Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
Reaching the podium in an IMSA race is hard. There are so many things that can go wrong — mechanical issues, crowded fields or just plain bad luck. Anyone who has been part of a racing team knows what it feels like to have their dreams dashed in a split second, forced to convince themselves that next time will be different.
Fortunately for the Racing to End Alzheimer’s/Stephen Cameron Racing team, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was different.
After watching their Mustang fail in the last five minutes at Watkins Glen, the team crossed the northern border determined to flip the script. This time, when disaster came knocking in the home stretch, the crew was there to slam the door.
Hitting the ground running
Though practice runs are often used for making minor adjustments and warming up the drivers, they can also be a harbinger of things to come. It’s entirely possible to recover from bad practice laps, but you wind up going into qualifying with less confidence than you had before. On the flip side, fast practice laps usually translate to fast race laps.
The latter was the case for Sean Quinlan and Greg Liefooghe. During Friday’s two practice sessions, they ran the No.19 all the way up to third place, the fastest Mustang in the field. Though traffic kept Quinlan from running at those same speeds during qualifying, he managed to secure an 11th place starting spot, well within striking distance of the podium.
Weaving through the crowd
With cars bunched up at the beginning of the race, it’s tempting to try to pick up a few spots quickly once the green flag waves. Though this gamble can pay off, it can also spell disaster for risk takers. Sean Quinlan, for his part, is a patient and methodical racer who is willing to wait for his chances.
When the field set off on Saturday, Quinlan remained steady, keeping his eye out for an opportunity to pick up a position. As the mess of the early going subsided, he got his chance. At the end of the first lap, Sean slipped past the 10th place car and built on his momentum to pick up another spot early in lap two. He then settled into 9th place, churning out consistent times around the track for the rest of his leg.
With about an hour to go, Quinlan turned the reins over to Liefooghe, who wasted no time picking up spots. Capped off by a blistering 1:24.370 lap that catapulted him through the field, Greg put in one of the best stints of racing we’ve seen all year. Before long, he had overtaken third place. The podium felt within reach.
Crisis averted
But the race was far from over. When a four car incident brought the field together under yellow flag conditions, danger lurked around the corner.
The green flag waved with 17 minutes left, and the cars were bunched up bumper to bumper. Even worse, the end of the race made it such that lapped slower cars were in front and faster lead cars were behind. Greg Liefooghe and the No.19, were caught in the middle.
With nowhere to go, Liefooghe was at the mercy of the field and could do little to avoid getting drilled by a wayward car. For a moment, it looked as though bad luck had reared its ugly head again and there was no escape. But Greg had other plans.
After bouncing off two other cars, he managed to stabilize the No.19, losing only one position in the process. With the team’s hopes saved, the challenge was now in fending off an aggressive field with a severely hobbled Mustang. Cool, calm and collected, Liefooghe did just that.
After the third-place car was penalized for its role in the collision, the No.19 limped across the finish line and moved up onto the podium for the first time this season.
The view from the podium
In racing, preparation is the ante. Knowing your car, studying the track and establishing a thorough plan puts you in a position to compete. But reaching the podium requires a little something extra.
When things go wrong, and you find yourself in the waning laps behind the wheel of a struggling Mustang, the plan is no longer important. What matters most is your ability to meet the moment. Recovering from a crash, pushing the car to its limit and holding a faster field at bay require an innate sense for what it takes to succeed on track. It’s a feeling for racing that separates the good from the great. Some have it, others don’t.
CTMP was a reminder that our drivers have it.
More soon.
