Another Day In Paradise…
… for some. As we head into the second day of practice here at the Puertor Rico Grand Prix for the AGT Inter-Americas Challenge, the local competitors are certainly making the best of the home court advantage. From where I stand, it appears the father and son duo of Edison Lluch and Edison Lluch Jr. are prepared to keep all the hardwared here in Ponce. They’ll need to get a bit quicker to catch Rolando Falgueras in the #00 car, but make no mistake about it, the acorn didn’t fall far from the tree as Edison Lluch Jr. has a slight edge on Edison Sr.
On the USA side of things, most of the guys are struggling to get dialed in. Charlie Webster [#95 Corvette] is going to have to come up with about 3/4 of a second to get to the sharp end of the field. Kenny Bupp has been trying to sort out some issues with new uprights they installed in the #17 Camaro. Bupp was about 3+ seconds of the pace at the end of day, Friday.
Stu Hayner is here piloting Woodson Duncan’s #29 Ford Mustang. Stu is working hard with the crew to sort the car out and dealing with some heat issues in the transmission. The car did not take the track for two of Friday’s sessions while the team made some major changes. Stu’s optimistic about their progress but did express concern at catching up.
“We’re losing precious track time,” acknoweldged Stu. “We’ve got a good crew working on the car and I think we can get it to go quick. The track is not a real technical track, but you can see where the guys that live here know how to shave a 1/10 off their times here and there. For some of them, this place is like second nature.”
So, while it’s bright and sunny over the Carribbean, a few dark clouds loom over a few of the team’s paddocks. We’ll see what Saturday brings with another day of practice and a late qualifying round. Sunday we’ll run two main events… and as we all know, you race these things to the checkers. Stay tuned.
