Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay is hoping that the IndyCar Series' first road course event of the year, at Watkins Glen this weekend, will give him the luck he appears to have been missing in recent rounds
The visit to the historic 3.4-mile circuit is the first road course outing for Hunter-Reay and RLR since last year's event at Detroit's Belle Isle, where they enjoyed a best qualifying effort of 2007, getting into the Firestone Fast Six and taking the fifth spot for the race. But while the combination has shone during road- and street-course qualifying - never starting outside the top ten - problems always seem to find them during the races, leaving finishes of 17th and below in each of the last three such events.
That sort of luck is reminiscent of the early part of 2008 where, despite frequent glimpses of a breakthrough event, Hunter-Reay has yet to achieve a result he would deem worthy of his performances, having been taken out of races at both Texas and Richmond recently.
“We have had really good cars at every road course that I have been on with Rahal Letterman Racing, so we're looking forward to this weekend at Watkins Glen,” he said, “We will find a way to get this Ethanol car to the front and keep it there - and I think this would be a great race to start.”
Handling issues ended a promising run at Infineon after just five laps last year, while a broken driveshaft ended a top-five effort in Detroit. Hunter-Reay led late at St Petersburg earlier this year, and had a top-five all but sealed, when the car ran out of fuel with less than five laps to go.
“I'm excited about getting a shot at Watkins Glen in a 650-horsepower IndyCar,” Hunter-Reay admitted, ahead of his series debut at the track. “This track is a good test in a sportscar, so I am sure it provides plenty of challenges for us in the IndyCars.”
![Ryan Hunter-Reay - Rahal Letterman Racing [pic credit: IRL/Haines]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/436624.jpg)
