With GT Daytona absent at the 2015 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, it was up to only the GT Le Mans drivers to put on a show for GT racing fans. The battle was certainly an exciting one, even if one car led all but five laps.
Finishing 12th overall, the GTLM winning team was the #911 Porsche North America 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Le Mans-winner Nick Tandy. The pair was out front in the eight car field for 117 of the 122 laps and after 2 hours 40 minutes of racing, scored their first Tudor United SportsCar Championship win of 2015.
On Saturday, Tandy became the first repeat GTLM pole position winner in the history of the championship, breaking a run of 16 different pole sitters since the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
From the start, Tandy gained a strong lead over the remainder of the pack until the sole caution period which came just past the half hour mark to recover a Prototype Challenge car.
Unlike most teams, Porsche North America decided to swap their drivers at this pitstop, and Patrick Pilet soon retook the lead until the next stop, when Tandy took control of the car again.
He crossed the finish line 15.525 seconds clear of the second placed #24 BMW Team RLL Z4 of John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, who won the DEKRA Green Challenge Award for the most environmentally-friendly, fast and efficient at this race.
Corvette finished the GTLM podium, due to the strong performance from the #3 team and drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia. This team now leads the GTLM standings by two points over the #25 BMW of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner which finished fourth.
Starting from eighth position, the other #4 Corvette C7R of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner wasn’t able to repeat their success from Le Mans and so only finished fifth. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella came sixth.
The final two positions were taken by the winner’s sister 911, the #912 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and Earl Bamber, ahead of Watkins Glen Six Hours winners Team Falken Tire. The #17 Porsche was driven by Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers.
