Tanner finishes 4th in ISDC at Richmond
Competing in round seven of the ISDC Rigshare World Series, a caution-filled event resulted in a fine finish for the Watkins Motorsports Group.
Headlining the evening were chilly racing conditions that resulted in an icy track temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, causing many drivers issues in practice exiting turn two with a lack of rear end grip in their Dallara DW-12 Indy cars.
In qualifying, Tanner had an accident on his flying second lap that relegated him to a 10th place starting position out of 15 cars that took the green flag.
The race started with multiple single-car accidents, with John Eckert spinning on the pace lap, then during the first green flag run. Seven laps into the event, WMG friend Michael Chinn would unfortunately depart the event with an accident on the backstretch, and drivers Derek Pemberton, Brian Mullin, Zachary Buchanan, Will Roberts, Brian Sullivan and Kyle Pokrefky would eventually join him on the sidelines with evening-ending crashes.
In Buchanan's accident on lap 46, Watkins would sustain damage with a front-end collision. Pitting for a brand new front wing, the WMG driver would continue on, sitting around 10th place for much of the evening.
As the night went on, Watkins would strategically pick off opponents one-by-one before finally restarting 4th with just over 20 laps to go on the race's final restart from yellow. Holding off a daring charge from Eckert and Cass Siliman, TW would pick up a 4th place finish after a wild night in Virginia.
"It feels great to pick up the top five after the accident with Mullin last week," Watkins mentioned. "We have been very up-and-down with our finishes in this series this year, showing speed most weeks. The consistency has hurt us a bit, sometimes our fault and sometimes not, so that will be the next step in taking us forward.
"I just want to thank the Avery Huffman Defeat DIPG Foundation for supporting us this season and we look forward to finishing out this ISDC Rigshare World Series championship strong."
Following the seventh round of this spring's championship, Tanner is now in 5th place out of the 40-driver leaderboard in ISDC's current open-wheel championship. Danny Roberts leads the field of drivers with 257 points thus far, 83 points clear of Tanner with 174 points.
Currently, WMG driver John Watkins sits 23rd in points with two race appearances this season.
The ISDC Rigshare World Series continues with round eight next week at Watkins Glen International. The race will go green at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and could be a pivotal point in the championship.
Stay tuned to the Watkins Motorsports Group social network to keep up-to-date on the team's proceedings.
