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Sahlen's 6 hours of the Glen Serves up a Top 10 Finish for Beyer Racing

Jun 9, 2009

The Beyer Racing team left the famed Watkins Glen International Raceway with a 10th place finish Saturday. After 6 hours of racing, 6 pit stops & a few scrapes Ricky Taylor, Jordon Taylor, Mike Forest and the Beyer Racing team walk away with more experienced in Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car series.

Ricky Taylor qualified the car in a very respectable 9th place in a field filled with international talent with a quick time of 1:42.355, under a second separated him from 2nd.

In the opening stages of the race Ricky Taylor performed a 'double stint' driving over 2 hours and getting the Lennox/Brach's/Dynacor Media #13 car as high as 5th. Running lap times within a second of the leaders Taylor handed the car over to Forest during the 3rd caution of the race.

Over the 10 turn, 3.3 mile track the Daytona Prototype cars averaged a lap speed of 120mph (+190 km/h) and with a top speed of 175mph (285 km/h) it makes it the fastest Forest has ever gone.

"Watkins is a great track, great history & has a number of very quick corners with apex speeds in excess of 100 mph. When the race went green right after I got in the car; I almost had position on the Penske car but backed out as we entered the esses because there just isn't enough room to go 2 wide through that section. That gave the Brumos car of JC France a chance to get similar position on me but he didn't back out and as we entered the flat out 100mph right hander he must have run wide and made solid contact with my right side, puncturing the outer wall of the body work" Forest says.

For 23 Laps Forest and the Brumos car ran within seconds of each other. Forest, running in 9th position had reeled in the Brumos car, but would lose ground while having to negotiate the slower GT cars. After a mid race pit stop to give Forest more fuel the race resumed with a heated battle between the #45 car, #6 car and Forest. Forest was able to defend his position for over 20 laps. It was during this fourth hour (Forest's second) when a small pressure point's toll added up to make a big problem.

"Having previously only run an hour at the longest in this seat I hadn't noticed it. But with that second hour and the high G load corners I lost feeling in my left arm. I knew the team needed me to do a number of laps to get into the fuel window. It was the most pain I've ever felt in the car but I couldn't let the team down. My pace suffered during those final laps but at least I was able to keep the car on track and hand it off to Jordon who would only need a single stop to finish the final 2 hours," Forest says.

Forest brought the #13 car in 9th position the crew dutifully performed their final driver change getting the youngest driver in the series, 18 year old Jordon Taylor in the car to finish the gruelling race. Forest was taken to track-side medical building for attention and was later released while Jordon Taylor ran a number of the quickest laps the #13 car had turned all day. Fighting right to the end the #76 Krohn Racing car driven by ex-F1 driver Ricardo Zonta was able to grab 9th position from the #13 car.

The Beyer Racing team would finish in 10th position while the #01 Telmex/Chip Ganassi car driven by Scott Pruett & Memo Rojas won the event, finishing under yellow flag conditions.

For more Information visit www.mikeforestracing.com

Schedule/TV Times


  • Porsche 250 - Apr 9 - 10, 2010

    Barber Motorsports Park

  • Bosch Engineering 250 - Apr 23 - 24, 2010

    Virginia International Raceway

  • Lime Rock Park - May 28 - 31, 2010

    Lakeville, CT