Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
Harry Tincknell hailed the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship podium finish for the Ford Mustang GT3 as “another milestone” as all three cars showed strong potential in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.
Tincknell and co-driver Mike Rockenfeller brought the Multimatic Motorsports-run Mustang GT3 home in second, 3.3 seconds behind the winning No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers.
The sister No. 65 factory Mustang of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller notched a fifth place overall finish, while the No. 55 Proton Competition entry, which started on the GTD class pole, was classified eighth in class after a late-race off-course excursion from Corey Lewis.
“It’s another milestone,” said Tincknell of the car’s first podium in WeatherTech Championship competition.
“I think this weekend, for the Mustang has been super strong. Obviously the GTD pole yesterday for Proton, the customer team, and the first podium for us today in GTD Pro.
“I think every race we’re learning. It’s obviously a brand new car this year. We’re taking giant leaps.
“We actually came out of the bat pretty fast at Daytona. We were probably on for a podium there. I think to be honest, we just gradually got better and better.
“This has been coming for a little while. We led the race for a long way at Watkins, and it didn’t quite work out.
“We were P2 in Mosport and didn’t quite get the podium there.
“Last time at Road America, we also had some strong pace.
“It’s a huge credit to the boys and girls that work on the car every day. We’re still finding so much with all of the electronics and stuff like that.
“We’re racing against cars that have been out there for seven, eight years some of them.
“Of course our learning curve is huge. But it feels great to be here and it will be even better when we’re one step up.”
Rockenfeller admitted he wasn’t looking to challenge race leader Snow on the final restart, with the German driver instead focused on consolidating his position on-track.
“Today feels good,” he said. “To be honest about the restart, I was more worried about the cars from the rear.
“I was checking more in the mirror because the Aston boys were really fast. We could see that. My goal was to stay in second.
“Obviously if there would have been a chance, I would have loved to take the opportunity.
“The whole race long, it looked like the BMW had it under control. So far this season, we’re quite happy to take this second place right now.
“A big credit to the team because, for us drivers it’s frustrating not to be successful but you can imagine the mechanics and everyone on the team, it must be a big relief for everyone.”
Tincknell added: “We always, for whatever reason, seem to race better than we qualify. So, the fact that we were third yesterday – so close to the front of the field – it gave us confidence going into the race.
“I could hang with the BMW really well, and I think that you could really see over the course of 35 laps or so of green running where the strengths and weaknesses are. I think they were very good, power down.
“We seem to be slightly quicker in the corners, and I think that top speed is a strength of the Mustang right now. We have plenty of data to take away from here and learn from.
“We have a test next week, and we’ll just keep going from here.
“We’ve been making the most of our opportunities and enjoy driving together. Our sights are set on Indy and Petit [Le Mans]. We have a test before both of those.”
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