Peregrine Crashed-Out by Prototypes at Watkins Glen, Westphal Unhurt
Watkins Glen, N.Y. (June 27, 2022) — Peregrine Racing’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 39 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO retired from the Six Hours of Watkins Glen on Sunday evening after Jeff Westphal was collected in a bout between a pair of prototype competitors. After being forced to the inside by the erratic movements of the pair of LMP2 cars, they made contact with the No. 39 machine, sending Westphal sliding into the Upstate New York circuit’s inner metal barriers traveling 120mph. The impact totaled the car and ended the team’s race four hours and 30 minutes into the six-hour contest. Jeff was in no way at fault for the incident and was fortunately cleared of any injury by on-site medical professionals shortly after the crash. The team was classified P14 in the GTD field, but officially finished P7 after many cars were hit with drive-time penalties in the weather-shortened race.
The extensive damage puts a question mark over the next two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events for Peregrine Racing’s GTD crew, but the team will continue to put unrelenting effort towards getting back on track as soon as possible.
The team worked hard to improve the car through the first two practice sessions and qualifying, arriving on race day with a solid setup. Westphal was the final driver in Peregrine’s three-driver lineup for the storied endurance event. Robert Megennis and Corey Lewis handled the early and middle stages of the race respectively, each executing clean and consistent stints. The No. 39 stayed amongst the top 10, running in the top three and even leading at different stages of the race. Had strategy gone their way, another podium was a possibility.
Peregrine Racing’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 93 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport finished the Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120 in 18th position. The team put in a monumental effort to prepare the car after an accident at Mid-Ohio last month, and despite contact in the race, co-drivers Sameer Gandhi and Tyler McQuarrie kept fighting to the checkered flag.
The 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues for Peregrine Racing this weekend with the Michelin Pilot Challenge event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on July 1-2. Green flag for the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park 120 waves at 4:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 2. Full coverage can be streamed on Peacock.
INSIGHT FROM THE GTD COCKPIT:
Jeff Westphal:
“This was probably one of the worst wrecks of my career. I’m super disappointed for the team because they all worked tirelessly all weekend. The crew put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making the No. 39 Lamborghini as fast as possible for the six-hour race. But I’m most frustrated with the behavior from the LMP2s that doesn’t need to exist on-track—banging doors for no reason with over an hour of racing left and taking somebody else out in the process. Drivers need to be cognisant of the people around them and that we are all here to compete amongst our class simultaneously, not play bumper cars and point the finger at someone else. Today, we were an innocent bystander and got sent into the wall at a high rate of speed which wrote off a racecar. Thankfully, I wasn’t injured in a 16G+ impact with the barrier due to other drivers' poor decision making.”
Robert Megennis:
“We didn’t have the car we wanted to start the weekend, but we made so much headway moving into the race. We had a solid car and if we executed well, we could’ve been in the top five despite our BoP right now. I had a good stint and got us up to fourth. We went off-strategy, and Corey did a great job. We were performing really well. This team does such a good job with strategy, pit stops—everything. I thought we were doing the best that we could given the circumstances and it’s so frustrating that all the hard work we put in was thrown away because of such a poor driving standard from the prototypes. All weekend, it was an issue. The whole team deserved better than this because they’ve worked so tirelessly. Thank you to the Peregrine Racing crew, and many thanks to Optimizely, DataRobot, Palantir, Gigamon and SailPoint for their partnership and support. We’ll be back and stronger than ever.”
Corey Lewis:
“From the beginning of the weekend to now, we made huge gains with the chassis and the setup of the car—the whole nine yards. We found pace from qualifying into warmup and were ultra confident going into the race. Obviously, we wish we had an extra few tenths, but Jeff hopped in the car towards the end and the pace was quite strong. We had weather coming and this car is very, very good in the wet. It’s an unfortunate way to end the race weekend. The boys have a lot of work to do now, and with CTMP coming up so soon, it puts things under a potential question mark. With that said, overall, the team performance throughout the weekend was great. Rob and Jeff knocked it out of the park inside the car and I’m grateful to be a part of the program. I hope these guys can rebound quickly and have a great remainder of the season.”
INSIGHT FROM THE IMPC COCKPIT:
Sameer Gandhi:
“After an issue at Mid-Ohio last time out, it was a heroic effort by our crew to rebuild the car in time for this weekend’s event. It was truly an impressive accomplishment and I couldn’t be prouder of the effort this team puts in, week-in and week-out. Unfortunately, we had some contact on track that took away some pace, but my co-driver, Tyler, did an amazing job to make headway and gain positions despite the difficult circumstances.”
Tyler McQuarrie:
“It's weekends like this when you need to focus on the small victories and not necessarily the end result. It's hard to explain the effort that goes into not only building a new car, but doing it in such a small window of time, like our team did after the incident at Mid-Ohio. The fact that the car made it to Watkins Glen is a victory in itself! There were lots of little teething issues, but by the second practice, we were one of the fastest cars on track. Things were looking good. The race was looking great with cautions lining up with our strategy until an overly optimistic move by a TCR car knocked out our front alignment. By the time I got in the car, it wasn't the same car we had in practice. I did the best I could with what we had and I'm super proud of this team and the fight they have to never give up. Onto CTMP!”
