The Tudor United Sportscar Championship called on Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) with a 2 hour and 40 minute event at the 2.5 mile natural terrain road course. Located about an hour from Toronto, the race was run under hot and dry conditions with modest clouds.
The GTD class had the weekend off which meant that speed differentials among the 23 cars in the starting field were modest. The lack of slower traffic and the long, fast sweeping corners made passing difficult in the race.
Ricky Taylor led lead from the pole in his Corvette DP. Wayne Taylor said on the grid that they weren’t watching for season points given their position in the championship, preferring to focus on running for race wins. True to his word, Ricky and Jordan Taylor fought through hot conditions and a frantic pace to claim the win by less than half a second over the Action Express car of Dane Cameron and Eric Curran.
In GTLM, Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche dominated the weekend. Tandy led most practice sessions and started from the pole. The car led every lap of the race save for a handful on pit stop exchanges. The white #24 BMW Z4 of John Edwards and Lucas Luhr had a more eventful race, but had to settle for second.
Prototype Challenge failed to deliver the close race that practice and qualifying signaled. Amateur Jon Bennett had a strong start to the race before handing over to Colin Braun who brought the #54 CORE autosport home with a lap margin. There were a number of issues and retirements that took over half of the PC field out of contention.
Strategy plays were underway before the green flag with the last three GTLM qualifiers electing to start on fresh rubber rather than the used qualifying tires. Already at the back, Jorg Bergmeister and Bryan Sellers in their Porsches and Ollie Gavin in the Corvette had little to lose.
Drama also emerged early for the prototype challenge class. Starworks looked for another driver in the morning as Mirco Schultis was not well, even putting out messages on Twitter. Schultis started the car and put in an impressive hour behind the wheel before turning over to co-driver Renger van der Zande. Sadly, motor failure would end their day with 25 minutes to go.
On the warm-up lap, Chris Cumming spun his #11 RSR Racing entry into the wall on drivers left. He incurred significant nose damage and pitted before the green. The car was repaired and rejoined 3 laps down. Once underway, Cummings immediately set times as fast as the PC leaders to back-up the pace he showed in qualifying.
The green flag waved and the P cars separated themselves from the pack within seven or eight laps. The leading DP cars started lapping the rear of the GTLM runners after 10 laps. Tandy steadily added fractions of a second with each lap in his Porsche, building a 5 second lead after a fourteen laps. The top three in GTLM (Porsche and two BMWs) gapped the rest of the GTLM field by 10 seconds or so.
The only full course caution waved for the James French in the #38 prototype challenge car with just over two hours remaining. Several front-running cars had already made pit stops, including the #31 Action Express car which benefitted by staying out and claiming the lead when others pitted. The #01 Ganassi came to the pits, but just missed getting in before the pits were closed, earning them a costly 60 second stop and hold once the race returned to green. The penalty would cost a lap take them out of contention.
The yellow allowed Christian Fittipaldi to give way Joao Barbosa who easily beat Jordan Taylor out of the pits who had taken over for Ricky. Taylor had a near miss in pit lane when the #54 CORE autosport car exited, taking avoiding action to prevent contact.
The yellow also allowed Ozz Negri to take over for John Pew who had been able to keep the car relatively close before the yellow closed the gap altogether. The yellow helped the Shank team, but they also had a power steering failure take hold at about the same time which made life very difficult for Ozz for the remainder of the race.
The yellow erased Tandy’s lead in GTLM. He led the entire GTLM field into the pits and gave way to teammate Patrick Pilet. The loser in the exchange of pit stops was the black #24 BMW Z4 which gave up several spots.
At this point, Ricky Taylor cited power steering issues after getting out of the car saying that it was very difficult to turn. He sounded tired and weary on IMSA Radio after the pit stop exchange. The physical effort to turn with power steering issues under aerodynamic load was obvious and the effect was visible as the pace had started to deteriorate mid-way through the stint.
Power steering problems seemed to be common. In addition to Taylor and Shank, the #52 prototype challenge car spent time in the pits with a steering problem. Such problems don’t “fix” themselves, but Jordan Taylor was able to manage the situation in his car and find some consistency.
The GTLM battle was extremely tight at this point. John Edwards in the #24 BMW was all over Wolf Henzler’s Falken Porsche, trying to recover the spots lost in the pits. He was visibly faster but unable to get by for a long time. He finally made the pass, set sail for Giancarlo Fisichella in the Ferrari and was able to make that pass a few laps later and promptly pulled away.
Dirk Werner stayed close to Pilet in the class leading Porsche with the two of them separating from the rest of the GTLM field.
After a very strong early stint from Jon Bennett in the #54 CORE autosport car, Conor Braun took over and steadily hunted down Mikhail Goikhberg in the #85 until Goikhberg pitted to surrender the lead after having an off. At this point, Braun disappeared from the field on his way to the win.
With 75 minutes left, Negri and Barbosa had a fantastic dice, separated by only tenths as the cars sliced through slower traffic. The gap ebbed and flowed, but traffic clearly had an effect. Once through traffic, Negri made use of clear track to build a gap of four seconds before both pitted. The stop was a little early for Barbosa who feared that a tire was going down.
The Action Express team turned a quicker pit stop in the sequence and got him out in front of Negri. With just over an hour to go, both still needed to make another stop before the end of the race.
The last flurry of GTLM pit stops with just under an hour to go were frantic. The #911 Porsche and the white #25 BMW came in at the same time. Both cars changed drivers and the Porsche won the race off pit road. The #25 BWM pitted to switch from Werner to Auberlen on the next lap and the Ferrari called shortly behind after along with the Falken Porsche.
