May 29-30, 2016 was the much anticipated Nurburgring 24Hr endurance event, regarded by some as the toughest race in the world due to the long nature of the 15.9 mile road course used through Germany’s Eifel Mountains. Jeff is one of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus’s factory pilots in their new GT3 Racing car, SCG003c.
“The team and I have been prepping for this event since August 2015, so to have finished with the success we did this past weekend is very surreal. All that prep and the goal is finally achieved. With that said, the pace over the weekend was VERY encouraging, and the much needed reliability was improved greatly. We did have 1 hour in the pit box during the 24HR event, yet that is much better than the early stages of this cars life span.” Explained Westphal
Jeff drove almost half of the total race time in the team and class leading SCG003c #702, where at many points in the race his laps were the fastest overall on the track compared to over 35 other GT3 cars, most of which had Audi, AMG, BMW, Porsche, or Nissan Factory support and drivers in them.
“The car has come a long way, and is really starting to feel good. I mean, it’s always felt good, but I can describe this latest step for us as one in which all of the systems and dynamics of the car are working very efficiently together, so the driving effort pays off with a pace setting speed at times. In my first stint for example, it was 2 gas tanks worth which we call a double, and at about 3 hours in length with a wet track on slick tires, I was able to find the one car wide dry line around the 170 corner track and run overall best laps and pull our #702 from 27th to 9th place overall, while retaining 1st in class the entire time,” said Jeff.
The Italian team was very optimistic at the end with a 26th overall finish (second in class) despite loosing over 1 hour in the garage to repair a fatigued exhaust. With that said, they are planning to re-design the failed part and are looking to continue the progress with SCG003c #702 affectionately known as “Macchina Due” with Westphal at the helm, later this year.
“This car’s progress and existence wouldn’t be possible without the support of all involved, and I would like to thank them; especially Chris Ruud, Jim Glickenhaus and Manufacctura Automobilia Torino. But I also want to thank Brian Frank from Hammer Nutrition for keeping my body fueled, and all my other personal supporters;”
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Additionally, Westphal also defended and re-set his 4 year old overall time attack track record in the USA at the famed Road Atlanta for GST Motorsports earlier in the month at Global Time Attack round 1, precluding his speed in Europe this past week. Jeff Piloted the once street driven GST Subaru Impreza L around the natural terrain road course in 1.20.79, which was 3+ seconds quicker than his previous record.
“What we were able to do with this Impreza was really incredible, because I have race Petit Le Mans here, which is a pro 10 hour race filled with factory built racecars, and our little Subaru went quicker than the GT3 Ferrari I have defended the teams championship with, and was only 1 second per lap behind the GT2 style cars that are the cream of the GT crop at the moment. For a little tuning shop from a small town in California to achieve this is pretty special.” Exclaimed the Californian.
Jeff will be competing in other time attack events later in the year for GST with their 9 track record holding Impreza as well.
