Tatiana Calderón and her Gradient Racing teammates were once again left empty-handed after another competitive display in the latest round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup at Watkins Glen International last weekend.
Alongside her co-drivers in the #66 Gradient Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, Stevan McAleer andSheena Monk, Tatiana demonstrated pace to fight for the top positions in the ultra-competitive GT Daytona (GTD) class until the weather intervened, with penalties dropping the trio to an unrepresentative 13th place at the end of a tough six-hour race.
After Monk started the car 17th in class, it was Tatiana’s turn to take the wheel of the #66 car just before the two-hour mark. The Colombian stayed on board the car for a little under two hours as she battled the elements, with the fickle upstate New York weather taking a turn for the worse, but that didn’t stop her from showing the Acura package’s true potential. Indeed, Tatiana was running as high as fifth by the time she handed over to McAleer with two hours and five minutes left on the clock.
But as the rain got heavier, the race was red-flagged for just over 40 minutes, with McAleer bringing the car home ninth on the road after the race got back underway in very difficult conditions for a final sprint to the flag. Unfortunately for Tatiana and the Gradient team, a decision to come in and change to wet tyres when the pits were closed under caution resulted in a penalty, and a further penalty was applied for the first one not being served in time, dropping the #66 car to 13th.
The result at least marked a first finish for Tatiana in her IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup campaign, as the Gradient squad had been forced to retire in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, but nonetheless it represented another occasion that the strong speed demonstrated by the team and drivers was not properly rewarded.
Tatiana Calderón: “It has been a tough weekend in terms of results. We had pretty much everything thrown at us this weekend, particularly in my stint. We had some drops of rain, the track was half wet and half dry for nearly the whole stint, and we had to deal with a lot of caution periods. I also had to deal with the clutch slipping. But I think we made all the right calls and when I handed over the car to Stevan we were in P5 and in the hunt. Unfortunately it then started to rain harder, there was a red flag, and it was really tricky to stay out on slicks. We did an emergency pitstop to change to wet tyres as cars were going off left and right due to the very difficult conditions, even under safety car, but we got penalized for that, which put us down to P13. I think we had the pace to fight for the top five, so it’s a shame we couldn’t get the result we deserved. But we’ll keep pushing and I can’t wait to get back in the car in September at Indianapolis. Hopefully we can get the result we have been missing so far this season then.”
The IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup continues with the penultimate round of the season at the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 22.
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