July 19th 2021 – Braselton, GA.
Kenny Schmied and the W2W Racing #983 had a mixed weekend at the World Racing League for the Peachtree Grand Prix. A sixth place finish on Saturday was showing to be followed on Sunday, but a broken wheel speed sensor took the team out of the Sunday race with an hour to go, and so the car slid well out of the points for the final race of the weekend.
Road Atlanta is a fast, fun romp through the red clay hills of Braselton GA, where the circuit has been carved out of the natural shape of the surrounding terrain. Famous mostly for it’s super-fast turn 12, Road Atlanta offers a little of everything from the esses to the late braking maneuvers into the turn 10 complex. Racing at Road Atlanta is challenging in multi-class racing because there are many of the areas of the track where you can only follow in single file, and so patience is a key factor for performance during an endurance race at Road Atlanta.
Schmied and the W2W Racing crew had a rough day of qualifying and put the car in P25 for the start of Saturdays race. While the drivers worked hard throughout the day to continuously bring the car forward, at the end of the day a P6 was all the team could muster, and Schmied was proud of that effort, stating “Some days a podium just isn’t on the table. We all drove hard today and did what we had to. I’m still proud we can bring back some points for the team after such a hard fight to move up the field.”
Schmied was happy to be at Road Atlanta, as he considers it one of his favorite tracks. “I always love coming here. There’s just such a flow and a rhythm to the track, and while it might be a short lap in the grand scheme of things, it’s one of if not my favorite on the calendar.” Schmied said. “Not only is it a fun track to drive, but it’s a fun track to race. The ways you can get around traffic here… some of them are very creative. There’s a lot of feel and finesse that goes into making a pass on a lower-class car around here. Lots of setting it up, backing off, getting the run. You’ll see drivers taking all sorts of lines around here, and a lot of them will work out. Some won’t as well, so you always have to be on your toes. There isn’t a lot of room to make mistakes here at Road Atlanta, so I try to always respect that when I’m on the track here.”
The Road Atlanta race weekend is unique. It consists of a 9-hour race on Saturday, and a 7-hour race on Sunday, which is broken into two parts: 8am to 10am, and then after a two hour red-flag session, the race continues from 12pm to the finish at 5pm.
Sunday was looking to be a similar situation, though the team did start slightly further up the field than on Saturday. While running in 7th place with an hour to go, a co-driver who left the track in turn 10 broke a wheel speed sensor, which caused the ABS in the car to fail, again causing the driver to leave the track later in the lap and get a puncture. After replacing the tire, the driver was sent back out only to experience the same issue with the ABS again. As the car had already fallen out of the points and there was less than an hour left, the team retired the car and left Sunday’s race without any points.
“It’s a shame to be on for points and then have these sorts of things take you out.” Schmied said of the team’s fate on Sunday. “At least we got some points on Saturday, and sometimes you just can’t do anything about failures outside of your control. We all drove well this weekend, and that’s all we can do at any given event. I’m looking forward to my home race in a few weeks.”
Schmied and the W2W Racing crew head to High Plains Raceway just outside Denver Colorado in three weeks for the Trofeo Colorado.
Photos from the event can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
