WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Danica Patrick has always been the first to admit she struggles in qualifying on road and street courses. She might not have to say that anymore.
Patrick qualified eighth Saturday at Watkins Glen International, easily her best performance on three twisting circuits so far this year. Her fastest lap fell just short of getting her into the third and final round of qualifying for Sunday’s Camping World Grand Prix.
“If I had thought about it this morning, I was going to be four-hundredths out of getting into the Fast Six, I would have said, ‘Wow! That’s pretty good,’” a smiling Patrick said afterward. “I’m happy with that.
“Whenever the competitor comes out in me and I think logically about what happened, if I didn’t have so much understeer I probably would have been in,” she said. “But coulda-shoulda-woulda. I’m sure everybody’s got their story.”
Patrick said her performance over the high-speed, 3.4-mile, 11-turn circuit seemed like a breakthrough of sorts. Especially in a two-day event like Watkins Glen.
“I finally feel like I can get on top of the car now and hustle it and do what I want to do with it instead of it driving me,” said Patrick, just 5-foot-2 and 100 pounds. “That’s a lot of comfort coming into these weekends, especially when you’ve got less track time to prepare.”
GLEN STARS: The late Cameron Argetsinger, who brought road racing to Watkins Glen 61 years ago, and his wife, Jean, are the newest members of the track’s hall of fame — Legends of the Glen.
“Cameron and I have been so proud of what racing has done for this community, and for what Watkins Glen has come to mean in this sport,” Jean Argetsinger said. “What started in 1948 as a lark is a major industry now.”
Cameron Argetsinger dreamed of racing through the streets of Watkins Glen because of the area’s tough terrain. He hoped to design a circuit similar to Nurburgring, Germany, and after joining the Sports Car Club of America in 1946 began laying out a street course in Watkins Glen.
The Glen hosted its first SCCA race on Oct. 2, 1948 and two years later the event had an estimated crowd of 125,000.
After a fatal accident in 1952, work on an enclosed layout began and a temporary 4.6-mile course opened the next year. Construction on a permanent 2.3-mile course was completed four years later and was expanded just over a mile to include its famed boot section.
Cameron Argetsinger last year at age 87.
FLYING FAT ALBERT: Defending IndyCar champ Scott Dixon flies his own single-engine Cessna and his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti is a pilot, too.
So when asked, they jumped at the chance to fly on Fat Albert Airlines, the C-130 Hercules transport plane used by the Blue Angels in their airshows. And it was a ride like no other, especially for Dixon, who sat in the rear of the plane.
Despite its hefty size, the Hercules can perform some amazing stunts, taking off at a 45-degree angle that creates a brief period of weightlessness when the plane levels off, pulling 4Gs in hard turns, doing steep dives, and screeching to a halt in less than 1,500 feet.
“You can’t see what’s coming. That’s what makes it so bad,” Dixon said after Friday afternoon’s flight. “When you’re driving, you know what’s coming. When you’re not anticipating, it kind of freaks you out. I couldn’t imagine being in the back seat behind Dario. You wouldn’t want to do that.”
Also along for the ride were Hideki Mutoh, Mike Conway and E.J. Viso.
Fat Albert will do a fly-over for Sunday’s Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen.
PENSKE POWER: Penske Racing announced that Australian driver Will Power will rejoin the team for the IndyCar Series event in Toronto next week.
Power, who opened the season with Penske’s team as a temporary replacement for Helio Castroneves during the Brazilian driver’s trial on tax evasion charges, also will compete at Edmonton, Kentucky, Sonoma and Homestead-Miami in the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental Dallara/Honda.
Castroneves was acquitted in April, reclaimed his seat, and won the Indy 500. Penske kept Power on the team for two more races — Long Beach and the Indy 500.
SPARKPLUGS: Mario Moraes and Milka Duno collided in morning practice entering the tight chicane at the top of the high-speed esses. Duno, who also slid off course on her own earlier in the session, was on the outside entering a right-hand turn, locked the brakes and slid into a runoff area after her right front tire made contact with the left front tire of Moraes. E.J. Viso and rookie Mike Conway also spun out, with Conway’s rear wing sustaining minor damage after his No. 24 struck a tire barrier. … New York Gov. David Paterson will be the honorary starter for Sunday’s race. … Erik Estrada, star of the hit television show CHiP’s from the late 1970s and early 1980s, was to make several appearances at a track display featuring the Batmobile and the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, two car TV stars from the 1960s.
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