AO Racing and DragonSpeed win their class at CTMP

IMSA

Jul 14

AO Racing’s PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron clinched their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as did the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe in GTD PRO.

AO Racing wins after snatching pole

AO Racing’s “Spike the LMP2 Dragon” won the Chevrolet Grand Prix after Tom Dillmann with the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca crashed out with just a little over 15 minutes left in the 80 minutes race. Thanks to this victory and the points of the pole, AO Racing, Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett are now second in the Drivers and Team’s Championships reducing the gap with the leader.

#22 United Autosports second keeps Championship lead

Daniel Goldburg who this time shared the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA with Tom Blomqvist (Paul Di Resta was on duty for Peugeot in WEC at São Paulo) finished second. and remain leader in the drivers championship as well as #22 United Autosports USA leads the Teams’ championship.

Ferrari, Corvette and Porsche share GTD PRO podium

Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe driving the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 won their first IMSA race thanks to a perfect fuel stop during a Safety Car.

A similar call for a top-off of fuel under yellow by the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports engineering team with nearly 80 minutes to go reversed the same fortunes for Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and the #4 Corvette on the way to a second-place GTD PRO finish

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED SECOND IN GTD PRO: "That's the name of the game sometimes. We for sure didn't have the car we hoped for or wanted today. It was hard to drive. We took a risk and made a stretch call there that worked out in our favor. In talking to the guys on the pit stand, this is a place where you don't have little moments; you have big ones. So the chance of a yellow I thought was pretty good so I was pretty happy with our decision. It played into our hands exactly as we needed it to. We've had some bad luck throughout the year, so we'll take some good luck today."

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED SECOND IN GTD PRO: "It's very nice to finish on the podium. It's our first of the year, and it's great to do it at the Chevrolet Grand Prix. But we do have a lot of work to do. We got a little bit lucky today. We need to figure out where things keep going wrong for us in the pitlane and figure out how to get the Corvette in a bit better window. We have work left but the guys worked really hard. We did a really good job in terms of Manufacturers points. The points for the 3 car guys today was good for their championship, too. So all good."

Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler drove AO Racing’s #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R to third place.

Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims keep their Drivers Championship lead

Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims also retained their Drivers Championship lead with a fourth-place finish in the #3 Corvette.

ANTONIO GARCIA, #3 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: "It was super difficult strategy-wise to know what to do. You would do whatever you had to do and it obviously went the other way for us. In a way, I'm happy that we did our race. Without the last yellow, everyone ahead of us was tight (on fuel) so it was going to be another fight with the 77. The 4 car made that gamble on fuel and obviously it paid out. For all the loss we got for running the regular strategy, at least the 4 team got the most out of it. They had issues on their first two stops so that put them on the back foot but for once it worked. Great Manufacturer points for Chevrolet. It's good that either the 3 or 4 Corvette is on the podium in any race. That's what we need to achieve. Let's see if at the next races we can get them both up there. But today I'm happy for Corvette Racing overall and we'll move ahead for the next one." Source: Corvette Racing