The last 30 minutes of IMSA’s visit to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park could go down as one of the craziest finishes seen since the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship launched in 2014.
The late arrivals of a blown engine, rain, wet or dry tire strategy, a failed overtaking maneuver, more rain and a flipped car threw the finish into a wild tailspin that helped Dane Cameron and Eric Curran to earn an unexpected overall win in the No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R.
“We haven’t had the best of luck this year…but that was luck,” Curran said. “The No. 31 wasn’t the best car here this weekend, but we’ll take it.”
With Cameron at the controls, the AXR entry took the soaked checkered flag to score back-to-back victories for the No. 31 at CTMP. Their win for the reigning Prototype champions was the first for the No. 31 using the new DPi-V.R, and the victory also extended Cadillac’s perfect win streak to 7-0 this season. The fact that a Cadillac won at CTMP was the only aspect of the race that could be considered normal.
At the start of the 2h,40m contest, the No. 31 looked destined for an unrewarding finish as both Curran and Cameron struggled for pace, but as the clock wound down to the final 30 minutes, the Prototype lead changed hands three times as fortunes rose and fell up front.
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Nearly two hours of breathless racing around the beloved road course made for perfection at CTMP, but the first pause in the action – approaching the 50-minute mark – thanks to an apparent blown engine in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi, brought out the first yellow. The Nissan’s problems coincided with a brief but hard downpour, which forced every entry in the field to decide on whether to bolt on wet or dry tires during their final pit stop.
After taking the lead from the pole-sitting No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R on pure pace just past the halfway point, the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Prototype team had the first win for a WEC LMP2 in hand, but the costly choice to opt for rain tires while the No. 10 went for slicks dashed their victory plans.
Returning to green with just over 30 minutes to go, the No. 10 fell down the running order as Jordan Taylor held on for dear life as Stephen Simpson streaked away in the No. 85. In a matter of laps, a dry line formed and WTR’s gamble paid off as Taylor reclaimed the lead while his rivals made an extra stop to remove their rain tires.
What appeared to be the decisive move to win the race was thrown away just 21 minutes from the finish line as Taylor tried to pass a cluster of GT cars on the downhill run at Turn 4 and made contact with Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, which sent both cars spinning hard into the barriers. The Corvette was done on the spot while the Cadillac, with its rear wing and all the rear bodywork badly broken, was able to pull onto the track and maintain the lead as the second caution came out.
Replay of the big crash at CTMP. @TommyMilner treated and released, and we’ve got less than five minutes of racing left. #Mobil1SCGP pic.twitter.com/iUQXR0tFya
— IMSA (@IMSA) July 9, 2017
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Whether Taylor turned left before clearing Milner or Milner moved right while Taylor was almost past was unclear for the race leader moments after the race. By the time the Turn 4 cleanup was complete, only 10 minutes were left, and with a rule closing the pits under yellow late in the race, Taylor limped to the green flag as the field motored by and stopped at the end of the lap for repairs.
The transgression with the Corvette Racing team – who Taylor drives for at Le Mans – would drop the race leader to seventh at the checkered flag.
“It’s hard to say without seeing [a replay],” Taylor said of where the blame should be apportioned. “Obviously disappointing. We didn’t have the fastest car but were in a position to win the race.”
If only this was the point where the drama took a break.
More than 20 seconds down to Taylor at one point, Cameron took the lead and pulled out a healthy gap to Simpson…until the rain returned with five minutes to go. The Cadillacs, stuck in low-downforce trim due to IMSA’s Balance of Performance mandates, became a handful on slick tires.
Simpson’s WEC P2 ORECA, with ample downforce, carved into the AXR driver’s lead and appeared to be in a position to correct the earlier rain tire gamble that went awry.
The question of whether the JDC-Miller team could have taken the first Prototype win for a WEC P2 chassis went unanswered as a race-ending yellow, just four minutes from the checkered flag, was required for the crash and flip for David Ostella in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217. Sliding off on the wet track surface, the Canadian driver did significant damage to the car, yet walked away under his own power.
