KLAS Motorsports had a career weekend as the ARCA Menards Series visited the Watkins Glen International road course in upstate New York for Friday’s General Tire 100. For the first time in team history, two entries were fielded in an event. Both cars finished in the top ten. Glen Reen finished fourth in the #71 while Andy Jankowiak finished seventh with his #73 entry.
“They both raced excellent,” said KLAS Motorsports Managing Partner Andy Seuss. “It’s amazing to think that we brought two cars that made up more than a quarter of the top seven.
“That was quite an undertaking for our little team. I don’t think people realize how small we are. I might have forgotten how small we are until we tried to double our work load. I’ve got to thank (crew chief) Mike (Dayton) and Daniel (Carrender) in the shop, all of the guys who come by after work at night and on weekends to help, our track day guys who are mostly out of New York, our sponsors and everyone who made this possible.”
“This team is made up of a lot of hard-working racers,” said Reen. “This is wild. I thought that we would do well, but I didn’t think that we would finish in the top five. It’s amazing.”
Jankowiak qualified 11th and Reen qualified 14th for the race. Both drivers progressed through the pack together early on with Jankowiak showing the way at first.
“We had really good short run speed, but we just couldn’t keep it going for the long runs,” said Jankowiak. “On the restarts, this thing was great.”
“Andy J did great,” said Reen. “I was following him for pretty much the first half of the race. He was better than me at first. Then his car started to fade and ours pretty much stayed the same throughout the whole run. I started catching people and began to think that we really had something here. I wasn’t trying any harder either. They were coming back to me.”
After the race’s midway break, both cars moved up further through the field.
“The team asked what I wanted to change on the pit stop and I said, ‘not much!’. I was very happy with everything,” said Reen. “We were fifth on the (final) restart and that changed everything. We got a good start and I was able to clear (Dale) Quarterley into turn one. I was a little nervous. I didn’t know what going to happen, but we got through it. He was better than I was, but I could hold him off. I could see him getting close in the mirror, but I wasn’t lifting.”
With his last lap pass, Reen took down the fourth finishing position. Jankowiak was seventh at the end of the race.
“All in all, we made some gains,” said Jankowiak. “I feel like I let the team down a little bit and maybe left a little bit out there. But if you put too hard, you might crash. It’s still in one piece though and we got a good finish.”
“It was nerve racking up until the end to not make any simple mistakes or to have a part failure,” said Seuss. “Everything turned out well, so the word that I can’t stop thinking of is gratifying. It felt awesome when the checkered flag fell with both cars in the top ten.
“Andy J tied a personal best lap (at Watkins Glen), had a personal best qualifying effort and finish. We tied our team best finish of fourth overall with Glen – he did a great job. Since getting together with him, we have been able to elevate our whole program. He and Andy J have put in so much work behind the scenes. It was a hard-fought battle and a great feeling.”
The primary sponsors of the #73 team at Watkins Glen were Latina Boulevard Foods, Whelen Engineering and Ferrario Auto Team. The primary sponsor of the #71 team was New Wave Home.
Additional marketing partners for the event included DaK’s Market, Acacia Energy, Automotive Consultants, Florida Safety Systems, Ranch Fuel, Phillips 66 Lubricants, Wordsmith Fence, Ryan Bronson Music and Yukon Creek Sportsman Club.
KLAS Motorsports returns to action on September 11th as the #73 with Jankowiak heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bush’s Beans 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (TN). That event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 starting at 5:30pm ET.