BOMANVILLE, ONTARIO - The Lola/Aston Martin entry of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf clearly dominated Sunday’s Grand Prix of Mosport crossing over 28 seconds ahead of the Lola/Mazda of Chris Dyson. Though the Aston was clearly the fastest car, a pit lane fumble by the officials during the first caution sent them back to fourth place. Team orders over the radio were clear, “We have the speed, just do your job!”
The GT-class race was quite a bit juicier with the BMWs appearing invincible. After qualifying 1-2, the bimmers were running fast early in the race until the #56 Team RLL car driven by Joey Hand collided with the #62 Risi Ferrari of Vilander. The officials deemed the contact as “avoidable,” and issued Hand a stop-and-go penalty. The #55 BMW piloted by Bill Auberlein and Dirk Werner kept the lead until a contact with the GTC-class leading Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly also resulted in a stop-and-go penalty. There was also a great mid-race battle between the 3rd place Auberlein and a Flying Lizards Porsche piloted by Bergmeister (video).
One of the secrets of racing is knowing when to be in the lead. Jan Magnussen took advantage of the situation with the bimmers and claimed the lead crossing the finish line 4.409 sec ahead of the Risi Competition Ferrari. Auberlein/Werner made up some good time claiming a 3rd place finish in the race. "This race had a bunch of different potential winners at different stages," Magnussen said. "I think BMW looked like they had the most advantage, but we were able to push at the right moments and pull a win out.” If you asked us this morning, we'd say, there will only be one winner. It just unfolded that way today. I'm glad we were the ones that got to break the win barrier.”
CORE Autosport's Gunnar Jeannette and Ricardo Gonzalez celebrated their second class victory in the last three races after a dominating performance in their Oreca FLM09. It was an impressive fourth overall. They finished a whopping two laps ahead of the sister No. 05 entry of Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo! It was the first ever 1-2 finish for the Bennett-owned team.
In GTC, following the spin resulting from the collision with Aberlein’s BMW, Pumpelly in his TRG Cup car was able to capitalize on the opportunity that arose as the Alex Job Racing car of Brian Wong ran out-of-gas, slipping into second place behind their stable-mate’s TRG car of von Moltke. On the final lap, the two TRG cars battled closely for the lead. It must have been a nervous time for TRG-owner Kevin Buckler as the two Porsches nearly exchanged paint (video) as they raced to the finish. In the final analysis, Pumpelly crossed the finish line first. It was the second 1-2 finish for the TRG team from Charlotte. It was the second 1-2 finish for the TRG team from Charlotte.
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