EVERSLEY: CTMP Debrief

Hey gang, just landed in Detroit for a few days of work on the OEM side of the automotive industry. While I’m sitting in my hotel digesting questionable sushi, I figured I’d recap Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for you.

A few weeks ago we snagged a win at Watkins Glen on fuel mileage but we were also pretty fast on pace so we were pretty optimistic about racing at CTMP.

In practice, we were always in the top-5 on speed so we were pretty happy with the car and since my co driver Kyle Gimple had never been there before, we gave him the majority of track time to get up to speed.

When qualifying rolled around, we were very happy that we did because Kyle rewarded us with another top-5 starting spot by qualifying 4th. During the session the Cayman that had qualified 2nd had a crash so it would have to go to the back of the field for the start which bumped us up to P3!

The green flag dropped and Kyle did a nice job of holding onto 3rd place but eventually Randy Pobst in an MX-5 was able to take advantage of our higher tire degradation and was able to get past us for 3rd.

Our teammate Jon Miller qualified our 74 car in 11th and was running up in 6th after an outstanding first stint, so both cars looked great in ST. Around the 50 minute mark a yellow came out which allowed us to stop and do our routine service.

Unfortunately our GS teammates were the cause of the yellow which was a shame because Ray Mason was the fastest car on track at the time of his incident.

As usual the C360R guys did an awesome job in the pits and we came out ahead of the Pobst/Carbonell MX-5 to get back out in 3rd.

Having a team that does amazing pit work is invaluable and when we were close to going back to green, the 2nd place car broke down under yellow so now we were P2. That’s was having a great team does, that pit stop essentially gave us two positions.

When we went back to green I was chasing one of my best friends, Eric Foss, for the lead. Eric taught my first racing school and anytime we are on track together we’re smiling ear to ear, especially when we’re battling for the lead!

Unfortunately during my pursuit I could see that MX-5 catching me a few tenths every lap and even MORE frustrating was seeing the Cayman running in 4th catching everybody.

Eventually the Cayman was able to pass all 3 of us and the MX-5 got past me to put us in 4th.

An amazing battle broke out with the top 3 but all I could do was run about 2-3 seconds behind them until the checkered flew.

I’m normally very disappointed to finish 4th but I feel like for the last two races we maximized our result and I’m extremely proud of our team for accomplishing that.

Sometimes you finish 4th but if you give it everything you’ve got than you can’t be upset with the result. Looking forward to Indy!