grand-Am Rolex Championship. The race will be televised live on SPEED on 5/13 at 1 PM ET. |
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