Fresh tires and fresh drivers gave the GTLM class a late boost. Most cars set their fastest race laps in this part of the event. Antonio Garcia and Tom Milner in the Corvettes each gained a spot in the pit stops and their cars came alive on the track as the team finally was able to take advantage of some cloud cover to optimize their tire pressures. At the front, Tandy kept putting in fast and consistent laps to build a 10 second gap over Bill Auberlen in the BMW. Garcia steadily hunted down the BMW duo.
Dirk Werner commented later that he had a lot of fun in the BMW, but pointed to the Porsche’s ability to launch out of turn 5 which gave it an advantage down the long back straightaway.
Negri made his final pit stop with 45 minutes to go for fuel, but had trouble restarting which extended the stop by a handful of seconds. Jordan Taylor and Joao Barbosa then pitted to get fresh tires and their last fills. Their hand was forced and they couldn’t afford to stay out in case of a late yellow. Notably, Taylor elected to take two tires along with the short fuel fill in an effort to minimize time spent on pit lane. The decision would pay off.
Jordan Taylor swept by Negri with 16 minutes to go, with Negri struggling to manage his power steering problems. Barbosa continued to show strong pace, before unexpectedly pitting to change a left rear that was going down.
The key moment in the race came with 9 minutes to go when Dane Cameron was called to pit lane for fuel. He had been told by his team to push hard and build a gap because Jordan Taylor was charging hard behind. Cameron’s team changed the left rear tire and gave him fuel but the fuel hose didn’t immediately engage which cost precious time before releasing. That second or two lost in the pits ended up being the difference.
Taylor sped by to take the lead with a gap of 2 seconds and then fended off Cameron to the checkered flag where the margin had narrowed to less than half a second. Negri finished in third for Michael Shank and co-driver John Pew, but needed help to get out of the car and was taken to the medical center. On a hot day, a lack of water and power steering had taken its toll.
Negri is a tri-athlete so for him to need assistance is quite a statement. After the race, Shea Adam spoke to him and his fatigue was obvious. “I could hardly turn the steering wheel. It was extremely hard. I was trying to pace myself.” He recovered after getting some fluids shortly after the end of the race and later called it the “hardest race of his life,” crediting team owner Michael Shank for encouragement over the radio.
Jordan Taylor credited the call on the last stop and the pace to the end saying “We talked about it right before the race, what we do if we had a short fill. We decided that two tires was better than three. So when we did it, I went out of the pits and the car had a funny balance because we only had two rear fresh tires. So once the balance came in, the car was quick and I was setting faster times on the used tires than I was on new tires.” Somehow, Jordan’s co-driver Ricky drove a car with Max Angelelli’s name instead of his above the door of the Wayne Taylor Racing prototype, but that didn’t seem to slow down victory lane celebrations.
“That was definitely everything I had,” said Dane Cameron later. “The whole time it was just qualifying laps for almost two and a half hours in the car. It was pretty flat out. Really, really tough race. Unfortunately, I think I was dropping wheels a little bit on the front straightaway so we were having some soft leaks go down. We were always having to pit early and that made us have to do that one last pit stop. We had it timed perfectly, but some days it’s not your day and it doesn’t go to plan. ”
Point leaders Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante claimed a quiet fourth place. It was a good points day, but they didn’t challenge for the win.
Katherine Legge’s birthday present was a ninth place finish for the DeltaWing, despite an early bump with another car that damaged a wheel. They’re sure to be pleased with a finish. The Mazda prototype rode good fuel mileage to a seventh place overall two laps off the lead.
The GTLM class was owned by Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet in their Porsche. They showed pace and consistency and turned their pole position into a win. In victory lane, Tandy reflected on the year noting that “I think it has been 18 months since we’ve actually been on the top step in victory lane. It’s been 18 months since I’ve personally been on the podium in this series, so it’s been a long time waiting. We had a good run at Watkins Glen last weekend, but our mates in the Falken car beat us to it. This time, it was a perfect weekend. Good qualifying, good practice sessions and it was a fantastic race.”
John Edwards put in a solid last stint, pulling ahead of teammate Bill Auberlen to claim second on the podium in his BMW with three laps to go. With an extremely strong last stint of his own, Antonio Garcia took his Corvette past Auberlen’s BMW to take the third spot on the podium on the next lap as Auberlen’s tires were gone.
The #912 Porsche never recovered from its poor qualifying position, finishing a lap down. Likewise, the Falken Porsche struggled to make up positions before ultimately retiring with 20 minutes to go. Damage on the rear of the car around the exhaust tips was evidence of a meeting with another competitor on track. Sellers said that “We had some sort of a misfire, but until we get back and take a look we won’t know for sure. It’s a shame.” Sellers suspected that the damage might have come from a bump in Henzler’s stint with a BMW, but is was unknown whether the damage caused the engine problem.
The prototype challenge class turned into a Braun and Bennett benefit. The duo won with a lap advantage on the field, making the most of a good test session on Tuesday. Colin Braun gave credit to his co-driver saying “It’s huge. I think the biggest change for us was John. He did such a good job driving the CORE autosport car. He made just a huge jump. He brought the car to me in the lead and we were able to hold on and win the darn race.”
Sean Rayhall and John Felb in the #16 BAR1 Motorsports car claimed second with Matt McMurry and Mikhail Goikhberg in the #85 JDC/Miller car rounding out the podium.
The Tudor series next stops at Lime Rock in the northwest corner of Connecticut on July 24-25. Lime Rock is a much smaller and shorter will see only the prototype challenge and GTD cars. All four classes will rejoin in early August in Wisconsin at Road America on August 7-9.
Kevin Ehrlich
