New twist to racing in the rain: Crash leaves IMSA driver without a windshield at Watkins Glen
Drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series are accustomed to driving in the rain — but not in the literal sense.
That was the situation that TDS Racing driver Steven Thomas found himself nearly an hour into the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen. After a head-on collision with the LMP2 of No. 52 driver Rodrigo Sales (VIDEO ABOVE), Thomas was pulling away in his No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07 when he realized the raindrops were inside the cockpit.
The crash impact had ripped away the windshield of Thomas' car, whose wipers continued to operate in thin air.
'I didn't realize the windshield was gone until I started to drive away, and I was feeling the rain,and I was like, 'Oh, I have no windshield,' ' Thomas told NBC Sports' Chris Wilner on Peacock. 'I'm fine. It's just a shame for both Rodrigo and me that happened in the rain, but not a lot you could do there.'
The incident started when Sales spun in Turn 9 on a restart at Watkins Glen International after a sudden downpour dampened large sections of the 11-turn, 3.4-mile road course.
'Basically what happened on the restart, I got pushed in the left rear, at which point I was 180 degrees,' Sales said. 'Then I knew it was a horrible place to be stopped. I just saw cars coming around the corner. Quite a few made it around. Sometimes it's impossible to see though, so it looked like I saw a flash of yellow – the TDS P2 car – and it was a huge impact. The car is toast unfortunately. It's a shame, but it's racing. Tricky conditions. It is what it is.'
Thomas said his vision was obscured by a GT car just in front of him.
'When the GT car went left, that's the first time I saw Rodrigo literally 10 feet in front of me,' Thomas said. 'There was literally nowhere to go. When the GT car went left, it looked like Rodrigo was driving at me.'
Sales retired from the race, and Thomas' car still had yet to return to the track 51 laps later (and if and when it did, the car certainly would be equipped with a new windshield).
The third endurance race of the IMSA season continues live on Peacock.
Nate Ryan,
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