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Colin Braun, CORE autosport Nissan DPi quickest in first practice at CTMP…
Colin Braun led the way in opening practice for Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, putting CORE autosport on top of the time sheets.
Braun reeled off a 1:05.876 lap time in the No. 54 Nissan DPi early in the session to outpace the Watkins Glen-winning No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P of Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell by 0.419 seconds.
Helio Castroneves was third quickest in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura ARX-05, followed by the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, which battled clutch issues early in the session.
The DPi championship-leading No. 6 Penske Acura DPi of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya, meanwhile, completed the top-five.
I think it's been a while since the Nissan's roared out to the front of the pack but it's good to see them showing speed early on.
My guess is it's the first practice on what's considered a very high speed track so teams are easing into it and by tomorrow we should start seeing some track records falling. (hopefully with Mazda leading the way)
Colin Braun quickest in shortened Free Practice 2 at CTMP…
Colin Braun led the way again in a shortened second practice session for Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Braun improved on his Practice 1 pace-setting time by 0.001 seconds, having taken his No. 54 CORE autosport Nissan DPi to a 1:05.875.
It was 0.024 seconds quicker than the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 of Dane Cameron, with teammate Ricky Taylor third quickest in the No. 7 Acura DPi.
The session, originally scheduled for 60 minutes, was cut short with more than 20 minutes left on the clock due to track repairs in Turns 2 and 5, with the asphalt reportedly breaking up.
Tiny improvement over their first practice but Acura seems to be creeping up the timesheets now running 2nd and 3rd.
It'll get real interesting tomorrow morning with the final practice and qualifying.
Didn't CORE do really well at this track last year?
I can't remember.
Being part of the extended Mazda Motorsports family, and Doonan’s in particular, has kept Franchitti glued to the team’s performances this year. Considering the number of near-wins that have been lost, maybe it was something as simple as a good-luck charm that helped get Mazda to the finish line first.
...
“We had breakfast recently when he was over in the UK, and I gave John some socks in the famous Mazda 787B Le Mans-winning colors and jokingly told him that they were the missing piece of the puzzle. To see him riding the car into Victory Lane on Sunday and see he was wearing the socks made me chuckle…”
Doonan totally was wearing them argyles, I bet he's wearing them to every race forever!
It's Race Day
The Nisans' continued to show speed yesterday and took the pole with Acura coming in 2nd and the #55 in 3rd.
However, the Nissan will start at the back of the pack as they've opted to change drivers and tires before the race thus forefeiting their pole position.
Mazda now 2nd and 4th on the grid and this should be a hell of a race.
CMT is known as a very fast track so lets see who can keep pace.
oh, and in case anyone missed this announcement from IMSA:
Sunday’s broadcast of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Acura from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park has been moved to CNBC beginning at 1 p.m. EDT. The race can also be streamed live on the NBC Sports App andNBCSports.com
That's awesome Brett.
Man, did you see that crazy crash at the end?
definitely set up an eventful sprint to the checkered flag.
now the question we'll never have the answer to: Had the race stayed Green, did Mazda have enough fuel to make it to the end? Probably not because I think their fuel window is about 40 minutes and there was what, 46 minutes left ?
Acura and their weird pit strategy (thanks to the punctured tire) probably would have resulted in them being out front at the end.
That was a massive crash alright...never seen a car disappear into the tyres like that before .
From what I heard from the commentators ...they had enough gas due to the previous yellow period.
now the question we'll never have the answer to: Had the race stayed Green, did Mazda have enough fuel to make it to the end? Probably not because I think their fuel window is about 40 minutes and there was what, 46 minutes left ?
Acura and their weird pit strategy (thanks to the punctured tire) probably would have resulted in them being out front at the end.
Sounds like luck was on Joest's side for a change. Gotta be Doonan's socks.
Hahaha. They're sore because they can't dominate when traffic opens up? The Cadillacs and Acuras still have a clear power advantage in traffic.
I thought they were pretty evenly matched in the straights, especially when the #7 was on the #55's *** towards the latter part of the race. Tinchnell played it clean unlike many others during Watkins Glen when the Mazdas were on their asses.
Last edited by SayNoToPistons; 07-08-2019 at 03:27 PM.
