MOMO NGT Motorsport drivers Kuba Giermaziak and Christina Nielsen drove a hard thought race at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at the Watkins Glen International circuit, with the duo taking their GT Daytona Porsche 911 GT America (Type 991) to sixth in class.
The duo started the race a disappointing 15th in GTD after a poor qualifying performance from Giermazaik, with the race looking to head that way as well after Giermaziak suffered contact with a fellow GTD car at turn one, a crash the caused the first Full Course Caution of the race just after two hours.
Luckily for the team, the #30 911 GT America avoided any significant damage, with the car only receiving cosmetic damage. Despite the crash at turn one the #30 managed to work its way up to P5 in GTD, although a puncture to one of the cars Continental tyres lost the team a minute in the pits after a slow stop.
“This race was one of the toughest I’ve had even though the car was really awesome,” said Polish native Giermazaik. “We struggled a little bit in qualifying, a little bit with the car and a little bit with understanding the tire. When the race started, the car felt good because the team worked very hard on Saturday night, and it really paid off.
“We were able to move up to P5 during the race. We had a little issue during the pit stop, but then Christina got out and she was doing some good lap times. She was very consistent, more consistent even than the top three guys running. I got back into the car and was able to do some good laps, but then we got a tire puncture. It was a bit unlucky for us because it cost us another minute.
“Without the puncture, we would have been a few places up. The race pace was very good, but at the end we had some issues with the power steering, so I’m not going to complain that we had a brief yellow flag at the end. It would have been tough to get through that with no power steering. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we were fast and we hope we can keep it up for the next race. We can prove that we’re able to be the fastest Porsche and will do that at the next one.”
Nielson, who was the second women driver in the race alongside DeltaWing driver Katherine Legge, said: “We had a bit of a bad qualifying with some technical issues, so we had to fight for P15 and I knew that our pace should be better than that.
“Kuba had an amazing first stint in the race and overall. I would say that our pace throughout the entire race was really good. We had a few problems that cost us some time and that’s just racing. Even though six hours can seem like a long time, it’s not when you’re fighting for the front. You are pushing every single lap because losing a couple of seconds is a lot in a six-hour race.
“I think everyone did an amazing job after having a few technical issues that cost us time with the pit stops, which is the main time we lost. Overall, we did a good job and we had a great race. The best comment of the day was Bryce Miller on the radio saying ‘I cannot be beaten by a girl’ when he tried to get past me!”
The next race for the GTD class in the Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 13.
