Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA
Harry Tincknell has hailed Mazda’s run in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen as a “massive team effort” in calculating the fuel numbers needed to bring the manufacturer’s first victory of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Tincknell and co-drivers Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito came out on top in the Michelin Endurance Cup round after quick pit work and a fuel-saving run by the Englishman in his closing stint.
While not having the outright pace compared to the pair of Acura ARX-05s, Tincknell credits the Multimatic-run team and strategist Leena Gade for the victory on Sunday.
“It was a classic team effort,” said Tincknell. “All three of us did the job in the car. The mechanics and the guys and girls on the stand were just incredible.
“To get me out in the lead [for] track position in the last 40 minutes of the race, that was the key moment, in changing just one tire.
“I knew it was going to be, really. I could do the maths in my head enough to know that I wasn’t going to be able to go flat out the whole way.
“It was a massive team effort to be able to calculate those numbers really quickly and be able to give those to me.”
Tincknell said his recent sim work in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship played a factor in being able to go the final 53 minutes of the race on a single tank of fuel.
The top three finishing DPi cars all stretched their fuel to the limits, in what proved to be another fuel mileage race.
“I’ve been doing a little bit of help with some Formula E stuff recently and I think that really, really helped in terms of saving fuel and efficiency and still putting in fast laps whilst saving about 15-20 percent at least of fuel,” said Tincknell.
“In the end I could see Olli [Pla] coming in the pink car. Obviously the last time I raced here, he was on our team. This time he was against us.
“I had the call on the last lap to go flat out and I knew at that point we should be OK.
“The team calculated it perfectly for the last lap but they forgot about the in-lap so I ran out of fuel in Turn 7.
“It was quite a cool moment with all of us being pushed into pit lane with a completely dry car. That just shows you the perfect strategy and perfect engineering by Multimatic to get us to the line.”
The win has put Tincknell and Jarvis within 31 points of championship leaders Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, who finished third on Sunday.
It came after a post-qualifying engine change to the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P after lacking pace on Saturday.
“To do it in this fashion where we probably didn’t have the quickest car and we started off on the back foot… We showed progression every session,” said Jarvis.
“Qualifying was tough. We made some big changes on the car, probably the most changes we’ve ever made. We managed to find a direction for the race and that was important.
“That was the strength of the team. Sometimes you bring out a car and it works perfectly. We knew this is a good track for us in the past but you can’t take anything for granted.
“We had to work harder than we probably ever have before to give us a chance of the win.
“To do so the team had to execute perfectly. As drivers we couldn’t afford to make mistakes. We were pushing hard, saving fuel when we needed to.
“This is a very special win. It’s my first with the 55 and was great to have JB back with us. He brings so much to the team.
“This is a nice moment and nice point of the championship to get that win.”
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