Andy Lally and Matt Bell took the win at Canadian Tires Motorsports Park after an inspired strategic decision from Stevenson Motorsport’s Mike Johnson gave the #9 Camaro Z28.R the winning edge.
Johnson opted to give Lally just two tyre at the final routine pitstop and that was enough time saved to ensure that the Camaro would be in the lead at the last restart with 45 minutes of the race remaining.
An elated Lally said post-race:
“I really have to give a shout out, Mike (Johnson, team manager) and I haven’t won a race together in 10 years. This is Matt and I’s first race (win) together after I raced against Stevenson Motorsports for all these years. Finally getting a win with them is really cool… Especially at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. This is a special place; everybody knows this is a driver’s track. I knew I had some good cars behind me to hold off. It was fun race.”
It was just enough to hold off a charging Billie Johnson in the #158 Miller Mustang he shared with Ian James, the Ford man closing in as the Camaro struggled through lapped traffic, the pair finishing the race almost nose to tail.
A second Mustang completed the podium with Scott Maxwell and Jade Buford’s #15 car losing out to the #158 in the closing stages. Both Fords finished ahead of the Trent Hindman/ John Edwards Fall-Line BMW, the M3 wrongfooted by the Stevenson tyre call, the #46 car did though finish ahead of the second Stevenson Camaro the #6 car coming home 6th.
ST saw Canadian Remo Ruscitti win on his first run at CTMP, it was a good result after a pair of late race DNFs for his #04 Autometrics Porsche Cayman with the lead changing in the closing stages and securing the first race win of the season for the Ruscitti/ Adam Isman combo.
Ruscitti, coached by Michael Valiante said he was:
“More relieved than excited, although it probably hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s awesome to finally win, it’s been a long time coming, and it’s good to get it here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
“I’ve been working real hard to get to this point. I had a great battle with Andrew (Carbonell) and Eric (Foss). They kept me on my toes. It was real good racing, and I’m sure it was fun to watch, too.”
After a three way tussle from the final restart Ruscitti made it by previously dominant class leader Foss’s #56 Murillo BMW 328i with just a couple of laps to go and then fended off the BMW and the #26 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX5 of Andrew Carbonell to the flag.
