Notes & Quotes: Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone
· Darren Manning on racing at the Glen: “I’m looking forward
to getting back to the road courses. We had a good run at
the Glen last year and I think we have an even better car
this year which will put us in a stronger position. Of
course with the infusion of the champ car teams, it will be
a lot more competitive which we saw at St. Pete—it’s a lot
tougher to get in the top 10… I love running at Watkins Glen
because it has a little bit of everything. There are lots of
high-speed corners plus a couple low speed ones so you need
a good balance between high and low speed performance. It
reminds me of one of my favorite tracks, the Spa
Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Both tracks have many
undulations, long straights and high-speed corners. They’re
a lot of fun to drive.”
· Manning on wet weather as a factor at the Glen: “Well, we
practice and race in the rain so we won’t lose practice time
because of the weather. Growing up in England, I probably
raced more in the rain than I did anything else so I
wouldn’t mind if it did rain.” There is a 30% chance of rain
and isolated thunderstorms for this weekend. Rain factored
into the first two events at the Glen but last year the rain
didn’t hit until the teams started packing up their
equipment.
· Manning drove his motorcoach from Richmond, Va. to the
Glen, stopping in Hershey, Pa. where they make the Hershey
chocolate bars. He didn’t visit the candy factory but he
joined a host of other IndyCar teams’ coach drivers at the
Hershey Park campground. He played baseball for the first
time in his life, saying, “I learned I’m a big “pull
hitter.” I hit it out of the ballpark the first time at
bat—I like the inside pitches. As for fielding, I couldn’t
catch a ball to save my life. I wanted to field them without
using a glove like they do in cricket, but the guys wouldn’t
let me. They were afraid I might break a finger or something
and then A.J. would kill me for getting hurt.”
· Past performances at the Glen: Last year, Darren Manning
started ninth and finished ninth in his first ever start at
The Glen. The Foyt team’s best finish at Watkins Glen is 5th
with Felipe Giaffone in 2006. In the inaugural event in
2005, Jeff Bucknum drove to an 11th place finish after
starting 19th.
· William C. Rott & Sons of Tonawanda, NY is this weekend’s
winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here Promotion for its
customers. The company name will be put on the top of the
sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Steven Rott
will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality
and garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet with A.J. Foyt and
Darren Manning. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected
winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by
ABC Supply customers earlier this year.
The Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen will be broadcast
live at 3:30 p.m. eastern time Sunday afternoon, July 6 on
ABC-TV.
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