Man, I'm still pretty stoked about Mazda winning two in a row.
some random thoughts:
bummed the 55 had issues in that last pit especially since Team Joest has really worked on that aspect of their team and their pits @ Watkins Glenn were flawless!
Reason it's such a bummer is the 55 had the speed all weekend and had it won, it would have been the first time EVER the same car won at Watkins Glenn and at CMT at back to back events. SO close.
I really keep thinking if Penske complains enough, we might see some BoP changes to the Mazdas but I still don't think it's all that warranted.
Here are the top speeds for the top 5 finishing cars in yesterday's race
Mazda #77 - 133.938 mph
Mazda #55 - 133.730 mph
Acura - 133.214 mph
Cadillac #31 - 133.510 mph
Acura - 133.538 mph
That's a margin of 0.724 mph.
Yeah, I get that Acura is complaining Mazda has better mid range power but speed wise that's pretty close.
question becomes do they actually gimp Mazda? drop weight from Cadillac?
***Oliver Jarvis scored his third career IMSA victory and second overall, his last coming in the 2013 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, in the final LMP1 win for Audi in American Le Mans Series competition. Ironically, both wins came with cars run by Joest Racing.
***Jarvis took over the lead following an airjack issue for the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell during its final stop, when the two cars came into the pits with 48 minutes to go.
“We had a countdown and I noticed they were still up on their jacks,” he told Sportscar365. “That’s when I realized there was a problem. At the same time, it’s a strange feeling because you feel sorry for them but that was our moment to get the win.”
***The Englishman revealed they found a small aero imbalance in warmup, which they were able to correct in time for the race which put the No. 77 Mazda RT24-P on pace with the sister No. 55 car of Ticknell and Jonathan Bomarito.
***IMSA stopped the clock during a red flag for what’s believed to be the first time in series history. Race director Beaux Barfield told Sportscar365 that the sporting regulations were previously amended to allow IMSA the option of either continuing to let the clock to run or to halt the time elapsed in an effort to not let the race end under a full-course caution.
***The red flag, to clean p the accident by the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Victor Franzoni, lasted 7 minutes and 54 seconds.
***During the red flag, Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan went to the infield medical center to check on the status of Mazda Road to Indy alum Franzoni, who was later transported to a hospital for further evaluation and was cleared of any serious injury. The team’s Cadillac DPi, however, is believed to be a write-off.
Tristan Nunez says his first career overall IMSA victory has been “worth the wait” following a “dream come true” achievement for himself and Mazda Team Joest in Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
For the former Mazda development driver, who made his top-level sports car racing debut in SpeedSource’s diesel-powered Mazda6 GX car in Grand-Am, the overall win has been a long time coming.
“I’ve said it multiple times, it’s worth the wait,” Nunez said. “We won some GX races but this was playing with the big boys.
“All the effort we’ve put in and all the changes we’ve made, I really think we have a full, strong package now. We have all the pieces checked off.
“I think it showed in the past two weeks. You can’t get better than two, one-two finishes.
“It’s really a dream come true. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I got signed on by John [Doonan, Mazda Motorsports director] in the beginning. So it really hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Nunez, who has been the only driver to have been retained by the Mazda prototype program since its inception in 2014, said it’s been a team effort from the start, but especially in recent races.
Jonathan Bomarito, Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla gave Mazda its long-awaited first win last weekend at Watkins Glen, an achievement which Nunez admitted to have teared up for.
“The past couple of races now, we’ve been having meetings as a team, the four drivers, or even last weekend six drivers, with John and Larry Holt from Multimatic,” he said.
“We always say it doesn’t matter which one wins, we just needed a Mazda to be on the top step of the podium. They are both painted red and different numbers on the side, but it’s one team, one goal.
“Last week, the 55 won and I had tears coming down my face. It was a long time coming.
“I’m really just so happy to give that result to John [Doonan]. He’s had a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of plane rides, a lot of hotels booked, and lots of meetings, and it’s good to just give it to him.
“Everyone in the paddock wants to see Mr. Doonan have some success.”
1st post updated with podium finishes for all races thus far this season.
Interesting to see how dominant Cadillac was earlier in the season, not so much the last 3 races
But Acura has been on the podium in all but one race so far this season. What are they complaining about again???
07-05-2019 | 02:07 PM
