Rain could not damper the trip to Watkins Glen International (NY) for KLAS Motorsports and their driver Andy Jankowiak. They raced at the historic road course on Friday in the General Tire 100 ARCA Menards Series event. Qualifying was washed out and practice consisted of some messy weather, but the team were treated like kings and queens from the time that they pulled onto the property in honor of their recent victory at Talladega Speedway (AL).
Fans of the team were set up in a special hospitality area to watch the race and a banner was displayed congratulating home state driver Jankowiak and his team. Kind words from officials, competitors and fans were also shared throughout the weekend.
Jankowiak placed the team’s #71 into the sixth position in the practice session rundown. They also started in that same sixth position after qualifying was rained out and the field was set by owner point standings.
Without much dry track practice, the team did not get to test out a new set up that they decided upon prior to the race weekend. Their changes did not quite work out as planned. The event had only one caution period and little attrition, so the team did not have much of an opportunity to fine tune the car in race conditions either. Still, they stayed on the lead lap and logged a respectable 13th-place finish.
“We, as a team, opted for an experiment with the setup,” said Jankowiak. “We rolled the dice , but the changes did not work out like we thought. The car is in one piece. It wasn’t as exciting as our Talladega race, but it was a good points day.”
With the top 15 finish, Jankowiak moved into the third position of the ARCA Menards Series driver point standings. He is now 14 points out of the lead and just two points from the second position in the standings.
Whelen Engineering and Ferrario Auto Team were the primary marketing partners for the #71 at Watkins Glen.
Additional partners for the #71 include Automotive Consultants of Ithaca, Dak’s Markets, Acacia Energy, Phillips 66 Lubricants, Florida Safety Systems, Yukon Creek, RD Cores, Ryan Bronson Music and Schultz Engineered Products.
The ARCA Menards Series will next visit Toledo Speedway (OH) on Saturday, May 16th for the Owens Corning 200. That event will be televised live on the Fox Sports 1 television network starting at 7pm ET.