Grand-Am

Mike Forest VIR race report

Virginia International Raceway

Edited: May 17, 2011, 12:22 AM

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#8 Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley: Ryan Dalziel, Mike Forest

DIFFICULT WEEKEND FOR MIKE FOREST AT WET VIR

Alton, Virginia – After coming off his first GRAND-AM podium finish of the year last month, Mike Forest headed to Virginia International Raceway for the Bosch Engineering 250 with high hopes and looking to carry on the momentum from his previous results. But luck wasn’t on the Canadian’s side this weekend as him and teammate Ryan Dalziel struggled to find the right balance on their #8 Miracle Grout Shield / Dynacor Media / Ford Riley machine and then had an early end to their race after Forest hydroplaned off the track due to the treacherous wet conditions that arose at the start of the race.

#8 Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley: Ryan Dalziel, Mike Forest

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Forest took the green flag for round four of the 2011 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series after qualifying in the ninth spot and immediately starting picking up positions as the skies opened up on the 3.27 mile, 17-turn road course. As he was fighting for position in the near zero visibility conditions, his Daytona Prototype hit some puddles and immediately started hydroplaning out of control, leaving Forest a helpless passenger having to hold on as his machine slammed into the tire wall. Only a few moments later the caution came out and the officials ordered the field to circulate under yellow for several laps due to the undriveable and dangerous conditions. Unfortunately for Forest and the Starworks Motorsports team they had already fallen victims to the rain and were forced to retire from the race.

Next on the calendar for Forest and Dalziel is the Memorial Day Classic, which will take place May 31st at Lime Rock Park, and where they will look to improve on their sixth place finish from 2010 and regain the speed and momentum that they’ve shown throughout the first three events of this season.

Mike Forest #8 Miracle Grout Shield / Dynacor Media / Ford Riley Daytona Prototype

It was a rough weekend for us ...

Mike Forest

“It was a rough weekend for us, from the beginning we struggled to find the speed and balance in our car and we still haven’t figured out these tire, but despite that we’ve had great races and coming off a podium finish at Barber we were very optimistic for this weekend. Unfortunately we all have bad luck sometimes, that’s just racing. When we were doing the parade laps I was making sure to find the grip and puddles around the track to get ready for the start, and the car actually felt pretty good. As soon as the green flag dropped it just started raining heavier and heavier, I managed to pass a bunch of cars but it was almost impossible to see where you were going. I was on the inside defending my position and you couldn’t even see where the corner was, I started braking but I must’ve been just going over a puddle because the car just hydroplaned and the rear came around. You go over it in your head a thousand times, what you could’ve done differently, but with these cars once you hit the puddles and you loose grip you are pretty much just a passenger after that.

But now it’s time to focus on our next race at Lime Rock, we’ve had a lot of good runs this year and we are not even half way though the season so we just need to get our momentum back and keep fighting for podiums and scoring points.”

-source: mike forest PR

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