Left with a car on its roof and not enough time to get it cleared to finish the race under green, Cameron took full advantage of the strategy mistakes, driving errors and more than a little luck to drive the No. 31 into Victory Lane. Simpson recorded JDC-Miller’s second straight second-place finish and Ryan Dalziel, after overcoming a spin, recovered to capture a fine third in the No. 22 Nissan.
And that was just the Prototype class.
Performance Tech Racing continued its winning streak as James French and Pato O’Ward claimed their sixth in a row with the No. 38 entry, but unlike the first five wins, the streak was in genuine jeopardy of ending in Canada.
O’Ward, trying to clear traffic while faster Prototypes were in the pack, went wide to find room and found a tire carcass in the middle of his path. Boxed into the outside lane by other cars, O’Ward drove straight through the tire, which shredded the No. 38’s nose and damaged his left-front tire. A long pit stop for repairs unwound the one-lap lead they held in PC, and like the WTR team, Performance Tech’s choice to stay on slicks during the first shower allowed the No. 38 to grab the lead as the other PC cars went for rains.
Left to run hard to the finish, O’Ward crossed the line eighth overall and two laps up on the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports PC.
“That was a lot more entertaining than we anticipated,” French said with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
GT Le Mans also offered thrills as BMW and Porsche fought throughout the race. Coming off its breakthrough win last weekend at Watkins Glen, the similarly winding, flowing CTMP circuit was always going to favor BMW Team RLL’s M6s, but strong pit work by the Porsche GT Team kept things close as the lead exchanged more than once.
Patrick Pilet looked like the one driver capable of stopping BMW from winning two on the trot, and it might have been the case until an engine failure only eight minutes from the end ruined the Frenchman’s chances in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR.
Pilet’s heartbreak eased the pressure on Alexander Sims in the No. 25 BMW M6 and allowed the sister No. 24 BMW of John Edwards to move up and give the brand and team a 1-2 as it celebrated its second win in the span of a week. Richard Westbrook was third for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 67 GT.
“We’re coming – clawing our way back every race now,” Sims’ teammate Bill Auberlen said of the No. 25’s move up the GTLM standings. “It’s amazing. Never count BMW Team RLL and this M6 out. This car is amazing.”
GT Daytona was the only class that gave the appearance of normalcy on Sunday. The Michael Shank Racing Acura team was strong early in the event, and Andy Lally came within 2.5 seconds of scoring three in a row with the No. 93 NSX GT3, but Stevenson Motorsports was not going to be denied a sweep of the weekend.
First-time winners in the Continental Tire Series with the Camaro GT4.R on Saturday, the Stevenson team backed it up with a first-time win for its No. 57 Audi R8 LMS GT3 in GTD as Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis put in flawless performances to cap a perfect trip north of the border.
“I’m so happy with the win, it’s my first win with Stephenson Motorsports,” Aschenbach said. “We’ve been so close, so many years. To really get one this weekend is special, but the Camaro winning yesterday and the Audi today. It’s so great.”
Davis dedicated the win to a fallen team member.
“We lost a team member over the week after Watkins Glen, Dexter Johnson, who was a member of our team for years and years. He passed away and just want to dedicate this win to him and his family. He’ll be missed and he’ll always be a part of our team.”
Alessandro Balzan was third in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488.
At the front of the field, WTR has gone from winning five straight to consecutive finishes of sixth and seventh. The only thing that went right for the team in Canada were the problems that befell its closest championship rival, the No. 5 AXR Cadillac driven by Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi.
A broken valve stem cost the No. 5 a lot of time early in the race as the Cadillac had to pit for a fresh left-front tire right after its previous stop, and later, gathering up the DPi-V.R after some rough driving slowed their progress.
Looking at the Prototype championship, WTR’s crash and fall to seventh was painful, but they were fortunate to finish directly behind the No. 5, which limited the championship points damage.
Performance Tech is long gone in the PC title hunt, Auberlen and Sims are on the march up the GTLM standings and Balzan and teammate Christina Nielsen strengthened their position atop GTD.
After a season filled mostly with big win streaks and predictable outcomes, life in starting to get interesting as the WeatherTech Championship speeds towards Petit Le Mans in October.
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