September 5th 2022 – Danville, VA.
Kenny Schmied and the Will-to-Win Racing #983 Porsche Cayman traveled to Danville Virginia over the weekend for some action at Virginia International Raceway. The team brought home a P9 in class during Saturdays running at the historic race venue, but contact on Sunday morning while being driven by Schmied’s co-driver took the car out of contention for the weekend.
Schmied was excited to head to Virginia International Raceway, as he’s never raced at the historic circuit. “I’m super thrilled to be here at ViR this weekend. It’s one of two tracks on my schedule that I’ve never been to before, so coming up to speed quickly on Friday is going to be important” Schmied said. “I really enjoy the track in the simulator, so it should be a hoot out there.”
Qualifying on Friday went well. With Kenton King recovering from a shunt at Road America, it was just Schmied and Jeff Courtney to pilot the #983 over the weekend. Scrubbing in both sets of race tires, Schmied and Courtney would split a session later in the day to throw down a hot lap. Inundated by traffic, both drivers never got a clean lap, and the car ultimately qualified P24.
Schmied would start the car for the race on Saturday. Keeping things clean was a challenge, as a sold-out field on a trick track turned out to lead to a lot of action over the weekend. Schmied quickly settled in and went about the business of going faster. After a two-hour double stint, Schmied would swap with Courtney. In general, the theme for the weekend was ‘carnage’. “I’ve never seen a WRL race like that in all my life. There were so many code 35’s and yellow and red flags. It was just absurd.” Schmied said of the day’s running.
Getting back in the car with a few hours to go, Schmied would wheel the #983 to the checkered flag, taking P10 overall and P9 in-class for the days events. The general on-track conduct during the day was quite bad, and so WRL called an all-hands mandatory driver meeting for Saturday evening.
Sunday morning, Jeff Courtney would take the start for the #983. Jeff was wheeling the car well, before some car to car contact brought the #983 into the garage for a radiator swap. Working hard, Gabe and Bryan would fix the car in a few hours, but when Schmied took the car on the track in the afternoon, electrical gremlins were causing the car to go into a safe mode. “I’m happy the guys got me back out there, but with the carnage over the weekend and the car still acting up, we’re just going to park it and move on to the next one” Schmied said after retiring the #983 from the Sunday race.
Schmied heads next to Sebring International Raceway in late October for a pair of 8-hour races during the penultimate round of the 2022 WRL season.
Photos from the event can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
