Jon Bennett and Colin Braun took their first victory of 2015 in the Prototype Challenge class at Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The #54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09 crossed the finish line in eighth overall, but first in Prototype Challenge, which was the sole Pro-Am class at this round of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
With the exception of three laps following a pit stop, the #54 car ran in the top two for the entire race, even though the PC class saw five different leaders.
Behind CORE Autosport was BAR1 Motorsports with drivers Sean Rayhall and John Falb crossing the line in the #16 car one lap behind the winners. The third and final podium position was taken by the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports team of Mikhail Goikhberg and Matt McMurry. These two cars led 12 and 25 laps respectively.
Bruno Junqueira and Chris Cumming piloted the #11 RSR Racing Oreca to fourth and was the last of the PC cars to finish, amongst the GT Le Mans field.
The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car of Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith completed 104 laps compared to the leader’s 125. This was due to a mechanical problem just after the halfway point.
Starworks Motorsport came to Ontario looking for their third consecutive victory but with Mirco Schultis ill, the #8 team was not up to its full potential. Renger van der Zande led part of the race before retiring on 101 laps.
Finally, Performance Tech Motorsports‘ #38 team of James French and Conor Daly did just 86 laps. French started the race from pole position but brought out the race’s only caution when he pulled off to the side of the track.
Prototype Challenge will join GT Daytona at the next TUSC race. The Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park will take place on Saturday July 25.
“Today I had the intention of not losing the lead pack, so we could make Colin’s job easier”, commented Jon Bennett. “I followed James French for a stretch early in the race, then handed the car to Colin in the lead without a scratch. Then he did his usual great job. This win is massive for our team.”
