Canadian Tire Motorsport Park always promises to be a wild race. After the race in last season was marred by several wrecks and wild drama, the Bowmanville, Ontario track delivered more of the same on Saturday.
Starting from 14th place on the grid, it was the No. 151 BMW M4 GT3 of World Of SimRacing Team winning by a whole lap over the competition.
It surely didn’t come easy though. In fact, it wasn’t until lap 68 - the second half of the race - that the No. 151 BMW M4 GT3 took the lead for the first time.
Several GTD class contenders entered pit road on the same lap to make pit stops and driver changes, including race leader Marc Johnson in the No. 78 Champion Motorsports BMW, who handed off the car to team-mate Marc Nistor.
But because their pit stall was beyond the start/finish line, the No. 151 BMW took the lead, even if only momentarily.
However, monetarily turned into permanent on lap 74 when Marco Pereira took full advantage of traffic to place his World Of SimRacing Team machine on the inside of Nistor into turn three, to take the lead.
Within just one lap, Pereira created a four-second lead and the Spaniard never looked back and held the lead for the remainder of the race - including another full-course yellow shortly afterwards.
For the World Of SimRacing Team it was the first ever VSCA SportsCar Championship victory in their 13th race in the series, dating back to the series’ inaugural race at Daytona in 2022.
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| Flying under the radar, the No. 16 Dangler Performance Mercedes AMG GT3 earned its best-ever finish (P3) in the VR7UAL Sports Car Challenge at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
After losing the lead and falling back to second place, things got worse quickly for the No. 78 Champion Motorsports BMW and driver Marc Nistor.
The 24-year old from Chicago, Illinois found himself on the wrong end of the stick in turn nine, just four laps after the final restart of the race.
Upon entering the corner, the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 of Patrick Fogel directly behind made an aggressive move to the inside, the two cars touched and Nistor found himself in the wall, thus ending a promising run for the Denton, Texas based team in this race.
Furious faces were seen in the Champion Motorsports pit stall after realizing how severe the damage was, rendering the team unable to bring it home, shortly before the end of the race. The No. 78 BMW was scored 13th in the end, 14 laps down.
For their involvement in the incident, Fogel and the No. 393 Mercedes were handed a one-lap stop & hold penalty by race control which meant a P5 finish in the end.
Huge incident between No. 5 Mercedes and No. 67 Porsche
But drama was far from over in the VR7UAL Sports Car Challenge. On lap 96, just about ten minutes before the race’s conclusion, things got heated between the No. 5 Screeching Moose Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 of Taylor Parsons and the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche with Aedan Campbell.
Earlier on the same lap, it was Parsons placing his Mercedes to the inside of the Kinetic Porsche into turn eight to take second place.
But in the final corner Campbell got a big run on Parsons and made a move to the outside when the two cars touched and crashed.
While Parsons was able to continue and take second place in the end, Campbell and the Kinetic Racing Porsche had to tow for repairs and did not return to contention, ending up ninth in the end, seven laps down.
After the race, several Kinetic Racing and Screeching Moose Motorsports team members were seen exchanging words on pit lane as tempers continued to flare.
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| On lap 96, while battling for second place in the closing laps of the event, a huge incident occurred between the No. 5 Screeching Moose Motorsports Mercedes and the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
On the contrary, flying under the radar and running a somewhat quiet race, Dangler Performance and the No. 16 Mercedes with drivers Theo Taylor and Jim McGill took third place in the race - the team’s best ever result in VSCA SportsCar Championship. Their previous best was a fourth-place finish at Watkin Glen in 2022.
Off in the Esses Racing took P4 as American drivers duo Michael Garrone and first-time starter Michael Schoonaert - who made his VSCA SportsCar Championship debut in the event - ran a solid race and even led a lap.
Despite their post-race penalty, the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes finished fifth.
Last lap drama involving No. 84 Porsche and No. 9 BMW
Running in third position entering the final lap of the race, the No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche looked deemed to earn its second top-five result of the 2023 season.
But drama unfolded once again and overall leaders No. 99 JO Motorsports made an aggressive move into turn three, which put the No. 5 Screeching Moose Motorsports Mercedes directly on the rear bumper of Fischer Motorsport driver Manuel Mayer for the second half of the final lap.
Taking full advantage of the opportunity, Taylor Parsons in the No. 5 car passed Mayer on the Clayton straight to take third place.
Mayer, now fully focused on defending fourth place against the fast-approaching No. 9 BMW of Grizzly Motorsports took a defensive line into the final corner of the track, but the two cars made contact sending Mayer’s car into a wild spin.
Race control handed a post-race 30-second penalty to the No. 9 car for the incident, but for the Fischer Motorsport team it was nonetheless a bitterly disappointing end to another frustrating race, ending up in P6.
The No. 9 Grizzly Motorsports car ended up seventh officially.
Torque Freak Racing had entered Saturday’s fifth championship round with the momentum coming off their first win of the season at Laguna Seca two weeks prior. The team’s hopes were dashed early when on lap eight they were cut off by the No. 14 Dallara LMP2 of Fischer Motorsport driver Travis Linscome-Hatfield heading into turn four.
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| Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is known for its dramatic, crash-filled races and lived up to this once again on Saturday, including a last-lap last-corner crash between the No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche and No. 9 BMW of Grizzly Motorsports - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
The contact sent the No. 6 Lamborghini into the concrete wall, creating a massive incident and all but ending the race for the team, that still went on to limp to a P8 finish, six laps down in the end, following an extensive repair stop.
Kinetic Racing and their No. 67 Porsche team won the first three races of the season, but with their P9 finish on Saturday, they have now missed the podium in two straight races.
Dennis Ehrhardt and Julian Leonhardt rounded out the top-ten finishers in GTD class competition in the 2-hour-40-minute race as their No. 127 EastSide Motorsport Mercedes finished ten laps down.
The team out of Crimmitschau, Germany was running on the lead lap with ten minutes remaining in the race, when Leonhardt drove in too deep into turn three, went in the marbles and went off the track to crash into the tire barriers.
The team was forced to retire from the race, as the repairs would have taken longer than the time remaining in the event.
Championship standings tighten as top two championship contenders falter at CTMP
With both championship leading entries, the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche and No. 6 Torque Freak Racing Lamborghini struggling with incidents in the race and finishing P8 and P9, respectively, there were no big changes atop the GTD class championship standings.
Screeching Moose Motorsports gain two spots to move into third place, thanks to their second-place finish.
MAD Sim Racing and the No. 393 Mercedes team remain to sit in fourth and the No. 78 Champion Motorsports BMW drops to fifth, after their misfortune at CTMP.
Watkins Glen up next, marking halfway point of season
Incredibly enough, the season’s halfway mark is coming up with the next race at Watkins Glen on June 17th with only six more races remaining in the season.
As the VSCA Endurance Cup makes its return, the summer part of the season opens with the GTD series championship still wide open.
But in Endurance Cup competition Kinetic Racing and MAD Sim Racing have the opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition if they complete another solid points haul at Watkins Glen. Only one more Endurance Cup race remains after Watkins Glen - the Petit Le Mans season finale in October.
The 6 Hours of the Glen is set for Saturday, June 17th at Watkins Glen International.
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