Taylor Holds Off Cameron for CTMP Win

Photo: DarrenPierson.com

Jordan Taylor held off Dane Cameron to give Wayne Taylor Racing its second TUDOR United SportsCar Championship victory of the season in Sunday’s hard-fought Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix.

A late-race charge by Taylor and a slow final pit stop for the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry saw the No. 10 Corvette DP take the lead with less than nine minutes remaining in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

Despite pressure from Cameron, Taylor held on, crossing the line by just 0.477 seconds in the race which featured only a single full-course caution.

It marked Jordan and Ricky Taylor’s first win since Long Beach in April, having rebounded from a late-race accident in last month’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen while leading.

Cameron and Eric Curran came home second, after battling a series of left-rear punctures, likely due to the abrasive track conditions at the abrasive 2.459-mile Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Ozz Negri had an ironman drive in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda to finish third, after completing the final two hours of the race without power steering.

Negri, who posted the race’s quickest lap, was helped from the car post-race after the exhausting drive.

Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante maintained their lead in the Prototype title race with a fourth place finish, while the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP completed the top-five after also making a late-race stop due to a puncture.

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford of Scott Pruett and Joey Hand was unable to recover from a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty for entering a closed pit in the opening hour, resulting in a sixth place finish.

CORE autosport claimed its first Prototype Challenge class win of the season, with Colin Braun and Jon Bennett extending their championship lead as a result.

Braun took over the lead in the second hour, following the second round of pit stops and never looked back, cruising to a one-lap victory over the BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Sean Rayhall and John Falb.

Like Negri, Braun also nursed his car home without power steering.

It marked the team’s first victory since last year’s Six Hours of The Glen following an unlucky start to the 2015 season for the defending class champions.

The JDC/Miller Motorsports entry of Mikhail Goikhberg and Matt McMurry completed the class podium in third.

The second and third place finishers benefited from late-race misfortunes for the Starworks Motorsport entry of Renger van der Zande, which pitted with less than 30 minutes to go with issues at the rear of the car.

It came following an impressive charge by the Dutchman and equally strong stint by co-driver Mirco Schultis, who battled a stomach bug to complete his 60-minute minimum drive time.

Issues for the class pole-sitting No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports car of James French, who stopped on track, brought out the race’s one-and-only full-course caution in the opening hour. Co-driver Conor Daly set the fastest race lap in class after the car returned.

It was also a race to forget for the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car of Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith, which salvaged a fifth place class finish after steering issues derailed a likely podium finish.

RESULTS: Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John