Tanner finishes ISDC season as Triple Crown champion
The fifth ISDC Rigshare World Series season has come to a close with the Watkins Motorsports Group finishing out the year strong.
In Tanner's last two eligible races of the season (TW was not eligible for the make-up race at Texas last night), the Avery Huffman Defeat DIPG Foundation driver picked up a victory and a top-10 to close out the campaign.
Competing in his eighth race of the ISDC Rigshare World Series championship this season, Tanner Watkins brought home the victory at Auto Club Speedway after leading 109 laps from the pole position. Veteran John Eckert challenged TW late and finished just 1.223 seconds behind Watkins for runner-up.
After breaking through at the 5th ISDC Indianapolis 500 earlier this season, it was Tanner's second win in his 20 ISDC starts.
"It was so good to bring this one home tonight," Tanner said after the California 500 victory. "John Eckert was charging hard on us at the end and he was a bit quicker than us with new tires, but the strategy worked out for us and I can't be more pleased."
Watkins pitted earlier than the leaders on the final pit stop sequence and built a gap while the rest of the top five finished their fuel runs on old tires. While Eckert was rapidly approaching in the final ten laps, the aero disturbance he faced while trailing TW was too much to overcome in the late stages.
"We were fortunate that the final few laps fell the way they did, as I could not have held him off much longer or if (Eckert) arrived a few laps sooner, it would have gone the same way," Watkins said. "We gambled a bit but felt it was a sound strategy and it paid off."
Following the triumph, Tanner secured the Spring 2018 ISDC Rigshare World Series Triple Crown by accumulating the most points at the Indianapolis, Pocono and Fontana races. Tanner scored max points at both Indianapolis and Fontana while finishing 8th at Pocono after being wrecked by Brian Mullin on the final lap.
"To win the Triple Crown in one of our final races with the DW-12 is a great achievement for us," Tanner said. "I am really proud to take that home since we aren't able to win the overall championship with the Texas deal, so all in all this is a great consolation. So happy to have the Avery Huffman Defeat DIPG Foundation on the car for this occasion."
The season finale for Tanner would come at Gateway Motorsports Park on March 26, one round before the ISDC finale at Texas. TW was not eligible to run in the final race at Texas due to an incident in the first Lone Star state race a couple months ago.
Starting 5th in the Gateway race, Watkins was able to lead three laps throughout a difficult night of racing. With less than 20 laps remaining, Tanner was pushing for a 4th place finish when he made significant contact with the turn two wall that severely slowed his Dallara DW-12 machine.
Watkins would limp the car home in 6th place, falling 1 lap down in the process of the accident.
"Gateway is a difficult track for me, as are most of these flat short tracks in an Indy car," Watkins said after the race. "We were running very well in 5th there and I just tried pushing a bit too hard and smacked the wall on corner exit. It bent the suspension up and smashed the aero enough to slow us down a lot.
"We salvaged 6th but it was really unfortunate to lose that top-five. It was in hand and I let it go, so that was my fault."
That put a cap on Tanner's first season running a near-full schedule in the ISDC Rigshare World Series, competing in 7 of the 12 events on the schedule. In those 7 starts, Watkins picked up 2 wins, 3 top-fives, 6 top-tens, 3 poles and 220 laps led.
The 22-year-old had an average starting position of 4th and an average finishing position of 6th.
"All in all it was a great year for us. It was difficult to have some of the point losses we did, like at Phoenix and Texas, but besides that we were really competitive and had it not been for those races plus Pocono we would have been in even better shape," Tanner said following Gateway.
"We had to use a couple of provisionals that helped us stay in the hunt but hurt our overall championship hopes, so next season we look to make all the races in an effort to really compete for the championship. I would like to thank the Avery Huffman Defeat DIPG Foundation for being on the car all year and we look forward to next season starting at the end of April."
The sixth season of ISDC Rigshare World Series competition will kick off on Monday, April 23 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 150-mile event preceding a 100-lap race at Japan's Twin Ring Motegi oval on April 30.
That leads into the ISDC "Month of May," with a 41-lap race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 7 kicking off the festivities. On Monday, May 14 the drivers will compete for pole position for the 6th ISDC Indianapolis 500 with a four-hour qualifications session. Tanner has captured pole in the ISDC Indianapolis 500 a record three times.
The Triple Crown season kicks off with the 6th ISDC Indianapolis 500 on Monday, May 21. The July 9 event at Michigan International Speedway and season finale on August 6 at Pocono Raceway will serve as the other two-thirds of the Triple Crown.
Stay tuned to the Watkins Motorsports Group social network for race updates and broadcast information all season long. Follow WMG on Twitter @WMGupdates and find us on Facebook by searching Watkins Motorsports Group.
