Grand-Am

Watkins Glen: Orbit Racing preview

looking for luck Orbit Racing is looking for a bit of luck during the six-hour Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International. The team had a strong start to the season with a GT class victory (second overall) at the ...

Published: Jun 17, 2004, 5:04 PM

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looking for luck

Orbit Racing is looking for a bit of luck during the six-hour Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International. The team had a strong start to the season with a GT class victory (second overall) at the Rolex 24 of Daytona, but was zapped and tapped in subsequent races with laps lost under caution flags, hits from other cars and a cut water line on the No. 44 Porsche 911 GT3 RS race car. A balancing change is definitely in order!

Watkins Glen may be the place. Joe and Jay Policastro have a decade of experience on the 3.4-mile road course, just four hours from their home in Latrobe, Pa. Jay has earned sprint victories at the Glen, and he and his father Joe scored their first top-10 finish together there.

"This is one of our favorite tracks," Joe Policastro said. "We have driven vintage and Grand Am cars at this track. The vintage cars were fast, but handling was not as good as the race cars of today. Both are exciting to drive, however the cars we are driving now give us a chance to do things we could not do with the older cars. We can go deeper in the corners and stop faster. The setting at the Glen is great and the time of the year could not be better."

work to play

Jay and Joe Policastro work together and live in homes connected by a go-kart course. So why race together, too?

"The racing perspective for my dad and I comes from a mutual passion for automobiles and competition," Jay Policastro explained. "We are not relax-type guys. We enjoy doing things other than work, however the mutual interest is in the form of competition in a different venue. The racing also brings together the mental and physical aspect of a sport that builds on some skills that you use less frequently than others. We enjoy the time away from our day jobs to work together on a fun-only project with no other motive."

driver's track

Mike Fitzgerald of Fountain Hills, Ariz., has already notched a GT victory in the Watkins Glen six-hour race. But one win isn't enough. "I've only done that race once and I won, so I have to remain undefeated in the Six Hours of the Glen," he grinned.

"I love the track. It's got a nice rhythm to it, elevation changes, a real variety of turns - some slow stuff, fast stuff, up and down hills - it's one of the best tracks in North America. It's definitely a driver's track, just because of the variety of turns and all the different things you have to deal with. There are some fast sections, but it's not as fast as some places like Road Atlanta or Mosport. It doesn't have those hairy turns, but they're tricky."

-sp-

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