Solid Weekend for Chastain Motorsports at the Glen
Noblesville, IN – The No. 27 Mygale/Honda of Sam Chastain logged two complete races at Watkins Glen International for Chastain Motorsports in rounds three and four of the F1600 Formula F Championship Series. A tight battle at the front of the field saw cars shuffling the order throughout the race, as the No. 27 found itself in the lead, but Chastain settled for a pair top-15 finishes with 13th and ninth place results.
With limited track time on Friday and no Thursday test day, Chastain first found himself on a drying track on Friday afternoon, vaulting his Mygale to second on the time sheets. A day later, he promptly qualified fourth out of 24 cars in an early-morning session. An impressive feat considering he did not have a drafting partner like many of the fast drivers with big, multi-car teams.
The race result was a 13th place finish, but it included the fourth fastest lap of the race and a brief pit-stop to clear out the radiators serving the Honda Fit engine after Chastain had a brief off-course moment.
After a race crash at Road Atlanta, an incident-free weekend was a goal the team and Sam were able to meet.
A day later, and big battle for the lead saw the No. 27 in contention for the win – but as laps wound down and teammates elected to help one another, Chastain fended for himself, avoiding a last lap incident and bringing home a top ten result.
“The highlight of my weekend was leading the race, because we knew we had the speed to lead,” said Chastain. “We didn’t really venture off our baseline setup for the weekend, just doing some fine-tuning along the way.”
The team ran a second car during the Watkins Glen weekend for Evan Mehan, in the No. 29 blue Mygale/Honda, but, after mechanical issues in qualifying Mehan did not get to participate in the races.
Looking forward to VIR, where Chastain ran well in 2013, he said his goals are to continuing improving as he targets his maiden F1600 Series victory.
“My goals for VIR are simply to go out and win,” Chastain said. “The guys have worked so hard to give me all the tools it takes to be competitive and win races, now I just have to go out and put the pieces together.”
While Chastain looks toward the VIR date, the team continues to work on filling second and third cars for the remainder of the season.
Learn more about Chastain Motorsports, three time Indy 500 entrants and current full-time F1600 Championship team, at www.ChastainMotorsports.com.