WESTBROOK, BRISCOE GAIN GROUND IN GT LE MANS CHAMPIONSHIP IN CANADA
The No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT team of Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe earned their third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans class victory in Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Unlike the previous two victories for the No. 67 duo, however, this one came as somewhat of a surprise.
“I am surprised a bit,” Westbrook said. “We were struggling a bit on Friday, but we just kept improving the car all weekend. We knew we had a shot for the podium, but we kept dreaming big. We needed something special to win, and that’s what we got today.”
What they got was a masterful strategy call from Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. After running most of the first half of the race in third or fourth place, the team took tires for the final time when they pitted under full-course caution an hour and 20 minutes into the two-hour and 40-minute race.
The No. 67 was sixth in class following that stop, but as the cars running ahead of them made their final pit stops for fuel and tires under green-flag conditions, Briscoe gradually worked his way to the class lead. Then, with approximately 50 minutes remaining in the race, the Ganassi team brought Briscoe onto pit road for a seven-second splash of fuel only and sent him back on course without losing the lead.
That made all the difference, as Briscoe maintained a reasonable, 5-6-second gap to Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R for the remaining distance to score the third-straight WeatherTech Championship win for the team. Briscoe and Westbrook also won the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International last weekend.
“We were in tire and fuel conservation mode as soon as we left the pits, but needed some help,” Briscoe said. “When everyone else pitted we knew we had the opportunity to take a splash of fuel but not change tires. It was a brilliant call by the team. Tommy was a bit quicker, but I was just trying to hang on and bring it home.”
The victory moved Westbrook and Briscoe closer to the GTLM points lead. They now trail Milner and his No. 4 Corvette co-driver Oliver Gavin by five points, 192-187. Gavin and Milner finished second, while their teammates, Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished third in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R. Garcia started the race from the pole position and led throughout his 42-minute opening stint, while Magnussen also led for more than 50 minutes.
NOTEBOOK
The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE earned the DEKRA Green Award with a seventh-place finish in the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix by drivers Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella. The award recognizes the cleanest, fastest and most efficient team in the GTLM class in each race through a scoring system developed in a partnership between IMSA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and SAE International.
Chevrolet leads the GTLM manufacturer standings, 192-185, over Ford, which moved from third to second with the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix victory. Porsche is third in GTLM with 181 points.NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
