Aschenbach Wins GTS Race 1 at CTMP

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

Lawson Aschenbach led every lap en route to victory in Saturday’s Pirelli World Challenge GTS Sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Aschenbach took his No. 1 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R to a commanding 7.730-second win over the No. 55 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Jade Buford, who inherited second place on the final lap.

The No. 50 Panoz Avezzano GT4 of Ian James, who was running second at the time, was ordered by PWC officials to drop behind the No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4 of James Sofronas after contact was made between the two cars with five minutes remaining.

Sofronas, as a result finished fourth, with James in fifth at the end of the 50-minute race, which ran caution-free.

“I’ve qualified and raced here in the rain multiple times, so I was really confident going into the qualifying. But I just couldn’t quite get the grip level I needed out of my car,” Aschenbach said.

“Going into the race, my engineer made a really good call to change the setup quite a bit from yesterday and we thought the track conditions were going to be quite different and he was spot-on.”

The No. 72 Robinson Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Shane Lewis completed the overall podium in third, with teammate Gar Robinson finishing sixth overall.

Klenin Takes GTSA Honors

Mark Klenin scored GTSA victory, in a near photo-finish with Fred Roberts for top class honors.

Klenin, in the No. 62 KPR McLaren 570S GT4 held command for the majority of the race until coming under fire from the No. 89 JCR Maserati GT4 of Roberts in the closing stages.

The margin of class victory was just 0.142 seconds at the line.

The No. 11 Blackdog Camaro GT4 of Tony Gaples completed the GTSA podium in third.

Race 2 for GTS is on tap for Sunday at 10:05 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Race 1

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